Bible Crafts and Bible Lesson for Children About Gideon Fighting the Midianites

 

The following crafts and activities come from the Bible lesson, "Gideon Fights the Mean Men of Midian" on The Resource Room. In this lesson children learn that you don't have to be big and strong to serve the Lord. God will give you the strength and power you need to serve him. The lesson is available online and as an instant download.

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1. Before class print out the patterns and make copies.

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2. While your students work, ask them what they think the men are holding, what they are doing, and why they think the men are doing it. Tell them that they will find out during the lesson.

 

Childern color the pictures and then glue pieces of tissue paper to the handle of the torch to make it look like fire. This pattern is available in both KJV and NIV on The Resource Room and as an instant digital download.

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Children color the jar envelope craft, flames and horn pattern. Fold the jar pattern and tape it clossed to make an envelope where the paper torch can be stored. Use these paper crafts to review or act out the Bible story about Gideon fighting the Mean Men of Midian.

When children take the torch out of the jar, they turn the jar over to the back and drop it to the table so it "brakes" or the cracks on the back of the pattern are revealed.

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How to make:

1. Use a pencil to trace the end of a paper towel roll onto the bottom of the paper bowl. Make a slit all the way across the circle cutting the circle in half. Make another slit the opposite way cutting it in half again. Keep doing this until you have little wedge shapes all the way around the circle.

 

2. Bend the little wedge shapes out as shown in the picture.

3. Slide a paper towel tube inside the hole, through the inside of the bowl, until it is almost all the way down to the end of the tube. Place a line of glue all the way around the end of the tube and slide the paper bowl the rest of the way down to the end. Press the wedges to the tube to secure.

4. Cut pieces of aluminum foil to fit around the long part of the trumpet. Cut a square piece of aluminum foil for the bowl part of the trumpet. Cut a small circle in the middle. Place the end of the trumpet through the hole in the aluminum and bring the foil all the way up to the bowl and then press the aluminum foil down around the bowl into the inside. Wind a piece of aluminum foil around the handle and secure with tape. Use another piece of aluminum foil to roll up and form a handle. Tape the handle onto the long part or the trumpet.

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What you will need:

Aluminum Can (Make sure there are no sharp edges.), Brown Construction Paper, Red and Yellow Crepe or Tissue Paper and Tape

How to Make Gideon's Torch and Jar:

1. Give each child an aluminum can, a piece of brown construction paper, some red and yellow crepe paper, and some tape.

2. Show the children how to roll up their paper and tape it closed to make the bottom of the torch. Show them how to cut their crepe paper to make a jagged edge and tape it to bottom of the torch. You may want to have the children decorate their cans with stickers.

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This is a fun way to give out snacks at snack time and reinforce the part of the lesson where the Midianites stole from Israelites.

Have your children form a circle. Pick one child to be Gideon and sit in the middle of a circle. Gideon should close his eyes.

Place a bag or box of cookies or other snack in front of Gideon. Pick a child to be a Midianite and sneak up and "steal" the snack and then go back and sit down in his seat with the snacks hidden behind his back. When the child is sitting and ready, all the children should chant, "Gideon, Gideon, where's your snack? A man from Midian took it and won't bring it back." Gideon then guesses who "stole" the snack. If he guesses correctly, he gets to take the place of the child who "stole' the snack. If he guesses wrong, he is still Gideon and another child pretends to be the Midianite.

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Remind the children about the part of the story where a Midianite had a dream about a huge loaf of bread rolling down into their camp. Play some music. Tell the children that in this game they are the Midianites and a huge loaf of bread is rolling around. They should pass the bread around in a circle trying not to be the person holding the bread when the music stops. The child who is holding the bread when the music stops has to say the memory verse.

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Put some chairs at one end of the room. Tell the children that the chairs are the camp of the Mean Men of Midian. Tell them that you are going to pretend to be Gideon and they are your army. Tell them to follow you and do exactly as you do. "When I blow my trumpet, you should blow your trumpets and shout, "a sword for the Lord and for Gideon." Lead the children over to the camp. Walk very slowly and on your tiptoes like you are trying to sneak up on the camp. Tell the children to walk very quietly. Direct them with your hands to stand around the camp. Blow your horn and have the children blow theirs. Have the children follow you as you pull your torch out from the can and drop the can on the floor. Hold up your torch and shout, "a sword for the Lord and for Gideon."

