he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
"I am the LORD,
and there is no other.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Isaiah 45:18 (New International Version)
18 For this is what the LORD says—
Colossians 1:15-20 (The Message)
15-18We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body.
18-20He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.
Colossians 1:15-20 CEV
15Christ is exactly like God, who cannot be seen. He is the first-born Son, superior to all creation.
16Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities. All things were created by God's Son, and everything was made for him.
17God's Son was before all else, and by him everything is held together.
18He is the head of his body, which is the church. He is the very beginning, the first to be raised from death, so that he would be above all others.
19God himself was pleased to live fully in his Son.
20And God was pleased for him to make peace by sacrificing his blood on the cross, so that all beings in heaven and on earth would be brought back to God.
16Everything was created by him, everything in heaven and on earth, everything seen and unseen, including all forces and powers, and all rulers and authorities. All things were created by God's Son, and everything was made for him.
17God's Son was before all else, and by him everything is held together.
18He is the head of his body, which is the church. He is the very beginning, the first to be raised from death, so that he would be above all others.
19God himself was pleased to live fully in his Son.
20And God was pleased for him to make peace by sacrificing his blood on the cross, so that all beings in heaven and on earth would be brought back to God.
Jeremiah 10:12-13 (Contemporary English Version)
12With your wisdom and power you created the earth and spread out the heavens.
13The waters in the heavens roar at your command. You make clouds appear-- you send the winds from your storehouse and make lightning flash in the rain.
Skit Ideas
From: http://www.childrensministry.net/wsmnewsletter/01Oct19/article127.html
It seemed impractical -- what our kindergarten choir director was
telling us at our fall planning meeting. "I want to let the kids try out some acting," she said. I gave no indication but silently doubted we could do acting with young children.
It was then that she looked straight at me and said, "Since you did
some acting this summer, I'd like you to head this up."
After I picked myself up from the floor, my surprise turned to
determination. I took on the challenge and wrote a skit about the story of creation. We performed it one time in class, and judging from the kids' attentiveness, they enjoyed it a great deal. Now I was convinced that our director was onto something good.
The recipe below summarizes what I learned about writing skits for
young kids.
Ingredients
A Story
Easy Words
Questions
Repetition
Motions
Pretending
Parades
Music
Props
Exaggeration
1. Lightly press all ingredients together in interesting ways.
2. Cook it firmly in your mind by practicing it several times.
3. Serve it with flair.
Feeds: An entire class
We will look at each of the recipe's parts individually. To help with
the discussion, the text of the creation skit we used appears at the end of the article. Some of the sentences in the skit are numbered, and I refer to them in the discussion by placing their numbers in parentheses.
You'll notice that most of the speaking is done by the teacher as a
narrator (1). Since the maturity of kids around five varies so much, having your students do much speaking is not practical. So consider how the following ingredients can be used in a narration.
A Story
The main ingredient for a skit is its story. The Bible is an obvious
source for stories to act out. However, you may also want to make up a story that places a Biblical concept in a modern setting.
Easy Words
Choose words from your students' every-day vocabulary. Land is an
important word in the creation story, but how many five-year-olds use it? Dirt is a good substitute. Its meaning differs somewhat from that of land, but kids know the word well. (10)
Questions
What is the biggest thing you have ever seen? This question gave me a
lead-in to reinforce the concept of how big the earth really is. (5) Some concepts can be hard to grasp, but a well-crafted question can use children's experiences to expand their understanding. Also, their answers to the question provide an opportunity for them to speak in the skit.
Repetition
Repetition, strategically placed, adds a playful bit of spice. For
kindergarteners, use repetition of concepts instead of repetition of words.
For example, big, huge and gigantic repeat the concept of size. (6, 7, 8) Green and red and orange and yellow repeat color. (12)
Another way to include repetition is to have the kids make a sound
every time you speak a certain phrase. Then, include that phrase several times in your skit.
Motions
A good kindergarten skit will have plenty of action, and motions are
one way to add extra action. Hands moving slowly up and down can represent water, and outstretched arms can show a large size. (4, 9) Use your imagination; the possibilities are endless.
Pretending
For more action have your students pretend to be an animal or maybe
their favorite Bible character. (16) This is a chance for your kids to add their creativity to the skit. Keep an eye on things, though, because this activity can get out of control.
