Greatest Commandment Art Project

Originally posted by member Sue Wyatt:

For our art project, we had the kids learn and use calligraphy to write the key phrases of the Great Commandment on vellum using real calligraphy pens. This was big hit with our 3rd-5th graders.

Editor's Note:  Google images has tons of calligraphy examples to spur student creativity.  The one that uses a copied page from the Bible to draw on is particularly interesting. See below...

"On these two hang all the Law and the Prophets" bonus idea:

To go even further with this passage, we cut their calligraphy paper into the shape of a fish and attached their finished calligraphied "Love Fish" to a metal clotheshanger using scotch tape. (They bent the clothes hanger into a round shape that was slightly smaller than their calligraphied fish and rolled the paper over the metal hanger and taped it down. Could also use tackly glue).

Then we had them quickly create two smaller calligraphied pieces to hang beneath the fish using yarn representing "all the law and the prophets."   A set of tablets, and a picture of a wild prophet!

Is "Thou Shall Not Steal" the one commandment that sums up the rest of them?

Neil MacQueen posted this idea in response to ideas for teaching the Great Commandment:

An interesting thing happened when we were videotaping some youth for our Ten Commandments software CD. I asked them to summarize all the commandments (Jesus does the same with the Great Commandment).

All six teens agreed that THOU SHALL NOT STEAL was the one that was at the root of all. 

• Don't steal what is due God (respect, love, worship only God)
• and don't steal what is do others (honor, respect, love, dignity, their possessions, truth). 

Discussion idea:  Look at each commandment and ask, "What is being stolen from God/neighbor when you break this particular commandment?" 

Also... The great commandment is also PERFECT for a scripture memory game, such as Cal and Marty's Scripture Memory Game software. Let the kids type it in to give them the added memorization work.

The Ten Commandments and Cal and Marty software programs are now available FREE OF CHARGE to download here at Rotation.org to the supporting members of Rotation.org.
Learn more!

Video Ideas For the Greatest Commandment

Ages 8-12

• "The Jim Elliott Story" (Torchlighter's Series), Vision Video, 727985007601.   DVD includes leader's guide with reproducible student work sheets in PDF format.  To preview the guide go to the Vision Video website where you can download the guide for free.

Ages 4-7

• Cherub Wings Series Episode #11: Shine Your Light - Sharing God with others

  Before Jesus left the Earth, he commissioned His children to carry on His work by telling as many people as they could about him. But how exactly can this be done? In this video, Cherub and Chubby help children explore practical ways to share the message of Jesus’ love with others in their everyday lives. Through poems, stories and songs, children will learn that even just a little light can go a long, long way!

  Includes:
  • Sparky’s Spark - a story poem about a tiny star that just couldn’t see how he could be of help to anyone.
  • One by One - a sing-a-long song depicting the wonderful results of taking a small step to share God’s Word with someone else.
  • Reflection Recollection - a rollicking rhyme showing how God in our hearts can reflect on others.
  • Go Tell Everybody! - a Scripture memory song based on Mark 16:15 “Go into all the world and preach the good news to every creature.”
  • He Told Me All I Ever Did! – a Bible story about the time that Jesus met a woman at a well and what He said to her that changed her life.
  • Hank and Sherman - a comical object lesson about a backpacker who meets a funny little mountain shepherd who brings out the importance of little deeds.
  • The Little Missionary - a high-concept music video for kids showing the life of a little missionary and how we can be one right where we are.

   To purchase DVDs or download (whole video or clips) go to http://store.cherubwings.com/

Member Cindy Merten posted this a while back.

"Jesus and the Great Commandment TABLET"

For an art project we had the kids make a tablet from white Model Magic (a Crayola product).

Use a collection of craft beads and decorative doodads, press them into the clay to spell out the words "Love God, Love Neighbor, With All You Have"

They used various cut stones and "gems" to decorate the border around it.

They really seemed to get into this project. 

Drama Idea

(with apologies to Moses)

by Wormy, who also suggested that a DRAMA script with Jesus coming down the mountain like Moses might be a fun way to do a drama about this. "Hey Jesus, how come only 2 commandments? We on a budget or what?"

Writing or Art Project for "Loving Others"

Loving others as we would want to be loved can be a challenging subject when the "others" are different from us in specific ways: Physically, Mentally, Intellectually or Emotionally Challenged (for example). Immigrants. People from different religions. People who are hard to love. People who have hurt us.

The Lesson Idea:
Use a familiar scripture verse or passage as a "template" for a new subject....  Rewriting the passage to give it a new subject (but using the same format as the old).

Examples:  The Beatitudes for Caring for Disabled Persons
The Ten Commandment for dealing with difficult people
Psalm 23 for helping a friend through trouble.  

The idea is to restate what Jesus might have taught us about a specific subject had he used these familiar passages/wordings.  [The bonus is that we have to grapple and learn these familiar scriptures/formats to reinterpret them for a specific new subject.]

Ten Commandments of loving the difficult to love.
 Examples:
   ..."Do not murder a person's reputation or dignity, just because you can't get along with them."
   ..."Honor a troubled mother and father, even if they are having trouble honoring you."
   ..."Show you put God first, by putting aside your ego and letting God work through you."

Psalm 23 for walking a friend through difficult times/trouble.
  ...I will help you find cool water and green pastures.
  ...for God and I will go with you. 

"Beatitudes for Friends and Family of Disabled Persons "

Jesus often challenges our thinking and traditional points of view by pointing out how God's ways are often the OPPOSITE of our own inclinations. The Beatitudes are a good example of this "other way of looking" "different values" with which we are to view the world its needs, and its people. Example: What some view as weakness/meekness, God views as strength. 

