Here is our new bulletin board in the adult Sunday School room.

"I Am A Child of God" based on John 1:12 Spread the much needed truth of Scripture with this Bible verse wall decal. As a mural on the wall, it is a great reminder and encouragement, bringing light to darkness. It can be in the church nursery, a youth room wall, the kids' wing, it even makes for great church office decor! CHOOSE BLACK OR WHITE FOR YOUR LETTERS/DESIGN. THERE IS NO BACKGROUND FOR THESE DECALS. Available sizes for the Psalm 46:10 Bible Verse Wall Decal: - 60" width by 90" height - 44" width by 66" height - 40" width by 60" height - 36" width by 54" height - 30" width by 45" height - 24" width by 36" height - 20" width by 30" height What you will receive with your Handled Shop order: - Vinyl decal - Easy to follow instructions on how to apply your decal See more church decals here: www.etsy.com/shop/HandledShop?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=945819097§ion_id=25767738 Please note that the listing image may not reflect the true size of the decal. Please review the measurements listed above for the size of this decal. If you would like a different size, please contact us and we will be happy to accommodate!

Bible Wheel Of Fortune Game Bible Wheel Of Fortune Spinner-printable version Bible Wheel of Fortune Template for front of box-printable version Tape Decorative Scissors Small Cardboard Box Brown Spray Paint 2 Pieces of Red Construction paper Brad-for your spinner Laminator Making the box is totally optional. You could always just skip that part and just print the template out and make a small spinner for the kids to use. I was actually going to do that until I got some remarks from my child that I need to make it better than that. Got to love your kids!!! So I went back to the drawing table and was trying to figure out what I could use. I decided to use a small cardboard box that we've had crammed next to the freezer forever because my lovely husband likes to cram things into every nook and cranny in this place. hee hee. I went out to my husband's shop and rooted around for some spray paint. I began to notice that my children had gotten into all the spray paint and used it up. And even better, the spray nozzles were missing off of everyone of them. After some looking I finally found some brown spray paint. Out into the yard I went and sprayed the box. I just sprayed the front and top. I left the sides and back white. I let it dry for a little bit and then took it inside. I grabbed 2 pieces of red construction paper and taped it to the top and front of the box. I printed out the Bible Wheel of Fortune template for the front of the box and used decorative scissors to cut around it. I taped that on top of the red construction paper on the front of the box. Then I printed out the wheel spinner and cut it out. I laminated the wheel and the arrow. I put a brad through the arrow, wheel and box. I just used a push pin to make my hole first and then pushed the brad through it. *If you are not able to laminate, then try gluing or taping the template to a round cutout piece of cardboard. You might want to make the spinner out of cardboard too if you go that route. Pick out several scriptures from the Bible and write them on note cards so that way you have them. They will represent the different rounds. If you have a large white marker board just write your dashes on the board for the scripture. Split the kids into two teams. Then pick who will go first. Have the child spin the spinner. If it lands on a number then let them guess a letter. If the letter is part of the puzzle then write it on board on top of the blank. Let's say the spinner landed on $500 and they guessed an M and there was 3 M's in the puzzle then they would get $15,000. If they guess a vowel then it will cost them $100 every time they want to use it. The team will continue to spin the wheel and guess the letters until they have missed one or solved the puzzle. When they missed one then it is the other teams turn. The game will continue on until the puzzle is solved. This is really good for kids to learn Bible verses or to review on lessons that you have previously taught. You could make a Bible Wheel of Fortune cake too! Bible Wheel of Fortune Cake Small Round Cake Pan Bible Wheel of Fortune Template Toothpicks White Frosting Cake Mix Laminator Just bake a cake in a small round pan and let it cool down. Ice the cake in white frosting. Print the Bible Wheel of Fortune template off. Cut it out and laminate it. Lay the wheel down on top of the cake. Then take some toothpicks or you could use pretzel sticks and stick down in the edge of cake all around for the metal spikes. This is just an easy way to make this cake. If you really want to get all out there then you could attempt the real deal by piping all that mess on there. hahahah I thought I would skip on that for today. I was not up for that. I seen some pretty cool cakes that people made of these and they actually iced all of the wheel on top. I even seen one that actually spun. Once again I was not up for all that. You might want to take the cake out of the cake pan and finish icing the cake. I just left mine in the cake pan because I felt like it... :) (In case if you haven't noticed, I really like my laminator I got from Wal-mart. I use it a lot throughout this website. I like to laminate everything!) Make this for a fun snack for the kids at church. Play the Bible Wheel of Fortune Game with them to help them get excited about learning scriptures.

