Gideon's torch

We (finally) made it through the first quarter of our Bible study program.  This week we learned the story of Gideon defeating the Midianites, and how the Israelites carried torches hidden under clay pots until it was time to attack.  For today's craft project, we made torches.

I tweaked a few projects I found online. Damien has started joining us on occasion, and he wanted to do one too.  He's slowly learning his shapes and colors, so instead of doing traditional flames, we did our fire as a shape collage. 











To make the torch:

Fold a piece of construction paper in half lengthwise.  Making the fold the center, draw the shape of "half" a torch, and then cut along the line.  Open flat.

Jude cut his own torch, while I cut Damien's for him.  He's just earning how to manipulate scissors.  We're working on "Scissors are for arts and crafts, not furniture or hair."

I drew shapes onto construction paper.  We had orange rectangles, red ovals, and yellow triangles.

Again, Jude cut his own, while I cut Damien's.













Once they are cut, you can sort the pieces into piles by color/shape.

Holding another another piece of construction paper with short side towards you, cut it in half.  We used white, since we have a lot of it unused in the big brick-pack of construction paper.  Any color will work - you just need something to glue your "flames" to.  If you want it to be camouflaged, choose a color that matches one of the flame colors; if you want the shapes to stand out, choose a contrasting color.

Glue it to the torch handle, and turn it over, so the overlap is hidden at the "back."

Glue the shapes, collage-style,  onto the attached paper, so they are above the torch handle.

If you want to reinforce identifying shapes and colors, mix up the pieces and either call out the piece the child should put on next or ask him to identify the one he has picked up.

"They took the torches in their left hands, and in their right the horns they had been blowing,

and cried out, 'A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!'”

Judges 7:20

Sharing with friends: