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Reply to "Five Creative Lessons About Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet from the Chicago Rotation Roundtable"

Jesus Washes the Disciples' Feet

Puppet Station


Summary of Lesson Activities:

Students hear the story, then create a storyboard to assist them with acting out the story, using sock puppets they create.

Workshop-specific Goals

  • Become familiar with the events of the story.
  • Think about the actions of the various characters as they act out the story using sock puppets

Preparation

  • Review Background notes.
  • Read the scripture ahead of time.
  • Refer to schedule and decide how you will make adjustments for the different ages.
  • Make the “mouths” beforehand (basically an elongated oval which is bent in thirds - see link in resources for details and pattern)
  • You may want to make a sample puppet.
  • Set up puppet stage before class

Materials List:

  • Bibles (supplied in teaching box)
  • Children’s Bible (optional)
  • Socks
  • Stiff material to make mouth (cereal box, plastic from milk cartons or poster board)
  • Felt in many colors
  • Wiggly eyes
  • Large buttons
  • Fast-drying glue
  • Scissors
  • Large piece of paper
  • Marker
  • Rope and blanket to create puppet stage
  • Small bowl and towel to be used as props


Lesson Plan


Opening:

Make sure you have your nametag on. Introduce yourself to the students.

Open with a prayer .

Dig:


Introduction & Bible Story:

Please make sure that the students hear and “get” the Bible story as well as the application of that story to their lives. The Bible story is the MOST important part of the lesson—it is much more important than the activity associated with this station!

(For the first part of the month, go ahead and read the story from the Bible. For the latter part of the month—when the children should be familiar with the story—have them tell you the story)

Hand out the Bibles and have the students find John 13:1-17. Options for telling the story include reading the Bible account, having the students read the story aloud, telling the story in your own words, or telling it from a Children’s Bible.

We will be acting out the story later in the class, so lets figure out what the scenes and such will be. Ask the students about the following items and write out the replies on the large piece of paper (storyboard):

  • Who are the characters in this Bible passage?
  • Where is the story taking place?
  • What is the sequence of events?
  • What actions and discussions are taking place (that we would be acting out).


Activities:
The main focus of this lesson is NOT the creation of the sock puppets, so do not spend too much time on this. The main emphasis should be acting out the story using the puppets.

Sock Puppets—we will be making sock puppets in order to act out the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Help the children to quickly make the puppets (you want to leave time to act out the story)

  • Socks- use mismatched adult-size socks, or purchase at a dollar store. Crew socks are best. Any color. Must be clean.
  • A mouth is needed. The mouth is cut from a pattern (see resources) and can be made from any stiff material. Cardboard from cereal boxes, plastic from milk cartons, or poster board.
  • Have the user put the sock on his/her hand, forming a mouth.
  • Turn the sock inside out, holding the place where the mouth belongs.
  • Glue the mouth in place using fast-drying glue.
  • Decorate the puppet. Wiggly eyes can be purchased at a craft shop or buttons can be glued on for eyes. Yarn or felt can be used for hair or beards.
  • The students may take their puppets home after class.


Puppet Play
Have the students act out the story using their puppets. Refer back to the replies that you wrote down earlier. Assign the various parts to the students. The teacher may want to help guide the action of the play by providing some narration (or reminders of what is happening next)—the students can also refer to the replies on the piece of paper (storyboard).

If there are enough students, have some students be the audience and some the puppeteers. Then switch and present the play again.

Reflection:

How do you think some of the characters felt about what was happening—Jesus, Peter (who protested that Jesus shouldn’t wash his feet), Judas (who knew he would soon betray Jesus). Why might they have felt this way?

Read the memory verse: “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”-- Matthew 25: 40. Have each of the students fill in the blanks of the following statement: When I did _____________________ for _______________, I was also doing this for Jesus.

Close with a prayer.

Age Adaptations:
Older students—They should need minimal assistance in acting out the story—encourage them to create the dialog based on the Bible story

Younger students—You may need to assist them with the story by narrating it more extensively.

PreSchool students—See notes for younger students. You may want to prep the puppets even more—perhaps attaching the mouth material before class, so that the only construction the students need to do is decorating their puppets. You may also want to prepare hair and beards beforehand so that the students can pick what they like and glue it in place.

Resources:

Mouth pattern and directions on folding and gluing to sock http://anadiycrafts.com/sock-puppets/




Written by Michael G and Cathy W. Part of a lesson set written by the Western Suburbs--Chicago--Roundtable Group

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.

Last edited by Luanne Payne
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