Looking for Mother's Day crafts? Be sure to check out our DIY pop-up cards and our peanut butter Oreo truffles (or, really, all our chocolate recipes!) Mother's (or is it Mothers' Day? both work!) is just 11 days away. Here are the first of 4 easy cards or booklets you can help your children create. Of course they don't just work for Mother's Day. I used these two in my classroom as a 7th grade teacher. The students enjoyed making these and using them to review or present facts. Number 1: Flap book Cut 4 strips of paper the same size. (You can use colored paper or white.) (4" x 8" would work, but you can vary the size.) Lay the paper in a stack, but stagger it as shown below. You can measure the intervals carefully or just eyeball it. Fold the stack in half, staggering the middle intervals the same as the ones you have already folded. You are going to need to staple the paper to attach all the pages together. After you have creased the fold you just made, open the book. If your paper is short enough, or you have a long neck stapler, you may be able to open the booklet and staple it directly on the fold (like a magazine). If not, staple it on top very close to the fold. Decide what you want each flap to say. Write the words and then illustrate each page. You could use stickers of photographs, too. This book can also make a great coupon book for Mother's Day (or Father's Day)! Number 2: "Squeeze" Book. Fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise. (Hot dog style as we say!) Fold lengthwise again, and fold one more time. Open the paper. You should have 8 small rectangles. Fold the paper in half again, this time widthwise (?) or hamburger style. From the folded edge, cut on the center creased line to the first fold. Spot marked with a dot in the picture on the left. Open the paper. You have a slit in the middle of the paper. Now, fold the paper in half, hot dog style. This is where the squeeze comes in. Grasp the two edges of the paper and squeeze toward the center. Since I was holding the camera, I couldn't grasp both sides of the paper. Now fold the paper into a book shape. Crease it well and then create your book! Next week I will show how to make 2 easy pop-up cards that children can create. Enjoy! Looking for Mother's Day crafts? Be sure to check out our DIY pop-up cards and our peanut butter Oreo truffles (or, really, all our chocolate recipes!)

Today I'm excited to have Corrina from From Mrs. Allen's Teaching Files here to share a really fun and exciting activity to use when talking about self control. Self control is such a hard

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Wondering how to set up a preschool classroom? Take a virtual tour of 6 different early childhood centers!

My name is Kristián Mensa and I'm a 17-year-old artist from Czech Republic. Since I was a little kid, I've been always trying to look at things from a different perspective. Throughout the years, I've realized that even the most ordinary things we use daily in our lives can be somehow unique.

These classroom decor ideas are amazing.

Well, in my 14 years at Zamo we never had rain to contend with during our Celebration of Art festivities... until last night, that is. I m...

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My name is Kristián Mensa and I'm a 17-year-old artist from Czech Republic. Since I was a little kid, I've been always trying to look at things from a different perspective. Throughout the years, I've realized that even the most ordinary things we use daily in our lives can be somehow unique.

Catholic ABC's Week: 10 Letter of the week: E Theme: Emmanuel Saint of the Week: St. Elizabeth Craft: Emmanuel Craft This craft is so cute and children of just about any age can