Parades
An easy action enhancer is a parade. At some point in the story have
some of the kids take a short walk around the room so everyone can see who they are. (11, 13, 14, 15)
Music
What I mean here is not necessarily a song. You can use random notes
or a short, simple melody to enhance the story. Experiment with different sounds on an instrument. In our skit a rumble of low-pitched piano notes portrayed the formation of the earth; the creation of the sun was flutters of high-pitched notes. (2, 14)
Props
Having objects from your story to hold and use add realism, even if the
props do not actually look much like the objects they represent. And for a craft, your kids can make their own props. For our story some of the kids painted a paper mache earth, and everyone constructed a mask of either a plant, an animal, or a sun. (3, 11, 13, 14, 15)
Exaggeration
Exaggeration of your voice and facial expressions gives your speaking a
boost. Speak just above a whisper for suspense. Raise your eyebrows for
emphasis. Form an O with your mouth during pauses to show surprise. What else can you think of?
1. Lightly press all ingredients together ....
Write out your story. Liberally sprinkle in most or all of the
ingredients. In what you write include directions for movement and anything else you want to be sure to remember. (1, 2, 3, ...)
2. Cook it firmly ....
You will likely read your skit, instead of recite it from memory, when
you do it with your kids. Even so, you need to practice it at home several times, reworking awkward parts, to ensure a smooth delivery. Try to practice it just like you will do it with the kids. Enlist help from anyone around your house whose arm can be twisted into volunteering.
3. Serve ....
One technique to make your presentation shine is to do some practice by
greatly exaggerating your speech and actions. Try this alone so you can really overdo it. After you've practiced this way a few times, go through the skit with less emotion but the same energy level. Your presentation should now have more sparkle.
Your challenge is to keep that sparkle. When you do the skit with your
class, the presence of others -- parents, helpers, and even the kids – may tarnish the surface because you are self-conscious. Keeping that surface shiny is critical; a successful "performance" relies on you to ham it up a bit. A sparkling presentation will rescue a weak story, but a dry delivery will ruin even the best skit.
Serve is the operative word here. Put everyone else out of your mind.
Pray. Then, take a deep breath and focus on serving your students.
Variations
Even though our class used the creation skit only one time, the recipe
can be used for skits that you practice and perform for others. With the extra preparation time, you can give the kids costumes and short speaking parts.
However, don't get carried away. Keep it simple. If these two variations use up too much practice time, they will spoil instead of enhance the performance.
One Last Word
Keep your expectations modest. Any new skill takes practice to master
it; writing and performing skits is no exception. Setting and achieving modest goals will build your confidence and move you toward mastery.
Similarly, avoid writing too many skits in one year. Significant
effort goes into creating a skit. Two to four skits in one year is a
reasonable goal, and if you keep copies of every skit, in 2 or 3 years you'll have several from which to choose.
So whip up your own delectable, special edition skit. The preparation
may seem like work reserved for word chefs, but take the dare and you can create a flavorful treat. You will serve your kids a tasty snack, one that teaches a lesson and gives a giggle.
Creation of the Earth (example)
{1 All dialogue in this skit is read by the teacher. Prior to performing the skit have each child make a mask representing either a flower, a tree, an animal or the sun. Also, make a crepe paper model of the earth and cut out continents from brown construction paper.}
Once -- long, long ago, nothing was here. You weren't here, I wasn't
here, your mom and dad weren't here. Your brothers and sisters and friends weren't here. There were no dogs and cats. There were no trees. There were no flowers. Everything was gone.
But there was Someone here. Who do you think was here? {Allow
children to answer.}
God was here. And he decided to make the earth.
{2 Interlude}
It looked kind of like this earth. {3 Refer to model.} But it was
big. {4 Put hands out to show big.} 5 What is the biggest thing you have ever seen? {Allow children to answer.} It was bigger than all of those things. 6 It wasn't just big. 7 It was huge. 8 It was gigantic.
What do you think the earth was made of? {Allow children to answer.}
It was made of water. {9 Make hand motions like waves and play interlude.}
Soon God changed the earth. 10 He made dirt on the earth. {Have
children put continents on model. Point to continents with next sentence} He put some dirt here and some dirt there and some dirt other places -- they were places where people could live. But there were no people yet. There were only dirt in some places and water in other places.
