Science

• Talk about the uses of salt- a preservative, a flavor enhancer.
  
  And then also discuss the properties of light. It only takes a small bit of light to dispel darkness, and how we use light for safety (lighthouses). If you hide it, it is of no use to anyone. Maybe you could also do something with prisms or shadows. Make silhouettes for art and use shadow puppets for a drama.  --Cindy LB
• I would suggest that you consider doing both salt & light - opens up a lot of possibilities for science & cooking (do a recipe with & without the salt, talk about food preservation).  --Zola

Pickle Experiment Ideas/Comments

• I saw a science experiment once relating to light that might work. You have a simple circuit with a battery and a light bulb, but there is a gap in the wiring. You place various items in the gap to see which completes the circuit (paper or plastic things don't, metal things like a penny do). When the circuit is successfully completed, then the light shines. You could relate that to God's light shining through us.  --CathyW
• DISCLAIMER **I didn't write it and unfortunately, the person that did lost the floppy disk and we lost the hard copy,too** Maybe someone will know this and give more details.
  
  What I saw them doing was taking a power cord with each end wire wrapped around a nail.
  Then they would take a large pickle (about 4 1/2 to 5 inch) and stick one nail into one end of the pickle and the other nail into to the other end and the pickle would start to glow, but not very long. I think they used a plug-in (sorry if there are an electricans out there) but I would have to check on that.
  
  WAY COOL The children watched in amazement, but be warned, one pickle per experiment and if you left it plugged in for over a minute, well lets just say the kids thought the smell was pretty interesting too. --Lisa
  
  Moderator adds: Science of Pickles: Kosher Dill Current -- Science Experiment found here https://www.exploratorium.edu/...ity-kosher_dill.html

Cooking:

Ideas from member Jan FPC Napa

• We did a cooking lesson for "Jesus said 'I am the light of the world'" that you could adapt:  Kids made "stained glass cookies", we talked about light, and reminded them that it’s not the stained glass window that shines, it’s the light that shines through it. It’s not us that shines, it’s Jesus’ love shining through us. https://www.rotation.org/topic...on-set-from-fpc-napa
• Perhaps you could do something with preservation? Make refrigerator pickles maybe?

Art

• Salt Sprinkling over Earth Picture

Another art idea for the Matthew 5:13 verse "You are the salt of the earth" - I colored salt blue and green (quite easy: pour salt into a ziplok bag and sprinkle a few drops of food coloring in it and close the bag and shake and squeeze - then let it dry in the open bag for a couple of days) and printed off some card stock with a black and white picture of the earth on it and let the kids use the salt like glitter on the picture. Turned out pretty neat and the kids loved it. We also did some "taste" tests with salt and I think it made the Bible passage memorable.

Moderator notes:  I imagine she cover the earth with a glue stick before sprinkling salt, so salt would stick.  --PamJoy

• Water Coloring with Salt

 An art idea for salt/light story: if you sprinkle salt on a wet watercolor painting you get an interesting textural effect. (Because the salt is absorbing water.) For more info on this art technique try this site re: water color with salt -- https://kinderart.com/art-less...nd-watercolor-trees/. There is even an idea there about a crayon drawing with a watercolor wash over it and then salt to create a starry night scene -- could be something in there for salt/light story.
--Carol

• Sand (Salt Art) - Cindy LB
  
  
• Salt Dough Sculptures - Cindy LB
•  Candles
  
  - You could also make or decorate candles in an art rotation. 
  
  - We have done a project at Christmas time with little wax punches, thin sheets of wax and taper candles that our kids just love. --Jan S

Salt Cooking Workshop Ideas from Jane Cornett and Wormy

(1) We made various cookie recipes LEAVING OUT some key ingredients in each. Then taste tested them. We are called to be tasty to the world, and that means getting our ingredients right! 

We made recipe cards for the church. On one side was a great cookie recipe. On the other was a recipe for a Christ-like life.

(2) Make your own special seasoning:

In a bowl, the children mixed together table salt and some spices ( I used italian seasoning mix) and then they each put some in a spice shaker. (use a funnel).

We put a label on each one "You are the salt of the earth" and "Be spicy for God!". They each got to take one home. A useful reminder that we are all to be salt of the earth. We closed by singing Amy Grant's 'Salt and Light'.

