There's one parable that trumps all parables. Dig deeper and study the parable of The Seed And The Sower with your kids and see what God will open up!
Use these 7 LDS Scripture-Themed Carnival stations and game ideas to create an epic Children's Primary activity outdoors at church!
What does God say about reading the bible? Well in Joshua we are told to meditate on God’s word day and night and to have it always on our lips! In the New Testament Jesus uses the story of t…
Our continuing Exploration through the Life of Jesus Has brought us to the time when Jesus is Teaching in Parables. The Parable...
Jesus parables about the kingdom of God show us the value of God's kingdom, its scope, and our invitation into it.
We are beginning our year of botany study with seeds. It seems a likely place to begin... at the beginning, but is the seed really the beginning?....or is it the flower? Since the cycle of life is really a circle we just picked a spot and got on. We have used these resources as references and information so far: Exploring Creation with Botany from the Young Explorer series Seed Babies by Margaret Morley The First book of Plants by Alice Dickson A Tiny Seed By Eric Carle We will be trying something new this time with our lapbooks....I am merging them with notebook pages and calling the combination a lapnotebook. Putting the notebooking pages inside our lapbooks will enable us to do more handwriting, science reports and diagaming of the plant parts, and who knows what else. I am using the Pro Click binder to put it all together. The first thing we did was to design our lapnotebook covers. I printed off extra front pages from The First Book of Plants to use for illustrations. The boys chose which size and plants they wanted and went to coloring them and gluing them on the front cover. Max chose the large sunflowers because they are yellow and tried to put all the other images on as well. He almost got them all on by cutting off all the extra white but in the end the lilly had to go. The pictures are really nice in that max learned that peanuts drop down from the plant and go into the soil from the top. Very cool! T.J. chose the sunflowers too! But his were smaller. I am still impressed how much they enjoy doing projects like this. Just yesterday Zak showed his dad with pride the mini books he had made and the cover and the experiment sheets. It is so fun to see them put their best into something they really are proud of. First thing we did was to go find some real seeds to look at and feel and compare. We talked a little about where we might find them and then out the door they flew gathering seeds. We collected some from our backyard. I was thinking they would go gather lots of each kind but instead they simply took one seed of each kind. Then we looked at them and talked about how different each one was and How God is so diverse and creative to make so many. Then we glued them into our mini book. Next we started a germination experiment because we read that a seed only needs three things to grow; warmth, water and air. The boys could not believe this and countered that of course they needed sunshine too! So we went about to discover if what they hypothized was true or not. We took three plastic bags, put a damp paper towel inside with some spaghetti squash seeds. Then we put one bag into the refridgerator (no warmth) and put one in the sunshine (but it was near the window and got cold) and one into a closet. (it was warmer than the window sill bag). Then I assigned a bag to each boy and we made a chart to graph our results by and every day we checked our seeds and looked to see if they sprouted or germinated. On about day six, T.J. who was monitoring the seed in the closet came running into the room so excited to see his seeds sprouting!!!! Eagerly he measured it...1/2 cm yahoo! his had been the first to germinate. Soon the seeds in the bag on the window sill germinated and out grew those in the closet so Zak who was looking after that bag was very proud to measure his sprout at 6 cm on day 12 the last day of the experiment. Max all along knew nothing would happen with his seed but he is now putting in the window sill and plans to plant them once they germinate. While this experiment was going on (it took 12 days) we were reading seed babies and putting a few more mini books in our lapnotebooks. One day we were reading about melons and pumpkins and ended up getting curious about the amount of seeds we saw in the pumpkin....So of course we had to count them. Our pumpkin had about 613 in all. They were delicious roatsed with olive oil and salt in the oven! On another day, we "planted" some beans in a jar with paper towels and some water to see it in real life what the new sprout will look like. We took a picture of the nicest sprout and labeled it's parts and mounted the picture on nice paper and put it into the lapnotebook. Then a few days later, we made a