Sunday School Lessons - Learning the Creation Story

The creation story is a central component in Sunday school lessons for any age group. One great way to teach the creation story to the pre-school age group is through a garden unit. A Sunday school garden unit goes through the different elements - air, water, and soil - and explains how God created everything to work together in harmony.

Garden Unit Set Up

Because pre-school kids are so active, it is important to have lessons that incorporate a lot of different activities. For the garden unit, try to teach about the different elements in as many ways as possible - through songs, skits, snacks, and crafts.

Air

Air is a good way to start the garden unit, because it fits with the start of the creation story.

Read the start of the creation story, and talk about how we perceive light and darkness. We might sometimes think it's scary in the dark, but God is everywhere and He always protects us (watch or sing Veggie Tails "God is Bigger than the Boogie Man").
Talk about how smells travel through the air and do an activity where the kids close their eyes and guess what smells you put into the air.
We experience the air through wind, which helps us fly a kite or sail a boat. Have the kids draw pictures of "air" and how we use it.
End by thanking God for making clean air for us to breathe. Talk about how it's our responsibility to take good care of the air.

Water

After the heavens and light and darkness, God created water.

Talk about the different forms of water (lakes, oceans, rain, bathtub, swimming pool) and have the kids draw pictures of water.
Discuss how humans, plants, and animals need water to live.
Sing "Deep and Wide."
Thank God for our water and talk about not wasting it.

Soil

God also created the earth, which is made from soil, or dirt.

For a messy activity, have the kids close their eyes and feel inside boxes filled with different kids of "dirt," like rich soil, sand, and clay. Talk about how we find different kids of dirt in different places and how they each serve a certain purpose.
Spend one week planting bean sprouts in clear cups and talk about how plants grow. Check on the plants from week to week to see their progress.
Make "ants on a log" for a snack and talk about all the different kids of life God created. Use celery for the base, and fill the stalks with peanut butter to make the log. Place raisins on top for the ants. Talk about how we need to protect animals and the rest of God's creations.
Finish by thanking God for the earth and all He created.

Bible Party Themes For Preschoolers - Fun Ways to Teach Young Children About God in Sunday School

Everyone likes to have a party! Preschoolers are no exception. You can make learning the Bible fun with some of the party themes outlined below. These are seasonal party ideas that are easy to plan and include devotions that will hopefully have a lasting impression on the little lambs in your church.

Nature Hike Party - Autumn
Purpose: To enjoy God's creation.
Activity: Go on a nature walk and collect flowers, twigs, leaves, pebbles, etc.
Craft: Provide zip-lock bags for each child. Punch a hole in each bag and tie them together with yarn to make a class nature book.
Snack: Trail mix.
Devotion: Review the Creation.

Noah's Ark Party - Autumn
Purpose: An alternative to a Halloween party.
Activity: Have each child bring in their favorite stuffed animal. Have parents donate any wagons that they have at home for the party. Decorate wagons with crepe paper streamers. Have a parade with the stuffed animals.
Game: Play a CD with animal sounds and let the children tell you what kind of animal it is.
Snack: Animal crackers and milk.
Devotion: Talk about Noah building the ark and how Noah loved and obeyed God.

Christmas Party - Winter
Purpose: Learn the Christmas story.
Activity: Make play dough cakes and decorate them with plastic candles to celebrate Jesus' birthday.
Game: Hide nativity figures around the room. Let the children find them and bring them to the stable.
Snack: Decorated cupcakes, and sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.
Devotion: Tell the children the Christmas story.

Valentine's Day Party - Winter
Purpose: Show love to family and friends.
Teacher Prep: Make cookies ahead of time. Provide children with icing, plastic knives, sprinkles, and zip-lock sandwich bags.
Activity: Bake and decorate cookies to give to others.
Snacks: Decorated cookies and milk.
Devotion: Discuss how Jesus fed 5,000 people because He loved them very much.