Then, God made some growing things. He made trees that grow tall and
strong. {11 Parade the trees and play interlude.} 12 And he made flowers with colors of green and red and orange and yellow and blue and all kinds of colors. {13 Parade flowers and play interlude.}
Next, God made the stars and the moon and the sun. The stars and the
moon gave a little bit of light at night. And the sun gave lots and lots of light during the day. {14 Parade sun and play interlude.}
Then, it was time to make the animals. He made fish to swim in the
water. {Hand motions.} And he made birds to fly in the air. {Arm motions.}
And he made dogs and cats and horses and giraffes and elephants. {15 Parade animals.} 16 Pretend that you are an animal. What kind of animal do you want to be? {Allow all children to act like an animal.}
Now the earth was full of all kinds of things that live and grow. God
made a special place, a wonderful place for me and for you. Let's all clap.
{Everyone clap and cheer.}
It seemed impractical -- what our kindergarten choir director was
telling us at our fall planning meeting. "I want to let the kids try out some acting," she said. I gave no indication but silently doubted we could do acting with young children.
It was then that she looked straight at me and said, "Since you did
some acting this summer, I'd like you to head this up."
After I picked myself up from the floor, my surprise turned to
determination. I took on the challenge and wrote a skit about the story of creation. We performed it one time in class, and judging from the kids' attentiveness, they enjoyed it a great deal. Now I was convinced that our director was onto something good.
The recipe below summarizes what I learned about writing skits for
young kids.
Ingredients
A Story
Easy Words
Questions
Repetition
Motions
Pretending
Parades
Music
Props
Exaggeration
1. Lightly press all ingredients together in interesting ways.
2. Cook it firmly in your mind by practicing it several times.
3. Serve it with flair.
Feeds: An entire class
We will look at each of the recipe's parts individually. To help with
the discussion, the text of the creation skit we used appears at the end of the article. Some of the sentences in the skit are numbered, and I refer to them in the discussion by placing their numbers in parentheses.
You'll notice that most of the speaking is done by the teacher as a
narrator (1). Since the maturity of kids around five varies so much, having your students do much speaking is not practical. So consider how the following ingredients can be used in a narration.
A Story
The main ingredient for a skit is its story. The Bible is an obvious
source for stories to act out. However, you may also want to make up a story that places a Biblical concept in a modern setting.
Easy Words
Choose words from your students' every-day vocabulary. Land is an
important word in the creation story, but how many five-year-olds use it? Dirt is a good substitute. Its meaning differs somewhat from that of land, but kids know the word well. (10)
Questions
What is the biggest thing you have ever seen? This question gave me a
lead-in to reinforce the concept of how big the earth really is. (5) Some concepts can be hard to grasp, but a well-crafted question can use children's experiences to expand their understanding. Also, their answers to the question provide an opportunity for them to speak in the skit.
Repetition
Repetition, strategically placed, adds a playful bit of spice. For
kindergarteners, use repetition of concepts instead of repetition of words.
For example, big, huge and gigantic repeat the concept of size. (6, 7, 8) Green and red and orange and yellow repeat color. (12)
Another way to include repetition is to have the kids make a sound
every time you speak a certain phrase. Then, include that phrase several times in your skit.
Motions
A good kindergarten skit will have plenty of action, and motions are
one way to add extra action. Hands moving slowly up and down can represent water, and outstretched arms can show a large size. (4, 9) Use your imagination; the possibilities are endless.
Pretending
For more action have your students pretend to be an animal or maybe
their favorite Bible character. (16) This is a chance for your kids to add their creativity to the skit. Keep an eye on things, though, because this activity can get out of control.
Parades
An easy action enhancer is a parade. At some point in the story have
some of the kids take a short walk around the room so everyone can see who they are. (11, 13, 14, 15)
Music
What I mean here is not necessarily a song. You can use random notes
or a short, simple melody to enhance the story. Experiment with different sounds on an instrument. In our skit a rumble of low-pitched piano notes portrayed the formation of the earth; the creation of the sun was flutters of high-pitched notes. (2, 14)
Props
Having objects from your story to hold and use add realism, even if the
props do not actually look much like the objects they represent. And for a craft, your kids can make their own props. For our story some of the kids painted a paper mache earth, and everyone constructed a mask of either a plant, an animal, or a sun. (3, 11, 13, 14, 15)
Exaggeration
Exaggeration of your voice and facial expressions gives your speaking a
boost. Speak just above a whisper for suspense. Raise your eyebrows for
emphasis. Form an O with your mouth during pauses to show surprise. What else can you think of?
