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Naaman

This week's Bible story was that of Naaman the leper, from 2 Kings 5. Short version: the prophet Elisha tells Naaman to wash in the Jordan River seven times, and after a bit of moaning and groaning, he does and is healed. I modified this craft, which I found through our preschool curriculum. 

We didn't have any blue plastic cups, so first we painted styrofoam cups. Owen had no interest in painting, and as he was playing happily by himself, I saw no reason to make him participate.

Painting the outside of cups is actually really easy. Just stick your non-dominant hand inside the cup!

I googled "man outline" and searched until I found a workable face, then printed it twice. Levi had the rare treat of using a marker to put red dots ("leprosy") all over the face. 


Painstakingly drawing leprous sores on Naaman's ear. 

Then I taped Naaman's face (one clean side, one spotted side) to a popsicle stick (which I just now realized you can't see in this picture) and stuck the popsicle stick through the bottom of the cup. 


 Moving the popsicle stick up and down, I "dunked" leprous Naaman in the "water" seven times, and flipped the cup around as he came up the seventh time so his face would be clean. What I didn't expect: Levi sort of believed it at first. He stared at the cup in my hand, silent, thinking, and then quietly asked me to do it again. The second time, it started to sink in that I was turning the cup, but he still had a slightly bewildered look on his face when he took the whole contraption to try it himself.


I suppose Naaman was rather surprised by the outcome as well. :)

Comments

  1. This is a really clever teaching idea and craft. I'm going to share it with Miss Sherry, children's director, at church. Thanks!

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