The KDI we are concentrating on this week is empathy-children demonstrate empathy toward others. To be able to demonstrate empathy, children first have to be able to know what others are feeling. We are going to identify feelings by looking at jack o' lantern faces!
Table Activities- Table activities this week include pounding golf tees into pumpkins, creating paper pumpkins, playing with pumpkin slime, pumpkin sensory bins, pumpkin playdough, pumpkin coloring pages, pumpkin puzzles, Halloween clay mats, pumpkin water play and dot painting.
Small Group Activities- This week we will make a tissue paper pumpkin, a bead pumpkin, add Hh is for Halloween to our journal and go trick or treating classroom to classroom. I have made sure that the treats handed out will be allergy safe, so we are all good!
Large Group Activities- Pumpkin play outside!
Books of the Week- "The Legend of Spookly the Square Pumpkin" by Joe Troiano, "It's Pumpkin Time!" by Zoe Hall, "Pumpkin Jack" by Will Hubbell and "Pumpkin Heads" by Wendell Minor.
Bible Story- This week our story is about a little girl who was taken captive by the Aramite army and made a slave to a general named Naaman and his wife. Raiders from Aram had gone into Israel and captured her and taken her from her family.
Naaman had contracted leprosy, a deadly and isolating disease in those days! The servant girl had suggested to her mistress that Naaman should go and see the prophet Elisha and he could be cured. Naaman talked to his king who then sent a letter to the king of Israel asking him to grant Naaman an audience and cure him of his leprosy. He also sent a generous gift of money and clothing for the cure.
When the king of Israel received the letter, he thought Aram was picking a fight with him! How could he possibly cure Naaman, he didn't have that power! When Elisha found out about it, he sent a message to the king to have Naaman come to him and he would cure him.
When Naaman came, Elisha sent out his servant and instructed him to tell Naaman to go wash in the Jordan River seven times.
Naaman was incensed, he came all this way, with all these riches and the prophet himself couldn't be bothered to come out to see him!! He was not going to wash in the Jordan, he had cleaner rivers back in Damascus to wash in! How insulting!!
Naaman's servants chided him, "If the prophet had asked you to do some great thing, would you have done it? Just go and wash!"
So Naaman went to the Jordan and washed and he was healed!!
He returned to Elisha's house and confessed his faith in the One True God of Israel!! And offered Elisha all the riches his king had sent with him. Elisha refused the gifts. Naaman wanted to continue to worship the one true God and asked for forgiveness for having to help his master enter the temple of the false god he worshipped. Elisha told him to go in peace!
Imagine you are a young girl, torn away from your family and forced to serve the enemy. But your faith and trust in the One True God are such that you come to love your enemy and even look to their eternal well being! This little servant girl wanted her master healed and she was even instrumental in his coming to faith in the One True God!
We have some unsure times to come, but we can serve God and love our neighbor in any circumstances!! Jesus tells us to not only love our neighbor, but love our enemy and be kind to those who persecute us! And while I know that means helping them see their sin, they are blind to it until they know God! So be Jesus to those you come into contact with them every day and let your light shine!!
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