Rotation.org Writing Team

Psalm 23

An "Edible Arrangement" (Cooking) Workshop

Summary of Activities

Students will create a "Psalm 23 edible arrangement" by assembling various fruits and other foods on "verse skewers" to help them remember the words and meaning of Psalm 23. The finished "edible arrangement" will be wrapped to go home and become a tasty centerpiece reminder for family members. During the lesson, students will play two games with special "Pic Sticks" skewers that will help them explore and remember the words and meaning of the psalm.

Scripture for the Lesson

Psalm 23 (NRSV)

Key/Memory Verses:  The entire psalm!

Lesson Objectives

See the Bible Background at rotation.org for this set's complete list of objectives. 

Preparation and Materials

• Read the Bible Background and scripture.
• Purchase a "can" or "canister" for each child to hold the skewers/food. We recommend the 7" tall clear acrylic "paint cans" from Oriental Trading Company.  A 6 "x 11" printed sheet of paper fits nicely in them. 
• Purchase 14" skewers, 7 or 8 skewers per student, plus another two dozen extra for the opening "picture sticks" and the "pick up sticks" closing game.
• Purchase a variety of foods to skewer (see and copy the Verse Skewers and Food List in the post below this one at rotation.org).
• Containers to hold the variety of foods.
• Tape.
• Wide plastic "saran" wrap or foil to wrap each edible arrangement to go home. 
• A bag of mandarin oranges -- one orange for each canister to act as a weight.

The printable color insert for the canisters
and for making the Pic Sticks and Skewer Sticks.

Printing the Psalm 23 Image Inserts

One of the key ingredients to this lesson is the printable Psalm 23 color Images. They get used with the "Pic Sticks" opening and closing activities, AND they get used as a canister liner and image-toppers for the food skewers. This repeated usage is an aid to memory. (These images are also used in many of the other lessons in this set.)

• Print ONE copy of the Psalm 23 color insert without text, to create the  13 skewers "Pic Sticks" for the Opening and Closing activities. 13 images, 13 skewers. Leave the scripture text off the images.
• Print ONE COPY PER STUDENT of the Psalm 23 color insert without text. In advance, cut each insert into its individual images and tape them to the skewers which the students will be putting their food on.  There are 13 images on the insert, but you will be combining two images per skewer PER THE FOOD SKEWER LIST below. The images on the skewers do not have the text because the "food" is the "text" on the skewers, so to speak.
• Finally, print ONE COPY PER CANISTER of the Psalm 23 color insert WITH text (NRSV) and place one inside each student's canister (trimming 2" off to make it fit).  If you want to use a different Bible translation of the psalm, print and fill in the "No Text" insert.

Lesson Plan

1. Opening Bible Reading Activity with one set of "Pic Sticks."
2. Edible Arrangement Making and Wrapping to go home.
3. Closing "Pick-up-sticks" Game.

*The "Pic Sticks" used in both the opening and closing activities are created in advance by the teacher.

Each student will ALSO have their OWN set of Pic Sticks to skewer their food kabobs and place them in their canister to go home. In that way, their kabobs have pictures but no words and the printed color insert inside the canister acts as a "key to the kabobs."

Opening

Welcome your students and explain what they'll be doing and learning in today's lesson. Ask how many of them know any of the words to Psalm 23. (If you are using the Rotation Model, they will know quite a bit as the weeks roll on.)

Give each student one of your pre-made image-only "Pic Sticks." Go around the group and ask them to guess which part of Psalm 23 it represents or what the "picture" on their stick might mean. (Make sure they can see each other's pictures.) 

Now have them open their Bibles to Psalm 23 and read the Psalm together -- thinking about what part of the psalm their picture seems to be describing.

After they've read aloud the scripture, go around the group again and ask each student to read aloud the words from the psalm which THEY think matches their Pic Stick and explain "why" they think it matches. Some will be harder than others, but that's okay. Give clues as needed.

Once they've correctly matched the pictures to the verses, have them lay their Pic Sticks in the correct order and recite the psalm again.  Set your set of Pic Sticks aside until the end of the lesson, and move into making the edible arrangement with the image-topped skewers that the kids will now use.

Making the Psalm 23 Edible Arrangement

FOOD OPTION SUGGESTIONS

Below in the Verse Skewers & Food List 'post' you can see a list of suggested foods and fruits for each verse. We'll keep updating it. Feel free to come up with your own, too. Because it's unlikely you can afford enough foods to represent every great idea, during the arranging activity ask students if they can think of other foods that might better represent a word or concept in the verse for a particular verse. For example, ask them "what food can you think of that would remind you of 'Prepare a Table'?" 

HINT:  Candy orange "slices" are great for skewering and can be cut with scissors and shaped to form a Table, a Cup, and a "House" of the Lord.  Seen right:  a blueberry representing "water" in an orange slice "cup." Smoosh the blueberry to make it "overflow" onto the orange.

Students will be deciding which of the foods you have provided that they want to put on each of their verse skewers.  You or they may decide to have one, two, or three different food items per skewer that reminds them of the words and ideas in the verse whose image is taped to the top of the skewer. "How many fruits" you decide to put on "how many skewers" will largely depend on how much time and food you have. Some verses are harder to represent in food than others.

Keep in mind that the food item a student puts on his or her skewer only has to make sense to him and jog HIS/HER memory of the verse.

BEGIN

Distribute the canisters and have the students place the color insert inside the canister. Show them that the insert uses the same pictures that are taped on top of their skewers, but includes the verse text on them.

Put a mandarin orange in the bottom of each canister to keep the cans from tipping over as students place completed skewers in them. 

SKEWERING FOODS to REPRESENT VERSES

The teacher will be walking students through the process of creating a food skewer for each verse. Start slow and keep everyone together.  

