10 Commandment Finger Play

Do you know the 10 commandments? Could you name them out of order? Watch this video and learn how to recite the 10 commandments using hand motions. And remember what Jesus said, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40

Animal Masks

Animal Mask Templates
by Jen Mellor

Download Printable PDF version here

1. Cut paper plates in half and then cut out eye holes and nose arch.  Punch holes on the sides and attach yarn to tie to the kids heads.

 2. Print onto colored paper listed on each page. 

Astrobright paper works great for this.  I made these for a Noah’s Ark Bible story lesson at the local girl's shelter here in Davao and made two kits for each animal. The kids loved them! Depending on the kids age you can have them cut the pieces out before pasting them to the plate.  Or if you don't have colored paper have the kids color in the items before cutting.

· Lion

· Tiger

· Monkey

· Elephant

· Parrot

· Zebra

· Crocodile

· Giraffe

Walking by Faith Bookmarks

Peter walks on water 

(Matthew 14)

Supplies:

• white card stock* 
• water colors **
• q tips or paint brushes
• a white candle
• blue ribbon
• hole punch
• scissors or paper cutter
• pencils

Preparation:

1. Cut paper down to bookmark size.  The ones I made were about 3 inches by 8 inches.
2. Hole punch one side and write with a candle the word FAITH and then little footprints along the bottom. Make sure you do this with good lighting. Its hard to see :)
3. Just so you can have the kids be painting on the correct side. Write this along  the back "Name:__________"
4. Have baby wipes ready since the food coloring (if you are using homemade paint) can stain

Directions:

1. Pass out the bookmarks and the paint and brushes.  Tell them to paint over the whole book mark in order to see a cool trick.
2. As they are painting ask the kids if they can guess what they are seeing.
3. Set aside the craft to dry as you tell them the Bible story.  
4. Near the end of the class time have the kids tie the ribbon on the hole. If it is the plastic ribbon they can split it to look like a tassel

Dig Questions:

• When you first saw your bookmark did it look like it had anything on it?
• What showed up as you started painting it?
• read 2 Corinthians 5:7 What are we supposed to walk by?
• Read Hebrews 11:1 Faith is like that.  God may ask you to do something that may seem crazy because you can't see how it will turn out.  In the story what did God ask Peter to do? 
• What if Peter never stepped out of the boat?
• He never would have done the impossible!  What will you do if God asks you to do something that doesn't make any sense? Read Matthew 17:20

*I used a huge piece of water color paper above that I had and just cut it down.  The paint acts really cool on water color paper but looks just as great on card stock, poster board or un-coated paper plates

** I make my own watercolors by putting food coloring in water and using cut down plastic cups as the bowls.  You can reuse it and it doesn't get all crazy mixed up in the pallet.  Also its cheaper and you can usually find food coloring anywhere

Fishers of Men VBS

Created for various VBS kids programs for a team from Calvary Chapel Murrieta in 2013 by Jen Mellor

Here is the PDF outline with all the activities.  I hope to blog about each part as we do them with photos of the kids.


Here are the corresponding videos that go with the program

Station Videos

· 10 commandments (hand gestures)

· Paper fold gospel (his is a super simple version but go off my story notes. Also I usually actually toss/fly the plane around and have the kids toss it back to you)

· Gospel string wrap bracelet (kids will anchor the bracelet with loop around their toes)

Time Fillers

· The Banana Song

· Making Melodies dance (because this song takes forever we usually combine two of the actions like this)

Crowd Control & Claps

· Zip a lip and keep quiet

· Fish claps

Worship Videos

· Fishers of Men (If You Follow Me)

· Every Move I Make

· Fishers of Men (Rise and Follow Me)

· He Is God

· Oh Hallelujah

Here are the song banners.  We had them printed on vinyl in two sets to hold up on either side of the stage. They were 2x3 feet

Here are the Name tags

Coloring Sheets for the welcome games

Large Coloring Sheets for the Travel Story.  These are just reference to hand draw something like them on a poster board for the kids to color.

 1. Jesus

 2. Boats

 3. Lake

 4. Disciples

 5. Fish

 6. Follow Me