Day 5: Wise and Foolish Builders
Well, it’s been a CRAZY year for us! I see that I first published this week’s lessons in March 2021, and today it is January 2022 when we finally completed the “week.” And Katelyn has grown up SO much! In this post alone, you will be able to see her “grow up” quite a bit! Pregnancy + a new baby will do that! But we have still been doing “Bible time” of sorts over the past year — it has just looked different for us with the craziness and exhaustion. I plan to write another post soon of what our more low-key Bible time has looked like. :)
*There are 5 activities for this day’s lesson. Feel free to choose one or two of the activities OR spread them out across several days.
- Materials:
- Bible (I like the NirV)
- Children’s Bible (I’m using the Say & Pray Bible)
- Activity #1: large blocks of styrofoam (I save them from packaging), plastic toy hammers, crayons or dried out markers (without lids), (golf pegs would work much better), safety goggles or swim goggles
- Activity #2: medium plastic tub, sand or cloud dough (4 cups flour, ½ cup vegetable oil or baby oil), rocks to fill half of tub, wooden blocks or legos for building houses
- Activity #3: duplos, legos, or blocks
- Activity #4: various sizes of cardboard boxes, duct tape or packaging tape
- Activity #5: magnet tiles, different metal surfaces (muffin tin, cookie sheet, etc.)
Day 5: Lesson
- Open Bible to Matthew 7:24-28. Ask if child wants to touch God’s Word. Touch gently. Then, read the verses.
- This is the last lesson of Jesus’s teaching on the mountain!
Children’s Bible Reading: Open Say & Pray Bible.
- Read story and verse. Find the big rocks and the small rocks. Every word that Jesus speaks is truth! We need to hear God’s words and live God’s words. If we have Jesus as our foundation, we will always be secure.
Katelyn loves to collect rocks when we are out on walks. That came in handy for today’s lesson!
Sing: The Wise Man and the Foolish Man
- The wise man built his house upon the rock (2x) alternate pounding fists
- And the rains came tumbling down! fingers fall like rain
- The rains came down and the floods came up (3x) fingers fall like rain, then move up like flood
- And the house on the rock stood firm! pound fists solid
- The foolish man built his house upon the sand (2x) alternate pounding fists, then spread out
- And the rains came tumbling down! fingers fall like rain
- The rains came down and the floods came up (3x) fingers fall like rain, then move up like flood
- And the house on the sand went SMASH! Smack hands together
Activity #1: Hammer the Crayon/Marker Nails
- Put on safety goggles (we didn’t have any, but I wish we would have found swim goggles at least!). Demonstrate how to hammer the crayons/markers into the styrofoam by holding onto it until it can stand on its own. Continue hammering the crayon/marker “nails.”
Sing first verse of Johnny Works with One Hammer:
- Katelyn works with one hammer, one hammer, one hammer
- Katelyn works with one hammer all day long!
- Where are you building your house? Will you build your house on the rock? That means you trust in Jesus and do what He says.
Activity #2: Rocks and Sand Tub
- Prep: If you don’t want to purchase sand, you can mix up some cloud dough. Fill half of plastic tub with cloud dough and the other half with rocks.
- Give child blocks and have fun building on the sand and on the rocks. While building on the rocks in this activity won’t necessarily be more sturdy than building on the sand, it will still be fun!
Activity #3: Strong Foundation
- Help child build a tower that has no base at all. Knock it down with pinkie finger. It knocks down so easily! The foolish man builds his house without a strong foundation. The foolish man doesn’t have Jesus.
- Then build a tower with a strong rectangular base. (I imagine children will still want to knock it down, but it should be a sturdier tower! I had Katelyn test the tower’s strength by starting with just a pinkie finger and then adding more fingers each time to see how many fingers it took to knock it down. She seemed to understand the concept!) The wise man builds his house with a strong foundation. The wise man has Jesus!
- I also built different towers and asked Katelyn, “Does this tower have a good foundation?” I built a wall-like tower with longer pieces, but even though it was wide, it still knocked down easily because it didn’t have a strong foundation. She picked up on it pretty quickly and could tell if it had a strong foundation or not. (almost 3 years old!)
Sing while building towers (Tune: Are You Sleeping?)
(I also sang the first verse of “How Firm a Foundation” while we were building)
- Build without Jesus, build without Jesus
- That’s NOT wise! That’s NOT wise!
- Tower will come crashing down. Tower will come crashing down.
- That’s NOT good! That’s NOT good!
- Build WITH Jesus, build WITH Jesus
- That’s very wise! That’s very wise!
- Tower will withstand the storm. Tower will withstand the storm.
- That IS good! That IS good!
No foundation! 
Building a strong foundation 
Wide, but no foundation 
Square for a foundation 
Building upsidedown 
Activity #4: Giant Building Blocks
- Prep: Tape each box shut so it it like a large building block.
- Give child all the boxes and let them experiment with building something. For this activity, try to mostly observe them to see them discover how to make the most solid structure. Let them discover on their own that a small box won’t work well at the bottom!
- Sing song from Activity #3.
- We didn’t actually do this activity yet, but I think it would be tons of fun! With a newborn, I haven’t wanted to get out a bunch of boxes like this. ;)
Activity #5: Magnet Tile Foundation
- Build a house together with the magnet tiles just on the floor with no “foundation” – just the walls. See if you can knock it down easily (with pinkie finger). It should knock over easily.
- Use the muffin tin or cookie sheet to rebuild the house on a firm foundation. Experiment with using magnet tiles flat as a floor or without a floor and just the walls. Test the house’s security with your pinkie finger. It takes much more force to knock down the house when it has a good, solid foundation!
- Sing song from Activity #3.
Closing: John 17:17, Your Word is truth. Every word that Jesus speaks is truth! We need to hear God’s words and live God’s words. If we have Jesus as our foundation, we will always be secure.