mini book with these sequence cards . I found the sequence cards at enchanted Learning and made the according fold booklet myself. Oooops! someone put their #3 sequence card upside down. We spent a few different days learning the parts of the seed. the first day I simply showed them my seed part cards and showed them the new names for the parts. The next time we looked at them I cut off the name and asked them to tell me the name that goes with the picture. Meanwhile in other illustrations in our books we named them again. We talked about how the plumule becomes the leaves of the new plant and the radicle becomes the roots; how the testa falls off and how the young plant eats the cotyledon and once the cotyledon is eaten it uses its new leaves to make food. Then the following time we looked at the cards I gave them their own parts of the seed cards and they colored them by coping my cards and gluing the part name on each card. We look at them periodically and later I will review the info with them by having them do a noteboking page about the seed parts. After a few days we put together our last mini book on seed dispersal. Inside we drew pictures of each way seeds disperse and pasted in a small text explaining each method. While they drew their pictures I read from Exploring Creation with Botany. The day before I read from All About Plants and how seeds travel. I found these fun little images to use for a mini book about the parable and the sower. We read it one day, talked a little about it's meaning and then the following day we put this min book together. Inside is the sower and some seeds from our garden that we glued down. About a week later we went to work doing the copy work for the parable. And a few days later we played this game.... My game is printed with only black and white but on the web site you can choose to print in color. It would look tons better. The boys, however, enjoyed the game even though it was sort of ugly. We used seeds for place markers. All in all it took us about one month to cover this little section of botany...... next we are looking at fruits, the houses for seeds.
I had a good week! Ahhh... That feels so nice to say! I mean, I truly, truly love my job. I feel blessed every week to be able to do what I LOVE as my profession....but let's be honest...Not every week is a "good week." But this week... I had a lot of just plain "fun!" (And it was even "Assessment Week" believe it or not!?!) Let me share some of the highlights from my week with you.... #1) Artist of the Month If you have followed my blog for a while, you already know that every month my class participates in a special art enrichment program that I call "Artist of the Month." It's a program that I developed myself, with the help of one of my friends, to provide my students with the opportunity to learn about master artists. Ya' see... I LOVE art. Not that I'm an expert myself... I'm just a skilled "doodler" by nature...but I do truly have a deep appreciation for art! And... I wanted to share that with my kinders! So... with a "love" in my heart, and an idea in my head, I "recruited" one of my BFFs to help me make my dream come alive! Well... over the course of a year and a half, the program has continued to grow and improve... and my BFF... well that wonderful gal has literally taken on the entire project and made it IN.CRED.IBLE! So now, every month she magically just shows up in my room with an AWESOME multi-media presentation on a different "master" artist. She often dresses up in costumes (or recruits other school parents to "suit up") to spark the kiddos curiosity, and then presents a background on the artist, a show of his/her artwork, discussion of the artist's style/mediums, and then walks us through a step by step re-creation of one of the artist's most famous works. The kids LOVE it! It's amazing. They beg for "Artist of the Month" day! This month we learned about Edgar Degas. Check out a few pics from our "Artist of the Month" day.... Mrs. Koenig (best friend...turned instructional assistant...and art specialist) and our guest ballerina model. Isn't she beautiful? So blessed to have a talented ballerina at our school who is willing to come in and model for us! She taught us a few ballet positions too! The kids were amazed to see how she could stand "on point!" (Wish I could do that!) I was too mesmerized to remember to take a picture of that! First we learned to sketch in pencil. Then we outlined using Sharpies. (Do you know how many kiddos said, "My mom says I'm not allowed to use permanent markers!" LOL) Next we used chalk pastels to color onto scrap paper...then used tissues to transfer the chalk onto our drawings. Almost done! Shucks! I forgot to snap a pic of our completed projects in our classroom "Kinder-Gallery!" (I'll get one tomorrow and add it! Check back!) #2) Fun-Friday Theme: Walking with Jesus... Palm Sunday First of all, let me remind ya' all