Gg is for gingerbread!

 

Gg is for gingerbread this week!

Our KDI for the week is Movement- Children express and represent what they observe, think, imagine and feel through movement. We'll do this as we pretend to be gingerbread cookies and read books about gingerbread come to life!

Table Time- Table activities this week include gingerbread create with paper, gingerbread playdough, gingerbread cookie cutter stamping, making a gingerbread shaped bird feeder, gingerbread clay mats, decorating a giant gingerbread person together, making gingerbread foam ornaments and gingerbread coloring pages.

Small Group- Our small group activities this week include lacing or sewing around a cardboard gingerbread person, decorating and eating real gingerbread cookies, adding Gg is for gingerbread to our journal and cutting paper and filling a gingerbread shape.

Large Group- Large group activities include gingerbread tag, learning a gingerbread fingerplay, Ginger says (like Simon Says) and Gingerbread twister.

Books of the week- "The Gingerbread Boy" by Paul Galdone and "Gingerbread Friends" and "Gingerbread Christmas" both by Jan Brett.

Bible Story- This week we move into the New Testament and begin with the story of the Angel appearing to Mary. Mary was a young woman, probably 13 or 14, who lived in the town of Bethlehem. She was engaged to a man named Joseph who was a carpenter. In those days, when you were engaged, it was as if you were married. Joseph was in the process of building on to his parents' house and when it was completed, he would come and get Mary and they would be married. One day, while she was working in the home, an angel appeared to her. Mary was terrified!! The angel told her not to be afraid, but that he had come to give her wonderful news. She would be the mother of the promised Messiah, the Savior. She wondered how this could be, since she wasn't married. The angel told her that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and she would give birth to a child that was true God and true man, 100% of both. Impossible for anyone to understand! Mary bent her will to God's will, saying, "May it be to me as you have said."  Unknown to Mary, her older cousin, Elizabeth was expecting. She had given up on being a mother because she was too old, but the same angel that had appeared to Mary had appeared to Zachariah, Elizabeth's husband and told him that his wife was going to have a child that would prepare the way for the coming Savior. Zachariah didn't believe him and was not able to speak until his son, John, was born. Mary's husband to be, Joseph, didn't know what to think. He was going to quietly set her aside, so not to embarrass her, so she could marry the father of her child. He didn't believe her that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah. Then, an angel came to Joseph in a dream and told him that what Mary said was true, so Joseph took Mary as his wife. Sometimes we think of the Christmas Story as some kind of fairy tale...and they lived happily ever after... It was a story full of sinful people fulfilling the promises of a perfect God. Confusion, stress, tumult, disbelief, conflict were all part of that first Christmas. God came to earth in Jesus to take care of all of that and bring us a peace that was like no other peace we had on earth, peace between God and man. May you have the comfort of that peace this Christmas season!