Friday, September 2, 2011

Joseph's Coat ~ Genesis 37:1-11

Scripture Reference
Genesis 37:1-11 (NIV)
"Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.  This is the account of Jacob. 
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. 
Now Isreal (Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him.  When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more.  He said to them, 'Listen to this dream I had.  We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.'
His brothers said to him, 'Do you intend to reign over us?  Will you actually rule us?'  And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. 
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers.  'Listen,' he said, 'I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.'
When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, 'What is this dream you had?  Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?  His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind."

Memory Verse
Colossians 3:13
"...Forgive as the Lord forgave you."

Activity
Kiera and Andrew will be doing different activities tonight.  Kiera is going to make a coat.  I'll give her a paper grocery bag.  We'll cut a split along the seam that runs in the center of the back of the bag.  Then we'll cut a circular hole in the bottom of the bag for her neck.  We'll also cut two large holes in the bottom-sides of the bag for her arms.  I'll flip the bag inside out and probably will have to staple the bottom of the bag to get it to keep its shape.  Then Kiera will color the bag to her liking to have a coat like Joseph might have had.  Andrew could have easily done this activity too, but he doesn't like to wear anything out of the ordinary.  That typically includes dress-up clothes, so I was pretty sure it would also include paper sacks (and not wearing it afterward would limit the fun of making it...)
Andrew will be coloring a picture that I drew of a coat.  He's really "into" coloring lately and usually starts by trying to color in the lines, so I want to encourage that. 

How It Went
Kiera and I colored her coat project together.  She just decorate the front, which she enjoyed, and then she wanted to act out today's Bible story.  We actually decided to encourage Andrew on his coloring (and learning the letters of his name) instead.  Andrew loves to get compliments on his work...especially from Kiera!




Other Possible Activities
When I was teaching Sunday School classes on a regular basis, I actually sewed a coat for this story.  I've used it so many times over the years.  I just used very colorful striped fabric and made a very rough, no-pattern-required, large robe for the kids to play with as dress up.  I also used it as an example as I read the story and let all the kids try it on when the story was done.  Even if sewing isn't your strongpoint, you could use fabric glue to put large rectangles of colored fabric together to form a vest from colored fabric.