If Jesus Came to My House

If Jesus Came to My House was one of our favorite BFIAR books so far. The kids could easily relate to the boy in this story and learned so many lessons from him.

Koo When Jesus is with us, we don’t need to fear the shadows in the hall. When we spend time with Jesus, we become more like him. We may not have the opportunity to physically invite Jesus into our homes, but we can show hospitality and kindness to others and in so doing, we do it unto the Lord.

BIBLE:

For this unit, we memorized Isaiah 43:10 and focused on fear, what to do when we feel afraid, and how we have nothing to fear since Jesus is always with us.

You can download a copy of our Bible verse printable here at our TPT Store.

Zacchaeus:

We read <a href=”http://Story of Zacchaeus“>The Story of Zaccheus and talked about how he invited Jesus to his house.

After being with Jesus, Zaccheus was never the same. He changed and became a new man.

We spelled out his name with foam letters…one of Parker’s favorite activities!

If Jesus Lived Inside My Heart

If Jesus Lived Inside My Heart is such a sweet board book and was a perfect addition to this unit. When Jesus lives in our heart, He changes us and people will see the difference.

We made little felt dolls with special heart buttons that the kids helped sew on.

Fear Not

The little boy in the story was afraid of shadows, so we talked about fear and how everyone feels afraid sometime.

We read When I Feel Scared (Way I Feel Books) which was a really cute book and explained the necessity of talking about our fears. Having said that, I felt the need to continue the discussion by presenting a question to my kids. This book was great, but what was it missing? They knew the answer right away…God. In my personal experience, God is the only one who can calm all my fears. This book provided a great talking point for this subject.

We also played an Emotions matching game.

Manners with Martha & Mary

We started our morning reading Mary and Martha’s Dinner Guest – Arch Books by Swanee Ballman, Arch Books (1998)

I love this story, because I can relate to Martha sometimes. We talked about priorities and how we need to always put God first. Both Mary and Martha were doing good things, but Mary chose the better thing, spending time with Jesus.

I printed out some really cute worksheets (Mrs. Jones Creation Station) for the kids to complete.

We also talked about being a good hostess, etiquette, and having good manners. I believe manners are a learned behavior and we try to work on them daily. I’m sure we’ll revisit this subject many times.

We incorporated a “set the table” life skill activity in learning lane.

The kids glued their table setting pieces on the construction paper background.

We added Psalm 100:2 to the bottom of the page.

We added our title, “Worship like Mary, Work like Martha” at the top to finish our craft.

They turned out really cute and colorful!

Tea Party Etiquette:

We read Fancy Nancy: Tea Parties and Fancy Nancy: Tea for Two together.

After learning about tea parties, kids sat around the table for tea and cookies!

Manners Matter:

The following day we had a little tea party to demonstrate all the good manners we learned about.

We had an official tea party spread with hors d’oeuvre, vegetable crudite, and various other delicacies.

We read Manners by Aliki which was a FABULOUS book and gave many examples of both good and bad manners in various situations….the kids LOVED it!

The kids finished their feast with delectable sweets!

Fruits of the Spirit

The idea of studying the Fruit of the Spirit came to mind one day while I was planning this unit. We dedicated quite a few days to this subject and the kids really loved it. It gave us a chance to talk about character and behavior.

The moment we invite Jesus into our heart, He begins to work on us and change us. As we spend time with Jesus, we become more like him and produce the fruits of His spirit.

We read 9 Fruits Alive , played Fruit of the Spirit bingo, listened to some clips from our If Jesus Came to My House playlist, and made a Fruit of the Spirit necklace craft from Mrs. Jone’s Creation Station.

The kids made a kool-aid painted fruit of the spirit basket craft based on an idea from www.betterthanicouldhaveimagined.com and used pages from Bible Story Printables.

They turned out really cute!

Fruit of the Spirit Muffins:

Haley helped measure, mix, and make our muffin batter.

Jordan was on fruit detail. He sliced, grated, and chopped the fresh fruits.

They added the fruit to each batter cup. They looked SO colorful!

We baked them in the oven and they looked beautiful. Afterwards, everyone enjoyed a sweet treat!

