I’m honored to be a guest writer on Christian Montessori Network once again. Today I have compiled a variety of Montessori inspired kids Bible activities that you can do with your children on the story of Jesus Feeds 5000.
(All photos are used in this post with permission from plantingpeas.com)
Scripture:
Matt 14:13-21, Mark 6:32-44, John 6:1-14, Luke 9:10-17
Telling The Story
I like to use props to help my children understand the story better. If you leave the props out in a basket on the shelf, it also gives them a chance to replay the story later on their own. I leave a little story card out together with the props, and my toddler loves to have me retell the stories over and over again. Click here for some ideas on how to set up a simple Christian area for your child at home.
You can use various types of props depending on what best engages your child, your available supplies, your crafting abilities, and your budget. Click here for some simple guidelines for how to go about DIY’ing your own materials.
For this story of Jesus Feeds 5000, using a flannel board might be easier. This Etsy seller has easy patterns to make your own felt figures. No sewing necessary, just cut and glue.
Videos are also good to help make the story and concept more concrete for a 2-6 year old child. Here are some short videos on YouTube that I liked:
1:21 Movie clip from “Son of God”
3:51 Animation with a song about a boy sharing his food with Jesus
Montessori Inspired Kids Bible Activities
Practical Life
Grace and courtesy activity — Older children can serve his/her friends. Help them to develop control of movement and learn courteous behaviour by practicing food serving early in childhood.
Weave a basket — Let your children practice weaving with this DIY basket craft. This one requires some adult assistance.
Fishing activity — Make an easy fishing activity using a DIY magnetic fishing rod and little origami fishes attached to paper clips. We made our little fishes using play dough. We have a little fish mould from this Play-Doh Hungry Hippos Art Dough Play Set so making the 3D play dough fishes was a breeze. Alternatively, this Melissa & Doug Magnet Fishing Activity is also fun and promotes careful hand movements and hand/eye coordination. Your child can also them sort the fishes by color as an educational extension.
Field trip — Montessori encourages lots of concrete and real-life experiences, so take your little ones on a field trip to look at real fishes. It’s winter now, so we decided to visit a local nursery that has a beautiful indoor koi pond. You can also visit a pet store as an easy way to see many different fish species all at once. In the summer, take your kids fishing.
Bake bread with your child — Baking involves lots of wonderful practical life skills for your child — whisking, measuring, pouring, mixing. You can find 25+ easy recipes here.
Math
Gold fish and crouton snacks — Serve the kids exactly 5 croutons and 2 gold fishes in a mini muffin cup. Ask them to count how many pieces of bread and fish in each muffin cup.
Montessori-inspired fish and bread sorting activity — This is an early math activity for toddlers and young preschoolers, focusing on the concept of sorting and classification. Create a sorting chart by drawing a fish on the header of one column, and a bread on the other. Combine both fish and bread in a bowl and let the kids sort them. You can use snacks or printed pictures for this activity.
Sorting edible vs. non-edible — This is another early math activity which reinforces the concept of sorting and classification. It’s done in the same way as the fish and bread sorting activity, except this time introduce the concept of edible vs. non-edible. The objects could be fish and bread for edible, boat and basket for non-edible.
Montessori-inspired patterning activity — Create a strip of paper with fish and bread patterns, and print equal amounts of fishes and bread for the kids to match. Older children can extend the pattern, for this you just need to print extras.
Language
Montessori parts of a fish puzzle – This is a great time to introduce a Montessori zoology lesson on parts of a fish. Present the fish puzzle and let toddlers explore sensorially at first. For older toddlers and preschoolers, you can introduce the language to them when they’re ready. You can also draw a black-and-white outline of the fish puzzle on a separate piece of cardboard and have your child place the puzzle pieces on the outline while naming each piece. Finally, you can print out these nomenclature cards and have your child match the pieces to the cards. Here’s a link to a free beautiful printable.
Montessori-inspired types of fish classified cards — Introduce various types of fishes using Montessori classified cards. You can buy them here.
Sensorial
Loaves and fishes matching — You can create an easy printable for quiet activity at home. Here’s the link to a free printable.
Art
Paper plate art — Collect flyers or magazine pages that have pictures of bread and fishes. Then have your child cut them out and glue them on a paper plate.
Coloring pages — Coloring pages are always an easy hit with the kids, and this website has several beautiful free printables to choose from. To promote the strengthening of your child’s pincer grip, try using broken crayons.
Science
Fish dissection — If your local grocery store sells whole fish, children young and old will find this activity fascinating. Name the parts of the fish while you are dissecting it in front of them. You can also have them touch the fish for a great sensorial experience, but have them wash their hands thoroughly with soap immediately after the activity to keep bacteria away.
Here are some of our Montessori inspired kids Bible activities, and more to come!
The story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)
About Elaine
Elaine is a blogger at Planting Peas who writes primarily about Montessori homeschooling and fun kids activities.
She is blessed with a loving husband and two wonderful children. They live in Canada where the extreme cold weather might be to blame for her decision to homeschool her younger son. (She makes her older son walk to and from public school with a group of friends while she sips hot coffee at home in her pajamas).
Change is the only thing constant for this former corporate marketing professional and tiger mom from tropical Malaysia, having been baptized to the Lord and introduced to the Montessori method only a few years ago.
She believes that God is leading her on a path of ministry to children, and that Montessori homeschooling, teaching Sunday school and blogging are the very first steps to doing greater service for Him. She hopes to inspire and help others through her journey and experience
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