January 27, 2015 -- Issue #4

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Valentines Day Activity: Gospel Hearts Song

Hello All,

Several years ago, I found a cute Valentine's Day activity for preschoolers on this site. It used different colored hearts cut from construction paper to represent the facets of Jesus. Red represented His blood, white represented His purity, etc. There was a song with it to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." The computer I saved the information on no longer works, and my "co-teacher" at the time is no longer with us. Does anyone remember this activity that could give me the lyrics to the song and all the colors of the hearts? I've looked through the "archives" without success.

At the time I used the activity, I was working with six and seven year olds. They were able to read and could learn the song quickly. They sang the song and held up the hearts during the morning worship service. (We talked about what each line of the song and each heart represented with questions and answers).

I now teach three and four year olds. I don't think they can learn the song in one morning. I think I may begin working with them this Sunday and see if they can learn the song in time for February 15th when we will have our church Valentine Luncheon.

Prayers, and many thanks!
Ann Marie Lemacks

from SSTN: Sometimes less is more when using search terms to find ideas--it can be tricky! I located this activity by using a single keyword, "twinkle." However, if you can remember the actual name of the activity, in this case Gospel Heart Song, it comes up first in the search results. Here's the direct link: http://sundayschoolnetwork.com/sermon_heartsong.html. By the way, this is one of dozens of ideas submitted over the years by one of our faithful teacher-subscribers, Emmalea Butler. Way to go Emmalea! Your children's ministry ideas are still being used by other teachers across the globe! Thank you for sharing your great ideas!

Your webservant,
Sarah Keith <><

Be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul. (Joshua 22:5)

Teach children about Joshua;
check out Super Heroes of the Bible. 

 

 

Choose To Serve God

Begin class time by asking for a few volunteers to come forward. Hide a piece of candy in one hand. Have one of the volunteers attempt to choose which hand has the treat. Make a big display of the choice and if the child chose well or not. If he or she misses, go to the next volunteer, but hide your hands and switch or pretend to switch hands first. Continue allowing kids to choose for a few more tries. 

Everyday we are faced with many choices. (Have the children think about and discuss the choices they made throughout their day. You might prompt them by asking: What did you choose to eat? To wear? Did you choose to obey your teachers and parents today or not? Did you choose to be kind or not to someone?) Many of our choices have little to no eternal consequences. (Discuss the meaning of consequences. Consequence means the outcome, effect or result of our actions on us or towards others.)

What we chose to eat or wear today will have no consequence for eternity, but there are choices that we make everyday that do matter for eternity.

In fact, many times we might not even be aware of how important some of our choices can be. Our choices reveal the kind of person we are. For example, people who always want the biggest slice of pizza. What might that say about them? (Maybe they’re greedy – or just hungry all the time.)

What if people always want to be first in line? What might that say about them? (Possibly they’re not considerate of others.) What does it say about people who want to share what they have? (They’re generous, kind.) You see, the choices we make are important! They reveal what kind of people we are. They show whom we follow: God or ourselves.

 

Learn more about choosing to serve God.

 

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