Get your kids learning the fruit of the spirit with this craft

Last week in the Sunday School lesson I shared a Fruit of the Spirit mini-book.  We have subs in our class for this lesson, and I didn’t want to throw at them the super complicated version I’m about to share with you now, but I’m super excited because they said they’d be up for doing the Fruit of the Spirit craft.  SCORE!

Why use crafts in Sunday School?

Much like why you use crafts in any subject whether in church or in your homeschooling, because when your kids start participating in the lesson they get more from it, and remember more of it.

Also, because you never know what they might do with that craft.

My kids frequently take the craft they made and incorporate it into their play at home.  They add in fun details to their story from their Sunday School lesson.

Or as happened at my house a few years ago, they might take the craft home and teach it to their younger siblings.  One week one of my student’s mom pulled me aside and said, “We loved the craft you did in Sunday School last week, and then she took it home and taught the lesson to her little sister.”  It’s comments like that which help keep you going in your Sunday School class.

But back to the Fruit of the Spirit craft.

 

The symbolism behind the Fruit of the Spirit craft

I spent a lot of time last week talking about why I chose the people I did for the Fruit of the Spirit mini-book, and the reasons are still true today, and I use the same people for this variation.  But there’s a rhyme and a reason behind my madness (it’s rare, I know).

I chose a cornucopia to hold the fruit rather than a basket.  We associate cornucopias with Thanksgiving here in America, a time of plenty and food in abundance, it’s also something frequently used to represent overflowing bounty.  Likewise a Christian’s goal is to have the Fruit of the Spirit overflowing.

I drew a wide variety of fruit, and didn’t assign certain fruit to certain attributes because different people associate fruit in different ways.  One person may think of watermelon and think of the joy of eating it during summer and choose to make it joy.  Another person looks at watermelon and thinks of having to be patient for the time of year when watermelon is available.  Another thinks of apples and thinks of the apple pie their grandmother made, and associates it with love.

I wanted kids to have the ability to choose what fruit they chose for each fruit of the Spirit.  You should have seen how excited my kids were to choose which fruit went with which person.  It was rather silly really.

Then you could have the fun of making the comparison how each fruit has a very distinctive taste, but you mix them all together into a fruit salad and it blends together into its’ own new set of flavors (I defeat the purpose of fruit salad when I eat it, because I always go through and eat all of one kind before eating the next one, it’s silly I know).

 

More Fruit of the Spirit craft resources

Last time I gave you a plethora of resources for the Fruit of the Spirit in general, today I’m going to be more specific and share some great Fruit of the Spirit crafts I’ve seen.

• Fruit of the Spirit craft– printable you need to do the craft up above
• Fruit of the Spirit Treasure Hunt– It could work great for a small class
• Fruit of the Spirit crafts
• Fruit of the Spirit printables