Kite Party - Spring
Purpose: To have fun and enjoy being outdoors.
Activity: Flying kites. Have parents bring kites that either store bought or homemade for the big event.
Snack: Rice cereal treats and fruit punch.
Devotion: Talk about how Jesus calmed a storm (windy).

Easter Party - Spring
Purpose: Celebrating Jesus' resurrection.
Craft: Make musical instruments. String jingle bells of pipe cleaners, put beans in paper towel tubes and cover the ends, plus any other great ideas you have.
Activity: Play instruments and sing Christmas songs that praise Jesus.
Snack: Fruit and crackers with juice.
Devotion: Discuss the triumphal entry of Jesus.

Mother's Day Party - Spring
Purpose: Show love to mothers.
Teacher Prep: Provide cups, dirt, and small flowering plants. Also provide stickers, small pictures of the children, Popsicle sticks, and glue.
Activity: Let children decorate their cups with stickers and plant flowers in them. Glue a picture of each child on a Popsicle stick and push into the dirt beside the plant.
Snack: Cupcakes brightly decorated and juice.
Devotion: Let the children tell you why their love their mothers.

Father's Day Party - Summer
Purpose: Show love to fathers.
Teacher Prep: Cut out tie shapes with knots from construction paper. Punch holes on each side of the knots and string yarn through so dads can wear their ties.
Activity: Let children decorate the ties that they are going to give their dads with crayons and/or stickers.
Snack: Cookies and water.
Devotion: Talk about how much Joseph loved Jesus and took care of him as he grew.

Ice Cream Party - Summer
Purpose: A time for parents, teachers, and children to have fun.
Activity: Make sundaes.
Craft: Make ice cream cones by cutting out circles from a variety of colored paper and long triangles from light brown paper for the cones. Let children glue the ice cream circles on top of the cones and decorate with glitter.
Snack: Ice cream, toppings, plastic bowls and spoons, paper towels.
Devotion: God gives us food, and boy is it yummy!

6 Tips For Back to School Scrapbooking Ideas

School scrapbooking albums usually include pictures of a child's first day of school for each grade level, but there's so much more to our back-to-school memories. Why not create a few page layouts that document the feelings and memories of the back-to-school season? Get your camera and your scrapbooking supplies ready, and try these school scrapbooking ideas.

Back-to-School Clothes Shopping

This is a new school year ritual. We all take our children shopping for new clothes to start the school season. This year, take your camera along for the trip, and not only will you capture some fun pictures of your children shopping, but you'll record the current fashions trends of that year. Be sure to include the good, the bad and the ugly of this year's fashions. Even if you have a less than enthusiastic shopper, it's a back-to-school tradition that should be part of any

How Prayer Mats Help Teach Children the Importance of Praying

Children begin to learn and understand many things from a very early age by looking at their parents, siblings and peers. They like to imitate the adults around them and in particular their parents, who are the center of their world, particularly during early childhood. When a child sees his parent behaving in a certain way, he is likely to follow suit. This is the main reason that after the birth of their child, most conscious parents try to take up good habits and practices themselves which they want to teach their children.

In order to teach your young child the importance of praying in our lives, it is extremely important to be regular with offering your prayers. When your child will see you offering prayers five times a day, he will try to imitate you from the beginning, and it is very likely that he will develop a love and understanding for Salat from an early age. It is important to show you child a routine by making the ritual ablution, known as "Wudu" followed by selecting a clean place and placing prayer mats for yourself and your child and continuing with the Salat.

The prayer mats which act as a clean and pure place to pray can be attention grabbing for your child. Children usually find the soft material and vivid colors to be attractive and comforting. Even though initially they might use the prayer mats as a play area while you offer your prayers, but with the passage of time, they start to imitate your actions for praying. The love for praying and staying clean is enhanced over time with the continued guidance provided by the parents.