The following restatement of Jesus' Beatitudes redefines how we can be a blessing, and what makes us a blessing to others.  In many ways they speak for all of us at one time or another.

Blessed are you who take time to listen to difficult speech,

for you help us to persevere until we are understood.

Blessed are you who walk with us in public places and ignore the stares of others,

for we find havens of relaxation in your companionship.

Blessed are you who never bid us to “hurry up,” and more blessed are you who do not snatch our tasks from our hands to do them for us,

for often we need time — rather than help.

Blessed are you who stand beside us as we enter new and untried ventures,

for the delight we feel when we surprise you outweighs all the frustrating failures.

Blessed are you who ask for our help,

for our greatest need is to be needed.          Author unknown

As well...

Ten Commandments for Disciples

Ten Commandments for Going to Church

How to "Beat Your Attitude" in Worship (Beatitudes for kids in worship)

"Fruits of the Worshipper"

Art Project for the Great Commandment 

Love God, Love Neighbor.  Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31,  Luke 10:25-28, John 13:30-36

Member Marie posted this "Mezuzah" prayer box idea in our "great art ideas" topic for a rotation they were doing on "Love God, Love Neighbor" during the month of February.

A Mezuzah is a box that holds a verse and is attached to your doorway so that you remember it going and coming every day.  They can be made out of several different types of material. See Marie's post for pics and suggestions.

CreativeCarol (Carol Hulbert) wrote an art lesson for this story, making mezuzahs out of Sculpey™ clay.

Game Idea

This suggestion was posted as a response to a question regarding Deuteronomy 10:12-22, where we are told to care for the immigrant because the people of Israel were once immigrants in Egypt. Here is a reply by Neil MacQueen...

Games can be "guessing games" and that what this first one's about....

This suggestion is based on terrific visual exercise I experience at a conference a few years ago. We were shown pictures (taken from the web, no doubt) of people in various situations, and then asked to figure out their story based on just how people "looked." Then we were shown the full picture, which usually told a different story. It challenged our pre-conceived notions of what "homeless" or "drug addict" or "abused" looks like.  (The addict was the clean cut athlete. The homeless person was actually someone helping in a soup kitchen. The pretty girl was the one who was abused as a child. etc. etc.)

Guessing Game: Adapt the above picture game in this way:  Show kids pictures of people (especially some celebrities they might recognize) and have them try to guess:  "foreigner? or not a foreigner?"  American? Or Canadian?  Mexican? or American?  African or African American?  Asian? or Asian American? Tattooed Tough Guy: Foreigner or Neighbor?  etc etc.  (Google images will be a great source of these photos.)
Use the guessing game as a way to unearth what the definition of "foreigner" means to some people. Is it their looks? Land of birth? Language? Religion? etc.  Then throw a few loops in there:  show pics of kids being bullied or ignored or left out. They too are the "aliens" in our midst when they feel "alienated."   

Games can also simply be fun actions that reinforce your key taking points and/or basic data you want them to remember. This next idea does both, and then asks the kids to come up with their own points and adapt them into the game. 

"Can You Spot the Orphan? - Toss (Help) the Orphan?"
(I know this idea will make some people cringe, but it's a point reinforcing activity that uses a funny activity to create memories. "Boring" doesn't.)

For kids, "orphan" needs to be interpreted as "kids without healthy families," rather than simply kids without fathers (which is the biblical sense of it).   Discuss a definition that includes kids who are effectively "orphaned" i.e.  Home alone after school. Ignored. Under-valued.  Not heard, Not being taken care of. Create that list and then ask your kids if they've ever felt like an orphan in their own family.

After that, I would set up a "tossing game" where teams competed to see what labeled buckets they could toss a doll into and rack up points. (Kids love tossing games) The doll represents the orphans we need to identify and help.   Bucket 1: Befriend at school  Bucket 2: Invite to play  Bucket 3: Let your parent know you're concerned about the kid  Bucket 4: Bring to church or fellowship. After playing a round, have the kids come up with new buckets (new ways to help those who are orphaned).  

Hot Tip: Barbie and Ken dolls are hilarious to toss. 

Lesson inspiration can be found in many places, including the Super Bowl commercials! New York Life's commercial in the 2020 Super Bowl introduces the Greek words for love, with a focus on agape, "love as an action. Agápē is what inspires us to put others' needs before our own. It's about doing what's right, being our best selves, and building better futures."

This sixty-second "Love Takes Action" commercial would be a great conversation starter about what it means to "love your neighbor."

NOTE: this commercial was brought to our attention by @ncsuecumom in the 1 Corinthians 13 topic, where it also could be used as a conversation starter.

The original "teal" graphic of the Great Commandment below comes from Golf Course Road COC in Midland Texas. They organized their workshop design and activities around the ideas of: Heart (feeling), Soul (mystery, Holy Spirit), Mind ( head knowledge), Strength (Service).

I created a "blue" version of the graphic and also changed the scripture citation to Luke 10:27 (which the words in the graphic are actually quoting).

Interestingly, Deuteronomy 6:5, the original version of the Great Commandment, does not include the word "mind." The word "mind" was added in the 3rd Century B.C. by Jewish translators translating the Hebrew Bible into Greek (a version known as the Septuagint).  Early Christians, including Mark and Luke, used that Greek version, and that's how "mind" got into the Jesus quote we today know as "The Great Commandment."