Free Sunday School Lessons for Children

The following Sunday School lesson for children is a free sample Sunday School lesson.
There are many more Sunday School lessons available on The Resource Room.

Elijah and the Birds
(3 years olds through first grade)
Written by Carolyn Warvel

Memory Verse: Philippians 4:19

Scripture References: 1 Kings 17:1-6

Printable Bible Verse Card:  Print out onto card stock, cut apart, and send home with each child. (Large file or small file)

Teaching concepts: God gives us everything we need. Children learn how God took care of Elijah; and that he takes care of us.

Opening Activities

1. "God Will Supply All Our Needs" Mural - Have your children draw pictures of things we need that God gives us. Tape them to your bulletin board with the "God will Supply All Your Needs" title. Print out the patterns, cut apart and glue them together.

Pattern 1, Pattern 2, Pattern 3, Pattern 4

Printing Problems?

2. Make a "Giving Raven"

What you will need: Large paper plates, small paper plates, yellow, black, and white construction paper, black markers, black paint and paint brushes, glue gun, and black feathers.

What to do:

1. Before class cut the top 1/3 off of one large paper plate. Glue it to another large paper plate so that it forms a pocket.
2. Glue two small paper plates together, top to top, for the head. Glue the head to the large paper plates as shown.
3. Cut out some wings from another paper plate or black construction paper and glue them to the body.
4. In class have the children paint or color the body of the bird, cut out a beak and eyes, and glue them to the body.
5. They can also glue some feathers to the top of the head and make legs from black construction paper.
6. You can also punch a hole in the top and tie a piece of yarn in the hole so they can hang their birds.

3. Make a picture of a raven feeding Elijah - Print out the pattern (Large file or small file), print the Bible verse on the bottom, and make copies. In class have your children color the picture and then, either draw food in the raven's beak and Elijah's hand, or glue cereal, popcorn, sunflower seeds, etc. onto Elijah's hand.

4. Color a picture of The Ravens Feeding Elijah - (Large file or small file)

5. Practice printing and writing - This lesson was designed to go along with ABC worksheets using the Bible verse. Children practice writing the letter A in print or cursive or write the complete verse in cursive.

6. Make a Bird Hand Puppet

What you will need: Paper, scissors, tape, paper glue, and crayons or markers.

What to do:

1. Before class print out the pattern (Large file or small file) and make copies. Cut out the patterns (on the outside border only). In class have your children color them. To make the upper beak and face, fold Flap B under the top of the beak (the triangle with the two dots on it). Place glue on Flap B and fold Flap A over Flap B.

2. To make the bottom half of the beak fold all the triangles under the middle triangle and then unfold. Fold Flap B down and place glue on it. Then fold Flap A over Flap B. Place glue on the remaining triangle and insert it into the upper beak so that the flap forms the bottom of the beak. Now place glue on the small flap on the upper pattern and press it against the lower inside beak. Use Scotch tape to secure it to the beak. Your children should be able to put their fingers inside the beak to make it open and close.

The Lesson

Preparation: This lesson is presented with a bird puppet. The teacher can use the puppet herself or use a helper to be the puppet. You will need a bird puppet with a beak that opens and closes, clock or watch, picture of Elijah, crown, spray bottle, statue (idol), food, and the Bible verse written on a piece of paper. If you are using a helper, you will need something for the helper to hide behind. (I just used a piece of cardboard.)

*Note: (My seven year old did the puppet for me and did a wonderful job. Since she doesn't read that well yet, I used hand signals so she would know what to do next. I kept my hand that was closest to the puppet hidden behind the cardboard. When it was time to bring out another object I would spread out my finger with my palm up. When I wanted her to move the bird's mouth, I put my thumb and other fingers together like a bird talking. I used a bird puppet from Oriental Trading. This one doesn't look like a raven, but it doesn't really matter in this story. It does make a really nice caw sound though. Type in 25/2147 in the search box on the left for a black crow puppet or 6/280 for a toucan puppet at Oriental Trading's web site.) If you don't want to use a puppet for this lesson, you can use just the object to tell the story.

Teacher: Good morning class. I have a very special friend I would like you to meet today. Everybody say "hi" to my friend Polly.

Teacher: I just found out that Polly is related to one of the ravens in our Bible story today. Isn't that right Polly?

Bird: (shakes his head yes)

Teacher: Polly's great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandfather is the second cousin of one of the raven's in our story. Isn't that right?

Bird: (shakes his head yes)

Teacher: So this story has been handed down from generation to generation. I have asked Polly to come in today and tell you the story. I will have to help Polly because he doesn't speak human language. Okay, Polly, you may begin.

Bird: (brings out a clock or watch in his beak)

Teacher: A clock? Oh, Polly says that this story happened a long time ago. (Have the bird turn his head around counter clockwise.) . . . a long, long time ago. (Have the bird do it again.) . . . a long, long, long time ago. (and again). . . a long, long, long, long time ago, (Have the bird do it again.) Okay, Polly, I think we get the picture. This story happened in Bible times, way before Jesus was even born.

Bird: (brings out a picture of Elijah)

Teacher: A picture of Elijah the great prophet. (Take the picture from the bird and show the class.)

Bird: (says something in bird talk.)

Teacher: Polly says that one day Elijah showed up at the Kerith Brook in the middle of the wilderness where his great, great, great, great . . . grandfather's second cousin lived.

Bird: (pants like he is tired)

Teacher: Elijah was very tired because he had been running all day long.

Bird: (brings out a crown.)

Teacher: Crown? Elijah had been running away from a King . . . King Ahab.

Bird: (tries to hide under your arm)

Teacher: Elijah was hiding from King Ahab. Elijah was afraid because King Ahab was mad at him.

Bird: (Brings out a spray bottle and gives it to the teacher.)

Teacher: Spray bottle? (Squirt the bottle.) Oh, rain.

Bird: (Makes some bird sounds.)

Teacher: Oh, Elijah told King Ahab that it would not rain again until he said so. That made King Ahab was very mad. Elijah was afraid that King Ahab would try to hurt him so he went to hide in the wilderness at the Kerith brook.

But why did Elijah tell King Ahab that it wouldn't rain until he said so?

Bird: (bird looks up towards heaven and says something in bird language.)

Teacher: Oh, God told Elijah to tell King Ahab that. But why would God tell Elijah to say that? People have to have rain. If it doesn't rain, nothing will grow and there will be no food.

Bird: (bird talk)

Teacher: God was mad.

Bird: (brings out a statue)

Teacher: The people were praying to idols?

Bird: (shakes head yes)

Teacher: Oh, that is a bad thing. God gets very angry when people pray to anyone or anything but him. So they were trusting idols to bring them rain instead of God. So God told Elijah to tell King Ahab that it wouldn't rain until he said so. He wanted to prove (or show) to King Ahab that he is the one who makes it rain. That is why King Ahab was so mad at Elijah. And that is why he had to run away and hide from King Ahab at the Kerith brook where your great, great, great . . . grandfather's second cousin lived.

Bird: (shakes head yes and then brings out some food, places it in front of the teacher, and says something in bird language)

Teacher: Polly said that God didn't forget about Elijah while he was hiding. God told Elijah to do something that was very scary and dangerous but he took good care of him. He told Polly's great, great, great, great . . . grandfather's second cousin to take care of Elijah and they did. They brought him food in the morning and again in the evening.

Bird: (brings out a paper with the Bible verse written on it)

Teacher: Oh, Polly has a Bible verse he would like to share with us. “My God shall supply all your needs".

Bird: (more bird talk)

Teacher: Polly says that God may have us do some hard things, but he promises us that he will take care of us. Thanks you, Polly, for coming to tell us that story. I hope you can come back again sometime. Bye, bye.

Prayer

Father, we thank you for every thing that you have given us and for taking care of us. Help us to trust you even when things seem hard. Amen.

Activities

1. Review the Lesson - Place all the objects that were used in the lesson on a table in front of the class in random order. Ask one the children to come up and pick the first object that was used in the story and tell what it represented or reminds us of in the story. Keep going until all the objects are picked in order.

