Abram Lies to Pharoah

Genesis 12:10-20

This lesson shows that we can still make poor decisions, even after having a close encounter with God.  For our binder project, the children colored a picture of Abraham crossing the desert.  We bought a sheet of coarse sandpaper for each child to lay beneath their paper to give the coloring a look of sandy texture.  An alternative for the very brave is to let the children glue brown sugar onto the drawing after the coloring is completed.  A quick spray of hairspray over the finished product will help the sugar to stick together and to the page, or the coloring page can be inserted into a sheet protector to keep the mess in one place.  Download the coloring page here.  The original website for the picture is here.

Our craft is courtesy of Danielle's Place--an amulet similar to those worn by the Egyptians.  Simply print out the template found here (you will need to scroll down the page until you reach the falcon amulet and choose that link for the template.  The picture from the website is below.)  We used card stock, markers and yarn. 

God Chooses Abram

Genesis 11:27-32 and 12:1-9

This lesson marks the beginning of the section on Abraham's life.  We began with the summary pictures from the last section, then introduced Abram. We talked about God choosing him and how later God would change his name to Abraham.  We gave a brief overview of his descendants, showing that he would have Isaac who would have Jacob who would give us the 12 tribes of Israel.  After reading our Bible story, we found Waldo in our Binder Project (download here) and discussed the fact that God knows each of us personally even though there are so many people in the world.  (The original link to the Waldo picture is here)

We chose to involve the children in an activity instead of a craft.   Duck, Duck, Goose reinforces the concept of being chosen.  For this game the children sit in a circle with enough space between them so they can easily get up and sit back down without knocking into each other.  If you only have a handful of kids, sit them with plenty of space between them to make the circle larger.  Choose a child to be the duck, or if noone volunteers an adult can be the duck to start.  Duck then walks around the circle tapping each child gently on the head and saying "duck" each time, as if labeling each child as a duck.  Eventually Duck taps a child on the head and says "goose," then runs as quickly as possible around the circle to reach Goose's seat before Goose can catch up and tag him/her.  If Duck does make it to Goose's seat without being tagged by Goose, then Goose becomes the duck and the original duck becomes part of the circle. If Goose tags Duck before Duck can reach Goose's seat, then Goose returns to the circle and Duck must be "it" again.

To make the game more difficult for older children, replace the "duck" that is spoken each time with any other name except the child's actual name, and the name cannot be said more than once.  Then instead of "goose" the child must same "Abram."  For example, the person who is "it" will walk around the circle tapping children gently on the head while naming them "Steve," "Grant," "Isabel," "Frank," "Gertrude," (as long as those are not the children's actual names) and then finally the name "Abram."  The child called "Abram" must realize they have been "called" and give chase.

End of Section Celebration!!!

Since part of the focus in the Bible Binder is to help create a sense of chronology for the Bible stories, we chose to take a break with this lesson and create a delineation between 'The Beginning of the World' and 'The Beginning of the Israelite Nation'.  Hence Creation through the Tower of Babel has ended, and the next section will take us through the life of Abraham.

Our binder activity for this lesson is kept in a sheet protector.  The following sheets were printed out for each child.  Download the first sheet here and the second sheet here.  The original website for the pictures are the bottom of this post.

The children colored the pictures and marked the back of each picture with their initials.  Then each child cut the pictures apart and put them in chronological order as quickly as possible.  Every so often we order these pictures again, even adding the pictures from the next section when the children are able to handle the added challenge.  When not in use, the pictures are stored in the sheet protector with a single piece of double-stick tape at the top in the middle to hold the sheet protector closed and keep the pictures safely tucked inside.

The pictures represent the following stories from top to bottom and left to right with their chronological order following.
"God Created"=Creation (1)
Snake=the Fall (2)
Two men & baseball bat=Cain and Able (3)
Baby=Seth (4)
Two women and man with baseball bat=Lamech, first man mentioned in the Bible to have 2 wives (5)
Two men, clouds & bird=Enoch walking with God (6)
Noah (7)
Wine & glasses=Noah gets drunk (8)
Tower of Babel (9)

We chose an activity with a take-home treat for this celebration, using balloons, cheap hard candy, and permenent markers.  We inserted one piece of candy in each balloon (off-brand Werther's candy from Walmart, 30 pieces for a dollar), inflated the balloons and then wrote the answers to our questions on the balloons using permanent markers.  Then we circled the children outside on the grass and let the balloons loose in the middle.  We asked each child a question in turn, then the child searched for the balloon with the correct answer and popped it without using their hands or mouths.  The candy was then theirs to keep.  Obviously any treat can be substituted, such as stickers if desired.  The other children were kept busy by keeping the balloons coralled.  If the grass in your area is prickly and likely to cause balloons to pop, you can instead run a piece of twine or rope between two trees and tape or laundry-pin the balloons to the roap.  The children can then choose the correct balloon and pull it from the line, then pop it on the ground.

The questions we used are found here.  Feel free to ask the same question to more than one child, but make sure you have a balloon for each time the answer is used. 

Tower of Babel

Genesis 11:1-9

The binder project for this lesson comes from DLTK.  The original website for downloading is here.

The craft for this section was obvious and rather easy.  The children simply made towers using Play-doh.  We allowed for enough Play-doh so the children could make miniature people and animals if they were so inclined, and gave each child a paper plate for the tower's foundation.  To conserve Play-doh, we bought a few styrofoam cones as a base for kids to cover which also proved much easier for the younger ones, although not every child chose to use it.

Noah's Curse

Genesis 9:20-28

Our binder project for this story compares the mind's ability to think when sober and when drunk.  Download this printable page here. 

This is the link for the easy maze and this is the link for the more difficult maze. 

Instead of a take-home craft, we chose to include an activity.  We borrowed a pair of thick glasses from an obliging relative.  We printed out two copies of the following grape cluster, posting one copy on the wall at a kid-friendly level and cutting the grapes with the faces out of the other copy.  We put double-stick tape on the individual grapes and gave one to each child.  The game followed the rules of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' only we used the glasses instead of a blindfold and the kids were challenged to place their grape over the identical grape on the poster.  Download the grape cluster here (note that the picture is a little fuzzy already...this is to illustrate that sometimes life's choices are not entirely clear, but adding alcohol symbolized by the glasses only makes the solution even harder to see.)  This is the link for the original picture.