Tell your students that whenever they hear the words referring to God in a verse, such as "Lord" or "He" or "You," that they will need to put a cube of cheese on that skewer because God is the "The Big Cheese." (Explain that "Big Cheese" is a fun title describing someone who is "in charge, top dog, the best." (There are ten of them in the psalm!)

The FIRST verse "skewering" is a bit scripted to help students understand the process.

1. Recite Verse 1, "The Lord is My Shepherd, I shall not want." Then have them find the first skewer with the image on it that matches the verse.

2. Ask: How many times is God referred to in the verse? (1)  Great! Let's put one cube of cheese on Verse Skewer 1 because the Lord is our "Big Cheese."

3. Ask: The Lord is our "Shepherd" -- do we have anything on the table that reminds of the word "shepherd"?  (Yes, the marshmallow looks like a sheep). Let's skewer a marshmallow.

4. Ask: What's the next part of verse 1?  Right, "I shall not want" which is like saying, with God as my shepherd I have everything I really need.  What fruit on our table looks like a collection of a lot of things? (The strawberry because it is coated with little seeds). Let's skewer a strawberry and recite the verse together.

5. When the first skewer is completed, have them put it in their canister and move on to the next "pic stick."

Continue on to the next verse, reciting it, finding the skewer, and deciding which foods to put on it.

Depending on the age of your children, you may give them more freedom to work at their own pace, but keep reminding them that the food choices need to represent words and ideas in the verses, and not simply be a collection of their favorite foods. If you find them "getting random" with their food choices, rein them in by guiding them through the next verse like you did with verse 1 above. 

Keep in mind that some verses will be more difficult to represent on a skewer simply by the practical limitations of how many different foods you have supplied. In those cases, ask them what food WOULD have been good for that word or idea.

Keep in mind that some verses may only get one or two food items and that the most used food item will be cheese because God is mentioned in every verse. Make that a teaching point -- that God is at the center of the psalmist's and our lives. 

As you bring the food skewering activity to an end...

Have everyone read through Psalm 23 again USING THEIR SKEWERS! Take notice of interesting food choices and ask individuals why they chose a certain food item. Your goal is their memory reinforcement, not "skewer conformity."

Yes, encourage students to "taste as well as see" that the Psalm is good! (sensory associations are a great way for the Word to endure forever in their brain cells).  

Munching and sharing what you're skewering is a great opportunity to reinforce and share thoughts about the psalm.

WRAP UP THE ARRANGEMENT

WRAP the skewers and food securely in the can using plastic wrap or foil. Tag with the student's name to go home. 

Encourage students to invite family members to "remember Psalm 23" by using and eating the edible arrangement together. Tell your students to read Psalm 23 from the insert and then hand out the skewers with the pics to see if they can guess "which verse" the pic and skewer represents. Send home written instructions if needed. 

Closing

Play a game of "Pick-Up-Sticks" with your "Pic Sticks"

1. Using your original set of Pic Sticks (used during the opening), bundle them in your hand and drop onto a table just like you would in a game of "pick-up-sticks."  (Practice to adjust your hands so that they fall in pile.)

2. Take turns removing one stick at a time without moving any of the others. If a stick other than the one you are touching MOVES, then you must stop and your turn is over.

3. After all the sticks have been picked up, declare a "winner" and ask the students to lay all the "pic sticks" in the correct order (just like you did at the beginning of the lesson).  Slide one of the sticks towards a student and ask her or him to quickly reflect to the group "what is cool about this verse." (This is quick and reinforcing of points you've already taught.)

4. Repeat the pick-up-sticks game again as you have time.

Adaptations

For Younger Students:   

Guide them through the skewering of food on each stick just like you did for verse 1. If needed, decide  on a limited number of verses to "skewer." Show them how to safely skewer foods using the pointy end of the skewer.

For Older Students, Youth, and Adults

After making verse 1 together, allow students to work at their own pace to make their arrangement of Psalm 23. Invite them to share and explain one or two of their completed skewers with the class.

For those with more or less class time:   

More: Make another edible arrangement to share with special people in your congregation.

Less: Eliminate the "Pick-up-sticks" activity, or just play it once, or suggest it as an activity they can play after their family has eaten the food off of the skewers. You can also only do the first three verses as skewers. Or, you can assign all the verses to different students and collectively create one or two edible arrangements.

Taking the Psalm Arrangement Home

The items suggested in this lesson do not need refrigerated. If you decide on other food items, such as apples, they will brown. DIp them in lemon juice or consider dried fruits instead. 

Skewering Tip

Kids will need to use the "pointy end" of the skewers to poke through dense foods like cheese and orange slices. Show them the proper way to skewer so they don't poke their hand or fingers.

Notes for Other Types of Containers

We searched and priced out a number of other types of plastic containers for this project. The Oriental Trading Company "7" Clear Paint Cans" are preferred for their price, size, and appearance. You may otherwise purchase 7" to 9" tall, 3" to 4" diameter round plastic canisters from various online sources, though these tend to be expensive in smaller quantities. If you are going to use an opaque container, cut and paste the color "insert" to the outside of the container. 

14" inch skewer lengths are preferred for the Oriental Trading Company "cans" and other 7" to 9" tall canisters. This allows the student to put as many as two or three food items on each skewer if desired. Longer skewers can also be shortened if needed. 

The two attached color inserts are sized to print on an 8.5 x 11" page. You will need to trim the top and bottom for it to fit in a 7" can. Use your printer's image controls to adjust how it prints on the page with a minimal left or right margin. Smaller or larger diameter cans may need the image size adjusted. Feel free to post a request for image help on rotation.org.

Written by Neil MacQueen and the Rotation.org Writing Team

Copyright 2019, Rotation.org Inc.