2. Bible Verse Review - In this activity the children pretend to be ravens and bring food to Elijah. Before class draw some pictures of food, color them, and cut them out, and write one word of the verse on each food. Hide the food pictures around the room. Pick a child to pretend to be a raven and fly around the room until he finds some food. When he finds something, he should bring it back to you. Take the food from the raven. Ask another child to come up and tape it to the wall. Then have another child pretend to be a raven and do the same thing. Pick another children to tape the food to the wall in the correct order of the verse. Keep going until all the food is found and the verse is complete.

3. Pretend to be ravens and feed the class - Have your bird puppet bring a snack to each child. Have the children put some of the snack in a Baggie and place in the paper plate birds they made earlier. Also make copies of the Bible verse for each child and staple it to the outside of the Baggie. Tell the children to take their birds home and have him deliver the food and verse to someone they know and to tell that person about Elijah and how God cared for him.

You could also put snacks in plastic bags and hide them around the room. (You may have to use another room that isn't being used.) Have the children use their bird puppets and go into the other room to look for food. When they find some food, they should bring it back to the room and give it to another student.

4. Help the Raven find food for Elijah - Send one child out of the room and pick another child to hide some food. You can use pictures of food or plastic food. Call the child in or have your bird puppet caw. As the child searches for the food make your puppet caw when he is going towards the hidden food. If he turns the wrong way have the puppet shake his head no. If he needs to look higher, have the puppet point up with his beak. When the child is really close have the puppet caw very fast. Keep playing until all the children have had a turn to find the food.

5. Play a game - Print out the spinner patterns, Spinner 1 (Large file or small file), and Spinner 2 (Large file or small file) and the food card pattern Color - (Large file or small file) onto cardstock. Cut the wheel patterns out and glue them together to make a circle. Cut out the raven pointer and color it. Use a brass fastener to attach it to the wheel. Cut the food cards apart. Write one word of the Bible verse on the back of each card.

In class place the cards in a bag or display them on the table with the words facing down. Also have some kind of snack available, such as crackers or cereal. Each child takes a turn spinning the spinner and doing what it says on the wheel. If the bird's beak lands on "Pick a card" that child should pick up one of the cards. If a child lands on "Pick a card from another player, he can take a card from any of the other players. (You may want to skip this one, or change it to something else. Very young children might have a hard time with this one.) Keep playing until all the cards have been picked up.

Write the Bible verse on the board. Ask the children to look at the words on their cards. Point to the words on the board one at a time and ask the child who has that card to come up to the board and tape the card underneath that word. Go over the previous words each time you add a new word. When all the words have been taped to the board, have the children say the whole verse.

Songs and Rhymes

1. Three Black Ravens
by Nancy Foss
(Sing to the tune of "Three Blind Mice".)

Three black ravens
Three black ravens
See how they fly
See how they fly
Elijah prays for food today
The ravens bring without delay
Three black ravens
Three black ravens

2. Raven Black
by Nancy Foss

There was a little raven black
He lived in a tree
Flying through the clouds and back.
He answered Elijah's plea
Flying over the seas,
Bringing food to please.

3. Black Ravens
by Nancy Foss

Five black ravens sitting in a tree
The first one said, "Elijah needs me."
The second one said, "Let's go, lets go."
The third one said, "You're moving to slow."
The fourth one said, "Let's bring Elijah bread."
The fifth one said, "He'd like toast instead."
Then swoosh went their wings and down, down, down from the tree they came
Five black ravens Elijah did see.

4. Elijah was a Prophet of God
by Carolyn Warvel
(Sing to the tune of "Zacchaeus was a Wee Little Man".)

Elijah was a prophet of God; a prophet of God was he.
He told King Ahab it would not rain, no, no more rain he'd see.
And then he ran to hide away, with the birds and the bees.
And God said, "Ravens, you take care of him.
For I have something for him to do, for I have something for him to do.

Crafts

1. Make a Sitting Raven holding a sign - Go to Crafts Page 9 for directions and a pattern.

2. Make Raven Puppets from paper lunch bags - Go to the Puppet Craft Page on Danielle's Place for directions and patterns.

