Handmade Book--Acts 2

We are slowly but steadily making our way through learning the history of the Church. 
I am having no problem taking a super slow pace and really reflecting on/processing each story.  I think often times we feel the need to do "a story a day" (or week or Bible class session) and that usually isn't enough for little ones. 

We read about the early church and how they operated.  We decided to make a book from scratch to show what they did.  We folded some plain white paper together and Q did all the cutting herself (with my verbal instructions).  Then we used sticky notes to plan what each page would contain--referencing the scriptures we talked about each page--I wrote on the sticky note a word or two that the page would address.  Then we worked on a page a day--she did the majority of the writing, so it was a great chance for emergent writing.  I helped when she got frustrated or with long parts. 
She also did the majority of the drawing (with some help from me.)  We really focused on discussing how to draw each element--this is a great comprehension tool.  There is a correlation to how well children can sketch objects and their listening/reading/writing comprehension.  You see on the "Praised God" page the person has hair all around their head--kinda looks like a lion.  After this we looked at ourselves and talked about where hair really grows and how we shouldn't draw it the whole way around. 
Of course the biggest focus was on the spiritual implications of each page.....we spent the majority of our time talking about that. 

 

On the "broke bread/remembered Jesus" page we had grape juice and crackers as we reviewed the meaning of the icons we use for communion.  She loves doing this any time I let her!!

 

We had a lot of fun with this book and it is now a great resource for reviewing.  After it was finished (drawing/writing) we laminated it and I sewed it down the middle to bind it.