The Psalms

Hi Godly Play Teachers!

Welcome to The Psalms, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, Nov 1, based on the book of Psalms. I've emailed you the story script, which includes the first part of the David story from last week, found in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall, p.81. If you are not a Sunday school teacher at FBC Greenville and would like a copy of the Psalms story script, just email me and I'd be happy to send it to you.

In the script, we use the first part of the David story and then explore the idea that the Psalms writers went to God with all kinds of different emotions. We discuss how we can pray to God when we feel afraid, happy, angry, peaceful, sad or worried, and joyful, or when we feel sorry for what we've done. With each different emotion, we share a Psalm (or 2 or 3) that the Psalm writers experienced and shared with God.

To share the Psalms, we're going to use a beautiful book, Psalms for Young Children, written by Marie-Helene Delval and illustrated by Arno. In this book, Ms. Delval has adapted the psalms for children in a way that is so easy to read and to relate to. I've purchased one for each class (except for 3rd grade, which already had a copy.) You'll find it in your story basket, which I left near your Bible bookcase. I put it there to remind you (and me) that you'll need the Bible Bookcase as you tell the story. (You'll take the Psalms book out and place it on the underlay in part of the story.
By the way, the Psalms in this book are shared in order (by number.) They're so short that I think you'll find it hard to stop reading them!

To help the children follow along with the different emotions we'll be discussing I've made emotion cards for each class.

Older children might enjoy comparing the Psalms as written in the Bible with Marie Helene Delval's adaptations. They might like making their own adaptations as well. You might want to choose one Psalm to focus on, like #23 or 139.

The wondering questions are included in the story script.

Ideas for Your Give a Gift to God time:

1. Writing our own Psalms--Have children pick an emotion that they sometimes feel and write God a prayer or song that they might pray or sing while feeling that way.

2. Write a psalm showing how you feel today. Draw a picture to go with it.
Or read a psalm to a friend that shows how you feel.

3. Illustrate a Psalm. Choose a psalm and illustrate it, like Arno did in Psalms for Young Children. (Any Psalm would be good. If you want, you could choose the psalm for the children, like #23 or 139.)

4. Write a psalm together as a class, and then let the children illustrate it individually or together.
5. Work out a tune that fits a psalm that you like. Or write your own to sing.
6. Make instruments to play while singing a psalm. You can find directions to make a simple tambourine here, and a lyre here.

I hope you enjoy the lesson! :)
Love, Becky

The Story of David

Hi Godly Play Teachers!
Welcome to the story of King David, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, October 25, based on 1 Samuel 16-31, 2 Samuel and 1Kings 1-2. You can find the script for the story in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall book, p.78-85.

This week's story is another one (like Ruth and Samuel) that fits nicely after the story of the ark and the tent. And it follows right into the next story on our schedule: the Psalms, (to be followed by the Ark and the Temple.)

Some of the story's themes which you might want to help the children think about:
1. We can come to God with all sorts of feelings (as in the Psalms---we'll explore this one more next week)
2.God can help us be brave enough to do what is right and needed.
3. Friendship is a gift from God.
4. God uses people, even with their faults.
5. God forgives our mistakes when we ask for forgiveness.

Ideas for the Make a Gift for God Time:

Children choose how to respond to the story and get started!

Some children drew symbols of David's life on stones. You can see another made an ark of the covenant.

Stones with symbols of David's life

1. Children could reproduce the elements of the
story in some way.
* Make a harp
*Make a crown for King David
*Make an ark of the covenant
*Make a parable box for the parable that Nathan told David (there is plenty of felt in the resource room)
*Make a drawing of Jerusalem- or a watercolor.

2. Children could paint symbols of David's life (shepherd's crook, bottle of incense, two friends, crown, ark, etc) on small stones. There are stones in the resource room.

3. Children can celebrate David's childhood by making David with the sheep. Go to the site here, for plenty of options for crafting sheep. (Scroll down to "sheep")

4. Children could sculpt a David and Goliath out of play clay.

5. The class could work on a mural of David's life with one long piece of butcher paper- assigning parts of his life to individual children to illustrate.

6.  Children could focus on the friendship between Jonathan and David and explore what kind of friendship God celebrates.

I hope these ideas help!
Love, Becky

The Story of Samuel

Hi Godly Play Teachers!
Welcome to the story of Samuel, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, October 18, based on 1 Samuel 1-28:3. You can find the script for the story in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall book, p.72-77.

This week's story is another one (like Ruth) that fits nicely after the story of the ark and the tent. And it follows right into the next story on our schedule: the story of David.

