Lesson & Bible Craft Using Household Objects: Crown Dads
Most young children think of their dads as very strong and powerful. They cannot believe they will ever be that strong and wise. The trick of “watching the snake grow” with the paper on a drinking straw lets kids see that it is possible. In this Lesson and Bible craft, kids can use drinking straws to make a crown for dad.
Household Object:
Tall drinking straws that come inside paper (easily gotten at a convenience store); 1 for each child
Other Materials:
– Small cups of water, 1 for each child
– Silver duct tape
– Scissors
– Stick glue
– Paper towels
The following can be purchased at craft stores:
– Flexible, colorful straws, 15 for each child
– Pipe cleaners, of varying colors (easily purchased at most craft stores)
– 4th of July Garlands featuring stars, enough so that each child can have five 5-inch pieces
– Pom-poms matching colors of straws and pipe cleaners (if possible)
Preparation
Cut the garlands up into 5-inch strips
Lesson
Begin with only the straw in the paper on the table with the glass of water. Hold up the straw.
How much taller are your fathers than you? Lots taller.
Fathers are bigger than kids, not just in height, but in lots of ways.
For one, your fathers have lived a long time in comparison to kids. How many years older is your dad than you? Let them figure and announce.
How much have you learned in your life? How much will you have learned when you have lived four times that long? A lot. So, how much do dads know? A lot.
It’s hard to think that you will ever be as big or wise as your dads, especially if your dads are Christians. They’re big on the inside and the outside. They’re sort of like this straw that stands very tall.
Hold up the straw and, pretending it is a dad, have it walk about the table a bit.
But that wasn’t always so. Here’s what happens to Christian dads. They start out small – just like you.
Push down on the outer paper surrounding the straw so that it is accordionized and small. Hold up the accordionized paper.
When dads ask Jesus to come into their hearts, God starts making them wiser and wiser. God does this through the Holy Spirit. Sometimes the Holy Spirit is compared to water in the scriptures, so let’s pretend this glass of water is like the Holy Spirit.
Take the straw, dip it into the water, place your finger over the top, and pull the straw out. Because your finger is there, the water won’t run out yet.
Hold the straw over the accordionized paper, then release your finger from the top.
The water will come out, making a piece of the paper elongate.
What happens when we pour water on the straw paper? It grows a bit.
Put the straw back in the glass and get more water, dropping it onto the straw in places.
God helps dads grow bigger and stronger by letting his wisdom rain down on them via the Holy Spirit. This will happen to you someday. If you ask Jesus, into your heart, the Holy Spirit will start to make you big and strong and wise.
Let’s try our trick together.
Pass out the straws in the paper and the little cups of water.
Push down on the paper of your straw, and when it is little and smooshed, put it beside the straw. Give them time to do it and place one beside the other on the table.
This is like you and your dad. He is big and straight and strong. You are little. But let’s apply some of the Holy Spirit to ourselves and see what happens.
Show them how to put their finger over the top of the straw to make the water stay in it momentarily, then rush out over the straw paper.
If the straw is like Dad, and the piece of paper is like you, who is helping you apply the Holy Spirit to yourself? The straw is, or in this case, “Dad” is.
The most important thing a father can do for his child is to raise him up in the way of the Lord. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Dad is one of the most important people in your life as far as making you strong and spiritual. Let’s thank our dads for all they do buy using more straws”¦.and making him a crown so he can be king for a day!
Father’s Day Crown Bible Craft Instructions
1. Cut pieces of duct tape for each child approximately 24 inches long.
2. Have children lay the tape sticky side up in front of them, being careful not to get it caught to itself. As these are long pieces, children might have to overlap their tape strips on the table, every other child laying his closer to the center of the table.
3. Mixing up the colors, give out 15 straws to each child.
4. Have children adhere the straws to the tape so that each straw starts close to the bottom of one side and sticks straight up, passing far over the other side. Children should spread out their 15 straws so that they are a little more than an inch apart, leaving about four inches clear on either end.
5. Cut a second piece of blue tape, also 22 inches long, for each child
6. Help students lay the second strip, sticky side down, overtop the first strip and the straws so that it is an inch shorter at either end. Pat it down so that the straw ends are stuck in between them. Most of each straw should stick far up, like a point on a crown.
7. Bring the duct tape around and attach the two sticky ends, one over top the other so that the crown is round.
8. Have students write on the duct tape part of the crown: Proverbs 23:22 LISTEN TO YOUR FATHER WHO GAVE YOU LIFE.
9. Pass out 15 pipe cleaners of different colors to each child.
10.Have them slide pipe cleaners and garland into the straws. The pipe cleaners should stick out the top, and students can bend them or curl them around any way they want.
11.Pass out 6 or 7 pompoms of varying colors to each child.
12.Using stick glue, students should stick pom-poms to the pipe cleaner tops.
13.Students can bend the straws as desired.
When Dads appear after class, have students crown them with their crowns of glory!