Creativity and The Creator-Week 4
Week Four
Rembrandt and the Prodigal Son
Goal
Kids will learn the value of storytelling through visual arts and understand art’s profound impact in conveying powerful emotions and messages.
Craftivity
Painting with Shadows
Supplies needed – white paper, pencils, and objects that cast interesting shadows (e.g., toys, leaves). Encourage kids to create a painting by incorporating the shadows cast by the objects. You’ll also need a bright light, like a work light or a large lamp that can throw light well.
Our Focus verse was
Luke 15:32 – “But we had to celebrate and be glad because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
Lesson: Study the artwork of Rembrandt and the story of the Prodigal Son, exploring themes of forgiveness, redemption, and the power of visual storytelling.
I loved this lesson! The story is timeless and powerful and can be taught from many different vantage points. Here’s the video we created.
I just used the slides and read the text with the slides (using Keynote on a Mac). Once my part was over, we read the verse from Luke. Then I shared this great video from YouTube to reinforce the scripture and story.
We then jumped into the craft time. This week, we moved to a larger room with round tables. This worked great. As we moved into craft time, I shared this video, which was great at explaining what we were going to be doing:
This activity took a while, And, like in the video, we had them sketch with pencil the shapes of the shadows. The kids loved doing this—most had never done anything like it. Including the volunteers! Time flew by; we took a quick restroom break and then snacks. When we finished, I dived into more about storytelling with shadows. Shadow art with hands is an old and fun art. I then shared some of this video below. (It’s such a great piece, and the kids loved it!) After it was over, as we were wrapping up, I turned the large work light to the wall, and we practiced hand shadows. They loved it.
Here’s the breakdown/timeline of the evening:
6:15-6:35 GYM FREEPLAY
6:30 COUNTDOWN SLIDE
6:35 OPEN w/ SPACE WARM UP SLIDE (GAME)
6:37 OPENING C&C SLIDE & VBS PUSH
6:39 REVIEW VERSES
6:40 INTRO TOPIC: Rembrandt and the Prodigal Son
6:41 TEACHING PRESENTATION; Rembrandt
6:45 VERSE REVIEW
6:46 GOD’S STORY: The Prodigal Son
6:51 DISCUSS THIS WEEK’S CRAFT; SHADOW DRAWING; VIDEO
6:52 BEGIN CRAFTIVITY;
6:53 COMPLETE CRAFT
7:20 RESTROOM/SNACK BREAK (ALL THINGS BRIGHT)
7:40 HAND SHADOW VIDEO; PRACTICING HAND SHADOWS
8:00 DISMISSAL
This might have been one of my favorite weeks so far; Great teaching points and good conversation starters. Super fun and creative activity.
Thanks for following me on this creative journey! We’ll take a week off next week for VBS.
Sharing his Wonder,
