God’s Covenant With Abraham And Sarah Sand Art Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Students will examine sand to realize how many descendants God promised Abraham. They will decorate a star shape with their name & colored sand. This lesson emphasizes our connection to Abraham.

Note: This workshop was visited by 1-3 grades.

Scripture References:

Genesis 12:1-9; 15:1-6, 17:1–8, 15–17; 18:1–15; 21: 1-3, and 22: 1-18

Leader Preparation:

• Read the scripture for this lesson.
• Read and reflect on the overview material provided for this lesson.
• Gather the materials

Supplies List:

• Easel with appropriate marker
• On-My-Own Reader Bible (or another picture Bible with this story)
• Beach sand
• Magnifying glasses
• Tooth picks
• Pieces of construction paper
• Pencils
• Pre-cut star shapes cut out of Bristol board
• Hole-punch
• Colored sand (or use dry Jell-Ο powder)
• Funnel
• Salt shakers (empty)
• White glue (a container for each student)
• Meat trays (clean) or paper plates

Before Start of Class:

• Clean the tops of all of the glue bottles to make sure that they dispense glue.
• Separate the various colors of sand into shaker bottles.
• Use the hole-punch to punch a hole in each star so they can be hung up if desired.
• Write the key Bible verse on the easel.

LESSON

Opening:
Greet your students warmly, welcoming them to the Art Workshop. Introduce yourself and any other adults.

Say: Let’s start with prayer.
Ask for any prayer requests. Ask if anyone would like to lead the group in prayer. Use the Lord’s Prayer as the ending. A suggestion: “Dear God, we thank you for this time together to share your word. We thank you for the blessings you always give us. Help us to always remember that you will keep your promises to us. As we each travel on our journey of faith, help us to follow you always. (End with everyone joining in on the Lord’s Prayer) Amen.”

Dig:

Say: Tell me what you would think of this situation: God tells your parents that you are going to have to move. You are going to start over someplace new and wonderful but far away from friends and family. Oh and by the way, you will live in a tent in this new place.
Ask: What would your reaction be to this? (accept all responses)

Say: We are going to hear a Bible story today about a family that was called by God to move away from their home.
Ask: If Jesus learned this story when he was your age, would we find it in the Old Testament or the New Testament? (in the Old Testament)
Say: The Bible is divided into two testaments – the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is stories that Jesus learned as a child. The New Testament tells us the story of Jesus’ life.
Say: Besides being divided into two testaments, the Bible is divided into 66 books. The Bible is like a library – a library of 66 books.
Ask: Does anyone know which book our Bible story is from?
Say: Our Bible story is found in the book of Genesis. Genesis is the first book of the Bible

Distribute Bibles to the older students; demonstrate this for the younger students.
Have them find Genesis, chapter 12. Make sure to point out that chapters are the large  numbers. [Don’t continue until you and your helper make sure that everyone is at chapter 12.]
Have the students keep one hand at chapter 12 and turn the pages until chapter 22.

Say: This is how long our story is – from chapter 12 all the way up to chapter 22. That is too much for us to read right now; but do read this at home with your families. Let’s look up our key Bible verse – this is the verse that we try to learn during each Rotation.

Have the students find Genesis 22:17. Refer to the easel. Point out that the actual key verse is Genesis 22:17a. Explain that the “a” means you stop after the first part of verse 17 – stop reading at the period in the sentence. Have everyone read together the key verse from the Bible.

Say: Let’s hear our story of the family called by God to move away from their home.
The main character in our story is an old man named Abram. Abram is 75 years old.

Read them the story on pages 24-31 in the On-My-Own Reader Bible. Show pictures as you read the story.

Ask: What is a covenant? (a promise)
Say: Last month we learned about the covenant God made with Noah.
Ask: What was the covenant that God made with Abraham? (that he would be the father of many people)
Say: God used a word picture to talk about how many children Abraham would have.

Ask: What was it that God told Abraham?
Say: God told him that he would have many children and grandchildren and great grandchildren – that they would equal the number of stars in the sky.

Refer to the easel.
Say: The promise that God made to Abraham is in our key Bible Verse.

Read the key verse to the students and then have kids say the verse together.

Ask: What is a descendant? (Abraham’s children & grandchildren & great grandchildren)
Say: Let’s see if we can count the number of Abraham’s descendants.

Examine Sand:
Pass out a piece of construction paper to each student. Distribute magnifying glasses, toothpicks and some sand. (Put a pinch of sand on each piece of paper.)
Say: God said that Abraham would have as many descendants as the sand on the seashore. Ask: Can you count the grains of sand.
Encourage them to try to count the sand. They can use the magnifying glasses to see better and the toothpicks to move the sand around. After they have counted for a few minutes, have them estimate the grains of sand on their paper.

Next, have the kids imagine looking at the stars at night.
Ask them if they can count how many there are.
Ask: Do you now see how magnificent and unbelievable God’s promise to Abraham was?
Say: We can count ourselves as descendants of Abraham because we also believe in Abraham’s God and his Son, Jesus. We are one of the stars that God promised Abraham. Let’s make stars with our name on them using sand art.

Create Sand Art
Pass out pre-cut star shapes. Have the kids write their name on the star with pencil (lightly!). Go over the name with glue. Not too heavy-- i.e. not too thick or the glue will absorb all the sand and it won’t work. Cover the glue with sand and holding star over a tray or plate, tip off excess sand. If time permits and there is room on the star, they also can decorate the star with other designs.
Note: to do each letter of their name in a different color requires writing one letter at a time in glue. Pour excess sand back into the containers before using a different color.

Discussion: (while the kids are working)

• Ask: Did God keep his promises to Abraham?

Say: Abraham and Sarah were blessed with a son that they named Isaac.

• Ask: How many of you know the ages of your grandparents?

Say: Sarah was 90 years old and Abraham was 100 when they had Isaac; pretty old for becoming parents! They had waited 25 years for God to fulfill his promise of a son.

• Ask: Could you wait that long for a promise?

Say: Think about how becoming parents at such an old age seems unlikely. Then again it does say in the Bible that God asked Abraham: “Is anything too hard for God?” That means that God can handle anything!

• Ask: What things in your life seem impossible to you?

What does this story tell us about God? (he keeps promises)

Say: Back at the beginning of our story, Abraham was called by God to begin a journey. Abraham has been on more than just a walking journey. He’s been on a faith journey – a journey where his faith grew.

• Ask: Would you say that you are on a faith journey?

What parts of your faith journey are similar to Abraham’s?
(hint: when have you had to trust God?)

Reflection:
Refer to the easel and have kids say the verse together.

Say: In making this covenant God was saying: I love you. I want you to be my people. I will be your God. If you obey me, I will see that you receive the blessings that I intend for you. Take all of your concerns to God. Nothing is impossible for God.

Send the stars home with the students. Urge them to hang them up at home.

Resources:

• Penrod, Kim. “Abraham and Sarah:” 2001. (An old lesson no longer at the rotation site.)
  
  Scripture quoted is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

A lesson written by Carol Hulbert from: First UMC, Ann Arbor, MI
Copyright  First United Methodist Church, Ann Arbor, MI.
Permission to copy materials granted for non-commercial use provided credit is given and all cited references remain with this material
If you use this material, even in a modified form, please include the following reference:
Hulbert, Carol. "God’s Covenant with Abraham and Sarah: Art Workshop ." Oct. 2007. Place URL where lesson found inside angle brackets<>.

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