Certain Islamic Sunday schools in the UK and USA have the preschoolers create small prayer mats during the craft period. These prayer mats are made using small pieces of solid colored carpets and are then colorfully decorated by children using markers and paints to make flowers and abstract designs according to their own talent and creativeness. Then these prayer School mats are used by them to the Sunday worship service each week to offer some salad. 'If this project boats of the class is introduced, the teacher tells the students the importance of Namaz in Islam.

The prayer rugs that are created in the class as a starting point for children to pray more regularly offering. Moreover, it is often a matter of pride to pray to Allah to have a carpet with his creation. For children, this little activitynot only keep them busy and entertained, but also act as stepping stones to get a better grasp over their religious heritage.

Child Christmas Party Ideas

First of all may we congratulate you on taking on this task. It probably means that you are a classroom mom or dad, scout leader, or Sunday school teacher or some other often under-valued position and one that not many people would sign up for. This doesn't mean you need to do all the kids party planning and organizing yourself however. We would like to give you some great ideas for child Christmas party ideas, but we also encourage you to get other parents involved (they might even enjoy it so much that they offer to help more regularly!)

Kids Party Planning Ideas

When planning a Child Christmas Party you will want to think about what activities you are going to have - whether these are going to be games or craft ideas. If you are a scout leader you will probably also want to consider how the fun party ideas can fit in with your badge work. Here are a few fun kids party ideas:

Christmas Stocking Guessing Game: A couple of stockings are filled with Christmas items and then children are divided into groups and each group gets given a Christmas stocking. These get passed around the groups so each child gets a chance to guess at least one item in the stocking (without peeking!) The team that has guessed the most right wins.

Gift Wrap Relay: A number of gift wrapping stations are set up, one for each team. Each team is then lined up and given a wrapped box of macaroni which they then need to run with to their gift wrapping station, unwrap, re-wrap and then run back and give to the next person in their team who does the same. The first team where each person has unwrapped and re-wrapped the gift is the winner.

A Crafty Idea - Make Christmas Ornaments: A great way to encourage creativity in children and fill them with a sense of pride and accomplishment is to get them to create Christmas ornaments to give to their parents. These can be snowflakes decorated with glitter, reindeer made from hand prints or anything else you (or they) choose.

Christmas Treat Envelopes: A great idea for scout good turns is to create Christmas treat envelopes to give to the under- privileged (or other kids can just make these for their parents or friends). Each child is given some felt squares and other suitable items for decorating these and they can turn these into envelopes. Once the envelopes are made, fill them with chocolates and other sweet treats to give away.

Kids Party Invitations

Once you have put together your child Christmas party ideas, it is time to tell everyone about it. A great way to do this is using the new Web 2.0 technology. This means that you can put up a free web page that not only allows you to share your ideas with kids and parents and tell them where and when the party will be taking place but also get them communicating via your web page, collect RSVP's and any necessary fees through the web page and then put up photos, video and audio clips. Use this web page to also find out which parents are willing to assist you with the party and start getting them involved.

You can create these kids party invitations for your child Christmas party by signing up for a free account at Events Listed Child Christmas Party Ideas page. Then start creating your invitation online today and send out emails to let people know where they can find your web page.

Easter Sunday School Crafts

As if Easter isn't festive enough, there are some fun Easter Sunday school crafts for your class to do. The kids will make little favors to hang around their homes and even some to use on the Easter dinner table!

One of the most simple and adorable Easter Sunday school crafts is the cotton ball chick. These little fuzzy guys can be used for place settings. You'll need to provide the kids with the following: two yellow pompoms, half of a clean egg shell, small piece of orange craft foam, two google eyes, scissors, glue, one wood doll base, pastel colored craft paint and a paintbrush. Have the kids pick a color for their wooden doll bases and then paint them. Make sure that the egg shells are clean and then have the kids glue their pompoms inside, one on top of the other. They'll cut their orange foam into a little triangle and glue it on the top pompom for a beak. Have them glue the eyes above the beak and then have them glue the egg shell to the wooden base. Make sure that the kids are very careful with their egg shells because they're very delicate. When the project is completed, they'll have adorable little chicks to show off on their dinner tables.

