Nighttime ocean scene

Directions

You will need the following supplies to create your poster:

white poster board
white glue
turquoise, green or blue tissue paper
black tissue paper
water
old magazines
star stickers
paintbrushes
decorations such as sandpaper and sea shells

• To make clean up easier, cover your working surface with newspaper. Prepare your “paint” by mixing one tablespoon of white glue with two tablespoons of water.
• Begin by having your children use a paintbrush to cover the lower two-thirds of the white cardboard with paint/paste. You may wish to colour the paste with a few drops of blue food colouring so it’s easier to tell where you have painted. Before the glue dries, cover the lower two-thirds of the poster with ocean-coloured tissue paper. Help your child create “waves” in the tissue using your fingertips to scrunch the tissue along the top edge, making a wavy surface on the ocean. Leave the lower region of the tissue flat for the undersea design.
• Depending on how much time your children want to spend on the project, you may wish to make glittery paper fish, unique sea creatures and stringy seaweed. Add a sandy ocean floor by gluing a strip of sandpaper along the bottom of the picture.
• To create a night sky, invite your children to paint the remaining upper third of the poster board with paste. Smooth black tissue over the paste and have your child cut out a moon shape to glue on the sky.
• Explain to your children that they will receive a star to add to the scene each time they obey God’s directions from the Bible or make righteous choices.
• Choose a memory verse to add to your poster, and use the poster as a reminder to review your verse regularly.

Questions for discussion

• Who made the ocean?
• How big is the ocean?
• Could you count the waves on the ocean?
• What does Isaiah 48:17-18 say about the “Lord your God” (see below)?
• Where can we find God’s instructions?
• If we follow God’s directions, how much righteousness will we have?
• What parts of our body do we use to “pay attention”?
• What does God want us to pay attention to?
• How can a person shine like a star?

Key concepts

God gathered the water to fill the ocean. He also made the creatures that live in the ocean. The ocean is vast and spacious. In the Bible we read that if we follow to God’s commands, our righteousness will be like the waves of the sea, that is, impossible to measure or count (Isaiah 48:17-18). We use our eyes and ears to pay attention, and God’s Word is the instruction book we are to follow. God also tells us that when we follow His directions, living blameless and pure, or when we lead others to righteousness, that we will shine like the stars of the universe.

Relevant Scripture

Genesis 1:7-10 “So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse ‘sky.’ And there was evening, and there was morning – the second day. And God said, ‘Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.’ And it was so. God called the dry ground ‘land,’ and the gathered waters He called ‘seas.’ And God saw that it was good.”

Psalm 104:25 “There is the sea, vast and spacious, teeming with creatures beyond number – living things both large and small.”

Isaiah 48:17-18 “This is what the Lord says – your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: ‘I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to My commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea.”

Philippians 2:14-16a “Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life . . .”

Daniel 12:3 “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.”