We are in Week 3 of our Fruits of the Spirit curriculum with J. To make J understand the importance of peace and Christ’s peace within, I had some activities to explain how we can live in harmony with those around us, and also to ask God to give us His peace in our hearts even when things are scary. There were many favorite books from this week I would recommend if got are talking about diversity and peace with your toddler :
- Brown Boy Joy by Thomishia Booker, such a cute book to celebrate brown boys just as they should.
- Mixed A colorful story by Arree Chung, a story about different colors learning to love together in harmony. My toddler loved it since he is into all things colors now.
- Sesame Street’s We’re Different, We’re the same And we’re all wonderful, a highly rated book to teach your toddler that we are the same and have the same needs, no matter how different we look.,
- Finding your spot of Diversity in the world. We got this whole box set ‘A little spot takes action‘ from Amazon. The diversity book in this set is especially a favorite with J. It is artfully crafted to teach Littles about all the different people in the world.
- Stories from the Jesus storybook Bible. This was the main and only source we used to teach J about the peace that God gives, and would recommend it to everyone!
DIVERSITY SENSORY BIN WITH RICE KRISPIES
Sensory bins are a great way for toddlers to play and learn. J loves all things Sensory and it was easy to set a bin for him to help him grasp the idea of Diversity.
In a couple of Ziploc bags, add some rice krispies, vinegar and grew drops of color ( I chose yellow, brown, black). Shake the bag to mix the color evenly through the krispies. Pour the colored krispies on a flat surface and dry them overnight. I found this Google image that depicted the diversity concept pretty well. I printed 2 copies – laminated both, cut the figures out of one of them.
Next morning, I filled the Sensory bin with the colored krispies and partially his (buried) the figures I cut out. I asked J to dig out the people and match it with the picture. As he matched, we talked about how different the kids looked from each other – their dress, their skin color, their hair, the way they dress, etc. And I told how God loves everyone in that picture, and asks us to be friends with them. This was our introductory lesson on living out the peace of God with others.
PEACE BE STILL – BUBBLE PAINTING CRAFT
Jesus calming the storm is one of my favorite Jesus moments from the Bible and has been since childhood. During this week of peace, we have been reading this story with J from the Jesus storybook Bible, and I’ve been thinking of ways to explain how he can be calm even when things go wrong. I came across this craft on Pinterest and it was perfect for J. This was our first time Bubble painting and I’m already looking forward to try more bubble painting with J!
You will need the following for this craft :
- A tray with raised edges
- Bubble solution
- Blue food color
- Straws
- Construction paper
- Dot markers
Our amateur attempt at the craft can be found here on YouTube, along with the steps or instructions for the activity. The Bubbles in the activity kind of brought out the effect of storm that Jesus and the disciples experienced. And we referred to this craft whenever we talked about being calm and peaceful when things did not go J’s way.
PLAY DOUGH FACES TO TEACH DIVERSITY
I was still working on ways to teach J about diversity and living peacefully with others. This activity was a major hit with J. I found similar ideas from Pinterest. The reason this activity was perfect is because, I could relate it to a book we were reading with him this week – A spot of Diversity in the world (pic 2 below).
The setup is pretty simple, just as you see. I used Dollar tree snack trays, crushed construction papers, pompoms, Play dough and a set of faces I printed out of Google. As your toddler plays, explain how different and unique God has created us and everyone is perfect in God’s eyes.