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Use this game to review the Bible verse, or to hand out snacks. Tell the children that God had Gideon separate his soldiers by watching to see how they drank water. Today I am going to separate you to see who says the Bible verse (or who gets a snack first).

Once you have them separated into two groups, you can say, "There are still too many of you. I will have to separate you again. Come up with another criteria to separate them. Once you get a small group have them say the Bible verse or give them a snack. If you are giving out snacks, make sure you let the children know that they will all receive snacks by the end of the game.

Separate Them By:

1. If they raise their right hand or left hand

2. Different colors of clothes they are wearing

3. Color of eyes

4. Boy or girl

5. How many brothers and sister they have

6. If they like broccoli or any other food

7. If they go to public school or home school

8. If they walk to school or ride the bus

9. If they ate eggs for breakfast or they didn't

10. If they watched television before coming to church or didn't

11. If they have a dog or cat

12. Tell them to sit on the floor. Separate the children that cross their legs from the ones that don'

13. Color of hair

14. If they can whistle or not whistle

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Songs

"A Man Named Gideon"
Written by Nancy Foss
Sing to the tune of "Little Bunny Foo Foo"

There was a man named Gideon
Working in the fields.
Threshing wheat to flour
To feed his family.
Chop, chop, puff, puff,
Thresh that wheat.

Gideon is brave and mighty.
He will save his people.
Through God's power we all have strength.
One shout, two shouts, three shouts, four.

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"Good Guy Gideon"
Written by Theresa Bostick
(Sing to the tune of Michael Finnegan)

There was a good guy
His name was Gideon
Hiding from the mean men of Midian
An angel came from God and said to him
"The Lord is with you, brave and mighty man"

Gideon loved God and obeyed him
Sending home thousands of men
Only three hundred was God plan
The Lord was with this brave and mighty man.

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We constructed Gideon's torch in a pot using a small flashlight, a paper lunch bag, a toilet paper tube, a small strip of tag board and some tissue paper. (Make sure flashlight will fit in the TP tube!) Also need, tacky glue, rubber band.

1. Cut the top off the paper lunch bag about 1 inch higher than the tube. (about 3 inches) Save the top.

2. Cut the top to form a long strip. Cut the strip in half to form two shorter strips. Cut one on these in half. Fold all strips in half lengthwise. Fold again.

3. Place the tube in the lunch bag. If needed add part of a crumpled newspaper around the tube to give the bag a rounded shape. put glue on the top 1/2 inch of the tube - then press the top of the bag around the tube. Use a rubber band to hold. Once glue has set, take the longest strip made from the bag top and glue this around to cover the raw bag edges. Use rubber band to hold.

4. Take the shorter strips and form in "C" shapes. Glue to either side of bag for "pot" handles. Hold to set.

5. Take a 1/2 inch strip of tag board and wrap around top of flashlight. allow enough overlap to glue easily. Don't glue yet.

6. Choose at least three colors - yellow, red, orange - to represent fire. Cut large and small flame shapes from all three colors of tissue and glue onto the strip of tag board. Layer and overlap some for a full effect. Allow to dry.

7. Glue the flame strip around the top of the flashlight. use the rubber band to hold.

Remind students to wait until all glue is dry before putting their "torch" in the pot.

This had a dramatic effect that evening when we turned down the lights and had all the children "light" their torches.

The youngest children were able to help cut and glue their flames. Older children are able to do most of the craft without too much help. Cutting the tops off the bags would streamline the craft as well as having the small tag board strips already cut. Be sure to do a practice one. Sent in by Loretta Wright

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I love your website! It has really helped me with a lot of my units that I teach in my Christian school classroom. Gayla

I used the lesson "Gideon Fights the Men of Midian" for my 2-6 year old Sunday school class today. It was a great lesson! The children listened well and remembered the first part of the lesson from last week in the "cave".

For the craft, we made Gideon's trumpet. I used birthday party hats to make the bell of the trumpet, instead of the foam bowls. Remove the elastic string from the hat and make four cuts from the point of the hat to just over half-way up the hat. Push the paper towel tube in through the inside of the hat and secure the ends of the hat with masking tape. I wrapped the tape around several times. In class, I used the extra wide aluminum foil and the children only had to use one sheet of it to cover their trumpets. We used and second piece to make the handle. They turned out great!!