Parable of the Mustard Seed

In Bible this week, we read the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the story of the yeast. How both these things are so small but they can give big results - the mustard seed can grow to a huge tree and the yeast can make a huge impact. What God is doing in our lives often seems tiny and unimportant but over time the results are more amazing than we expect (Enns 2010). Even though our week was hectic, I didn't want to miss the opportunity for this lesson. So we worked through the lesson in one day.

I usually start the lesson with the coloring page. They color while I read the passage in the bible and talk about it.

I wanted them to experience just how small a mustard seed was so I added some seeds to my colored rice plus about 10 lima beans. I gave them large tweezers so they could pick them out of the rice without their hands. The lima beans were easy to grasp with the tweezers but the mustard seeds - not so much.

I think Kaleb used his hands but that's okay.

One of the art projects was to make a mustard seed tree. I copied the tree onto card stock and they added white glue and poured a ton os mustard seeds onto the glue. I had them do this in cake pans so the seeds didn't go flying everywhere.

After finding all of the lima beans in the colored rice, we decided to plant some. We added a wet paper towel and some seeds to a ziplock bag. We hung them in a window and are waiting for them to sprout.

Lastly, we did an experiment using yeast. We added yeast, some warm water, and sugar to a water bottle. We topped it off with a balloon.....

and waited....waited....waited....I think Kaleb was expecting immediate results.

And finally, after we stopped watching them, the yeast inflated the balloons. This was awesome to watch and the balloons got larger than I expected (sorry, no photos). It was a good lesson and I am glad that I made time for it this week. We have truly enjoyed this curriculum and I love that it encompasses different ideas - crafts, science, hands-on. That's quite a bible lesson!

Links

First Palette  - Seed Mosaic Craft, make a seed mosaic craft picture.

In Lieu of Preschool - 3D Puffy Paint Mustard Seed Trees.

Kids Gardening - My Seed Bank sprouting project.

Explore and Express - seed fine motor activity idea with tweezers.

Explore and Express - Parable of the Mustard Seed open play idea, love this.