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CHRISTIAN
PRESCHOOL ACTIVITIES
If you have religious activities and ideas you'd like to share, just e-mail them to me at:stormie@preschoolbystormie.com
Here's
a multi-cultural Easter connection from Kennita
Perry,
in Bermuda:
Bermuda (located on the continent
of North America):
Good Friday Activity: On "Good Friday," Bermudians make kites
out of sticks and thin colorful paper to fly that weekend. Traditionally,
we also eat only fish cakes and hot cross buns for the entire day, to symbolize
Jesus (son of God, in Christianity) dying on the cross for all our sins.
From Stormie: Here's an activity for Kennita's information above:
"Fish Cake" recipe that can be made by the children (with
your help -- especially with the frying part):
Combine 2 cans
of tuna, 1 cup of crushed saltines,
an egg, salt
and pepper, and maybe a touch of mayo
if you feel more moisture is needed. Fry in a small amount of oil
until brown.
From
Annette O:
Passing the Seashell:
Dear Stormie, My Preschool has a strong faith component in its curriculum and
we have a daily time for learning about God. On Fridays, before the children go
home, we sit in a circle and we pass around a seashell that has been filled with
a small amount of water. The teacher begins by dipping her finger in the
water and making the sign of the cross on the child's forehead (or hand) seated
next to her. The teacher says "(childs name), you are a child of God."
She then passes the shell to that child and he/she will dip their finger
and make the sign of the cross on the next child while telling them that they
are a child of God. This continues around the circle until everyone has had a
turn. This is such a special time each week and the children are so caught
up in the moment that they are absolutely quiet!
From
Amy K. Blaylock:
*Moses
Walking Across the Sea: Children paint paper
plates the color of water. Once dry, they paint a strip of glue right through
the center of the plate and then sprinkle a thick layer of sand on it (to represent
dry land). Once this is dry, we'll use our fingers to walk across the
red sea as Moses did.
I also have several
"Creation" ideas that have been passed on to me by other teachers:
*Clouds: Cut out cloud shapes from
construction paper and then have the children glue cotton balls onto them. On
the back I print the words, "God made the clouds" so parents will know
what we're discussing.
*Water:
Children paint a paper plate blue (like water) and then, after they are dry, they
put fish stickers on it to show how God made water and fish.
*Trees:
In advance, cut out construction paper tree trunks. Then either use a die-cut
for the leaf shapes or cut the shapes out yourself. The children glue the
trunk on paper and then glue the leaves to the top of the trunk. You can also
print family member names on the leaves to show how God made the trees and/or
the people in our families.
From
Susan Foulks:
Noah's Ark: Dear
Stormie, When talking about Noah's Ark, we have the children fingerpaint on the
bottom half of a piece of light blue paper using dark blue paint. (The
light blue half of the paper represents the sky, and the dark blue painted half
represents water.) While the paint is drying, we give the children an ark
shape and they glue animal crackers on it. They then glue the ark onto
a craft stick handle. Later, cut a horizontal slit in the middle of each
child's blue "Sea" and slide their "ark on a stick" through
it so they can make Noah's Ark float across the sea.
From
Raquel Gosser, Mount Pleasant Christian Church preschool teacher, Greenwood,
Indiana:
Father's Night With a Space
Theme: We have a special night during which the children and their fathers
come to school for food and fun, centered around a "Space" theme. In
advance, the children make robots from shoe-sized boxes, paint "moon"
rocks, we make Moon Rocks for snack (Rice Krispies Treat), and here's three other
things we do in preparation for this night:
*Create
a "star room": Children paint one side of a bunch of big boxes (refrigerator
size) black. We then connect the boxes together, creating a nighttime sky
"room" and we hang glow in the dark stars, moons, etc. Using "glow
in the dark" paint, the children put their handprints on the wall. And
I also use the paint for writing Bible verses in the sky. Next comes fluorescent
lighting to help everything glow.
*Goodie
bags for dads: The children put blue shredded paper in a Ziploc baggie along
with Milky Way candy bars, foam spaceships (from a craft store), airplane gliders
(from Oriental Trading), and "glow in the dark" cross-shaped necklaces
from Kipp Brothers. (To introduce the children to modern technology, I like
to supervise them in using our school's paper shredder to shredd the blue paper.
They love it!)
*Play
Whole World volleyball: We found a blow-up ball
in Oriental Trading magazine that looks like a globe and has these words on it:
"He's got the whole world in His hands." We attach elastic to
it and hang it from the ceiling. We then play volleyball (with the net),
and the ball (earth) has the appearance of being suspended in space.
From
Georgia T., Englewood, Florida:
Hi
Stormie, here are a couple craft ideas for any Christian curriculum:
*Noah's
Ark: Provide a large piece of white construction
paper and various colors of tissue paper, per child. Have the children practice
pre-cutting skills by tearing up the tissue paper into pieces. Then you
have two options: 1.) Let them glue it anyway they want to onto the construction
paper to make their version of what a rainbow looks like or 2.) Use water and
paintbrushes and have them lay the pieces of tissue paper onto the construction
paper and then paint over them with water. Let the paper dry for awhile,
then peel off the tissue paper, the color from the tissue paper runs through and
turns the construction paper all different colors. It looks really neat,
but just make sure they don't pour the water on the paper or it will just be the
flood rather than the rainbow afterwards -- ha ha! Enjoy.