3. Make Raven Cookies.

1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup milk
4 cups sugar
2 sticks of butter (1 cup)
1 cup of peanut butter (optional)
6 cups of old fashioned oatmeal

Nilla Chocolate Wafers
Candy corn
3D’s Doritos
Blue or green icing in a
tube with a decorating
tip with a small hole

Before class make the dough for the raven’s body:

1. Mix cocoa, sugar, and milk stirring well in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the margarine. Bring to a boil. Boil 2 to 3 minutes until the mixture reaches the softball stage. (Drop a small amount of the hot mixture into a cold cup of water. If the mixture sticks together slightly when you push it together with your fingers, it is in a softball stage.) Do not over cook because they will be too dry and fall apart.
2. Remove from heat and add the peanut butter and oats. Scoop onto waxed paper that has been placed on a cookie sheet.

In class have the children complete the Ravens

Raven 1 - Add candy corn or 3D’s Doritos for a beak. Use icing to make the eyes.

Raven 2 - Cut one Chocolate Wafer in half to make two wings. Push wafer halves into the sides of the raven’s body. Cut another wafer into a triangular shape for the tail feathers. Push into the top of the raven’s body. Push a Candy Corn or 3D’s Doritos into the lower half of the body for a beak. Add eyes with icing.

Copyright 2002 Carolyn Warvel
Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities
http://www.daniellesplace.com

All rights reserved.   No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information or storage retrieval system, except for local church or school use only.  This copyright notice must be included on all copies. Requests for permission to copy this material for any other uses should be addressed to Carolyn Warvel, 588 Duran Street, Henderson, NV  89015 or e-mail me at care@daniellesplace.com

Comments

We would love to hear your comments about this lesson. If you have done this lesson with your class we would love to hear how it went, if you changed anything, added anything, what age you taught and was it appropriate. Any comments that would help other teachers would be greatly appreciated and posted here for everyone to read.

I taught the first Elijah lesson to my preschool Sunday school class this week. I have a couple of children who are afraid of puppets, so I rewrote the lesson without the puppet.
We began the lesson by discussing things that are really hard for us to do and things that we would not want to do. I told them that our lesson was about a person who was told to do something really hard by God, that he didn't really want to do it and that it would make King Ahab really angry with him. Next, I showed them a black feather, which lead into our discussion about birds. I ended the discussion by telling the children that there would be ravens in our lesson. Then I told the story using the objects, without the bird puppet. My children really love object lessons, so this part of the lesson went well.
For our craft, we made the "Sitting Raven Holding A Sign". This was great!! It was easy for the children to do and googly eyes are their favorite craft item. I look forward to the next lesson in this series. Thank you for such wonderful ideas!! Theresa Bostick

I just did the Elijah and the Raven's lesson for children's church (ages 2 - 13). It was great; everybody loved Polly (I used your instructions for making a raven out of a paper bag). Instead of having the actual props, (ie, the clock, squirt bottle, etc) I printed them out with my graphics program and put tape on the back of them, that way "Polly" could easily pick them up with her construction paper beak. We also made the raven cookies which were a huge hit. The kids said that whenever they saw a bird, or ate some food, it would remind them that God supplies all their needs. Thanks for the great lessons! Natalie

Thank you so much for the wonderful lesson on Elijah and the ravens! We copied the bird and hand pattern and enlarged it so that the children could color it and glue birdseeds and raisins in the hand (as if the bird delivered it to Elijah). The children, ages 2 to 4, loved the picture and were able to visualize God sending the birds to feed Elijah. Angela Sipes

I did this lesson with my class at church (ages 4 - 6) It went great. I had extra time at the end of class so I had the kids act out the story. They took turns being different parts: God, the king, Elijah, and the raven. We used under the table for Elijah's hiding place. It was great, and it really helped the kids remember the lesson.

My 2 - 3's class made the black raven out of paper plates. Boy did they get the concept. It has now been four weeks that we have studied Elijah and they remember that God sent birds to feed Elijah crackers. It was a great lesson. We put Cheerios in the pocket and sent them home. The parents thought it was great. Thanks, Christy B.