I work in a private Christian school. (BLESSED!) Ok... now another note for ya, in case you are not familiar with my weekly schedule, I have a incredibly rigorous (yet VERY hands-on and differentiated) Monday - Thursday schedule. (Do you know about our LEAP program? More on that in another post!) So I deem my Fridays "Fun-Fridays." Now don't let the name fool 'ya...they aren't just fun and games. Ok.... they are a LOT of fun and games....but all of the fun and games practice curricular skills and standards! Not to mention when you just call the day "Fun Friday" all the kids just inherently believe it is FUN....even if you are working them hard! Gotta love 5 and 6 year olds! Each week I select a special children's book or learning theme to focus on and we do ALL of our activities (cooking, science, social studies, math, computer lab...you name it!) around that theme. Well... I had today's activities all planned out. It was supposed to be "Community Helper Day".... but at about 7pm last night... I changed my mind! (Do you ever do that...or am I the only CrAzY one?!) I was thinking about how our spring break begins next Thursday and how the timing of that really limits what I am able to do in regard to "teaching" about Easter. So... I decided to totally re-plan the day to "teach" my lil' darlings more about Jesus' journey to the cross....specifically about Palm Sunday. I won't go into every detail, as I know that many of you teach in public schools and can not teach these things (I taught in a public school for the first 10 years of my career), but I will share some highlights.... Easter Art Project The kiddos painted the background with bright watercolors, then cut out the black silhouette hill and crosses. BEAUTIFUL! We watched this very age-appropriate Easter video on YouTube. (This video is very child friendly/developmentally appropriate in regard to Jesus' death on the cross.) This was our "highlight" of the day. We re-enacted Jesus' journey into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Here we are at the beginning of our journey into Jerusalem! When I look at this picture, the first thing I think is, "Nice donkey." LOL. The second thing I think is, "Seriously, Holly? Why did you think you could pull off bright blue Rockstar jeans? Hee!) The third thing I think is... Thanks Mrs. Kidd! You rock as Jesus! Nice beard! Thank you to my teaching-buddy, Mrs. Kidd, for playing the part of Jesus in our skit. (That woman will do anything if you give her a costume! LOL!) Here we are waving our "palms" as Jesus enters the city. Our 6th grade "buddies" helped us out by playing the parts of the Pharisees and other Jerusalem townspeople. "Jesus" is getting ready to turn over the tables in the temple where people are selling and cheating others out of money. It was quite dramatic! The kiddos will definitely remember THAT part of the lesson! Well... considering it was VERY last-minute... the skit went incredibly well. When the kids go to church on Sunday.... they will totally understand what "Palm Sunday" is all about! If you are interested in having the script for the skit, just comment below. I will send it to ya! What were your highlights from this week?
This Parable of the Sower Lesson includes cute teaching ideas, activities, and Bible crafts perfect for a kids Sunday school lesson.
There's one parable that trumps all parables. Dig deeper and study the parable of The Seed And The Sower with your kids and see what God will open up!
The 'Blow that Seed' Game is an easy game to play with a few or many different players. All you need to do is split your group into teams and have some seeds on hand, and away you go!
Let me show you how to plant seeds to grow the fruit of the spirit. The seed has to be buried in fertile soil at the appropriate time.
The Parables of Heaven are a series of short parables taught by Jesus to illustrate what heaven is like. These activities will help kids understand that better.
The Parable of the Sower is a story most Christians are familiar with. But how do we apply these parables to our lives now?
The Parable of the Sower I took a regular sized poster board and put in the good soil, weeds, the path and the rocks. As you can see, the good soil gets 10 points, the others subtract points, and if the beans fall off the poster board, there are no points added. Divide into teams or as individuals and play the game. Have the kids toss the beans onto the board and add up the points. Put the board up against the door or a wall. It's really hard to get the seed onto the board otherwise. This way it can bounce off the wall and fall onto the board.
VERSES: Luke 8:4-15 MEMORY VERSE: Luke 8:11 "Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God." BOOK TO REMEMBER: 1 Peter...
Free printable Bible lesson for children on the Parable of the Sower (sometimes called the Parable of the Soils). Includes games, worksheets, craft, coloring and more.