Alternative:
The tissue paper and water painting can also be used on Good Friday/Easter with
a cut out poster board cross which is a really awesome display!
*Feeding
the 5,000: In advance, cut out construction paper "loaves of bread"
in different shades of brown and tan, and cut out different colors and sizes of
fish as well. Also make paper plate pockets: Cut some paper plates in half,
then fit each of those halves to whole paper plates, stapling the edges together
with the inside of the plates facing each other, and forming a pockets. We
then read the story of the Feeding of the 5,000 with the children. Then
the children go to the table and pick out 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to color
and decorate any way they want to (they count out loud as they get their fish
and bread). They can also color their plate pockets. After that, we
act out the story using the bread and fish, and the children take their projects
home at the end of the day. I write their names and the story title on the
back so parents know what it is and what we talked about that day. The children
love looking at their fish and the pockets they decorated.
Extension:
Attach paper clips to the fish and let the children go fishing (tie a magnet to
the end of a piece of string and then attach the string to a stick or dowel).
Children fish by touching the magnet to the paper clips on the fish.
From
Lori H., Nolensville, Tennessee:
Bread
Loaves and Butter: Hi Stormie, Here's an idea we recently did with our preschoolers
to reinforce "Feeding the 5,000": We took the children downstairs to
our kitchen area and actually made bread dough with them. We also did "mini"
science experiments while mixing the ingredients (watching the interaction between
yeast and warm water, feeling the difference between "soft" flour and
"rough" sugar, etc.). We allowed each child to put some of the
ingredients into the bowl and stir. Afterwards, they each took a turn "kneading"
the dough. (Our director then took the dough home to bake it.) The
next day, we made homemade butter with the children (shaking heavy cream and a
pinch of salt in small, clean baby food jars with secured lids until it becomes
butter -- which takes awhile, but the children were very excited to see it turn
into butter.). We then ate our homemade bread with homemade butter on it,
reinforcing the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000.
From
Diane Schukar:
Halloween
Alternative: Community Helper Dress-Up: Stormie, as a Christian Preschool
& Kindergarten, we do not focus on Halloween, per se. We do however,
focus on our local "Community Helpers" and the tools they use: We first
allow the children to role play the theme in our various learning centers. Then,
in advance of our "Halloween" party, we send a note home to parents
consisting of a list of community helpers and their tools and we suggest inexpensive
ways they can dress their children up for class that day. When they arrive,
we walk around our church building to the various offices and hand our church
community helpers a treat. We also recite a poem: "Thank you for the
work you do; here's a little treat for you." The children love
handing out the treats. When we have covered every department (our church
is very large), we return to the classroom where we read The
Pumpkin Parable, or, The Pumpkin Gospel,
and we talk about carving pumpkins. We allow the children to feel the textures
of a pumpkin, its innards, and the seeds inside. Then we have our party
(an adult roasts the seeds for the children to try). Afterwards, during
final Circle Time, our "community helper" children get to stand up and
hold their tool while the others guess what community helper they are.
From
Mrs. Kitty:
Easter
Idea: When we study Easter and the resurrection of Christ, we make these rolls
as a hands-on way to remember the "Death, Burial and Resurrection" of
Christ. What you need are marshmallows for each child (represents Christ's
body), melted butter (represents the oils that Jesus's body was covered with),
sugar and cinnamon mixture (represents the frankincense and myrrh), and crescent
rolls (represent the burial clothes that Jesus was wrapped in). Have each
child take a marshallow, roll it first in the butter, then in the sugar mixture,
and then wrap with a cresent roll. Explain the meanings at each step. Then
place the rolls into a 350 degree oven (represents the tomb) for 15 - 20 minutes
(represents 3 days). When rolls are opened, the marshmallow will have melted
away (representing the empty tomb). Children may then eat the rolls as a
reminder that Christ gave His body for each of us.
From
Laura G.:
Feeding the 5,000: With
our 2-4yr olds, we read the story of the feeding of the 5,000 miracle and talk
about how God can do anything. I have a basket with a "liner"
in it that was specially made. The bottom of the liner is made up of two
pieces that overlap slightly. (Being a print material, it is very hard to
tell it is two pieces.) Underneath the liner, we fill the basket with Goldfish
crackers, then place one of the crackers on top. When the basket is shown
to the children, they can only see one goldfish cracker. Then we "pass
out" the fish. They only saw one cracker but every time I put my hand
in the basket, another one comes out for the next child. They are fascinated!
Here
are two great "magnet" ideas from Jennifer Gibson:
*God
Bless Me: Dear Stormie, this summer I did a space themed summer camp week
at my Lutheran preschool. In addition to traditional space activities, we
made a craft using the poem "I see the moon and the moon sees me, God bless
the moon, and God bless me" printed on a circle of blue craft foam. I
then asked the children to decorate this with self adhesive foamie moons and stars
and then a little glitter glue for some sparkle. We stuck a magnet on the
back for the children to take home as a reminder of bedtime prayer.
*God's
Stars: For each child, print "I am God's shining star" on one side
of a 6" tagboard star shape, and glue on a picture of the child. Let
the children decorate around their pictures with stardust (glitter glue). Then
glue a magnet on the back. Thanks for the website!
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The cross graphic at the top of this page came from the "Christian Graphics" website