Genesis 34
This lesson requires a bit of sugar-coating for the younger children, but we included it because the attack on Shechem caused the moved from Bethel which caused Rachel's death in childbirth. The binder project could also be considered a bit harsh for younger ones, so of course use good judgement in deciding whether or not to include this lesson in your program. The instructions for this sheet are simple. According to the Bible, every man in Shechem was killed while all women, children and livestock were captured. We asked the children to draw X's over the eyes of all the men to indicate their death, and to draw handcuffs (or pawcuffs) on all the women, children and animals to indicate their capture. Since the Bible later describes the Israelites as counting their men beginning at age 20 (see their counts during the Exodus and throughout their travels in Canaan) this is the approximate age we used for boys becoming men, however the clipart children should clearly be children. The sheet can be downloaded
here. The clipart is courtesy of
http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com.
The craft is courtesy of J.E. Morris' blogspot--an alligator puppet with moveable joints, requiring crayons or markers, scissors, paper fasteners, and the template found
here at its original website or in document form instead of pdf. The alligators can be made to fight, to run away, or to faint from fear as the people of Shechem may have done, although all of our alligators lived a very happy life with the children in our class. The dancing alligator picture below is also courtesy of J.E. Morris.
