Teaching the Fruit of the Spirit

So here's the deal: Psalms 119:11 says, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." I think that means that when you memorize scripture (or hide it in your heart) that it helps you not to sin. Makes sense to me! As I've mentioned before we are dealing with some specific sin issues in our family, so we are starting a new project this coming week. We're going to memorize some scripture. We've done it before, but I haven't been consistent with it and I haven't worked on making it fun. But this week I've got a plan!! I'm going to tell you about our plan in this post so you can join us if you want to!

I bought this cheap little recipe card box at Walmart for Christian. This is going to be his new scripture card box and it's going to sit on our kitchen table. On Monday he's going to decorate it and make it look cool.Inside will be an index card of each scripture we've memorized and a card for the verse we're working on at that time. This is the card for Genesis 1:1. Every time he says this verse at the dinner table I will put a sticker on the back of the card. He should be saying the scripture at all three meals during the day, so he should be getting at least 3 stickers a day.

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This week we are going to memorize Galations 5:22 &23 "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control."

Monday:

1. Activity =Decorate scripture memory box. Explain how the box is going to work.
2. Read Galations 5:22&23

3. Activity =Color this picture of a tree and draw different fruits on the tree. Discuss how "good/healthy trees bare fruit."

4. Game= (preparation- print out pictures and put tape on the back of them)

Have each of the children pretend to be a tree. They should be standing with their arms out like branches. Explain that God wants us to grow fruit just like a fruit tree but the fruit we grow is going to be a little different. List the fruits of the spirit. Ask them what kind of fruit they could grow and then begin to cover them with pictures of them doing that particular fruit. For example;

Kindness -sharing your toys

Goodness - by helping mommy in the kitchen (or cleaning up toys, etc)

Gentleness - by being kind and helping your little sister

Patience - By not fussing in the car

Love - giving hugs and using kind words

I'm going to print these pictures and a bunch more to tangibly show them how they should be acting when they are growing the fruits of the spirit!! Then I'm going to tape these pictures all over them, as they're pretending to be trees, to show them the kind of "fruit" they should grow! I think they'll think it's funny, but it will also be memorable and I think it will stick with them for awhile.

4. Time to put it into practice! Joy - Have each child think of one thing that could do for another child (Ex: Something Nate could do for Abby...) to make them happy! (They could share something special, make them some sort of surprise, etc).

Tuesday:

1. Activity= We'll complete this project from http://www.christianpreschoolprintables.com/

2. Read Galations 5:22&23

3. Time to put it into practice! Goodness - Ask the children to do a job around the house and explain that there is NO reward. It should be done with a happy heart!

Wednesday:

1. Activity=We're going to make fruit paintings using apples cut in half as stamps and bananas as our brushes.

2. Read Galations 5:22&23

3. Time to put it into practice!! Self-Control - Sit a tasty treat out on the table and tell the children they can't have it until Emma gets home from school! Yikes! That's going to be a hard one! If they whine or ask about it then they aren't showing self control.

Thursday:

1. Activity - Complete this Fruit of the Spirit maze (or crossword puzzle for older kids)

2. Activity - Make this Fruit of the Spirit mini book.

3. Read Galations 5:22&23

4. Time to put it into practice!! Love - Have each of the children say what they love about each other! Have them make cards for someone they love as a surprise!

Friday:

1. Activity: (this is great for working on those preschool fine motor skills) Give each child a paper plate and a bunch of magazines. Using toddler scissors have them cut out pictures of fruit from the magazines and glue them onto their paper plate. They should have a picture of a tasty fruit salad when they're done.

2. Read Galations 5:22&23

3. Time to put it into practice!!! Peace - Set the timer for 20 minutes and put all the children in the same room. Tell the children to play peacefully together and explain your expectations of exactly what that should look and sound like!!

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Those are just a few of my ideas! You could add a fruit of the day to this lesson plan and work on the letter that goes with that fruit. For example; Monday you could eat Grapes and work on the letter "G." Tuesday could be Cherries and you could work on the letter "C" and so on! Let me know if you have other ideas of what I could do this week to make this fun (just don't suggest something too complicated...I've got to keep it simple or I won't end up doing it :)

P.S. Ever since I wrote this post the Wiggles song "Fruit Salad, Yummy, Yummy" has been going through my head. If you know the song, you know how annoyed I am!!!