I plan to follow the lesson plan, "
I can show love to each member of my family," in the 2014 Sharing Time Outline fairly closely. However, to better catch the children's attention, I made cheap people puppets, and then put together colorful houses and attached them to giant paint sticks.
(These paint sticks have been recycled numerous times over the years. I'm not sure who originally used them but, but it's a great tool to re-use!).
I will describe family members, then let children guess, before showing them the puppet. I will let a child come to the front of the room and hold up the puppet.
Part 1 - People Paper Bag Puppets
The inside of the mouth is below each flap so when you put your hand in the paper bag, and move the flap up and down, it looks like they are talking. You can
download the template here.
Part 2 - Colorful Houses
If you have all of your materials on hand, you can create all three houses in about five minutes.
- 10 sheets of colorful card stock
- Paper cutter (optional)
- Scissors
- Glue
- Stapler
- Three large paint sticks
1. WINDOWS - Take one sheet of paper, fold it in half lengthwise, then fold it in half lengthwise again. Cut out window panes the way you would cut out designs in a snowflake cutout. Each of the windows above are identical per house because they were cut at the same time, by folding the paper twice.
2. BUSHES - Take another sheet of paper, fold it in half, then cut out puffy bushes. You should be able to fit three bushes onto the folder sheet, which means that since the paper is folded over, you will have six bushes.
3. DOOR - Take another sheet of paper, fold a small portion of it, and cut that portion into thirds to make doors. ROOF - Use the remaining piece from the paper that was used to make doors to cut out a roof.
4. ROOF - Take another sheet of paper, fold it in half lengthwise, then cut a diagonal line from one side to the middle of the piece of paper on the opposite side of the fold. Do this from the other corner as well. Ta-da, two more roof tops.
5. Now glue everything onto your three sheets of paper to make three houses.
6. Staple or glue your house to another sheet of paper. Just staple in the four corners, then staple on either side of the door, near the bottom, leaving a center opening to slide the stick through. Do the same on the opposite end of the paper, making sure your staples are far away enough from each that you can slide a stick through.
7. Fold the roof over at the very top. This acts as a pocket to hold the stick to the house. You can also just tape the stick to the house and ignore step 6, but this ensures your house is not likely to slide down the stick.