The Wise & Foolish Builders

We read The Wise and Foolish Builders – Arch Book (Arch Books)The Wise and Foolish Builders and watched some related videos from our If Jesus Came to My House playlist.

Later, the older kids and I read How a House Is Built by Gail Gibbons. This was a GREAT book that explains how a house is built from bottom to top!

I presented the older kids with a “wise and foolish builders challenge” bin. The bin contained some home-made cloud dough, foam blocks, and popsicle sticks. I told them the challenge was to create a structure that would withstand rain and flood.

To my surprise, I found them building with popsicle sticks using techniques they learned from our Gail Gibbons book.

Once they completed their structure, I took the bin to the kitchen sink and turned on the shower, simulating rain, and allowed the bin to “flood”.

Both structures passed the rain and flood test…the kids were THRILLED!

Language Arts:

While Parker worked on matching his vocabulary words from his Homeschool Creations packet, Jordan practiced tracing the words and Haley practiced writing and spelling them.

Parker continued to work on reading his CVC words, which we now include as part of our Learning Lane.

Parker LOVED the roll, read, and color CVC word activity.

Parker also worked on a few spelling activites too.

H is for House

We made a “H is for House” construction paper craft. I cut out a letter “H” for each kid, a roof, and a bunch of shapes.

The kids got right to work and used their imaginations to make their own houses.

This was a really simple, but exciting craft for the kids…they really enjoyed it.

We brought out Haley’s doll house and used a set of home vocabulary cards.

Parker set up the house and used the cards to identify the correct rooms and furniture.

Parker matched up his CVC words according to their word family while the older kids worked on a word family worksheet.

They turned out really cute!

Math

I found the adorable shape houses on teachpreschool.org. I couldn’t get the printable to work for me, so I created my own.

Click here to download “My Shape House” or here for my “House of Shapes” worksheet.

The math for this unit was anything but boring, because there were so many themes we incorporated. One of Mommy’s favorites…apples!

Parker worked on apple puzzles, counting, matching, sizing, and more.

Using Duplo cards, we introduced the concepts of perimeter and area.

We also found some house-themed activities to match, identify differences, and complete patterns.

Builders Are We

I set up a “Build Your Dream House” activity for the older kids.

I picked out Iggy Peck, Architect to pair with this activity.

We talked about area and perimeter, used cheez-its to measure area and perimeter, and gobbled the cheez-its up afterwards!

I printed some graph paper and they grabbed their rulers and got straight to work creating their blueprints.

After they drew up their blueprints, they designed the front of their house. We talked about various styles of architecture and I even passed out a real estate magazine so they could see examples.

Haley really enjoyed this project and continued to work on the interior design using catalogue swatches and various furniture pieces she found in magazines.

We read several other house themed books, but our favorite was The Wonderful House by Margaret Wise Brown.

Science

Apples Grow on Trees

We read How God Gave Us Apples (an oldie, but a goodie) which was a very simple, creation-based apple science book (perfect for preschoolers).

We also read An Apple’s Life (Watch It Grow)which covered the lifecycle of an apple.

Afterwards, we sampled 3 apple varieties and harvested the seeds to put in our Little “Fruit of the Spirit” Sprout Houses.

Shadows

The same morning we talked about fears, we also covered the topic of shadows.

We read Shadows and Reflections (Light All Around Us).

I set up a “create a shadow puppet activity tray in our Learning Lane. I placed popsicle sticks, black paper squares, pencils, stencils, tape, and scissors.

The kids loved this activity. They made their puppets and afterwards we used flashlights to create shadow on the wall.

BFIAR Habitat Books

I created a My Go-Along-Animals printable to accompany our Habitat Booklet.

You can download your FREE copy of the animals here at our TPT Store.

You can purchase the Habitat Booklet here at our TPT Store.

As with the rest of our BFIAR books, we identified all the animals in our story and pasted them into our BFIAR booklets.

Early Engineering

Though all three of my kids love to create things, Jordan has always been my little engineer, a real hands-on learner.

I try to nurture this part of his personality. I found these block challenge cards and added them to our Learning Lane many times during this unit.

This was a really wonderful book to study and we’ll always look back with such fond memories!

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