Let's SHARE!
“Let’s Share!” Unit: Fruitful Manners
LESSON PURPOSE: Sharing is Caring!
MATERIALS: Picture Book, learning toys, craft supplies
BOOKS: Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister / Llama Llama Time to Share by Anna Dewdney / Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems/ I Can Share by Karen Katz / The Bear Who Shared by Catherine Rayner
SONG IDEAS: This Little Light of Mine, Open The Eyes of My Heart, Put a Little Love
AS CHILDREN ARRIVE: Choose 1 Sensory Activity:
Play Doh Fish: heart cookie cutters, play doh, sequence scales, googly eyes.
Ocean Sensory Bin: blue streamers, glass beads, ocean animals…
Fishing: Using fishing polls & magnetic fish, letters or bath tub fish. Or diy playdoh with paper clip fish.
SCRIPTURE: Display the weekly scripture reading, have an older child read it or use it in the lesson as you like.
“Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.“ -1 Timothy 6:18
“False love is self- centered whereas true love is public. This is the reason God has always taught mankind to give love and live for the sake of other people.” -True Father
INTRODUCE the Lesson:
WELCOME: SONG, PRAYER, TP Greeting
SONG IDEAS: This Little Light of Mine, Open The Eyes of My Heart, Put a Little Love
REVIEW & TRANSITION:
March is all about Fruitful Manners! What kinds of Greetings did we learn last week? (Please, Thank You!...) Can you tell me about a time you used kind words last week? That is so wonderful! God, our Heavenly Parent, is so happy when we are polite & proper in our manners. Today we are going to learn about SHARING!
ATTENTION GRABBER: choose 1: (Optional: Have children sit on a large blue plastic tablecloth during storytime so it feels like water.)
Rainbow dancing! Pass out rainbow wands: stick with different colors of ribbons. Let children dance to some music!
Blow Bubbles! Have children pop bubbles and pretend they are fishies under the sea! Isn’t it so fun popping bubbles all together?
INTRO:
Draw a picture of 2 children together. Ask: “What is a friend?” List a few of the traits. It’s so much fun to have friends! Friendships make us happy. When we have friends to play with we don’t feel lonely. Sometimes being a good friend can be tricky! Let’s read and learn all about Rainbow Fish (or other story character) and what kind of friend he was to others.
CHOOSE 1 OR 2: READ A STORY, SING A SONG OR POEM, WATCH A VIDEO:
VIDEOS: click on the link for educational, sing along or dance videos
Sharing is Caring Song Family Lyric Video Sing Along
Let’s Go Swimming Dance Movement Song by Laurie Berkner
The Sharing Song Song Animation
Be Kind & Share Short Educational Video based on 1 Timothy 6:18
READ ALOUD STORY VIDEOS:
SONG OR POEM:
Friend Of Mine (Mary Had a Little Lamb) Will you be a friend of mine, Friend of mine, Friend of mine? Will you be a friend of mine, And _______________ around with me? (dance, hop, wiggle, march…)
The More We Get Together The more we get together, together, together, The more we get together, the happier we’ll be. Because your friends are my friends And my friends are your friends. The more we get together, the happier we’ll be. The more we share together… The more we play together… The more we pray together...
*TEACH the Lesson:
TEACHING POINT 1: Sharing is caring!
TEACHING WITH DISCUSSION:
Discuss the story of Rainbow fish. Rainbow fish was lonely. He was rude to other fish and didn’t want to share. How did everyone feel? (Happy face or sad face?) The wise octopus told him he would be happier if he shared his beautiful shining scales. Would that be hard to do? The rainbow fish started talking with other fish and sharing his scales! Although he only had 1 shiny scale left- he was the happiest little fish ever! (Or summarize another story of sharing).
Why did he feel so happy inside? He made so many friends! When you share your love, talents, toys, with others- you feel warm and happy inside and so do all of the people that you share with. Sharing is caring! Sharing with others spreads love, joy and peace.
