Jesus Stops the Storm

I use Toddler Level Word Aflame Curriculum, and this week is Week 8: Jesus Stops the Storm.  Again, I get a little OCD when carrying out a theme! I love gathering tons of resources! Of course, some Bible lessons are more easily gathered than others; this one being such an one. I found a lot of great activities to reinforce this very simple Bible story. 

Lesson Focus:  Jesus Stopped the storm.

Scripture Text: Mark 4:35-41

Bible Words:    Jesus does good things! 

Sensory: 

This Bible story just begs for water play, water play, water play!

• Create an ocean bottle: This is awesome! I SO LOVE sensory bottles!
• Create an Ocean Bag:
• Ocean In a Bottle:  (Use a smaller bottle for smaller hands? I like to use large, empty, plastic peanut butter jars. They are a good size for toddler hands, have smooth sides for clear viewing, and large mouths, which are easier to place objects and pour liquids into.)
• Jesus Calms the Storm Story Bag: (This is such simple genius to teach toddlers story-bag style! Love! I am definitely going to us this!) Make inexpensive smaller versions of the story bags (1 per child) to send home with the kids so they can retell the Bible story to their parents.
• Jesus Calms the Storm Tub Toy: (Uses a Pringles Singles tub)
• Ocean Sensory Tub: (Click on the link and scroll further down the page to see)
• Sensory Tub: Sea of Galilee 
• Create a sensory bin using blue water beads, toy boats, plastic plants, sea shells, and toy sea creatures. Be creative!

Movement/Motor/Music:

• Create Wave Streamers  Use these streamers to make "waves" as you play music, sing, or retell the Bible story.
• Song: "My God is So Big"
• Song: "Awesome God"
• Song: "How Great is Our God"
• Song: "Deep and Wide"
• Animated Bible Story: "Jesus Calms the Storm"
• "Sunny and Beamer Show: Jesus Calms the Storm"
• Create a Rainstorm: (by rubbing fingers, rubbing hands, and so on. Click link for instructions)
• Interactive Group Activities for "Peace, Be Still"

There are quite a few more animated children's videos for this Bible Story on YouTube. You can explore additional videos from any of the above video links.

Arts/Crafts:

• Tree Bark Boats
• Boat Craft with Blue Bubbles Painting
• Jesus Calms the Storm Craft (Using blue construction paper and die-cut boat)
• Build a boat out of a large cardboard box, or put together several smaller boxes to create a larger boat. You could also let the kids paint the "boards" of the boat. Use this boat to take turns retelling the Bible Story. 
• Use water colors and cotton swabs to paint the waves blue on any of the coloring page printables.
• After coloring one of the coloring page printables, cut out Jesus and His deciples on the boat and attach it to a large craft stick. Use this stick puppet prop to retell the story.
• Printable Boat Craft  This is really cute!
• Jesus Calms a Storm
• Bible Story Boat Craft

Coloring Pages:

• Jesus Calms the Storm
• Jesus in the Storm
• Jesus Stills the Stormy Sea
• Jesus Calms the Sea Door Hanger
• Jesus Calms the Sea Church House Collection
• Jesus Calms the Storm

Book List: 

• Calming The Storm by Connie Morgan Wade
• Theodore and the Stormy Day by Ken Edwards
• My Very First: Jesus and the Storm by Lois Rock
• Flash, Crash, Rumble and Roll by Franklyn M. Branley
• The Berenstain Bears Count Their Blessings by Stan & Jan Berenstain

Sunday school lessons:

• Preschool - Kindergarten  Jesus calmed a raging storm
• Early elementary Jesus calm the storm
• Upper elementary Jesus calm the storm
• Preteen Peace be still

Additional Resources:

• God's Little Explorers Free Preschool Curriculum: B is For Boat: Jesus Calms the Storm Awesome!!
• Rainy day Mum website Fantastic for summer (water play) activities!!

Jesus Heals a Man at Church

While working on lesson plans for Sunday School, it occurred to me that I might as well put my gatherings together in a blog post. In my limited Sunday morning time, I will only be able to use a small fraction of the resources that I gather, but I tend to go OCD when I follow a theme! Besides, who knows when, how, for what, or where I might need to use these ideas in the future? I'm a little late sharing my supplemental lesson ideas for tomorrow's lesson, but in the future I'm hoping to post on Mondays for the upcoming Sundays. This was actually a very difficult lesson to collect ideas for, as there are more adult sermons than Sunday school lessons on the web for this topic. Adapt and overcome! 

I use Toddler Level Word Aflame Curriculum, and this week is Week 7: Jesus Heals a Man at Church.  

Lesson Focus:  Jesus heals people at church.

Scripture Text: Matthew 12:9-13

Bible Words:    Jesus does good things! 

Coloring Pages: Jesus Heals a Man With a Withered Hand

Lesson (Age-Adaptable): Jesus Heals a Crippled Hand 

     This curriculum contains a little bit of everything: coloring, puzzles, games, lessons, etc.

Lesson (Activities): Man With the Shriveled Hand

Lesson: Jesus Healed a Withered Hand

Book List (Hands):

• The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn  
• Press Here by Herve' Tullet  
• My Hands by Aliki
• Wash Your Hands by Tony Ross
• Hands Are Not For Hitting by Martine Agassi PhD
• One Hand, Two Hand by Max Lucado

Hand Print Craft Ideas: Choose what works for you based upon holiday/season/occasion, etc. These images did not have a website for me to credit, so let me say a special "Thank you" to the collection creators for their idea share! 

Sensory Learning:

• Teach the steps of hand washing Hands-on
• Provide a variety of sensory textures (sand paper, dirt, velvet, satin, water, feathers, egg in a bowl , etc) and talk about how things feel (wet, rough, soft, slimy,etc.)
• Provide an ample supply of lock or snap-together blocks for children to build their own church structure. Talk about how Jesus healed the crippled hand at church and how Jesus is still The Healer today!
• Allow time for children to explore a busy board. Some interesting DIY busy boards can be viewed at the following sites: DIY Busy Board, DIY Busy Board For Toddler Motor Developement, Latches Board For Toddler, DIY Busy Board For Kids, Homemade Busy Board For Fine Motor Developement

Have fun! If you have any suggestions for this topic, just comment them to me and I will look into adding them to this page! I always appreciate idea-swapping!