No doubt, kindness, sharing and loving others are values that you are trying to instill in your child's character. As you are reading the story of the Good Samaritan, and doing these activities with your child this week, emphasize that this is the way Jesus taught us to treat others. We are following Jesus when we share His love with others.
Read the story of the Good Samaritan in your child's Bible together.
Children learn and process their learning through play. Use stuffed animals or dolls to act out the story of the Good Samaritan. Allow your child to use band-aids or gauze, blankets, etc. to be the Good Samaritan and care for the "injured traveler."
Bake cookies together and bring them to a neighbor, or someone you know who may be lonely and/or in need of encouragement.
"L" is for Love. Be sure your child knows the letter "L." Then throughout the week make a game out of finding the letter "L" in books you read, on cereal boxes, signs, license plates, etc.
Loving others by showing kindness, sharing, and being helpful are lessons that speak to preschoolers right where they live! Bible Truth: Jesus teaches me to love others. Bible Story: The parable of the Good Samaritan. Bible Study: Luke 10:25-37; 1 John 4:7-8
teach
flannel graph-ooh!
I like to use our flannel graph set to tell this story. We purchased the small deluxe Bible set years ago from Little Folk Visuals.
It was a costly investment, but it has lasted for over fifteen years,
and is used across all our children's ministry classes. Little Folk
Visuals also has smaller Bible sets that provide the characters for a
limited number of stories as another option.
For a more economical
option, I suggest purchasing a child's Bible with nice, simple
pictures. Cut out the characters and any other accessories you like,
and attach felt to the back of the cutouts. Cover a board with felt as
your story board, and now you have a nice flannel graph set for a
fraction of the cost!
A great tip is to tuck the flannel graph
pieces into your Bible, and pull them out of your Bible to place onto
the board. To get the children more involved with the story, you could give individual children a felt character or object to hold. Then at each appropriate time in the story, invite the children to place them on the storyboard.
read
God's special rule
This Happy Day Book teaches kids very practical ways to show love to others. You will likely find this book in your local Christian bookstore. You can also order it here from Christian Book Distributors, or here from Amazon. These are relatively inexpensive booklets, with attractive illustrations, to supplement your lessons. I would also suggest checking your own book shelf or your local library for any books related to sharing, friendship, or showing kindness. Please use discernment, but if any one of these is the central theme of a book or story, you may use it to demonstrate the practical application of loving others.
sing
Here are a couple great songs to download for this lesson.
I think both of those songs are best served as puppet songs, songs to play in the background while kids are working on their crafts, or to play the games listed below.
play
scripture pass
This is a game similar to the concept of "Hot Potato."
For this version of the game in this lesson you will need:
a heart-shaped object such as a pillow or candy box
music such as one of the songs listed above
The children sit in a circle
and pass around the heart-shaped object while music is playing. When you
stop the music, whoever is holding the object stands up and repeats after you, "I John 4:7, Let us love one another." After playing several rounds, many of the children will be able to say the verse with little help, or with no help at all.
share the love
Add a little variation, and "love in action" to the game. Whoever is holding the object when the music stops, may also do something kind for another child. Suggestions are:
give a compliment to another child
give a hug, handshake or high five to another child
choose a small treat (toy or candy) to give to another child
craft
good samaritan craftivity
I found the coloring page for this activity here. For this activity you will need:
Allow the children to dab the wounded man with red paint, and then cover the wounds with strips of gauze you have cut out for them. Then give them a heart sticker, or paper cut-out to affix to the Good Samaritan who showed love to his neighbor.
deco heart art
This is asimple, open-ended art project with minimal prep involved. You may purchase precut foam hearts, or cutout your. You will need:
Glue the labels to the hearts, and then allow the children to decorate the hearts with stickers, sequins and/or other small craft items. Hole punch a hole at the top, and tie a piece of ribbon through the hole.
marbled hearts
This is a fun, sensory kind of art project that I found here via Pinterest, and put my own spin on it. You will need:
Begin by dispensing shaving cream, and then paint, onto a paper plate. (I decided that when I do this with the kids I will use about half as much shaving cream as I show in this picture.)
Allow the children to mix the paint and shaving cream with a paint brush.
Help each child place a paper heart over the mixture of paint and shaving cream, gently press, and then lift the heart off.
The result is a cool, marbled effect. These could be displayed in your classroom with a "Let us love one another" banner.
Read this post for more ideas about teaching your child these concepts, while practicing preschool skills at home this week!