This Parable of the Mustard Seed lesson plan will help your students understand the meaning of the parable and reflect on how it applies to their lives today.
We are beginning our year of botany study with seeds. It seems a likely place to begin... at the beginning, but is the seed really the...
I get to teach the littles at our church about sowing seeds in good soil. This is the craft I have planned to go with the Bible story.
Here is a visual Bible craft to illustrate the story of when a farmer sows seeds. You will find the story in Luke 8:4-15. A farmer sows seeds into four d
This Parable of the Sower Lesson includes cute teaching ideas, activities, and Bible crafts perfect for a kids Sunday school lesson.
Our continuing Exploration through the Life of Jesus Has brought us to the time when Jesus is Teaching in Parables. The Parable...
VERSES: Luke 8:4-15 MEMORY VERSE: Luke 8:11 "Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God." BOOK TO REMEMBER: 1 Peter...
The faith of a mustard seed is a poweful parable in the Bible. Here is a full explanation of having faith the size of a mustard seed.
Use the Parable Mustard Seed Word Search as a fun activity for your next children's sermon.
The Mustard Seed of Faith Bracelet Craft takes some prep but your kids will absolutely love it as they take it home and remember to have faith in Jesus!
What is Faith? This is an awesome lesson and faith activity! Perfect for teaching the family about faith and how to help your faith grow. Serve some pudding "dirt cups" for dessert and PERFECTION.
Planting seeds is always an act of faith. Whether tomatoes and cucumbers or something less tangible, you can’t know what they’ll yield until you sow.
This is an idea I found on Pinterest, and of course thought it would be great for the Bible!
VERSES: Matthew 13:31-32; Mark 4:30-31; Luke 13:18-19 MEMORY VERSE: Matthew 13:31. "...The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed..." BOOK TO REMEMBER: 2 John. Write "2 John" on small slips of paper, so the students may memorize another New Testament book at home. PRAYER: Thank God for the good messages He inspired men to write in the Bible. SPECIAL SONG: Jesus Taught By Parable And Miracle (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #4 on this blog. Click on orange circle to hear tune.) VISUAL AID: Actual mustard seed or pictures of mustard seed and mustard seed trees. LESSON POINTS: As we have been studying about Jesus and the things that He said and did while He lived here on the earth, we are learning about some of the parables that He told the people. Parables were like a secret code. They were stories about earthly things, but also had a spiritual meaning. Jesus told the people a story about the things they knew like farming or cleaning or a treasure, and while it seemed to the people who were listening that He was simply telling a story, it meant much more. Later, Jesus would tell the spiritual part or what the parable really meant to the disciples. There were Jewish leaders who were always listening to Jesus, hoping to catch Him in something they could report His teaching as something bad, but Jesus only told good things. Jesus told the parable about the kingdom of heaven being like a grain of mustard seed. He said that a man took mustard seed and planted it in his field. The mustard seed is one of the smallest, tiniest of all seeds, but when it grows, it is huge! It grows and grows and grows until it grows into a tree where birds come and live in its branches. What was the secret meaning behind this parable? Jesus said the kingdom of heaven or the church was like this mustard seed. It would start out so very tiny, but it would grow and grow and grow until it filled the whole earth! "Older Student" Tips: Definition of 'parable' - a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. Mustard seeds are only about 1-2 mm in size. Mustard trees can grow up to 20 feet high. ACTIVITY: Parable of the Mustard Seed Materials needed: 9" x 12" blue construction paper, 4" x 9" brown construction paper, 4" x 12" green construction paper, scrap of white construction paper, stickers of birds or make your own with colorful paper that is found around the house , kitchen, or magazines (I cut circles out of a leftover bulletin board border.), glue, markers, crayons, scissors. Hand out blue paper. This is the background. Hand out brown paper. Cut a tree trunk out of the brown paper by cutting two curved lines. This is the trunk Glue trunk to bottom middle of blue paper. Hand out green paper. Fold green paper. Cut hearts out of green paper. These are the leaves. Glue leaves on top of the tree trunk. Glue small square of white paper on blue paper. Write "Size of mustard seed" on white paper. Draw tiny dot on white paper. This is the mustard seed. With red crayon, draw an arrow from white square to tree. Write "Size of Mustard Tree" in the middle of the tree trunk. Write "PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED" at the top of the blue paper. Write "Matthew 13:31, 32" at the bottom of the blue paper. Hand out "bird materials." Cut out two birds out of colorful magazines, empty boxes, discarded shiny paper, etc. Glue birds to the leaves in the tree.
