Parables of Jesus VBS: Day 4 The Good Samaritan

The fourth and last Parables of Jesus VBS is the Good Samaritan found in  Luke 10:25-37. This post is what I did for my classroom and grades 1-4 used the room.

 This is most of one wall, and I started with the Cars Scene Setter.

It has a basic desert background and didn't take me any time to create! I added the cave, which I used the overhead projector to draw onto gray bulletin board paper and used a Sharpie to outline. The Jerusalem and Jericho cities are the same, I just flipped the graphic, left some of the designs off to make them look different. Again, they were both drawn onto brown bulletin board paper with the overhead projector. I painted them, used the Sharpie for outlines and cut them out.

The animal (I used a donkey, even though Jesus didn't say what kind of animal) was drawn on gray bulletin board paper, painted and outlined with a Sharpie. All the people were drawn onto poster board and painted, then outlined with a Sharpie. For the Good Samaritan and the hurt man, I drew them onto poster board, but I drew them separate so I could add a fabric 'blanket' onto the hurt man. Then I added the Good Samaritan over the hurt man & 'blanket'.

The title was drawn onto poster board, I painted the letters, cut it out, and outlined with a Sharpie. I used my scrapbooking stamp pads along the edges to create the worn look.

I printed the sun with today's theme and the signs. You can download everything you need to draw

by clicking here (includes the printable sun):

 

All the printable signs (only) are here.

Click here to download the updated visuals.

We have 20 minutes to teach and review our lesson. The kids rotate to 4 different activities for 20 minutes each. They have the Bible lesson, Paul's Theater where they watch the lesson as a play, they have a craft time, and their food time. The Elders say there's no excuse not to come because you can even get a meal! When the kids are done eating, they see a puppet reenactment. The kids practice puppets for Lads To Leaders (L2L), so why not use those skills for our kids?

 

Ramona started our time with greetings and about Jesus and His parables. She discussed what a parable is and why Jesus told them. For tonight's lesson, The theme is Love Thy Neighbor, so that led to 'Who is our neighbor?' According to Jesus, our neighbor is anybody, not just the people that live next door to us. It can be teacher, friend, the mailman, our family, and even people that we do not know!

 

When I taught the lesson, I used a photo of this road with it's curves and rocks (I found and printed it from a Google search). I used my whole wall decoration to teach the lesson. Since my wall wasn't long enough to actually add curves, I used my arm to swing up and down and around each section to simulate the curvy road.

If you notice, with the Priest and the Levite, I have a walker symbol and they could see and remember that they walked right on by. But, the Samaritan has a medical symbol to help them remember that he stopped to help. When I came to the part of the Samaritan stopping to help, I picked up a basket that I had set aside that had a hand towel, washcloths, a tin of ointment, lots of assorted bandages. And, a bag of money that I pulled out when the Samaritan paid the innkeeper.

Paulette is great at deciding the reinforcement games to work with the daily lessons. For this one, she had this basket with different items in it. The basket had: flower, dog food box, get well card, bag of fruit snacks, watering can, water bottle, cans of soup, veggies, etc., toy, gift, Bible.

We let each child reach into the basket and pick one item. Once everyone had their item picked out, We asked them "How can you show that you 'Love Your Neighbor'?" You can add other Bible verses like 'Be kind one to another' (Eph. 4:32).

 I purchased the Jesus Standup at Oriental Trading. I am moving Him each night to be by the Parable that we are discussing. I want the kids to remember that Jesus is the One telling the Parables.

Click to see the PHOTO visuals that I used.

 

(I am not permitted to add them here, so just use the search bar to find them. I didn't use all that they have available (I used 4).)

Click on the above picture to see the main foyer and hall decorations, and the links for all four Parables of Jesus VBS classroom decorations, lessons, games & more.