Zacchaeus

Art Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:

The children will create a "critter" with the shape of their name to remind them that God knows everything about them.

Scripture Reference:

Luke 19: 1-10

Memory Verse:

"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10 (NIV)

Lesson Objectives for rotation
At the end of the rotation, the students will

• Be able to identify Luke as one of the four Gospels.
• Be able to locate and read the text.
• Begin to understand that Jesus loves us no matter what mistakes we have made.
• Begin to understand that our love for Jesus causes us to make changes in our lives.
• Repeat the memory verse.
• Begin to see that Jesus knows our names and everything else about us.

Teacher preparation in advance:

• Read the scripture passages and lesson plan and attend the Bible Study. It will be very important for you to attend this study led by ___. Please RSVP to ___.
• Prepare a closing prayer.
• Learn the memory verse.
• To our teachers at RCC: The design of this workshop is very intentional. The activities and discussion questions for this workshop were designed to meet the goals of the entire rotation and the educational objectives of the Rotation Model (tm) at River Community Church. While we feel it is important to follow the serendipitous leading of the Holy Spirit, please do not change the lesson plan without consulting a Curriculum Planning and Writing Team member.
• Check out the room before your first Sunday workshop so that you know where everything is located. This will be our first month in the new church building. We will discuss the set-up process and the new morning schedule at the Bible Study.
• The bin with "normal" supplies is located in the Children's Ministry Office. Request additional supplies from ___ by ___.
• Make the memory verse posters for the Memory Verse Review: Write or use the computer to print out each word of the memory verse on individual pieces of paper so that each one is large enough for everyone to read.

Room set-up: The room should be set-up with tables and chairs. Hang the Memory Verse words in order on the wall with masking tape or on a clothesline.

Supply List:

• Bibles,
• white construction paper,
• pencils, markers, crayons,
• scissors;
• memory verse words (see Teacher Preparation)
• masking tape.

Optional: baby name/meaning book (borrowed from the public library).

Presentation

Opening - Welcome and Introductions:
Greet the children and introduce yourself. Wear your name-tag. Make sure the children are wearing name-tags. If not, ask the shepherd to supply a temporary badge. Remember you are interacting with a different group of students each week who may not know you.

We had an opening prayer during the gathering time, but you may open with prayer if you feel led to do so.

Explain the purpose of this workshop. Use kid friendly words to give a brief overview of what the children are going to learn and do.

Scripture/Bible Story:
Read the scripture: Luke 19:1-10. (Encourage the children to use their Bibles in looking up verses. If it is the second, third, or fourth Sunday of the rotation ask the children if they remember where the story of Zacchaeus is found in the Bible. While they are opening their Bibles, review the names of the first four books of the New Testament and that they are the Gospel — the Good News about Jesus. Ask for volunteers to read a paragraph at a time.)

"Does the story tell us that someone introduced Jesus to Zacchaeus?" [no]
"I wonder how Jesus knew Zacchaeus' name? I wonder how Zacchaeus felt when he realized Jesus knew his name?"
"Today our art project has to do with our names."

Dig - Main Content and Reflection:

Application:
1)Give each child a piece of white construction paper that has been folded in half length-wise.

2)Instruct them to write or print their name along the fold (omitting the parts of any letter that normally go below the line).

3)Encourage them to write the letters as large as possible and still be able to get all the letters on the paper.

4)With paper still folded have them cut their name following the shape of the top of the letters.

5) Next, have them unfold the paper and use markers, crayons, or colored pencils to create a "critter" that fits the shape of their name.

As they are working, get to know the children. Talk about what their names mean and why their parent chose the name they did. Ask about their critters: is it a real or imaginary animal? Do the critters reflect them or their personalities or their favorite things in some way?

Pulling it all together (closing discussion):

• If Jesus knew Zacchaeus' name, do you think he also knew how Zacchaeus taking money from people?
• Do you think God knows your name?
• What else does God know about you?
• Does God like everything about you?

Have each child share their "critter" with the class. Tell them to take it home and display it somewhere they can see it often. When they see it they can be reminded that God knows everything about them and loves them very much no matter what mistakes they have made.

Review the memory verse: in unison, read the verse (including the citation) that is on the wall. After a few readings, take one of the words down, and have everyone read again in unison, saying the missing word. Take down another word and say the whole thing in unison again. Keep taking down one word at a time and saying the entire verse in unison until there are no more words on the wall and they know the verse by heart. (Take down "and" and "the" the first two rounds.)
If time permits, ask volunteers to say the entire verse from memory.

At 11:50 a.m. ask the Shepherds to pass out the journals and pencils/markers. Suggestion: You may wish to give the children a sticker or some memento to paste in their journal as a reminder of the story or activity.

Shepherd Time:
Prompts for journal writing: God knows everything about you, the good things and the not-so-good things, and He still loves you. Write a sentence or draw a picture of how you feel about this.
Or encourage the children to write their names in "fancy" writing — lots of curls, doodles, etc.
Or write out the memory verse.

You may want to provide an extra activity or worksheet for children who finish their journals quickly, such as crossword puzzles, word search, games. See the Teacher's Background Notes or http://puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/ and rotation.org for ideas.

At noon, ask the students to close their journals and sit quietly for prayer.

Closing:
Pray for each child individually by name, thanking God for one quality for each child. If time permits, you may want to ask each child for one word that describes himself or herself and use that in your prayer. (That is, "Dear God, thank you for knowing each one for us by name and for loving each one of us, even though we are all different. Thank you for loving Sophie the ballerina, cheerful Rachel, generous Mallory, Jordy the drummer.....Amen.")

Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to help tidy up. Give any specific instructions for clearing the workshop room.
Give everyone the parent take-home flyer the first week of the rotation; give it only to children who were absent and have not yet received it the other weeks of the rotation.

Additional Suggestions:
You will need to decide how best to adjust the lesson for older and younger students. Keep the children active and involved in activity. Do what works for you and the children. Some ideas:

Older Children: If they finish the name critter project quickly, they can write name poems. Have the child write her or his name down the side a piece of paper, one letter on each line. Have them decorate the letters of their name and write descriptive words which tell something about them for each letter in their name. (You may want to have a dictionary handy for difficult letters.) For example,
Ambitious
Memorable
Yuletide lover

Younger Children may need help printing their names large enough and cutting them out.

Resources

• Family Fun Magazine (for a similar idea check out http://www.scholastic.com/teac...me-bug-craft-project)
• Dixon, Michael E., editor. No Matter What: Outdoor Ministry Resources for 2001. Christian Board of Publication and The United Methodist Publishing House on behalf of the Cooperative Publication Association, 2001.
• Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

This lesson was written by Jamie Senyard for River Community Church
Prairieville, Louisiana.

Copyright 2003 Jamie Senyard. Permission granted to freely distribute and use, provided the copyright message is included.

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