Many of you, like me, will be missing very much the usual provision for children that we parents normally enjoy. Hopefully it won’t be too long until children’s church, and the other activities we all love can open up again. In the meantime, how about an afternoon of stories and craft with the kids in your home? Here is a complete session on Jonah and the Whale for you to enjoy together! The Story Pictured is the book Jonah and the Big Fish by Katherine Sully. I love the illustrations and it is told in a nice simple way. Alternatively you can use any version of the story you have from a children's bible or even perhaps watch this brilliant video by Saddleback kids. You might consider pulling out a few props as you tell the story. A piece of blue fabric could be the sea, you could introduce some plastic fish or other seas creatures and some instruments to play when the stormy weather comes. Ideas for Music When I tell this story I like to relive my school days and play Jonah-Man Jazz by Michael Hurd as our background music while we craft! During the story time you could try singing this song to the tune of Frere Jacque, check out our Instagram stories to hear this! ‘I hear Thunder, I hear Thunder, How about you? How about you? Pitter-patter rain drops, pitter-patter raindrops. I’m wet through, so are you!’ When Jonah was tossed overboard and the storm stilled I played and sang ‘I see blue skies, I see blue skies, Way up high, way up high. Hurry up the sunshine, hurry up the sunshine. I’ll soon dry, I’ll soon dry!’ Crafts There is so much you could do to explore the story of Jonah. The underwater theme is a gem in itself. I decided on these… Pom Pom Whale I made this little fellow using a small pom pom maker. I then cut our his fins and tail from blue felt and attached them and the googly eyes with fabric glue. This has gone down a storm with all the kids I’ve shared this with, though we all remarked that he seems far too cute to swallow up a person! Whale Cookies Remaining on the whale theme try whisked up some whale or simple sea themed biscuits and ice them together! Jonah Dioramas My little prototype is nothing on what some of the kids came up when they try this craft! This is such a lovely craft that really helps children to explore the story for themselves and think about the most important parts for them. To make it I cut a box in half, ‘wallpapered’ it with some blue paper and then used sandpaper for the seashore. Other than that, let your imagination run wild with shells, scraps of paper and glitter card! Love Pictures It’s lovely and important I think for children to explore the story from their own perspective rather than bumping quickly into the thing we want them to learn. I also like to share one thing that really struck me from the story as we discuss it together. For me one of the main themes of the story of Jonah is God’s love for everyone. Jonah is asked to reach out to people different from him and to understand that God loves them as much as he does Jonah. That’s a pretty good lesson for all of us! For this craft I encouraged your children to create whatever they wanted in paints and paper to express the story. This was my contribution! Food How about finishing off with a special Jonah themed dinner? We had a pitta stuffed with fish fingers to represent Jonah in the mouth of the whale with shredded lettuce for seaweed. For pudding we had crumbled biscuits (sand) topped with blue/green jelly (the sea). You could also dip your whale cookies in the sea! A perfect tea! So there’s a whole raft of ideas for an action packed Jonah themed afternoon! Enjoy! |
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