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Baking Sheep Shortbread

from an idea posted by Shannon Vance O'Campo

You'll be rolling out shortbread dough (or sugar cookie dough if you prefer) so have plenty of space, rolling pins and clean up time prepared!

Begin 

Because of the recipe, you'll likely need to have the cookie dough already prepared before you come to class. However, ROLLING OUT THE DOUGH is HALF THE FUN.

After you've rolled it into sheets, have the kids cut into the dough with a knife to make the shape of SHEEP.  Work with them so that the pieces are not too skinny.

Show them how to LIFT OFF the wastage dough, leaving the sheep dough shape still on the baking sheet.

While the cookies are baking....

See how much of the Psalm they remember. Read through Psalm 23 pausing at certain spots to have the kids say what comes next.  Toss out pieces of dough you've saved as rewards. Everybody loves cookie dough!

Talk about how fragile sheep are. They easily stumble, easily are led astray, get fearful, and don't like the dark.  Talk to the kids about how WE ARE LIKE SHEEP, and thus, why the Bible often describes God/Christ as the Good Shepherd.  

How do sheep know to follow and trust the Shepherd?  

Time to take the cookies out!

Closing Prayer:

Take a small ziploc bag and using a permanent marker and large white label, have the students write the words, "The Lord is your Shepherd, you shall not want."

Now put a cookie in it, seal it up, and pray over it. Challenge the kids to give away that cookie "within one minute of leaving class to someone you DO NOT KNOW."

Pray that we would all listen to and follow the Good Shepherd,


For the recipe, GOOGLE SHORTBREAD COOKIES

(we had a link, but recipe links tend to go dead fast)

Last edited by Neil MacQueen

A Psalm 23 "Eating" Workshop Idea

or

"A Psalm 23 Seder"

Originally posted by Neil MacQueen in the Lesson Help Forum in response to a member asking for something "different" in their Cooking Workshop Psalm lesson.

 

 

 Key Verse and Driving Concept:

 

"You set a table before me in the presence of my enemies"

 

This table is for You and your Enemies to come sit down together at, ...though I must admit, for many years as a youngster I thought it was God showing my enemies how GOOD I had it!  Wrong!  ...it was God setting the table to bring people together.

 

Jesus' Table at Communion is the similar meaning. It's a messianic banquet spread before us in the Kingdom of God. Remember when Jesus taught the parable about going out into the street and inviting the 'unworthy' to his table?  When I read "thou spreadest a Table before me" ...I now think not only of the unworthy that Jesus calls to this table, but I realize it is I who am equally unworthy, ...and that's a basis for reconciliation, when we realize we all need God's slack and sustenance.


Brainstorming how to teach this...

 

Rather than cooking in this Cooking Workshop, I see us PREPARING and EATING a sort of PSALM SEDER (SEDER=PASSOVER=Communion MEAL, where different types of food represent different stories/ideas. Remember how in the Seder meal the salt water represented tears and horseradish represented bitterness?  The Ps 23 Eating Workshop is going to invent it's own menu that teaches meaning.

 

So I'm proposing that you NOT COOK, but rather EAT in this Cooking Workshop. 


 

Set the Table.  This table has plenty of chairs and space for people. Set a place and label it with the Coded Name of someone you are not getting along with. Sit next to them.

 

Pause and sit silently for a minute.  This table has plenty of time. Sometimes it takes a lot of time to get up the courage to invite and sit down with people you are having trouble with. 

 

Begin Serving. This table has plenty to share. Sharing with others is often the first act of seeking peace (sharing candy, the tv, a toy, a table in the lunchroom, a kind word, sharing a friendly act).  Talk about the SMALL ACTS of kindness, reaching out, the right choice of words that can let others know you are forgiving, or need their forgiveness, and are willing to put the past behind you.

 

Serve these in succession, discussing each one  (this is a quick outline, feel free to improve on these concepts/food!):

 

Serve a Hard Food, such as a hard pretzel:  Why are some people hard to accept, be around?

 

Serve a Bitter/Sour Food, such as a lemon slice in ice water :  Why do some people have a sour attitude?  How does your sour attitude around others make them sour?  What does it feel like to be treated coldly?  Do you "freeze" anybody out??

 

Serve a Hot-Spicy Food, such as a tacquito:  Why do some people get us fired up and angry?  How do you get over your anger?  What can you do to stop from saying angry words?

 

Serve a Sweet Food, such as a sweet roll:  What are some good-sweet ways to handle the following situations...   ((Teacher: Come up with 3 situations: One with a parent, one with a sibling, one with an unfriendly person at your school.))

 

Serve a MINTY Food, like "long-lasting" chocolate mints:  What do we need to remember about God and ourselves when we're trying to deal with enemies/people we don't get along with?

 

Make Foods to Share with someone in your family you've recently had a spat with. This can be a bag of candy pieces which you assemble from bowls of candy pieces on GOD'S TABLE:  God's Table has plenty to share. Sharing has an effect on people, even our enemies. It's shows we care about them. 

 


Final thought:

 

How can our dinner table be a place of family peace and reconciliation?  What can you do to help promote peace at home?

 

<>< Neil

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

 

Last edited by Rotation.org Lesson Forma-teer

Creating Sheep Out of Food Items

These posts were brought here from the old website. They are for non-readers (i.e. not sophisticated enough for elementary-age children).


Member Lissa wrote:

Food Workshop where the children made edible sheep from twinkies, "snowballs", Ho-Ho's and Ding-Dongs (Whatever the Hostess Outlet store had at cheap prices!). We had pretzel sticks to use as legs, raisins for eyes, and gooey white frosting & coconut to use for wool.

We took photos of their sheep to see if they could recognize their sheep later. (Any "good" shepherd knows his own sheep!)They sat down and ate their creations while they learned what sheep were like (comparing them to their own experience with pets).


Member Luanne wrote:

I saw an idea in a book about  “How to Make a Gumdrop Lamb and Shepherd”.

  • Use marshmallows (Large & Small), pretzel sticks, and gumdrops. 
  • Use the pretzel sticks for legs, arms, and necks.
  • Use the marshmallows for the sheep's body and head.
  • Use the gumdrops for the shepherd's body and head.

Or a combination of both, let the kids be creative. 

Last edited by Luanne Payne

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