Hi, we did the first lesson on Elijah, and it was a lot of fun. We did not use a puppet. I had an older girl in the class just act out the puppet part like she was a bird and it did turn out to be fun. We did the picture of the raven feeding Elijah and put food in his hand. Thanks for all your wonderful lessons. Christina Penley

Wow, great stuff. I teach Sunday School to 4 - 5 year olds. I just taught the lessons about Elijah and the ravens. I made a raven puppet using your sock puppet directions (Turned out great) and used your lesson script for the story. The kids loved the "rain". We also did two of your rhymes. We changed your blackbird rhyme to ravens and it fit the lesson well. We talked about how Jill felt when Jack flew away. (We were trying to teach that God is always with us.) Your ideas are wonderful and I plan to use The Resource Room a lot. Thanks.

I'm doing " Elijah and the Ravens" tomorrow.  I'm going to have them make the sitting raven.  A quick tip, I used a black marker to color in the raven parts that were to be black, then copied them off on yellow card stock.  I am cutting out all the parts myself since my kids are not that great at cutting yet.  Sylvia

This last Sunday I taught your Elijah and the Ravens lesson to my Wee Worship class (2 - 5 yrs.). They loved it! And the adults had fun too! We started with the Two Little Blackbirds rhyme and then I told them that today we were going to talk about a black bird called a raven. I brought out a black bird puppet that squawks when you open his beak and did a slightly different version of your lesson. (Found the puppet at Oriental Trading as you suggested.) It is hard to keep them seated with one prop, so I figured that many things would be hard to keep them sitting. They tend to want to come and touch things. They were fascinated with the puppet and the lesson went well. I made it interactive and the puppet went and gave them pretend food during the lesson. Then we did our memory verse. And then repeated the Two Little Blackbirds rhyme, but said ravens this time. Then we said a prayer for our snack and the puppet dropped their snack, in baggies, to them. As they got their snack, they went to the table. When they were finished I stamped their hands with a bird stamp in black ink. I told them that when they see this stamp today, they can remember that God gives us all we need. With their stamp of a blackbird on each hand, we did the rhyme again, and then again and again. That was a big hit. By then, the other helpers had the table cleaned off and we did the craft page with the bird feeding Elijah. The kids loved gluing Cherrios on, but one little boy kept eating them. Then, when finally on his page, he tried to eat those too. So, had to take his paper and leave him a pile of Cheerios. Funny as we just had snack and he had three helpings! The Sunday school teacher reinforced the lesson again by telling the story as she cut out ravens. When the story was done she opened up the raven and he looked like he was flying. The kids loved that too! Thanks for all the wonderful ideas! Lara

For more free Sunday school lessons go to the
Free Sunday School Lessons Page.

This is the first lesson in the series of 6 lessons about Elijah. The remaining lessons are available on The Resource Room. You can find out more about The Resource Room here.

Elijah and the Widow Bible Lesson - The widow makes Elijah bread. (1 Kings 17:7-16) In this lesson your children act out the story as it is being told. They then use the actions to review the story.

Activities:

1. Kitchen experimentation: Set up different stations in which the children measure, weigh, smell, taste, and experiment. Before class decide which of the following activities you will use. Write up a worksheet using the following questions or your own. Older children can go from station to station and fill out their worksheets as they go. If you have younger children, just have helpers at different stations to ask the children the questions and help them measure and pour.

2. Make bread - Before class prepare some yeast bread and let it rise. (Or buy the pre-made bread dough and thaw it out before class.) Give each child a handful of bread. Let them shape their dough the way they would like. Let the dough rise for half an hour. Bake the bread dough during the lesson. If you don't have an oven in church, you can have the children help you make some bread from scratch. Show them how to knead the bread. Give them each a handful in a plastic bag and tell them they can take it home and bake it. Write the Bible verse on the outside of the bag and the directions on how to bake the bread.

3. Say a rhyme while kneading bread. Have the children line up in a row. As you say the rhyme have a child knead the bread. At the end of the rhyme, he should go to the end of the line and the next child starts to knead the bread at the beginning of the rhyme.

