Animals on the Ark

Words

Words that we put together and take apart....

Words that shine brightly on the I pad screens....

Words that we listen to....

Words that we recognize and write....

Words that are revealed when we paint..

Words that we search for like hidden treasure....


The classroom is populated with words. They're everywhere, and the children are learning to read them. But they're also memorizing the most important Word of all: the Word of God, the Bible.  They're hiding it in their hearts and learning to apply it to their lives. As they listen to the Bible stories, they are hearers of the Word, and they're working on becoming doer of the Word also.....doing things like loving their friends at ALL times (Prov. 17:17) and doing their work "with all our hearts as working for the Lord." (Col. 3:23). 

Though growth and maturity sometimes seems like a long, hard process, every once in awhile I'll see evidence that God's Word is truly active in the lives of the children---for example, when I hear one child telling another, "God loves you.  He loves you all the time."

I hope that as their reading skills progress, the students will read the Bible for themselves. I hope they’ll dig into it and look for the treasure buried there. I pray that the Holy Spirit will reveal to them the meaning of the message they read. I pray that God’s word will shine brightly in their lives, giving them instruction to on how to live, and truly be a lamp unto their feet and a light unto their paths.

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path."  Psalm 119:105

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only..." James 1:22

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  Hebrews 4:12

"Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You."  Psalm 119:11 

John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

More Than Meets the Eye

See...

What if you had only one eye?

Reading the fine print

We can wear these cool-looking sunglasses when the sun's too bright.

 Hear...

We're listening to different sounds on the Ipads.

What sound does the horse make?

Yum!

Taste...

Salty, sweet, bitter, or sour?

Touch...

Smooth or bumpy?

Soft or hard, hot or cold?

 Smell...

What do I smell?

We perceive stimuli in our environment by using our senses. But is there more to life than what we perceive with our senses? We use our sense of sight, but some things are too small for our eyes to see, or too bright for us to safely view.  Sometimes our vision is limited, and sometimes it's dark, and in the absence of light we must rely on other senses.
Animals perceive the world through senses that are quite different from ours.  As they look at  the world through their compound eyes, insects get quite a different view than we do.Their vision is not as sharp as ours, but insects such as the dragonfly can detect the minute flickers of the wings of its prey, flickers too fast for us to see.  When a honeybee looks at a flower, it doesn't see what we see because many insect-pollinated flowers contain ultraviolet pigments that only their pollinating insects can see. 
We use our tongues to taste, but snakes use their tongues, along with a sensory organ called Jacobson's organ, to smell. Canines hear sounds in frequencies that humans aren't able to hear. And their sense of smell is tens of thousands of times better than ours. So you could say that there's more to life than meets our ears and noses as well.
Some bats, as the children learned last week, find their way in the dark by using echolocation-bouncing sound waves off of objects.

The class loved the Echolocation Song.

Big Friends came to help the students show what they learned about bats.

The students wrote some "Bat Facts."

They made construction paper bats.

Little friends shared what they learned with their Big Friends.

We take our five senses for granted, (that is,unless illness--like a stuffy nose or an ear infection---causes the senses to malfunction). But our senses are essential for learning about Creation and about God Himself, for when we investigate creation, we see evidence of His power, His plan, and His goodness.

Romans 1:20 "For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made."

We haven't had the privilege of seeing God with our eyes, or touching Him, or hearing His voice. But we do have the eyewitness accounts of those who saw Jesus, the Son of God----who walked with Him, talked with Him, ate with Him, "did life" with Him. One of those was the apostle John, who tells us:

"From the very first day, we were there, taking it all in---we heard it with our own ears, saw it with our own eyes verified it with our ow hands.  The Word of Life appeared right before our eyes; we saw it happen!" I John 1:1 (The Message)

Sometimes I'm more like poor doubting Thomas, though, wanting to see with my own eyes, touch with my hands, hear with my own ears.  Jesus gave Thomas the opportunity to see, to hear, to touch. But to us He says, "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."  John 20: 29

How can I believe in something I can't see? I know better than to simply trust my own limited senses.  Just because I don't see something, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

One day we will see Him face to face.  But until then, we can look at the evidence in Creation, and the eyewitness accounts of those who were with Jesus when He was on earth. And we can remember that there's more to life than meets the eye.

"Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of a the things which God has prepared for those who love Him."  I Corinthians 2:9

The Measurable and the Immeasurable

Kids like to measure things.Whose pumpkin is bigger, taller, heavier? Teachers, too, like to measure. We measure growth and academic progress. How much have our students learned?  But what if the most important things we can teach our kids are the things that can't be measured at all?

Big...

bigger....

biggest!

My pumpkin is as tall as how many cubes?

Measuring circumference

The book is as long as five links. 

How many links go around the pumpkin?

Will it sink or float?

Some things, like pumpkins, are easy to measure, (and some hypotheses are easy to prove.)  It's easy to see that our kids are growing in stature, growing taller, for example.  Academic growth is a little trickier to measure-not quite so cut and dry, but still possible.  Maybe a student recognized 80% of the letters of the alphabet, and now recognizes 100%.  Those statistics show the students growing in knowledge.  But what about growing "in favor with God and man?"  What about character development? How can we measure that? I suppose we could tally the number of acts of kindness and caring we observe during the day. 

"You don't have a brown crayon? Here, you can use mine."

"He's having trouble with his page.  I'm helping him."

"We have to pray for my PawPaw.  He's sick."

One of our goals is to raise our children to be caring individuals.   On Thursday the students wore pink and brought $2 for breast cancer research.  I don't think all of the kindergartners really understood why they were wearing pink, but hopefully as they get older they will demonstrate a desire to make a positive contribution to society,to be zealous for good works.

"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven."  Matthew 5:16

Pumpkins and other concrete things are easy to measure.  Abstract things.....well, not so much. 

How can you measure things such as a parent's love for a child?

Is it as long as the sleepless nights spent at at a sick child's bedside?

Is it as high as the goals, the hopes and aspirations a parent has for a child?

As wide as arms stretched out for countless hugs?

As heavy as the burdens that parents carry as they sacrifice so that their children can have the best opportunities?

And as great as that love may be---the love of a parent for a child---there is a love that's even greater: the love of our Heavenly Father for us. It's a perfect love. Though we may fail, the Father's love never fails.

It is unending.

Unfathomable.

Immense.

Immeasurable.

So we teach our children about the physical world and all the things they can measure.We measure their growth, both physical and academic.   But we also teach them about the immeasurable things. 

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how WIDE and how LONG and HIGH and DEEP is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen"   Ephesians 3:19-21

Pumpkin Patch

The Bus Ride

Anticipation

Mrs. Heather explains how pumpkins grow.

Listening and Learning

Which pumpkin should I choose?

The round one?

The tall one?

The big one?

The small one?

Face Painting

Friends

Fun Photo ops

A farmer's life

Feeling right at home with the Disney characters

Donald

Minnie and Mickey 

Tow Mater

Climbing to new heights

Goal accomplished!

Fairy tales

Corny fun

Slip sliding away

Into the wild blue yonder

Tents and teepees

Thanksgiving's coming soon

Picnic lunch

More time with friends

We love the Pumpkin Patch!

Children.  They’re energetic….

                                                               Excited…….

                                                                                            Exhausting.

They’re inquisitive……

                                              Insistent….

                                                                         Impatient.

They want to see everything, touch everything, do everything at once.

And yet, Jesus said if we want to enter the kingdom of heaven, we must become like little children.

Matthew 18:1-5 “And he said: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.”

You see, little children BELIEVE.  They TRUST.  They haven’t become so preoccupied with the busy-ness of life that they fail to find wonder in the minute but magnificent everyday miracles—such as a tiny seed growing into a fat pumpkin. They haven’t become so jaded by the disappointments of life that they miss the daily evidence of God’s goodness---the sun is out and there is a world filled with treasures to find. They’re still humble.  They realize that they don’t know everything there is to know, so they’re still teachable.

Since the class has been learning all about seeds and how they grow, I am reminded of the parable that Jesus told about the sower and the seed, as recorded in Matthew chapter 13.

“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means; When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.  The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy.  But since they have no root, they last only a short time.  When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.  The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it.  This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:18-23

The children are hearing God’s word every day and seeing evidence of Him in creation.  For the most part, they haven’t experienced troubles that would keep that word from taking root. Worries of life or deceitfulness of wealth haven’t choked out God's word.  We want to nurture those seeds that have been sown in their hearts.  And we want to learn from the children.  We want to come to God with childlike faith and teachable hearts so that we might understand God’s word and live rich and fruitful lives.