These are activities for the second week of FPCA Arts Camp! To join our email list, and see info about other weeks, head to the Arts Camp Main Page. To see what we are creating, head over to the Arts Camp Gallery.
July 5 – July 11
You – a child of God – are created to create! Learn, explore, and create with the ideas below.
A Gathering
Join our Sunday Arts Camp Zoom Gathering on July 5th at 3 pm!
This 30-minute gathering at the start of each week is designed for children and families, but all ages are welcome. Email Julie if you want the Zoom invite and password.
A Story – The Parable of the Lost Sheep and the Good Shepherd
Jesus told a parable about a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go in search of one lost one, then carries it home and celebrates. Here is one version of the parable, that blends that story with Psalm 23, and a statement Jesus made in John’s gospel when he says “I am the Good Shepherd.” (See below for a picture book with all three of the Luke 15 parables in it.)
Watch the story, told by Ms. Babbie using materials from one of our Godly Play rooms, then wonder about it. If you are watching as a family, take time to pause the video and share your wondering aloud with one another. If you are alone, maybe you want to write (or draw/color/sing) your thoughts. Ms. Babbie shares some good wondering questions in the video. Here are a few more:
- I wonder if you have ever found the good, green grass, or tasted the cool, still, fresh water?
- I wonder where you are in this story?
- I wonder what you will create today as you think about this story?
An Art Idea – Drawing with Scissors with Mary Ann Athens (and Henri Matisse!)
Watch Mary Ann’s video about Matisse and then try some paper collage and drawing with scissors yourself.
What can you create with paper and scissors and your own imagination?
You might want to create a Matisse-inspired collage of our parable. How would you use your scissors to draw something from the parable?
Take a picture of your creation and send it to Meagan here. Or you can upload through our Arts Camp Gallery, and see the creations of others!
You can also upload to Facebook or Instagram with #artscampfpca.
A Family Activity: A Counting Bingo Challenge
The Parables Jesus told in Luke 15 are about lost things, and about counting what matters. The shepherd counts his 100 sheep and finds one lost. A woman counts her 10 coins and finds one lost. A father counts his two sons and one is lost.
Print out the Counting Challenge page. You’ve got up to 25 different things to count in and around your house! (Some of the answers might be in some of the other activities on this page…..)
Choose a Bingo pattern, and get counting. Add up all the numbers you get. Take a picture of yourself holding up your total number, and send it to us!
If you want, you can illustrate one of the boxes you counted, and send us pictures of you counting things!
A Song
Learn “Jesus Loves You So” from Jeremy. “If you are feeling lost, as if you are one in a billion….you’ll never, never, never be alone!”
A Mission Project
Let’s help our friends at BeLoved Asheville have a creative summer too! We are making and donating Art Kits! Fill a gallon ziplock with the items listed, and drop it off at BeLoved. Be sure and add your own artwork or note that tells the recipient “You are loved!” Take a picture of yourself making or dropping off your art kit, and send it to us so we can keep track of how we are loving our neighbors. Questions? Ask Meagan! You can read more about BeLoved’s Tiny House Village project here.
A Picture Book
Here’s a book about all three of the Lost and Found parables in Luke 15. Lot’s of counting going on in these! Who Counts? by Amy-Jill Levine and Sandy Sasso.
Great Links
Want more ways to get creative with our theme this week? Check out some of these ideas we spied online. (And send us what you create!)
- Art Lesson Online: Learn an easy way to work with shapes and explore positive and negative space with paper, scissors and glue. You might consider negative space as what is “lost” and missing. Our parable reminds us that nothing and no one is too lost or missing to count, and be rescued by the good shepherd.
- Matisse-Inspired Collage See more child-created collages of cut-outs and the scraps – nothing is wasted!
More about Matisse and his cut-outs, from a 2014 exhibit in London.
And the impressions of kids….
Enjoy a book about Matisse and his scissors!
Make Matisse-Inspired Cookies. Can you make one that reminds you of the parable?
Growing Faith at Home 