Free videos and downloads found in this post will be perfect for your MLK lessons! Sweet teacher, I hope you find encouragement, strength, ideas and resources on this website that bring about growth in your kids! If you are here for the first time, please allow me to welcome you. If you are a long-time friend, welcome back. Our kids are so worth it: Thank you for taking the time to teach about MLK. So many teachers have to "sneak" social studies into their day, and if that is you, well done for spending instructional time on this mighty man. Just a quick personal note I have many reasons I spend a week on MLK and then follow it with more time spent on Rosa Park and Jackie Robinson. I'd like to start with a very personal reason that exemplifies how MLK changed the course of my family's history. My great-grandfather was born a member of the Cherokee Nation. He was what some in the South might called "passe blanc", meaning he had light enough skin that he was NOT instantly recognizable for what he was. My great-grandfather hid his true-self because it was 1920. The people of the Cherokee Nation were considered sub-human. They were caged on reservations and their children were not allowed to attend white schools. The Civil Right Movement changed all of this for all people, and I am so thankful. It is NEVER lost on me that my own life was and is directly changed by Martin Luther King Jr's work and sacrifice. I wish my great- father lived long enough to see the kids in my classroom. He would be so proud Monday-Getting Started: I love starting any unit with a book, and in this case I let LaVar Burton kick off our MLK study with his reading of ,, A Picture Book of Martin Luther King Jr. Tuesday Inside and Outside: I feel like my kids I teach are tender-hearted and have not become jaded by bad experiences yet. Cultural diversity, cultural acceptance, and shared cultural experiences are part of their daily lives. My students seem to have been sheltered, and they are part of a happily, diverse population. My students are shocked to learn that long ago the color of your skin decided so much. In some cases, no matter how hard you worked or how good you were, you could not do certain things because of your skin color. The object of the following lesson is that we are created equal. We get cracking with some eggs all smiling and colorful. We crack one of each color and we talk about what we see. I plan to re-photograph the image above. Once I can, I will write... An egg has many parts. Inside the shell they are the same. The shell can be many shades- each one is beautiful and equal. I will tell you that I allowed every child to crack open a REAL egg. It was a wonderful experience. The families were asked to send in an egg for their child. As a result the parents very already invested and curious as to what we were doing in class. It was an exciting week!!!! PS. eggs were sent in Ziploc bags and I sat in the office collecting them so they did not break during morning arrival. I put many white and brown eggs together and I address the eggs as a group. I say things like the following: They look mostly the same. They feel mostly the same. I notice that some differ in size. I notice some differ in shade and color. I cracked them all open (at least 5) and I "notice" that inside they are all very similar. It is very important that as you teach using "white" and "brown" eggs that you are careful with your wording. Do not in anyway indicate that one is better than the other. Avoid saying "see the brown egg is just as good as the white egg." In saying that, you might be accidentally indicating that they were unequal before. "My skin color does not determine my future. We were created equal. We are equal." This is a powerful statement. Another good thing to write might be, "An egg has many parts. Inside the shell they are the same. The shell can be many shades. Each one is beautiful and equal." My character is what matters most: It really does matter what’s inside, and we are not all the same. We are uniquely gifted, have different degrees of good and “not so good” character inside us. So, how do we know if someone is filled with good or bad character? Can we look at their outside? Can we decide by their skin color, their clothes, their smile? No you have to get to know the person. I have them sort out all the possible character traits. I put 3-5 slips of paper in each egg and the table group will judge the egg. I usually put at least 1 negative trait in each egg. It’s important for kids to know that all of us are a mix of good and bad. We have to work hard to show our good character traits and control our negative ones. Kids are so tender, so you really have to drive this point home! Everyone has a bit of bad inside wanting to take over. Self control and good choices are ways we can show and grow our good character! This is such an important lesson that I end it with a very concrete way to be a friend and show good character. Favorite MLK Book: I love to read several books to the kids including my favorite Martin’s Big Words. I adore this book! Martin's most important words are in a huge font, hence the name of the book. So powerful!!!! Wednesday-Easy Reading: Then, I like them to do some reading on their own. Daily Buddy Reading / Fluency We also read about Martin in our fluency passage for the week followed by a quiz. I need those informational reading grades in my grade book. How about you? Videos I love for Thursday-Friday OK, now do you know Kid President? Of course you do because you are amazing. If you are just meeting him today from this post, then I have done my good deed for the day!!!! I love him. He does such a good job making MLK so accessible! Speaking of love, how about a little MLK Rap and putting on your dancing shoes! Friday- MLK Craft: But here is the best part!!! The craft. Oh how I love this easy & sweet craft! During the Week: We head back to You Tube to wrap up our week of MLK and watch the very beginning and very end of his speech. I think it’s important for kids to see the march. The peaceful singing, walking, and talking. I think this helps them understand that MLK really meant “peace”. There was no yelling, throwing of bottles, or hitting. They walked and sang and changed history. Friday Afternoon: On Friday, after we have learned everything we can learn, and our brains are tired and we so proud to be together as friends at the table of brotherhood, we sit down and watch this nice long movie. If you want to watch the movie I strongly encourage you to preview it. There are video clips of real events and it is hard to see some of the clips. I hope that this post has brought some new material to your classroom. That's fun, fresh, and exciting!

