Matthew 7-12
“Treat others as you want to be treated”
This week we talked about “The Golden Rule.” Most of the children had no idea what “The Golden Rule” was or what it meant.
I read the story “The Golden Rule” by Jane Dippold, it starts like this…
Jesus gave us the Golden Rule and it works at home and it works at school.
Treat your friends and the whole world too, the way you wish they treated you.
After the story we talked about the ways that we would like others to treat us. Many of them said they wish that their brothers or sisters would share with them. Since sharing seemed like a common theme between the children I thought that “sharing” would be a great theme for our journal activity.
Before class I assembled stick journals for each child. These are very simple to make.
Stick Journals
(5) 4x6” pieces of cardstock
1 craft stick
1 rubber band
1 hole punch
Punch two holes on the edge of the 5 pieces so that they are about 2 inches apart.
Thread the rubber band through the top hole and back through the bottom hole. Run the craft stick through the top loop of the rubber band and the bottom loop of the rubber band so that the stick and rubber band are holding the pages together.
I gave each child a journal and said that we would call them our “Sharing Journals.”
I put stickers, markers, crayons, colored pencils (my preschool children love colored pencils) on the table. I also turned on the music to Raffi’s “The Sharing Song” as we worked.
Many of them went right to work, coloring and drawing and singing. We talked about what kinds of things they would like to share with others as they were drawing. They drew pictures of their toys, balls, cats, dogs and a couple of children were even bold enough to say they would share their mom or dad.
One practice that I have always used when working with preschool children is to have more than enough of something in case they want to do another one. I put out enough stick journals for each child to have an extra one or two. Many of them took the extras home to make a journal with their family. We talked about them sharing one with their brother or sister, and I encouraged them to bring them back to share with the class.
As always, peace and joy,
Barb