Our KDI for the week is drawing conclusions- children draw conclusions based on their experiences and observations. We will be taking a look at apples and seeing how they taste, where the seeds are and how they grow. We can also compare them to other fruits and vegetables and see how bees help make apples grow.
Table Activities- This week's table activities include exploring apples, apple printing, real and pretend apples in the water table, exploding apples, pretend apple orchard, apple pie playdough and an apple sensory bins.
Small Group Activities- This week's small group activities are dissecting an apple, adding Aa is for apple to our journal and apple tasting.
Large Group Activities- This week we'll do some apple tossing with pretend apples, dancing with apples on our heads and pretending with apples and hay bales.
Books of the Week- "Ten Apples Up On Top" by Dr. Seuss, "The Apples on the Tree" by Steve Metzger and "The Apple Pie Tree" by Zoe Hall.
Bible Story- This week our Bible Story is about Abraham's grandson. Abraham and Sarah had a son, Isaac. Isaac got married and he and his wife, Rebekah, had twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau and Jacob were very different! Esau was born first, he was hairy, red and ruddy. That is what the name Esau means. When Jacob was born, he was holding on to Esau's heel, so the name Jacob means "heel-grabber". As Esau and Jacob grew, they became even more different. Esau was his father's favorite. He was an outdoors man, he loved to hunt and spent much time away from home, out on the land. Jacob was his mother's favorite. He was a shepherd. He took care of his family's flocks of sheep and goats and stayed close to home.
God had chosen the promise of a Savior to come through Jacob's family line. Because of Esau being born first, the inheritance and special promises would traditionally go to him. There is a story of Esau not being concerned with his birth right or inheritance. He had been out hunting and came across Jacob watching the herds. Esau was famished and he offered to trade his birthright for a bowl of stew. Jacob gladly gave him the stew in trade. Esau may not have remembered his bargain, but Jacob did.
When Isaac grew old and blind, he called Esau to him, prepared to give him his blessing before he died. He sent Esau out hunting and asked him to make the spicy stew that he loved. Esau went out to do this. Meanwhile, Rebekah had overheard. She knew Jacob was to receive the blessing, so she told Jacob to go kill one of his goats. She would make the spicy stew. She told Jacob to put on Esau's clothes and take the skin of the goat and tie it on his arms and tuck it in his collar so he would smell like Esau and feel hairy. He then took the stew into his father and pretended to be Esau and received the blessing. When Esau returned, he made the stew and took it into his father, who was very confused. He gave Esau a blessing, but not what the first born should have had.
Esau was furious! He was angry enough to kill Jacob. Jacob and Rebekah conspired to have Jacob run away to Rebekah's brother Laban. Jacob ran and the first night he slept out in the open, using a rock as a pillow. As he slept, he dreamed. He dreamed of a ladder reaching up to heaven and angels were going up and down on the ladder. God stood at the top and he talked to Jacob. He told him he would be with him and bless him and bring him back to the land that he was leaving. He was Jacob's God!
As a kid, this story always confused me. We tend to think if we do the right thing, God will bless us. Jacob and Rebekah didn't do the right thing. They tricked people, stole blessings. As I have grown older, I have seen rain fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. God blesses because of who He is, not because of who I am or what I have done. God made a way for his Son to come to earth to save us because he loved us. Abraham's family was not special because they were perfect or good. They were used by God to bring his Son to earth. God loved them and saved them, just like everyone else. Not everyone knows it though. If you ever have a moment where you feel you aren't good enough for God to love or save, be reminded that it is because of God's great love we are not consumed. Love for you! He knows you, He saved you, He cares for you! The great thing that God has done for us is given us faith to know these truths and we are saved by this faith! If God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, he is God to Mrs. Schneck and Mrs. Fager and all the little ones who come to know and believe in Him!
Some pictures from our camping week-
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