This Christmas we had a couple of WhoVille Grinchmas parties THAT WERE A BLAST! Looking for some New Year's Ideas? Check out my Holly's Home New Years Page. Check my Frozen Minute To Win It Game Or my Star Wars Minute to Win It Game The first one we did with the grandkids, and the second one we repeated for an adult family party. Both were so much fun. Here's what we did. You can read the story of the Grinch as you play, or you can retell the story in your own words. Here's a Grinch Games Scoreboard for you to keep score. To print it out just right click your mouse and save it into your pictures. Size it to fit a full size piece of paper and print it in your favorite printing program. When the Grinch decided to go down to Who-ville to steal the presents he needed a Santa Suit. Hand both teams red wrapping paper with duct tape and have each team create a Grinch Santa suit in a minute. The best suit wins. The Grinch needed a reindeer so he used his dog Max to pull the sleigh. We premade Max's reindeer antlers out of rolled up paper and tape. Each team had to tie the antlers on the head of a teammate. We had a sleigh for each team made from a box with some string tied to it to pull it. The team member with Max's antlers had to pull the box across the room and back. The first one done wins. As you can see from the picture that the grandkids thought that they should ride in the boxes. It just made it more fun, but we should have had stronger string. As the Grinch was going down the mountain he got into a little mishap and turned into a snow ball. Each team gets a roll of toilet paper on a large spoon handle. The team member who is being wrapped up is suppose to turn around to wrap the toilet paper around himself without breaking the toilet paper. The other team member holding the spoon is suppose to stand still. The team with the most toilet paper, without breaking, wins. When the Grinch got to Who-ville he started stealing all of the Who's presents. I found these little presents at the Dollar Tree. I used mason jars for the "Santa Sack". I put tissue paper around the jars with a rubber band so that they looked like a sack. It made it a little harder to drop the presents into the sacks. Each team had to drop the presents from their nose into the mason jar. The team with the most presents in the jar won. They had to put the presents and the jar into their sleigh. The Grinch took all of the Who's food, including the last can of Who-hash. I hid a can of Who-hash in the room and the first team to find it in under a minute won. I had to give them "hot" and "cold" hints to hurry it along. Here is a printout for the Who-hash. To print it right click on your mouse and save it into your pictures. Then size it to a full sheet of paper and print it out in your printing program. I cut it out and put it on a 16 ounce can of beans. (I didn't have any hash). The Grinch even stole the Candy Canes right from under the sleeping children's noses! The candy canes were on the edge of our table. Each team member had to get as many candy canes in his mouth as he could and carry them over to their sleigh. The team with the most candy canes in a minute won. The Grinch even stole the Who's tree. Each team had to remove all the decorations from their tree (found at the 99 cent store) and put everything into their sleighs. The first team done first won. The Grinch even took all of the crumbs that were too small for the Who's mouses. Each team got a small pile of Rice Krispies. The team members had to pick up the Rice Krispies with a straw and put them into the chimneys. The team with the most Rice Krispies won. (We actually had to count ours to be sure). Here's a printout for a Who-ville chimney: Now the Grinch took the stash up to Mount Crumpit to dump it. Each team got a picture of the Grinch with his sleigh. They were to blow the picture across the table with a straw. The team to get it closest to the edge, without going over, won. I should post the video of my husband and I playing. He kept holding on to my picture so that he could win. He's a cheater! Here's a printout of the sleigh for you to use: When the Grinch heard the Who's down in Who-ville singing, his heart grew three sizes. He decided to return all the stash. Each team had to get all of their stash from out of their sleighs and rebuild the tree and put back the presents and candy canes. The first team done won. This was my grandkids favorite part. They loved building the Christmas trees. The adults, not so much. I found these cute Big Bucks at the Dollar Tree. I just printed out a bunch of Grinch pictures and cut them out and glued them on. It was fast and easy. For the losers I found chocolate lumps of coal. Both were a hit! Here's a printout you can you can use if you want to make some: Here's a Grinch Green dollar that you could use with a candy bar if you can't find the Big Bucks. If you need a fun craft idea to go with your games just click here. I have more than 50 other Grinch ideas that are just awesome. Check them out by clicking here. Here's another fun Minute to Win it with a Frozen theme. Check it out! and to see all of my fantastic Christmas ideas just click here. And here are some great New Year's Ideas. Just click here. New Year's Eve Decorations are updated every year.