"The Widow Kneads Some Bread"
by Carolyn Warvel

One, two, God loves you!
Three, four, do it some more.
Five, Six, knead and mix.
Seven, eight, God is great!
Nine, ten, say amen!
Do it again.

Copyright Notice - While many of the crafts on this site are free, they are still copyrighted. They are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except for local church, school, home, clubs, etc. only. It is illegal to copy any part of this craft and place it on another web site, bulletin board, or personal web site. To request permission to copy this material for any other use than personal use contact me by e-mail.

4. Decorate a napkin to place in a bread basket.

What you will need: White paper towel or white material, bread baskets (you can find these at used stores for 25 to 50 cents apiece), markers, and pinking shears.

What to do: Have the children decorate their paper towels with markers and cut the edges with pinking shears. Tell them they can write the memory verse on the napkin and use other Christian symbols. Have them place their napkins in their baskets. Tell them they can place a piece of plastic wrap over the napkin and place bread in the basket. Instead of the paper towels you could use white material cut into squares and permanent markers so that the can be washed and used again.

5. Make a picture with different types of bread in a basket. Patterns available on The Resource Room. In class have the children color the pictures and cut out the different types of bread. Cut a slit in the top front of the basket. Have the children place the breads in the basket. They can put some of them in the slit so that it looks like the bread is in the basket. Glue the bread in place.

Make a Bible Cookbook with recipes to reinforce the lessons about Elijah. Each recipe relates to a part of the story of Elijah and has a scripture reference so that children and parents can look up the verses to review the story.

Recipes include:
1. King Ahab's Crown - (Sugar cookies cut into crown shapes. Ice and decorate them with candy confetti and small pieces of candy.) King Ahab was an evil king. He worshipped idols, 1 Kings 16:29-33
2. Runner's Snack - (Gorp) Elijah runs away and hides from King Ahab, 1 Kings 17:2-4
3. Ravens - made with chocolate wafers and candy corn beak,
5. Raven's Food - (Made from won ton wraps) The ravens fed Elijah at the Kerith Brook. 1 Kings 17:6
6. Dried Earth - (Cookies with crack on the top) It did not rain, the Kerith Brook dried up and the earth looked cracked and dry, 1 Kings 17:7
7. Widow's Bread - (Easy to make biscuits) The widow used the last of her flour and oil to make bread for Elijah, 1 Kings 17:8-16
8. Elijah's Altar - (Dough formed into rock shapes, with Chow Mein noodle wood and fire on top) Elijah built an altar with 12 stones, 1 Kings 18:31
9. Clouds - (Coconut Macaroon cookies) Elijah sent his servant to go look for signs of rain seven times. On the seventh time he came back and said he saw a cloud the size of a hand in the sky. 1 Kings 18:44
10. Rain Drops - (Cookies formed into rain drop shapes) After God sent fire to burn up the offering, wood, altar, and the ground around the altar, God sent rain.

You will find even more activities, songs and rhymes and a complete lesson on The Resource Room.

The Big Contest - (God sends Fire) - (Kings 18:21-39) In this lesson children learn that God gives us everything we need. Children learn how God took care of Elijah and that he takes care of them. They act out the story as the teacher reads the story.

Crafts and Activities:

1. Build altars - Make some stones by filling lunch bags or grocery bags with crunched up newspapers and taping or gluing them closed. In class have the children practice building altars. Explain what altars where used for.

2. Make flame banners - Cut off two to three feet lengths of crepe paper streamers. Use red, yellow, and orange. Staple them together at one end and cut the ends to a point at different lengths. Tape and staple the streamers to a craft stick. Have the children use the banners while singing a song.

3. Make an Elijah Picture Story Wheel - Children turn the wheel to reveal pictures from the story of Elijah.

You will find even more activities, songs and rhymes and a complete lesson on The Resource Room.