VERSES: Luke 8:4-15 MEMORY VERSE: Luke 8:11 "Now the parable is this: The seed is the Word of God." BOOK TO REMEMBER: 1 Peter. Write "1 Peter" on small slips of paper for the students to take home and memorize. PRAYER: Pray that we treat and think about everyone just the same. SPECIAL SONG: Jesus Taught By Parable And Miracle (see March - Songs We Sing In Bible Class #4 on this blog. Click on orange circle to hear tune.) VISUAL AID: Large Activity (see below). LESSON POINTS: The people came out of their cities and gathered together to hear what Jesus had to say. Jesus told them a parable or a story with a spiritual lesson. Jesus told them that a sower or farmer went out into the field and sowed seed. They did not have tractors or trucks or 'planting' machines back then because they had not been invented yet. So a man would go out into his field with a sack over his shoulder and, putting a little of the seed in his hand, would spread the seed on the ground. This was called 'sowing' or planting. Let's try it ourselves right now. Let's pretend we have our sack on our shoulder and then we spread the seed over the ground with our hand out like this. (Demonstrate). But there was a small problem: Not all of the seed went where it was supposed to go which was in the good, rich soil. When the sower spread his seed out on the ground, some of the seed fell by the wayside where it was walked on and the birds came and ate it. Some of the seed fell on top of the rocks where there was just a little bit of dirt. The seed grew very quickly, but because there was not enough moisture or water, the seed withered and died. Some of the seed fell in the thorns and bushes. The thorns grew quickly and choked out the good seed. But there was good seed that fell on the good ground. It grew up and produced fruit one hundred times over what the sower had planted! This was the good ground, the place where the sower or farmer wanted his seed to grow. Jesus told the people, "He that has ears, let him hear." Who didn't have ears to hear Jesus' parable? Everyone had ears! Jesus meant that the people should listen to the story, but His disciples were confused. They asked Him, "What does this parable mean?" Jesus then explained patiently. He said that, when He spoke in parables, that His disciples would know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but other people would not understand what he was talking about except telling the people stories. Then, Jesus said that the 'seed' in the parable was the Word of God. The seed that fell by the wayside were the people who heard the Word, but then the devil came and took the Word out of their hearts, so that the people did not believe and were not saved. The seed that was on the rock were the ones that heard the Word of God, received the Word with joy and enthusiasm, but they did not have any roots and when temptations came, they fell away. The seed that fell among the thorns were those who heard the Word of God, and went out into the world, but were choked out by the cares, riches and pleasures of life, and did not produce any perfect fruit. But, Jesus said, that the seed that fell on the good ground or on the good and honest heart, heard the word, kept it, and, with patience, produced much fruit. Jesus taught the people by parables, by miracles, by command, and by many other ways. He even teaches us today every time we read the Bible! We need to read the Bible every day. We can read it in the morning, or when we come home from school, or before we go to bed or all of those times. It doesn't matter when we read. We only need to make sure that we are reading! "Older Student" Tips: Every time we read this parable, we need to remember that the 'seed' is the Word of God and the parable will make sense to us just like it did to Jesus' disciples. There will always be seed to sow, and there will always be soils that will receive the seed, but sometimes it just doesn't seem like there are very many sowers or farmers to sow the seed. If we tell others what we know about God and Bible, we will be planting the seed, too, then there will be more sowers planting the God's Word in the hearts of others. God will be pleased. ACTIVITY: The Parable Of The Sower Materials needed: small lunch sack, 2" x 6" light brown strip, 5" x 5" dark brown square, light brown scrap paper, 3" x 5" dark brown rectangle, scrap light green paper, 3" x 5 light brown construction paper, .5" x 4" dark brown scrap paper, 2" x 3" dark green paper, 2" x 2" dark green paper, Bible sticker, marker, scissors, tape, glue. Hand out small lunch sack. This is the sower's sack. Draw dark lines on