Our KDI of the week is Ecology- Children understand the importance of taking care of their environment. We will clean up an "oil spill" and read about how oil spills and other pollution affect wildlife in our oceans and what we can do about it! As Christians, we have a special responsibility to be good stewards of the world God entrusted us with and balance that with caring about people, who are the crown of His creation. It is a precarious balancing act, for sure!
Table Activities- This week's table activities include ocean water play, oil spill clean up, ocean coloring pages, sand playdough, stamp painting, seashell investigation, coloring foil fish and making an ocean bead necklace.
Small Group- This week's small group activities include making an "ocean bottle", painting seashells, adding Oo is for ocean to our journals, and making permanent sand castles.
Large Group- This week's large group activities include "surfing" to surfer songs, ocean animal body shapes, singing "Baby Shark" and "Five Little Fishies"
Books of the Week- "Oil Spill" by Melvin Berger and "Somewhere in the Ocean" by Jennifer Ward and T. J. Marsh
Bible Story- Our Bible story this week takes place on the ocean, probably the Mediterranean Sea. We are about 100 years past Naaman, foreign invaders continue to attack Israel. The temple has not been destroyed yet, so there are still believers in the promise and God continues to speak to the people through his prophets. One of God's prophets is named Jonah. Jonah is commanded by God to go to the people of Nineveh and preach repentance. The Bible says the people of Nineveh had done great evil against the Lord. Nineveh was huge!! Kind of like Los Angeles, millions of people who wanted nothing to do with the one true God. Jonah did not want to preach to them. So he bought passage on a boat headed to Tarshish, which is in the opposite direction of Nineveh! He promptly went below decks and fell asleep- it's exhausting running from God! While he slept, a fierce storm began, the sailors were desperate to keep the ship afloat and began throwing over cargo. The captain went down and woke up Jonah and told him to pray to whatever God he served to save them!! When Jonah said he worshipped the God who created the sea, the captain asked what Jonah had done to anger him. The captain wanted to know what they could do to calm the sea down. Jonah told him to throw him overboard, so they did- and immediately the sea was calm. God sent a giant fish to swallow Jonah whole. Jonah prayed and repented as he was in the belly of the fish for three days. God had the fish throw Jonah up on a beach. Imagine how uncomfortable it was for Jonah, tightly cramped, stomach acids stinging your skin, breathing and the smell must have been horrible. God was showing Jonah that not obeying would lead to far worse consequences for him and all the people of Nineveh. They would end up in hell, much worse than the belly of a fish. And they would be there for eternity, not just three days! After Jonah was deposited on the beach, he cleaned himself up and went to Nineveh. He preached throughout the city that God would bring judgement on them if they did not repent. That judgement would come in 40 days. The Ninevites repented and believed, everyone!! From the King to the lowliest citizen, they all repented and came to faith in the one true God!! God's word spoken by the prophet Jonah, worked faith in their hearts. Jonah's book in the Bible leaves me wondering if Jonah himself had saving faith. But God brought many to faith through him. God's Word works, whether we want it to or think people are worthy of it. God loved the world!! That's what your children are learning for Christmas!
John 3:16- For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.
A few picks from last week- We had Christmas music on and dancing was all the rage! We used bugs to count and they became hair accessories!
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