Rochelle taught me this today, which I would like to share with everyone.
Age: From 2.5 - 5 years old
Objectives:
1. To teach the concept of praying to God in a fun way.
2. To teach counting.
3. To train fine motor skills with cutting with scissors.
4. To provide opportunity to practise writing skills in a fun way for the older children.
Materials:
1. 1 piece of construction paper
2. 1 scissors
3. 1 pencil
Directions:
1. Tell the child that as usually when we pray, we fold our hands. Thus, today we are going to make a pair of hands.
2. Fold the paper into half.
3. Trace the hand of the child very closely to the edge of the folded side of the paper so that you only get to cut it on 3 sides, with the left hand side as the folded side untouched.
4. For older children, let them cut out the hand themselves. For younger children, help them to cut the hand.
5. Open it up like a book. Take this opportunity to revise Maths with the children, and invite them to count the fingers. For younger children, count the 10 fingers with them.
6. Tell the child we are going to list down 5 - 10 people whom we could pray for this coming week.
7. Ask the child who he would like to pray for and invite your child to write it down for each finger. For younger children, write down for them the names of the peope he would like to pray for. For older children, it is a chance for them to practise writing :-)
Additional Information:
This is a fantastic idea from Rochelle that I learned and I would like to record it down. The pair of hands above is traced from Joshua's left hand. I asked Joshua who he would like to pray for and we talked about the following people:
1. Amy
2. Anna
3. Jeffrey
4. Jesus
5. Chen Ying
6. Daddy
7. Mommy
8. Farfar
9. Farmor
10. Ye Ye in Singapore
11. Nai Nai in Singapore
12. himself
Joshua was so thrilled to show it to my Superstar, when we reached home, that he did not take off his shoes, but rushed straight in to Daddy.
We were going to my Superstar's parents' place for dinner, and before we leave, Joshua said WAIT, and ran to pick this to bring along and show to Farfar and Farmor.
We don't have enough fingers to write all the names down. This evening, I hope to take this pair of hands out and use it to pray with Joshua.
Thank you to Rochelle for such a fantastic idea :-)