small sack (see picture). Write "Parable of the Sower" and "Luke 8:9-15" on the bottom of the lunch sack. Cut on lines of sack. Open sack. Tape top to make handle. Hand out 2" x 6" light brown strip. This is the wayside. Write "Wayside" on the light brown strip. Draw little seeds on the wayside. Hand out 5" x 5" dark brown square. This is the bird. Draw and cut out a small circle (for the head), an oval (for the body), feathers, and legs) Assemble bird. Glue bird. Hand out 3" x 5" dark brown rectangle. This is the rock. Round edges of rectangle. Draw top of rock. Write "Rock" on the rock. Hand out light green scrap. Cut like grass. Glue pale grass on top of rock. This is the withered seed. Hand out 3" x 5" light brown paper. This is the 'thorns.' Fold paper in half. Fold in half again. Unfold once. Draw zig-zagged line on the top of the folded paper. Cut zig-zag out, but do not cut the folds on each end. This is what keeps the thorns together. Fold like a triangle and secure with tape. Write "Thorns" on the inside bottom of the thorns. Glue leftover light green triangles from the Rock's grass to the bottom of the thorns. This is the withered seed. Hand out .5" x 4" dark brown paper. This is the good soil. Cut a small wiggle at the top of the dark brown paper to resemble a furrow. Hand out 2" x 3" dark green paper. This is the good seed that produced much fruit. Fold dark green paper in half. Cut dark green paper like grass. Glue to top of good soil. Write "Good Soil" on dark brown paper. Hand out 2" x 2" dark green paper. Cut into a circle. This is the good seed. Apply Bible sticker to the bottom of the green seed. Write "The seed is the" on the green seed. Place all soils inside the sower's sack to take home.
The Parable of the Mustard Seed was one of the first Godly Play stories that I ever learned. When I was just starting out, I didn't have the money to purchase lots of ready-made materials (which I have since come to realize was a blessing in disguise!). I also was more than a little unsure about making my own things. So I used whatever I could find and for this story, it happened to be Playmobil figures that I raided from my own kids' toy box that you can see in this post. I still highly recommend using whatever you find when just starting out with Godly Play. But as you learn more and find out there are specific reasons for certain materials, it is a good idea to slowly replace them. For example, the parable genre always uses flat figures to give the stories a "storybook" feel to them. This is because, as opposed to the Sacred Story genre, the parables are not historical events, but rather stories that Jesus told. So when I was planning to tell this story at our children's service in the forest last Sunday, I began to rethink how I could make more pedagogically appropriate material that was aesthetically pleasing. I ordered a DIY kit last year from a certain GP supplier whose name I won't mention. (There are several, so don't try to guess!) It came with wood to saw - I had been hoping for preferated materials - and paper figures to glue onto the wood. I had not been impressed by the drawings and my friend, Helen, went on to say that they were just plain ugly. Helen had been drawing her own figures that I finally saw in Belarus and this inspired me to try my own. As I have mentioned before, I am not a woodworker. So I was then off to the craft store to look for a suitable alternative to using wood. There, I found some foamboard and decided to give it a try. At home, I then looked through children's Bibles for inspiration to draw Biblical figures. I drew simple ink drawings and then painted them with watercolors. Then, I took an exacto knife and carefully cut the foam to match the figures. Hours later, I finished and was pleased with the process. Making the materials helped me to consider and "know" the parable at a deeper level. Another change that I made was to buy new felt and make the mustard tree and underlay larger. Part of the power of this story lies in the tiny seed "growing" into an enormous felt tree right before the children's eyes. Again, because of my lack of insight into Godly Play in the beginning, I had made the materials too small. This time, I cut the yellow underlay to be 1 meter in diameter and the tree to fill the space. The children were truly amazed on Sunday, but I will write more about that later! Linked to and Keep Calm Crafting on at Frontier Dreams