1. Lightly press all ingredients together ....
Write out your story. Liberally sprinkle in most or all of the
ingredients. In what you write include directions for movement and anything else you want to be sure to remember. (1, 2, 3, ...)
2. Cook it firmly ....
You will likely read your skit, instead of recite it from memory, when
you do it with your kids. Even so, you need to practice it at home several times, reworking awkward parts, to ensure a smooth delivery. Try to practice it just like you will do it with the kids. Enlist help from anyone around your house whose arm can be twisted into volunteering.
3. Serve ....
One technique to make your presentation shine is to do some practice by
greatly exaggerating your speech and actions. Try this alone so you can really overdo it. After you've practiced this way a few times, go through the skit with less emotion but the same energy level. Your presentation should now have more sparkle.
Your challenge is to keep that sparkle. When you do the skit with your
class, the presence of others -- parents, helpers, and even the kids – may tarnish the surface because you are self-conscious. Keeping that surface shiny is critical; a successful "performance" relies on you to ham it up a bit. A sparkling presentation will rescue a weak story, but a dry delivery will ruin even the best skit.
Serve is the operative word here. Put everyone else out of your mind.
Pray. Then, take a deep breath and focus on serving your students.
Variations
Even though our class used the creation skit only one time, the recipe
can be used for skits that you practice and perform for others. With the extra preparation time, you can give the kids costumes and short speaking parts.
However, don't get carried away. Keep it simple. If these two variations use up too much practice time, they will spoil instead of enhance the performance.
One Last Word
Keep your expectations modest. Any new skill takes practice to master
it; writing and performing skits is no exception. Setting and achieving modest goals will build your confidence and move you toward mastery.
Similarly, avoid writing too many skits in one year. Significant
effort goes into creating a skit. Two to four skits in one year is a
reasonable goal, and if you keep copies of every skit, in 2 or 3 years you'll have several from which to choose.
So whip up your own delectable, special edition skit. The preparation
may seem like work reserved for word chefs, but take the dare and you can create a flavorful treat. You will serve your kids a tasty snack, one that teaches a lesson and gives a giggle.
Creation of the Earth (example)
{1 All dialogue in this skit is read by the teacher. Prior to performing the skit have each child make a mask representing either a flower, a tree, an animal or the sun. Also, make a crepe paper model of the earth and cut out continents from brown construction paper.}
Once -- long, long ago, nothing was here. You weren't here, I wasn't
here, your mom and dad weren't here. Your brothers and sisters and friends weren't here. There were no dogs and cats. There were no trees. There were no flowers. Everything was gone.
But there was Someone here. Who do you think was here? {Allow
children to answer.}
God was here. And he decided to make the earth.
{2 Interlude}
It looked kind of like this earth. {3 Refer to model.} But it was
big. {4 Put hands out to show big.} 5 What is the biggest thing you have ever seen? {Allow children to answer.} It was bigger than all of those things. 6 It wasn't just big. 7 It was huge. 8 It was gigantic.
What do you think the earth was made of? {Allow children to answer.}
It was made of water. {9 Make hand motions like waves and play interlude.}
Soon God changed the earth. 10 He made dirt on the earth. {Have
children put continents on model. Point to continents with next sentence} He put some dirt here and some dirt there and some dirt other places -- they were places where people could live. But there were no people yet. There were only dirt in some places and water in other places.
Then, God made some growing things. He made trees that grow tall and
strong. {11 Parade the trees and play interlude.} 12 And he made flowers with colors of green and red and orange and yellow and blue and all kinds of colors. {13 Parade flowers and play interlude.}
Next, God made the stars and the moon and the sun. The stars and the
moon gave a little bit of light at night. And the sun gave lots and lots of light during the day. {14 Parade sun and play interlude.}
Then, it was time to make the animals. He made fish to swim in the
water. {Hand motions.} And he made birds to fly in the air. {Arm motions.}
And he made dogs and cats and horses and giraffes and elephants. {15 Parade animals.} 16 Pretend that you are an animal. What kind of animal do you want to be? {Allow all children to act like an animal.}
Now the earth was full of all kinds of things that live and grow. God
made a special place, a wonderful place for me and for you. Let's all clap.
{Everyone clap and cheer.}
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Washing Hands
Wash, wash, wash your hands
Wash them every day
Use the water,
use the soap
And wash the germs away
(to the tune of row, row, row your boat)
Wash them every day
Use the water,
use the soap
And wash the germs away
(to the tune of row, row, row your boat)
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