Summer Sundays: The Mustard Seed

I was able to kick off the summer sundays at church with the k-5th graders.  It is a big age range because we condense in the summer.  I never even looked at the curriculum the church bought for the summer, but instead pulled out the Mustard Seed Parable from the Godly Play room (this was primarily prompted by the fact I had just taught Bibleschool all week and didn't want to prepare another lesson.  I have the Mustard Seed Godly Play session down.)

The godly play room was too small for the group, both because of the number of kids and the size of kids (the forth and fifth graders wouldn't be very comfy in our Ikea kiddy chairs.)  So for work I made three art tables in a larger room: one for copying a verse and/or illustrating; one for leaf rubbings; and one to make birds and nest out of clay (Thanks to Sheila and her wonderful blog for this idea!) 

I must admit I was blown away by the morning.  I really thought the kids would be into the clay and not so much the other tables.  But, they were excited about all the work.  Kids, who I normally see struggle to focus were totally engaged and didn't want to leave at the end of the hour.  Boys, who I would never have dreamed would want to do copy work sat and enjoyed writing out the verse (without any prompting or expectation on my part.)    

Because it wasn't a full Godly Play session I sat down and painted and sculpted with them.  At the end a few of the kids wanted to play duck, duck, goose after they cleaned up their art supplies.  I thought that sounded good and they changed the words to "bird, bird, mustard seed."  

The word that rings true when I think of the morning is delightful!