"Plant Good Seed" is a 5.5 x 8.5 inch digital instant download ready for you to use as a template in your Bible/prayer, bullet, or other journal. This is a handmade, printable illustration template for Bible journaling, coloring, card making, crafting scrapbooking, and to use in homeschooling. Or maybe you need some time to relax ~ just print and color away. Print and trace and get creative. Format is high resolution 8.5 x 5.5 jpeg, 300 dip, perfect for most Bible sizes and Bible journaling. As a designer, I have always loved creating pen and ink illustrations especially when bringing words and art together that speak to my heart. I hope you are encouraged as you use this tool to create in your journal, and that it encourages you to grow in your faith. This is a digital jpeg file. No physical item ships. The actual downloaded file will not have watermarks on it. The digital file will be ready for download for you to use as soon as you order. This is for your personal use. You may use this for your own creative items. You may not modify and sell this art. You may not resell this art. If you are interested in this art for classroom, Sunday School, or large groups, please contact me for group order discount.
The different grounds visual aid included. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. In Greek, Parables mean to compare together. Today’s lesson is a parable about a Sower. Scripture: Mathew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-18 In today's lesson, Jesus was sitting by the Sea of Tiberius. There were a lot of people standing on the shore because they wanted to hear Jesus speak. Jesus went onto a boat and sat down to talk to them. Jesus taught many lessons using parables. A Sower, being a person that is planting seeds or a farmer, is sowing seeds. (Pretend to reach inside the bag and throw out seed.) In Jesus’ time, farmers didn’t have the farm machinery we have now, so the farmer would have a sack with seed. He would walk across the field throwing it to plant it. As the farmer threw the seeds some fell on the hard path of ground that had not been plowed or where people had walked and made the ground hard. Because the seeds couldn’t sink into the dug-up dirt, the birds came and ate the seeds. Some of the seeds fell on stony (rocky) ground. It had a thin layer of dirt on top but stones underneath and unable to get a good root. Those seeds grew fast, but when it became hot, they died right away. (Some of the seeds fell into thorns. The thorns grew up and choked the seeds. But the other seeds fell on good ground. It brought good fruit. Jesus doesn’t expect us to all bring in the same fruit, like bringing the same number of friends to worship service or teaching our friends about Jesus. He does expect us all to do the best we can! Everyone we meet is different, same as the different soils that the seeds were planted in, people we teach will react different. Think about your friends, or neighbors, or family that you might tell about Jesus. God's Word, the Bible is the seed Jesus is telling us about. I made this sower bag (my husband is wearing it so I could take the picture!). Super easy to sew. I made the strap 4' long and 3" wide. The fabric is a type of burlap, I just happened to have it from some other project. I cut the fabric 24" X 30", folded it half so it is long with right sides together. I sewed the 2 sides together, then folded and sewed the edge round the top to finish it off. I folded the strap edges toward the center, (fold over one end to cover salvage if necessary), then attached to the sides. As I told the Bible lesson, I pretended to "sow the seeds". simple, but great for this age group! While I talked about the last soil, the good soil, I handed out fruit snacks from the bag, of course, they loved that! Just a note, the strap is long, and I knotted it in the back for me. I wanted it changeable for others that might help me. At this point, I had the class come to the visual and discuss each soil: These are Ziploc plastic containers. I added dirt in each. The first was dirt with a lot of clay and made it hard on top. I added seeds on top and pretend birds. The second I added rocks and artificial flower stems w/o the flowers. The third one had straw-like vines and thorns. The last had the good ground they could run their fingers through and green artificial plants. I would probably add a healthy green plant, but just wasn't thinking clear today! (1) Some will be like the hard soil, will not listen and brush off what you tell them about Jesus. They are too worried about their life and activities that they are involved in. (2) Some, like the stony ground, will listen and be baptized, then fall away. (3) Others, like the thorns, won’t want anything to do with you or Jesus. (4) Then you will have those like the good