Elijah Fed by Ravens

Puppetry Workshop

Summary

Construct puppets and act out the story of Elijah and the ravens to remember that Elijah trusted God to provide for his needs.

Scripture

Story: 1 Kings 17
Key/Memory Verse: 1 Kings 17:24 (NLT)

Objective(s) for rotation

Participants will be able to:

• Find the story of Elijah in the Old Testament of the Bible.
• Know that Elijah was a prophet of God; that prophets were God's chosen messengers.
• Learn that when we are obedient, God provides.
• Understand that Elijah's time away hiding was a time to strengthen his trust in God, bigger challenges were coming in Elijah's life.
  
  

Materials List

• Bibles
• Bird puppet pattern 
• Supplies for each child to make a bird (such as black construction paper, black craft feathers, craft sticks or paint stirrer sticks, material for eyes [googly eyes, gel pens, chalk, white crayons, sticker dots], glue, scissors)
• Puppet (or a doll) to be Elijah (or the children can take turns being Elijah and interacting with the puppets) 
• Puppet stage (a table covered with a tablecloth that the children can hide behind will be adequate)
  
  

Advance Preparation Requirements

• Find a simple paper bird puppet pattern (such as  “Bird Puppet Craft” by Carolyn Warvel at http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/birdcrafts.html). This should be a quick and easy craft to allow plenty of class time to work with the puppets and the story. Most puppets can be made into ravens by substituting black construction paper or fun foam and adding some black craft feathers.
• Make a sample puppet following the instructions. 

Lesson

Open – Introduction

Open with prayer. Ask for a volunteer to pray; if no one volunteers, pray for the group to be enlightened about God’s will and provision as the story of Elijah is studied.

Explain that today the students will look at a story of how God provided for one of God’s servants who had faith that God would provide, and how God used an unusual means to provide. Puppets will be made and then used to tell the story.

Introduce the story of Elijah :

Say: In order to understand our lesson there are some words we need to understand. 
Ask: What is an idol? (something that is greatly admired)
What are some examples of idols? (name of someone in sports or entertainment)
When is it bad to have idols? (allow all answers)

Say: It is bad to have idols when we worship them, especially when we give the idols a higher ranking than God. Our story takes place at a time when the Israelites, the people of Israel, had fallen into worshiping idols. They had been encouraged to worship idols by their king, King Ahab and his wife, Queen Jezebel. The type of idol they were worshiping was called Baal (pronounced BAY-uhl). Baal was considered the god of weather, supposedly determining when it would rain.

Say: There is one more word I want us to understand.
Ask: What is a prophet? (a messenger of God)
Say: Now that we understand some of those words we are ready to read our Bible story.

Say: As we tell the story, listen for the different ways God provided for Elijah.

Show the children where to find the story in the book of 1 Kings in the Old Testament. Ask for volunteers or read the scripture to the children: 1 Kings 17. 

Have the children keep a Bible nearby and open in case they want to consult it during the discussion/review questions.

Dig - Main Content

Say to the children, “Let’s discuss what we just read while we make our puppets.”

Make Puppets:

Pass out materials and make the puppets as described in Advance Preparation.

Review and discuss the story while the children are making their puppets and the glue is setting:

• Who was king of Israel at the time this story takes place?
• What did the prophet Elijah tell King Ahab?
• I wonder why Elijah told Ahab there would be no rain?
• What did the LORD tell Elijah to do after he told Ahab there would be no rain?
• I wonder why the LORD told Elijah to go hide?
• What did Elijah do? Do you think he hesitated? [No. Reread verse 5 if necessary.]
• How do you think you would react if God told you to go live by a mostly dry stream [a wadi is a stream bed that contains water only in the rainy season] and wait for birds to bring you your dinner?
• I wonder why Elijah went without complaint or comment?
• I wonder what the ravens brought Elijah to eat? Do you think it was yummy?
• Do you think the ravens talked to Elijah? Remember, God can do anything; nothing is impossible. [And certainly if God can make a bird deliver food, he might decide to make it talk, also.] If the birds spoke, what do you think they might have said? What might Elijah have said?

Practice using raven puppets:

At this point, let the children practice using the puppets to flap their wings and fly around the room. Ravens flap and then glide. Have them make raven sounds, such as a croaking sound.

Have the children sit down again. Tell the children, “Let’s have some fun with our story, now. The part about the ravens is only a few verses long. So you will need to use your imaginations and pretend the birds did talk to Elijah. What kind of voices do you think they had?” Have them say “hello” in a croaking sort of raven voice.

Act out the story:

Choose someone to be Elijah. Everyone else will be a raven. The teacher is the narrator. Reread, or summarize, verses 1-6 and then let the children act out what happened by the wadi each mealtime.

If they need help, ask some questions to help them shape their drama and note that there are no right or wrong answers. Did one raven at a time bring food, or a flock? Was Elijah surprised the first time? How did he react? Did he become friends with the ravens? What might they have talked about – the weather, the news back in Israel, how good the food is, where the food came from? Have the ravens met God? What do they think of God? How are they managing during this famine?

Allow the children to act out the scenario several times with different people being Elijah and different assumptions about how the ravens did their job.

Reflect – Closure

I wonder why God took such good care of Elijah? [Talk about obedience – go back and reread verse 5 if necessary. Talk about how God had a plan.]

I wonder how Elijah responded?

What do you think he did all day while he lived by the wadi? [Talk about prayer and worship if the children do not bring it up.]

Do you think God still sends birds with food to feed people?

How does God take care of us?

Has God ever provided for your needs at a time of trouble? Would you like to tell us about it?

If time permits, review the memory verse. Remind the children that it comes from a different part of this rotation’s story about Elijah. Ask, How is the fact that Elijah is visibly a man of God reflected in this story?

Suggest to the children that whenever they see a bird this week, they remember the story of Elijah being fed by the ravens, and take a moment right then to say a brief prayer of thanks to God for all they have been provided with. Remind them that we can pray whenever and wherever we are and that we don’t have to close our eyes to pray.

Close with prayer

Have the children help clean up before dismissal. Make sure they take their raven puppets home with them. Suggest they use the puppets to tell their family members about Elijah’s obedience and trust.

Additional Suggestions

Adaptations - Younger Children

Precut the puppets.

Tell the story to the younger children using the The Beginner’s Bible which tells verses 1-16 (does not include the part about the woman’s son dying). 

Have an adult be Elijah and ask questions to encourage the ravens (children) to come up with creative answers.

Adaptations - Older Children

Invite a preschool or kindergarten class to see the performance.

Bring in bird books or encyclopedias and let the children find out a bit more about ravens – where they live, what they eat, what they sound like, how they fly – to make their puppets move and act more realistically.

SOURCES

Warvel, Carolyn. “Bird Puppet Craft.” Danielle’s Place of Crafts and Activities: 2000. http://www.daniellesplace.com/html/birdcrafts.html