Optional Ideas:
Anchor Chart: Draw Rainbow fish, bubbles & list character traits of a good friend.
Review Activity: Make laundry clip fish scales and clip them all over you, a teacher. Have children retell the story with you- pass out, share and clip a scale on to each child! And/or use one of the activities below to review the story.
TEACHING POINT 2: Jesus Shares *OPTIONAL EXTENSION
TEACHING WITH DISCUSSION:
Did you know that Jesus loved to share with others? 1 time Jesus fed 5,000 people because 1 little boy decided to share!
Entertaining Story of Jesus Feeds 5,000 with some humor. More content- best for ages 3+.
Fingerplay Storytelling Video of Jesus Feeds 5,000 for little ones ages 1+.
STORY: John 6:5-13 After Jesus taught God’s Words to a huge crowd of people all day, everyone was sitting in the grass very hungry. Jesus’ disciples were worried about where they would find enough food to feed all of the hungry people. A little boy from the crowd decided to share his lunch. (Prop: brown paper bag, pretend bread & fish) He had 2 small fish & 5 loaves of bread and brought it to Jesus. Jesus took the food, prayed thank you to God and then began handing it out and sharing it with everyone! It was a miracle of sharing! Everyone’s tummy was full and all were happy. What if the little boy had not decided to share his lunch with others? That 1 little boy & Jesus together made a difference to many!
CONCLUSION:
Today we learned that Sharing is Caring! Who wants to be like rainbow fish this week and share with others? How can we be a good friend & share with our friends? (share toys, take turns choosing what we want to play, share with my little brother…) Jesus and True Parents always lived a life sharing with others. Jesus shared bread & fish with thousands! True Parents share God’s special Words and special fruit on holy days with us. Let’s have great March Manners this week by sharing with others and spreading joy as a child of God.
TITHING & PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Parent, thank you for giving us friends, classmates, siblings. Help us to SHARE with others, to think of the happiness of others- not only my own happiness. Help us to grow to become like Jesus and True Parents. We love you and thank you! Amen! Aju!
APPLY the Lesson:
GROUP ACTIVITIES: choose 1 :
Sticker Sharing: Give each child stickers or 1 child a full sheet of stickers. Ask them how it feels? Makes me happy! What can we do with the stickers to spread joy to everyone? Share them! Have children share their stickers- stick them on their friends. Discuss how good it felt to share and how happy everyone is in the end just like Rainbow Fish! :)
Friendship Shadow Fun: If it’s sunny- go outside and have children find each other’s shadows and dance together! Blow bubbles! Trace shadows of children holding hands.
Friendship Train: Children get in a chu-chu train line. Child in front gets to hold a tambourine or musical instrument. The train moves around the room to music. When teacher says “stop”- children stop and child in front gives instrument to next child & moves to the back fo the train until all children have had a turn being the conductor.
Scales: Pass out construction paper scales. Have each child draw a picture or write about being a good friend. Collect & glue them together to create a big class rainbow fish!
CRAFTS: choose 1
Rainbow Fish Crafts- paint fish cut out of bubble wrap! Paint fish using paint & celery sticks or toilet paper rolls cut in half length wise to make scales! Paint a paper plate blue & glue on tissue paper. Make fish out of cupcake liners & googly eyes. Use aluminum foil shiny or glittery scales!
Basket Craft- make a “basket” with fish & bread out of construction paper, paper plates or brown paper bags.
Rainbow Friendship Tree- Have children add colorful hand prints to create a large rainbow or on to a tree for a bulletin board or door!
SNACK IDEAS:
Baguette bread & goldfish: break off a piece of bread for everyone to share. Have a bowl of rainbow goldfish in the middle- use manners to pass & share goldfish!
Cracker Heart Friendship: Give each child a graham cracker. Place a construction paper heart on top. Then sprinkle powdered sugar over the cracker. When children remove the heart- they will see a heart on their cracker! ;) Hearts remind us of love and friendship!
Enjoy the lesson! Feel free to submit photos to lgavin@unification.org Love seeing lessons come to life and each community