1 Samuel 6 Two Cows Take God's Ark to Israel

Story found in 1 Samuel 6.

We are continuing to read stories in 1 Samuel.  This time we read about how the Philistines had God's ark.  They got sick so they decided to send the ark back to Israel.  The took two mother cows, separated them from their calves, hooked them up to a cart and put the ark on it.  The mother cows had never pulled a cart before.  God guided them and the mother cows pulled the cart with the ark straight to Israel, without any detours.

We went outside to gather sticks and wood for a cart.  We found rocks for wheels.  We glued it together.  When the glue was dried, the boys enjoyed using their toy cows to pull the cart around :-)

John 11:1-45 Building a Cave for Lazarus

Story found in John 11:1-45.

It's been a few days since we've had time to build Bible stories.

This week the boys lesson for church is about Lazarus and how Jesus raised him from the grave.

How did we build the story?  We found "digger sticks" and a hillside.  We dug caves and found stones to put over the opening in the caves.  If it had been a rainy day, we could have built a cave out of blocks, but of course it was a lot more fun to get dirty in the red clay (boys version of the story, of course).  Here are a few pictures:

 

Matthew 13:44 TREASURE HID IN A FIELD

Matthew 13:44  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.

Today we put treasures in a jar.

We hid the treasure in the field.

We asked Jesus to come into our hearts because He is the best treasure.

1 Samuel 3 GOD CALLS SAMUEL

Story found in 1 Samuel chapter 3.

For this story, we took our stick people for Priest Eli and Samuel and made beds for them.  Joshua made beds out of large pieces of bark.

Caleb said he wanted to make very strong beds, so he built a foundation of rocks and laid sticks on top.  Both boys placed their stick people on the beds.  As I read the Bible story to them, they got Samuel up out of his bed and took him to priest Eli's bed.

1 Samuel 2 SAMUEL GOES TO LIVE AT THE TEMPLE

Story found in 1 Samuel chapter 2.

We are staying in a travel trailer in Mississippi for 8 weeks while daddy does an evangelistic meeting.  We could only bring what fit in the car, so we had to leave the Bible story felts behind.  I wondered how to make interesting "props" for Bible stories, so I had the boys gather sticks for "stick people".  We chose sticks of different sizes for the characters in the story.  Then we painted them.  I let the boys do the painting however they chose.  I tried to draw a face at the top of the stick.  Hummmm ... Not sure how the faces turned out, but at least we had our people!

We made a stick person for Eli, Elkana, Hannah, and Samuel.  We then used these stick people in the story.

I told the boys to make a temple.  Caleb built one with a pine cone and gathered some kind of flowers because he said they would have something nice at the temple.  He put Eli by the temple.  We chose another place to be Elkana and Hannah's home.

 

Hannah then brought Samuel to live at the temple.  We then cut coats out of construction paper with a slit in the top so we could slide them over the little stick we painted for Samuel.  These were different sizes since Hannah brought one to Samuel each year.

Genesis 1 Day FOUR Sun Moon Stars

Genesis 1:14-19  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:  (15)  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.  (16)  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.  (17)  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,  (18)  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.  (19)  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Today we read about the 4th day of creation.  We posted "glow in the dark" shapes (moon and stars) above the boys beds.  We often "charge" the shapes with a headlamp and enjoy looking at them before going to sleep at night.  We also made a cutout of the sun, moon, and stars to tape over a light.

Genesis 1 Day Three DRY LAND & PLANTS!

Genesis 1:9-13  And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.  (10)  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.  (11)  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.  (12)  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.  (13)  And the evening and the morning were the third day.

Today we went on a treasure hunt for things that God made on Day Three.  We found dry ground, grass, plants with seeds on them, and berries with seeds in them.  We learned that God made all these things just by speaking.

Genesis 1 Day Two FRESH AIR!

Genesis 1:6-8  And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.  (7)  And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.  (8)  And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Today we read about the second day of creation.  The boys had a great idea for how to make the water above and the water below.  They used ziplock bags filled with water for the "water above" and a tub of water for the water below.  I had to take pictures quickly before the water above came pouring down.  Water is just so irresistible for boys!

Genesis 1 Day One LIGHT!

 Genesis 1:1-5  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  (2)  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  (3)  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  (4)  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.  (5)  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Today we read about the first day of creation.  The boys dug a hole.  They covered it so it would be dark.  Then they took their flashlights and headlamps and went looking for dark places to shine light in.

Soon we talked about how we could shine light into dark places for people - how we could smile, show kindness, and be a helper to cheer someone up.