(3) from member Staciwoodruff (copied from Sermon on the Mount Ideas)

Painting with Salt

In short, you draw designs with white glue, sprinkle with table salt, and drip diluted food coloring onto the salted glue.

Lesson and Images at faithfullittlehands.com (link removed - no longer active)

Make it edible ~ Salt of the Earth Cracker

1. Make cracker dough and roll out thin on parchment paper in the shape of "the earth."
2. "Draw" images and words using a thin small dowel or kabob stick making grooves in the dough.
3. Drop salt into the grooves (use medium grain salt).
4. Drip food coloring over the salt. (The moisture will also keep the dough from folding over the salt.
5. Bake per your earth cracker dough instructions.

Adapting the "Salt Lava Lamp" Experiment for a Salt of the Earth Science Experiment, Presentation, Activity 

Here is a general outline of a "science" demonstration-presentation you can make to kids, or better yet, have them learn how to do and explain it themselves so they can share it with others. Plenty to flesh out. If you use it, post your notes and pics.

 Food coloring droplets (goodness, justice, etc) are dropped on top of the oil which is floating over the water (the world). Next, sprinkle some glitter (hopes, light, joy) on top of the oil.  Still not working so well. What did Jesus say to add?  When you add salt it really helps all these good things mix into the world and you start to see real change. 

Now add the help of the Holy Spirit by adding a half-tablet of alka-seltzer.

See this YouTube video demonstration starting at the 2:03 mark. Many others like it online.

What did Jesus mean when he said, "You are the SALT of the Earth"?

An explanation and two lesson ideas

Elisha's second miracle after he had seen Elijah taken up in the whirlwind in 2 Kings 2, is to put salt in the well of Jericho to heal it. The water, used for drinking and irrigation in Jericho, had turned bad and the miracle of the salt healed it. Below is a picture of that well still flowing in Jericho some 2800 years later!  Jesus probably walked past it or visited it on his journeys through the area.

Elisha's story highlights the ancient practice of using salt for HEALING.

Most of us think of salt as a "seasoning" and teach it like that, a "spice of life, so to speak. But in biblical times salt was MORE valuable as a healing agent and food preservative. It was prescribed for ulcers, constipation, and skin diseases. It was used as an antiseptic and to clean wounds. And pure salt was also an acceptable Temple offering.

So when Jesus says, "You are the salt of the earth" in Matthew 5:13, he is likely telling us to offer ourselves to be HEALERS on the earth, and of the earth.

Jesus adds that when salt that has "lost its taste" (or "saltiness" depending on your translation) it should be thrown out. That idea doesn't mean much to modern folks who buy refined salt, and salt itself cannot "lose its taste."  So what is Jesus getting at?

Salt can contain a number of impurities, including sulfur, various minerals, and sand or dirt. Some of them have odors, and some salts have added minerals that can make them taste bitter. Thus, the idea behind "tasting salt" means judging its potency or efficacy or PURITY as a healing/preserving agent, as well as a flavoring agent.  (This idea of judging your salt is the lesson idea mentioned below.)

Aside: the NT Greek word translated as "lost its taste" is very interesting. In ancient Greek, "mōrainō" is the word for "foolish" or "fool," as well as "tasteless."  Moraino is where we get the word "moron" in English. It can also mean, "insipid," or "tasteless" (in both the literal or figurative sense).  In other words, "don't be FOOLISH salt." Don't be the kind of salt that doesn't heal. Don't be salt that others won't accept.

"Bad" salt has impurities in it that can be tasted.These include having too much manganese (bitter) and sulfur (rotten eggs).  You have to BE the RIGHT KIND OF SALT in order to be HEALING SALT (or tasty salt!).

Teaching Ideas:

Tasting Salt

Put out some bowls of salt that have different good and bad flavorings in them. Number them and give student a list of the salts. Have the students silently taste and vote which salt has which ingredients in it, and rate which are "good" and which are "bad."  (Provide cups of water to clear the salt tastes out of their mouths between tastes.)

1. Plain rock salt
2. Garlic Salt
3. Salt with Baking Soda
4. Salt with onion powder
5. Salt with sugar mixed in it
6. Salt with alum powder (or baking powder)

Help Good Things Happen: Be Salt!

This video contains a short animation of "Salt and Light" and demonstrates a "Salt and Light" votive candle craft.  

Bible images copyright Kirsty McAllister from Lamp Bible Pictures used with permission. www.lampbiblepictures.uk.co