Our Wall

Here are the projects we have done so far to memorize Bible verses (click to see the list that will take you to each project).  They hang proudly on our wall and we look forward to adding more to it!  A-I done!

I will praise you

 I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Psalm 139:14

I had a different plan for this week's Bible verse for the letter "i," but changed my mind while at Bible study today.  We usually do a take-home craft and this was sitting in front of me, perfect for the boys to learn and it started with the right letter!  Perfect! 

I used the mirror shapes from the church and let the boys color on one.  Then they got to put glue on the back to hold the foil in.  I wrote the verse on the foil and we said the verse.  I came up with a few motions to try to help them remember the verse and plan to go over and over it.  I want them to know that they were wonderfully made by the Creator of the universe! 

Hear O Israel

Hear O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Deuteronomy 6:4

My husband and I went to Israel last year.  Check out the page I wrote about our adventures here.  It was a great time and I'm so glad that we got to go.  I just love to learn more about Israel, Jewish culture and the Jewish religions.  They are God's chosen people!

This verse has been a little more difficult to learn because of the repetition.  We have worked on it for a few weeks (although we haven't consistently been working on it).  He now likes to mix up some of the other verses in this one (he does it with other verses too--As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord Jesus Christ and I will be saved). 
I was trying to think of a good activity to do with this one and thought about a number 1 then maybe an ear.  I finally sat down and looked up a picture of the land of Israel that I was going to print off and write the verse on.  Then I saw the flag and thought that would be easy.  We just glued blue construction paper on a white paper, but I could see you painting it if that's your thing too.  I did most of the work on this one.

God is Love

God is love. 1 John 4:8

I decided to go with something super easy but fundemantal for our "g" letter.  God is love.  His love is neverending and he loves us all so much that he sent his son to die for our sins.  He is love.  Period.  This was obviously very easy to memorize.  He also has a "God" verse for Awana (although he memorized the verse and then refused to return to the class--God loved us and sent his son (and Jesus loves me)). 

To make the heart (around Valentine's is when we did this activity), I let him paint on a piece of cardstock.  He just loves to pain.  Then I cut it out in a heart shape and wrote the verse in the middle.  It was a little wet or got water on it. 

May you experience this verse today in a new and profound way!  

For Nothing

For nothing is impossible with God! Luke 1:37

When trying to think of an activity or visual for this verse, all I could think of was a "no" sign, so I went with it.  I tried to explain to the boys that God can do anything and what exactly this verse means.  Although they probably don't grasp what it means exactly, it's definitely in their mind and they will remember it in the future.  It's short and easy to remember.  At first it was hard to say "impossible," but they've picked it up now! 

Children

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right."

D told me that he didn't like this verse from day one!  That made me laugh because he didn't really even understand what it meant. 

I couldn't think of any craft to do with this one really either.  I had D look through a magazine for pictures of children.  By the way, Women's Fitness has no pictures of children!  So the boys colored a C and glued a picture on it.

The motions were rocking a baby for "children," pointing to your ear for "obey," sign language open hand with thumb on forehead for "parents," pointing up for "in the Lord," and holding up your right hand for "this is right."  Doing the motions does seem to help him remember them some. 

Do Unto Others

"Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

This has definitely been the most difficult verse so far.  I think the wording of it is hard for a little one to grasp and I can't come up with motions to help.  However, this has been the easiest to do a lesson for.  Just search for "golden rule" and you've got a thousand lessons!

I came up with the idea to make a little paper doll chain and write the verses on it.  It probably means nothing to D, but I think it's cute.  The other lesson we did (which he probably didn't understand) was coming up with "nice" things to do for people and writing them on petals.  Then we made a little kindness flower with the verse on it. 

We still haven't mastered this verse and we work on it pretty much every day.  The other verses sound great though!!

Every Good

"Every good and perfect gift comes from above."

We learned this verse on Valentine's Day, so we were able to talk about gifts a little bit more than a normal day.  I got out a birthday bag and put some gifts in it that God has given us--a picture of the family, a truck like Dad's, the Bible and a dollar.  We talked about these gifts and how God has given these and many more to us.  They are perfect and they came from him. 

I cut out a little "gift" and wrote the verse on it for our craft.  I also introduced D to the song we sing at church that goes with this verse--"Father of Lights." 

