We have been following the lessons from Young Children and Worship for Lent this year. The series is called “The Journey” and each lesson follows Jesus on his way to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. So far our stories have been Jesus and Bartimaeus and Jesus and the Children and then this week, Jesus and Zacchaeus.
This story is so easy for kids to relate to both because of its familiarity and because I think they empathize easily with Zacchaeus’ smallness and not being able to see above the crowds.
Plus, you probably know that catchy little song…we sang it with the kids…of course!
Following the lesson, we open the classroom up for response time by letting the children choose from several options.
We always have at least the story shelves, the art area, and the building area to choose from. Depending on the story, we may add in some sensory play, dramatic or small world play as well.
here, one of the children plays with a small world model of Zacchaeus and Jesus.
Here you can see Zacchaeus neatly tucked into a hole in the tree.
Several of the children seemed intrigued by the part of the lesson where Zacchaeus gives back the money he has cheated from others. I laid out a coin sorting activity on the mirror, but the children added other jewels and treasure from around the room and said they were giving it to the poor.
During our wondering time we talked about what it would be like to empty our piggy banks and give half of it away. One girl seemed really moved by this discussion and in the response time became the leader of this pretend play.
I placed out a tub of materials so the children could make a tree or draw a picture from the story. I didn’t get a picture of all their work, but here are a few samples. The do-a-dot markers were the big draw this morning. We didn’t have enough green and brown to go around so many rainbow trees appeared.