God Sends Rain Bible Lesson - (Elijah Prays for Rain on Mt. Carmel) 1 Kings 18:43-46 In this lesson children learn that God is the one and only God, he controls the rain and can do anything. Children participate in telling the story by repeating a rhyme in which the servant comes back to Elijah each time after looking for rain and tells him he sees nothing. There are many activities, games, crafts, and songs, and rhymes to go with this lesson. This lesson comes with a printable Bible verse and color sheet.

Decorate your room with clouds and balloon raindrops. Use the display for a Bible verse review game.

Crafts and Activities:

1. Make a cloud picture - Children can glue cotton balls on a picture with clouds and raindrops. Pattern available on The Resource Room

2. Make a play dough raindrop in a puddle.

3. Discover how many drops of water will fit on the top of a quarter while discussing and reviewing the lesson.

You will need a quarter and an eyedropper. (You may also want to have extra eyedroppers available for the children to experiment with later.) Before class practice dropping drops of water on a quarter. Discover how many drops a quarter will hold before it runs off. It is really interesting to watch as the water begins to bulge over the sides of the quarter. You will be amazed at how much water a quarter actually holds. I counted about 40 drops.

You can use this activity as a review game or just use it as an experiment.

Experiment - Ask the children how many drops of water they think will fit on the top of the quarter without running off. Drop a drop of water on the quarter using the eyedropper. Add a few more drops. Keep adding drops until the water runs off the quarter.

Review Game - Ask the children how many drops of water they think will fit on the top of the quarter without running off. Drop a drop of water on the quarter using the eyedropper. Add a few more drops. Divide the children into teams. Tell the children that you will add one drop of water for every correct answer they give. Take turns asking the teams questions about the lesson. Add a drop for every correct answer. The team whose turn it is when the water runs off wins.

4. Play Bible verse review games with balloon raindrops. Make some raindrops by filling some balloons with flour. Use heavy duty balloons, blow them up to stretch them out and then let the air out. Use a funnel to fill the balloons with flour. Place the balloon on the end of the funnel. I used the eraser end of a pencil to push the flour into the pencil. When the balloon is full pull it off the funnel and tie the balloon closed. (Warning: Keep an eye on the children as they play with these and make sure they don't puncture them with something sharp. Do not give them to young children who might put them into their mouths. They could puncture them with their teeth. They are very sturdy and will tolerate a lot of abuse. I would use these only in class and not give them to the children to take home. They would not make a safe toy for young children.) You will find games and Bible verse review activities on The Resource Romm using these cute raindrops.

5. Raindrop Roundup Review - Before class cut out a lot of raindrop shapes from blue paper. Write the Bible verse, one word per raindrop, on each raindrop shape. Make enough sets of raindrops so that you have one set for every child in your room. It is okay to have extra. In class write the Bible verse on the board and go over the verse several times. Have the children sit in a circle around the room. Ask the children if they have ever seen it rain inside. Throw all the raindrops up and let them fall to the floor. Tell the children on the word go, they should go and look for one raindrop with the word "He" written on it. Show them the word. Once every child has found a raindrop with the word "He" on it, tell them to find a raindrop with the word "gives" on it. Keep going until the children have found all the words to the Bible verse. Make a cloud shaped pocket (pattern available on The Resource Room) by gluing two cloud shapes together and writing the Bible verse on the outside. Have the children place their raindrops in the cloud pocket so they can take them home and study the Bible verse. (This activity can be done with nonreaders. They can just compare the words written on the board to the words written on the raindrops.).

6. Make rainsticks -- Enchanted Learning Web Site has instructions on how to make a fun and easy rainstick out of a paper towel tube and aluminum foil. Young children will love making this rainstick. Have your children use their rainsticks during music time. To make this rainstick, you crunch up a sheet of aluminum foil into a long thin shape and then bend it into a coil shape by winding it around a dowel. Stick the aluminum foil into the tube and tape one end closed. Place some rice, popcorn, or dried beans into the tube. Or use different things in different rainsticks and compare how they sound. Tape the other end closed. Cover the tube with construction paper and decorate the tubes with stickers, crayons, or markers. You could also write the Bible verse on stickers and have the children stick the stickers on the rainsticks.

You will also find songs and rhymes to go with this lesson.