Drawing Our Hopes

Give each person a sheet of white paper, a white or light-colored crayon, a dark crayon, and a paper clip.

Say: Use your light-colored crayon to write a word or draw a picture that shows something good you hope for in your life. Maybe someday you’d like to be a great athlete, a person who works with animals, someone who teaches children, or someone who tells others about God’s Word. Or maybe there’s something you’re hoping for right now, like doing better in school!

Give kids time to write or draw. When everyone has finished, say: Now use your dark-colored crayon to color over all of what you just wrote or drew.

As kids are coloring, say: Sometimes we face worries and may think God isn’t caring for us. David wrote some psalms that asked God to hurry up and protect him or that asked God not to forget him.

But God never forgot David, and he never forgets us. God is always watching out for us. God loves and watches over us—all the time—even if we can’t quite see it. I’ll show you what I mean.

Show kids how to use the edge of a paper clip to scratch away the dark crayon coloring on their paper. What they wrote or drew with the light-colored crayon will reappear.

Say: Look! Your hope for something good is still there, even when you couldn’t see it. Activity Debrief

Ask:

• How is the dark coloring like our problems or worries?

• What can we do to help us remember that, no matter what’s going on in our lives, God’s still watching over us?

Say: God’s love and care are always with us.

Younger kids may strongly resist coloring over their drawings—reassure them that their drawings won’t be lost, and promise the drawings will actually reappear in a cool way.

Say: We can get caught up in our own problems or worries that we don’t see God. But God loves and watches over us in every situation, just as he did for David. Let’s find out more about this guy who wrote the 23rd Psalm.

Directions

Students can make this fun craft from paper plates, cotton balls, and construction paper. Templates for the head and legs are included, as well as the printable for the craft that includes the first verse in Psalm 23. This passage is a wonderful reminder that the Lord loves us and will always take good care of us! Be sure to download the Free Sheep Template and Printable Here.

Directions:

Cut a large handful of mini marshmallows in half using the kitchen scissors and set aside. You want a small size marshmallow that is even smaller than the mini.

Frost each graham cracker square with white frosting. I use a knife or spoon to spread it on, but you can also put the frosting in a plastic bag and cut off the tip if you’d prefer to frost that way.

Use some kitchen scissors to gently snip the edges of the a black candy melts making almost a triangle shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but as close as you can. Place the triangle on the graham cracker to form the sheep’s head.Use a toothpick or fork tine to add a small dab of frosting (your “glue”) to the back of the sheep’s eyes. Place the eyes on the sheep’s head (as shown in photos). Lastly, take the halved mini marshmallows and place around the sheep’s head as shown in the photos. Voila! Sheep grahams!

What you will need:

Paper

A Die

Pencils

Printouts

How to make:

1. Before class print out the picture of the sheep and the sheep parts page.

Sheep

Sheep Parts Page

2. In class give each child a piece of paper and a pencil. Have them take turns throwing a die. If they roll a one, they get to draw the sheep’s body. If they roll a two, they draw the sheep’s ears, etc. The sheep parts page tells which part the child should draw according to which number they roll. If they roll a number that they already rolled, they don’t draw anything on that turn. The child who draws the completed sheep first wins.

3. If you have a lot of children in your class, break them up into two teams. Place a big sheet of paper on the wall for each team and have each team work on drawing a sheep.

4. If you have very young children, instead of having them draw the parts, cut out sheep parts before class and just have them tape the sheep parts up on the wall.

Note: You can buy Jumbo Foam Dice from Amazon to play this game.

Play just like “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” except use a sheep.

1. Print out the patterns and tape them together.

Sheep Poster Pattern 1

Sheep Poster Pattern 2

Sheep Tails

2. Tape the sheep poster to a wall at your children’s height.

3. Cut out the tail patterns.

4. In class blindfold your children and have them try to tape their tails on the sheep.