 

I don't have any motions for this verse other than to point up at "above." 

Believe

"Believe in the Lord, Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." 

I wasn't feeling very creative and couldn't figure out what little craft to do for this one, so we made a cross.  I then realized we had LifeSavers in our candy pile!  This seriously saved the lesson and helped D remember the verse.  Plus now he begs for a candy every time he says the verse.  There was one glued at the bottom for one night.  He ate it off first thing the next morning before I got out of bed!  He always needs a little help with the word "believe" but can do the rest, however he says, "and I will be saved!" 
The motions which he doesn't usually do are pointing to his forehead for "believe," pointing up for "the Lord," doing sign language for Jesus Christ which is pointing to both palms, and pointing out for "you." 

Our A Bible Verse

We started our ABC Bible Verses today with an easy one--Joshua 24:15. 

Here D is showing the motions we came up with to help us remember the verse:

  

We also made a little house, colored it and wrote our Bible verse on it.  We are going to go over this one and all the others at night during dinner. 

He did such a good job!  I hope he remembers it tomorrow!! 

Preschool Activities

Here are some activities we have taken from other sources that I've done with the boys to give them a little structure and learning throughout the day. (I don't have the sites that I used, so I'm sorry for not giving them credit.)


We made an I-spy jar out of an old peanut butter jar, rice and some little items we found around the house.

We painted an egg carton to look like a caterpillar. Well, that was the idea. They scribbled on it about 10 times and then tore them to shreds.


We painted on a paper. #2 hated his smock!

This little sick guy did a good job of putting magnets on a paper over the letters of names.

(See, we really do wear clothes!) He used his Little Speller to write words.

#2 laced up some pictures.

#1 moved marbles from a bowl to a cup using a spoon.

He practiced cutting up old magazines and really liked doing this!

He strung beads on a pipe cleaner to make "snakes."

We made homemade play dough and cut shapes out of it. It has lasted a long time!!

We made a gel pouch with a Ziploc, hair gel, glitter and food coloring. It was fun until the bag popped.

We washed our toy cars with scrub brushes and a little tub of water and bubbles. This was fun!

This was not a favorite activity in the end. Mom cut out letters from a magazine and then wrote the letters on a paper. #1 then glued the correct letter from the magazine on the paper. This was a struggle after about 3 minutes, but we finished it!

We wrote on our dry erase board with markers. He even made a D!

We played Sequence for Kids.

We taped his name on a finger paint paper and then painted over it. Then we realized we really should have used painters tape instead of duct tape when we went to peel it off and half of the paper came up with it!

We used our Bingo and Do-A-Dot stampers to color in some pictures that we printed off the Internet.

Bible Lesson Plans Week 1

This week I decided to take some of the stuff I've been learning at my Bible study and make little lesson plans for my little guys (21 months and 3 years old). It didn't take that long to plan and I'm sad I didn't start them earlier! Better late than never. Here is what we did this week:

On Monday, we talked about God is Good. This was before I came up with a lesson plan. So the boys used their stampers and stickers to decorate a paper that said, "God is Good" with a smiley face.
Then I found a lesson plan template for the next lesson. On Wednesday, we talked about "God Made Everything" from Genesis 1:1. We watched a DVD that went along with our Bible that talked about creation and had little song called "God Made Everything." Then we talked about how God made colors and read a book called God Must Really Love Colors. That evening, we went on a walk and took a paper sack to collect things that God made. They had so much fun doing this--sticks, rocks, flowers, leaves, etc. When we got home, my husband drew (I have no artistic abilities) an acorn on the paper (because I had seen it elsewhere, but any shape would work or no shape at all) and the boys glued their items to the paper. At the top I wrote "God Made Everything Gen. 1:1." It is now hanging on #1's door. It was a fun activity and they seemed to really love it!


I had three lessons planned for this week, but we didn't get to the third. Guess it will carry over to next week!

Here is the lesson plan that I used (designed for toddlers):

Story/Verse, Song/Rhyme/DVD, Learning Activity, Craft, P.E., Special Activity

We didn't do all of the activities with each lesson, but that will be the future goal in a relaxed setting. If you're interested in specifics about any of the books, DVDs, etc., please leave me a comment and I'll get back to you. We did use the Read 'n' See DVD Bible.