soil. The seed will get planted and they will grow. They will listen, study the Bible with you and learn, be baptized and be faithful telling their friends about God. Jesus ended the parable by saying he who has ears, let him hear (we have 2 ears!). Jesus wants everyone to listen to His words. But not everyone will do His will. Click here to download the updated visuals. All are not shown. There are real photos included in the color file. Click here to download the pictures to color. (These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.) Click here to download poster. This is the take home project for the lesson today. Everything from Dollar tree, 3 pots for $1.00, the flowers, green potting foam inside the pot, (I added Aleene's Tacky Glue on foam before adding the moss), and the moss. Print the sign here and attach it to a large craft stick. I used this printable with the lapbook/workbook. The teacher's download has all the grounds in place like the photo. The students has the 4 grounds on the next page for them to cut and glue. Teacher or Student Bible Verse: Luke 8:11 This is the lapbook printable for this lesson. You can find all the download links for the Life of Jesus lapbooks and the lapbook worksheets here. Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
his Bible study is perfect for teens who want to learn more about the Parable of the Sower from Matthew 13. It includes study pages, games, and worksheets that are perfect for home or church.
Source : Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20 The kinds of Soil The Characteristic of each soil The kinds of heart The wayside on a path (The Hard soil) - The soil was packed hard by people walking - The seed could not go into the soil, so it lay on top of the part until birds came and devoured the seeds. - A heart that is not attuned to the things of God. - He hears the Word of God, but does not receive it into his heart. - His heart is not ready to receive what God says. - He goes on his way. - The birds represent God’s enemy, Satan who takes the truth of God’s word out of the heart. Shallow, thin layer of soil - The soil had stones underneath. - The seeds on the stony ground went into the ground and quickly sprouted in the shallow soil. - Because of the stones the roots were not able to go down deep and the new plant withers easily - The heart that gladly hears and receives God’s word. - Everything goes well and he is happy to be as a Christian. - When some one makes fun of him or when the going gets hard, he then acts as if he does not know God. - When he hits the problem, he stops growing and he spiritually withers. - He has shallow heart. He is saved, but he is not a fruitful Christian. Thorny soil - The seeds went into the soil - Soon, thorns chocked the young plants so that they could not grow to maturity nor bear fruit - The worldly heart hears and receives the Word but is so full of worries or worldly things. - There isn’t time for God. - The thorns are worries or desires for popularity or interest. - They never produce spiritual fruit. Good soil - The seeds quickly sprang up - The roots went down deep - They became strong and brought forth much fruit. - They produced thirty plants and some sixty plants and some even produced one hundred plants. - It represents the obedient heart. He understands and obeys the word of God. - He brings forth the fruits of good thoughts; good deeds and bring others to Jesus. - He is pleasing to God and a blessing to others. - He brings forth and abundant harvest of good works in his life.
Download this free Bible coloring page featuring Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden with God from What's in the Bible?.
Free printable Bible lesson for children on the Parable of the Sower (sometimes called the Parable of the Soils). Includes games, worksheets, craft, coloring and more.
Here is a Garden of Eden background to download in order to put on your very own Story of Creation Popsicle Stick Theater! http://youtu.be/xKPKRzFAXHU The...
6 Lessons to help you grow your Mustard Seed Faith. This Parable of the Mustard Seed Reflection turns tiny seeds of faith into Life Lessons.
God's Word offers many instruction on how to love your nieghbor. What better way to teach this to our little ones than with a fun craft!
This free printable preschool Bible lesson covers the life of the prophet Elijah. God providing food and water. Elijah and the Widow, The prophets of Baal and The quiet whisper.
The Parable of the Mustard Seed Mark 4:30-32. Free printable preschool Bible lesson. Includes games, activities, worksheets, coloring pages, Bible craft and more.
