Moses - burning bush, plagues and the Red sea (in a nut shell)

Exodus 2-14

Pillars of fire sensory bottles

Eli with his Pillar of Fire

This week's simple craft is such an easy one and we had so much fun making them at Toddler Praise today. You do need to plan ahead in order to have enough bottles for each child. I was able to put a request on our Facebook page and between us we had more than enough bottles for all. The kids loved them so much that a few of them made a second bottle to take home to their siblings.

This is a great craft to do with toddlers and also with children with autism and sensory disorders. Both toddlers and children with autism are very sensory, they like things that stimulate their senses and often find them calming or exciting. Children love these sensory bottles; shaking them and watching the glitter swirl around the bottle, in fact some parents were mesmerised by them too. It's possible, if you swirl them well enough and have the right shaped bottle, to make a tornado or maelstrom. These bottles will entertain the children for quite some time, repeatedly shaking them again and again. I work with children with autism, a few weeks ago a colleague prepared these for the children to make in class to illustrate tornados. I thought these would be a great craft to do with our toddlers.

The sensory bottles represent the pillar of fire with which the Lord safely guided the Israelites to the Red Sea. Today's story is covering so much that it was hard to choose which part to make a craft for. Ten plagues are hard to make into a simple craft, so many elements to consider. Making a burning bush is always a good craft to do but I wanted to do something different and I knew the kids would get so much pleasure out of these bottles.

 Today's story

Moses was brought up in the Egyptian palace as the adopted son of the Princess, even though he was a Jew. The Jews were persecuted and enslaved by the Egyptians. When he was a young man, Moses witnessed an Egyptian beating a Jew, this angered Moses so much that he killed the Egyptian. Pharaoh tried to kill Moses, so he fled from Egypt to the land of Midian. Moses lived in Midian for many years, looking after his father-in-laws sheep. Meanwhile the people of Israel were crying out to God, for they were being badly treat by their Egyptian slave masters. One day whilst looking after the sheep, Moses saw a bush on fire but it did not burn, he went over to look, God spoke to Moses saying "I am the God of your forefathers, I have heard my peoples cry and I want you to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt and slavery." Moses doubted he could do it and that the people would believe him but God showed Moses a taste of his power by turning a stick into a snake and then back into a stick. God showed Moses many wonders he could perform before the Israelites and Pharaoh to convince them that God was indeed with the Israelites and Moses.

Moses went before Pharaoh with his brother Aaron and they tried to persuade Pharaoh to let God's people go but Pharaoh refused. Then God told Moses to tell Pharaoh that he would turn the river Nile to blood, so all the fishes would die and no one could drink the water. Aaron put his staff over the river Nile and it turned to blood but Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go. Then God sent a plague of Frogs but Pharaoh would not let the Israelites go. Then God sent a plague of maggots and still Pharaoh would not let them go. Next came a plague of flies and still he would not let then go. After that God killed the livestock: cows, sheep, donkeys, horses, camels… but Pharaoh remained stubborn and would not let the Jewish people go. God caused a plague of boils to affect people and animals but still Pharaoh would not let them go. Next it hailed with hail like no one had ever seen before with great thunder storms. The hail destroyed the crops and plants. Pharaoh agreed to let God's people go but then he changed his mind. Next came the plague of locust that destroyed anything that was left, that the hail hadn't destroyed and again Pharaoh agreed to let the Israelites go but then he changed his mind. Next the land was covered in darkness and the sun was concealed but still Pharaoh would not release the people. Finally God killed all the firstborns; people and animals in the whole of Egypt except the Israelites. The Angel of death did not pass over the Israelite houses, whose doors were painted with lambs blood. Finally Pharaoh let the Israelite people go.

The Israelites set off for the land promised to them by God. God led them by the desert road towards the Red Sea, he guided them with a pillar of clouds by day and fire by night, always going before them. Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them. Moses raised his staff over the waters of the Red Sea and they divided, creating a dry path through the waters. The people of Israel passed safely across the Red Sea to the other side but when the army tried to cross after them, the water returned and washed them away. The people of Israel were finally free.

Phew, that was a long one and highly paraphrased.

Materials at the ready

Materials required:

·         Clear plastic bottles, 500ml or 1 litre

·         Red and gold glitter

·         Washing up liquid

·         Water

·         Funnel
 

Instructions:

Noah's bottle ready for water

1.    Pour glitter the into the bottle through a funnel, be generous for a better affect.

2.    Squirt in some washing up liquid but not too much.

3.    Fill with water.

4.    Shake .

 

Give those bottles a good shake

 

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 Now to end on a silly poem:

Moses supposes his toesies are roses,

But Moses supposes erroneously,

Because nobodies toesies are posies of roses,

As Moses supposes his toesies to be.

 

Toesies are toes.

Have fun.