When you're choosing Easter Sunday school crafts for your class to make, "Washcloth Bunnies" is a great choice. This is a craft that's suited for younger kids. You'll need to have the children bring in a washcloth. Each kid will also need a rubberband, a ribbon, wiggle eyes, a small pom-pom and glue. First, the kids will fold their washcloths in half in a way so that it forms a triangle. Then they'll roll their cloths from the small point to the long side. Once the washcloth is folded up so that it resembles a straw, they'll fold it in half. They'll fold the washcloth in half again, folding the loose strands back toward the fold (as the bunny ears). Once the ears are in that position, use your rubberband to keep the cloth in place. Then, you're going to take the ribbon and tie it around the rubberband, covering it up. The kids will glue on the google eyes and then they'll glue on the pompom for a nose. These can be used as egg holders.

If your class is seven or older, you can have them sponge paint eggs. You'll need hardboiled eggs, acrylic paints, sponges, paper towels, small bowl of water and an empty egg carton. You'll need multiple sponges and you'll need to cut them up for each paint color so that the colors don't mix together. Have them take the sponges and ring them out so that they're not drenched and then have them directly sponge paint their eggs. Have them do this with all different colors, including white so that it looks like part of the natural egg is still showing. Allow a couple of minutes for the paint to dry, acrylics dry quickly. When the eggs are done, each kid can take some home with them.

Easter Sunday school crafts are one of the reasons why kids love the holiday so much. It's a very important and joyful time and it should be celebrated!

Create Your Own Perfect Soap - Take Soap Making Classes!

Have you been searching for "The One?"

Like the rest of the female population in the world, you too, are in search of the perfect soap and so far, none of the fancy soap brands in the market have satisfied your discriminating taste. Sure, once or twice you have been swayed by clever advertising. Who wouldn't buy the soap that Jennifer Aniston would swear to be perfect? But then you find yourself always disappointed with the product; it's too strong, too mild, too fragrant, and most significantly, it does little to enhance and care for your skin. There never seems to be perfect mix of ingredients that's just right, just perfect for you. Well, it's time to take matters into your own hands by making your very own, very perfect soap. If you're intimidated by the seemingly intricate term of 'soap making,' I could tell you that it's really quite easy. I am sure you will agree with me after signing up for soap making classes and delving into your very first lessons.

Rooted in History

Soap making was an essential part of life in early civilizations. Encarta Encyclopedia reveals that as early as the 1st Century, the popular Roman scribe, Pliny the Elder, observed that the use of soaps for cleansing and dyeing the hair. In the Americas, soap making was one of the most significant and the most necessary chores in the early colonies, and the use of rendered animal fat was the main ingredient. The soap industry became so popular at the time that the country heavily exported ashes and fats for soap making.

Gift Yourself with Soap Making Skills

Today, this very same craft is available to the modern woman. There are tons of available ingredients and soap recipes in the market too, and for sure they could meet the demands and needs of any skin type. Classes may span from three days to a month, depending upon the level of the student. There are several companies that offer soap making courses across the country, and prices range from as little as $60 to as much as $500.

Soap making classes start from the most basic step, and that is how to make soap with raw elements. If you are a beginner, it is one great comfort to know that you could go in with absolutely no idea about this amazing craft, and such a blank slate is even expected. The greatest part of making your own soap is the immense freedom in inventing something according to your very own need or whim. Imagine the privilege in picking the color, the fragrance and the oil of your very own soap; fabulous, isn't it? I bet you already have some great options in mind right now.

On the other hand, if you are the do-it-yourself type and would rather study soap making on your own, there are options available for you. Home study courses, for example, could help you create your first soap in your very own 'laboratory' (your neat little dainty kitchen really), as you learn the craft in your own pace and in the comforts of your own home.

Why suffer from soap brands that do not know how to pamper and protect your skin? Take some soap making classes now and forever change the way you bathe with your newfound skill and your newfound gem: your very own, very perfect soap.