The story of Samuel is also very interesting to children for a couple reasons: they relate to the idea of a child growing physically and in relationship with God and they think about how God communicates- and probably wish that God would call their names in an audible voice.
Themes you might want to help the children think about:
1.God answers prayer
2. You can serve God even as a child.
3.God plans to take care of you (if you want a memory verse, you could use Jeremiah 29:11)
4.God asks us to stand up for what is right, as Samuel did.
5.Obedience (Samuel obeyed God even though he was not happy about what the
people wanted-a king)

Ideas for the Make a Gift for God time:
Remember that one of the strongest parts of Godly Play is the child's ability to choose how he responds to the story. We want to give the child as many chances to have say so in what she does as possible.


1. Reproduce the story in some way- make pieces, such as the ark, a Baby Samuel, robes of different sizes, (showing how Samuel grew during his service in the temple), a sleeping mat, a crown









2. Children could make a life size drawing of themselves and caption it: I can serve God right now! This could be done by having another child trace around their body on butcher paper. They could draw clothes on their body or use fabric from the resource room. Maybe they could hold something in the drawing that gives a hint to how they can serve God right now.

 3. A collage or drawing of how children can serve God right now. Children could make these individually and then put them together as a class project. (Ways include how they treat others, through prayer, in worship at church, helping others...)
4. Children could think about how they might like to serve God in the future. How does a doctor or teacher or engineer or scientist serve God? They could explore this in a drawing or make a model with play clay.
5. Children could act out the story of Samuel hearing God's call and going to Eli--and the rest of the story as well. (Be sure to video!)
6. Hannah makes Samuel a new robe each year and brings it to him in the temple. Children could make a "robe" from a paper grocery bag as we often do with Joseph, as shown here. (Scroll down and see the girl modeling hers!)

The Story of Ruth

Hi Godly Play Teachers!
Welcome to the story of Ruth, the Godly Play story scheduled for this Sunday, October 11, based on the book of Ruth. You can find the script for the story in the pink Enrichment Presentations for Fall book, p.66-71.

As the book describes, this story doesn't "unroll" like many other stories, from left to right in chronological order. Instead it moves from the Promised Land (specifically Bethlehem) to Moab and back to Bethlehem. The whole felt block is shown throughout the story.

The story of Ruth follows the story of the Tabernacle, in which great emphasis was put on being one of the chosen people of God. It's wonderful that we now can share the story of Ruth, not one of the chosen People of God, but a Moabite, yet she was clearly valued and loved by God. She married one of God's People, Boaz, and eventually became the great grandmother of King David (and an ancestor of Jesus!) The story gives us a wonderful opportunity to remind children that God values "other-ness," that all are included in and welcomed into God's love and care.

Idea sparkers for the Give a Gift to God time:
There are several ways children and teachers can go with this.
1. Focus on the story itself.
a) Let the children act out the story.
b) Draw the scenes of the story or make a three dimensional representation of the story.

c) Help the children learn the meaning of "gleaning" by giving them a chance to do a modified form of it in this "gleaning game" (from the site here.)

 "Fill 2 roasting pans or cookie sheets with 2 lbs. of cornmeal and a cup of rice and place it in the center of the blanket. Set the paper cup to the side. Explain to the children that they will be gleaning grain just as Ruth did for Naomi. Divide the kids into two groups. Have each group stand around their pan. Ask them to work together to fill the cups with rice, one grain at a time. Tell the children not to put any of the rice into their mouths since it is uncooked. For a fun challenge, set a timer for three minutes. Ask the children to see if they can fill the "bushel" before the timer goes off. But remind them to be careful - if someone knocks over the cup they'll have to start all over again."

d) Let the children explore wheat. Give each child a single spear (I bought some from Hobby Lobby in the dried flower section) and let them try to separate the grains. Let me know by Wednesday if you'd like me to buy some wheat for your class.
e) Weave wheat into an ornament/hanging as described here.

2. Focus on friendship between Ruth and Naomi.
You can concentrate on the theme that friendship and the loyalty that goes with it is a gift from God. a) Children might make friendship bracelets, like those shown here. Or for younger children, make simple strings of beads made into bracelets. We have tons of material for these in the art storage room!  Or make a necklace for a friend, as shown here.
b) Children could make a mural together of what it means to be a friend- what friends do for each other. Each child could work individually or in pairs- and put the works together as a mural or for a bulletin board in your classroom.

c) Make a Friendship wreath for your classroom, as shown here.
d) Examine the song, "Blessed Be the Tie That Binds" and let the children illustrate it.

3. Focus on God welcoming all people.
a) How are we welcoming to others who might be different? Children could make a collage for  "God Loves Everyone"
b) Make a God's Love Note for a friend- like the ones shown here.

I hope these ideas help, y'all!
Love, Becky