Wise Men from Afar...

OK, I have "issues" with how "we" treat the Wise Men part of the Christmas story...

Biblically, the Wise Men DID NOT come to the stable to worship Jesus (I mean, their trip probably took 18 months!). So, in my home, the Wise Men are never included in my Nativity scenes- they are usually on another shelf, or even across the room, traveling from afar and following that special star.

Some churches continue the Christmas celebration from December 25th-January 8th (the 12 Days of Christmas), in order to honor the Wise Men and their lengthy journey to see Jesus.

I decided that this year I was going to make sure my 1st graders were able to appreciate what the Wise Men did, just yet another AMAZING part of the birth of the King of Kings!

Therefore, this past Sunday School lesson (on JANUARY 3rd) was all about those "smarty pants sultans." .

We began the lesson with a treasure hunt (star shapes made courtesy of my NEW Cricut!)

The kiddos followed the star clues around the church until we ended back in the classroom, where they discovered...

...Jesus!
(I had my baby Jesus from our home Nativity wrapped up and hidden in the classroom cabinet.)

After discussing how Jesus is the greatest gift, I talked about the Wise Men story in Matthew 2. I then read Tomie dePaola's The Story of the Three Wise Kings (emphasizing before I read the story that Mr. dePaola had to use his imagination about the wise men, since we only know a little about them from the Bible).

After the story, it was time for us to get crafty! We made what I like to call "Wise Guys Stars" using the following materials:

Colored Popsicle sticks
Hot glue gun
Glitter glue
Yarn

Before class, I hot glued all the sticks together to look like star shapes. I used the colorful Popsicle sticks because they reminded me of the art work from dePaola's story.

In class, the kiddos used all kinds of glitter/colored glue to decorate the stars...

Oooooooo....

Since they L-O-V-E-D the glue a bit too much, I'm letting the stars dry for a couple of days. I will then tie a bit of yarn around each star and then the kiddos can take them home to remind them of the Wise Men who came to worship...

"Where is the one who has been born King of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." -Matthew 2:2