Think about this when combining art and other subjects in school. How would it change the way we teach art and social studies together? How would this method change the way we teach holiday art? How would it change the way we teach intercultural relationships with art activities?

Dear Parent,
I am looking forward to working with your kindergarten child in Sunday School. The first fifteen minutes the children will be singing together. Then we sit around the table and have a snack and collect the offering. The children will tell me what they have done during the week. We will review last week's lesson. Usually this is followed by an art activity.

When your child brings home a painting, drawing or other art work, you might say, "Tell me about what you have painted (or drawn, etc.)." Also ask about the Sunday School story. This will increase their enjoyment of Sunday School because they will sense that it is important to you too.

The art work IS planned to develop a frame of reference for the Bible story. The art work IS NOT a time filler, not play time, not busy work, and not primarily for learning art and creativity.

For example, today's lesson was, "The First Home" (Adam and Eve in the Garden). To develop a meaningful frame of reference for the story the children first thought about and discussed their own experiences in their homes.

We took a walk to Helen Plank's flower garden. On the way we described the sky, we saw squirrels, butterflies, bees, birds, and we listened to sounds to see if they were from nature. In the garden we smelled and studied the flowers. We talked about he homes of the animals, birds, and insects along the way. We enjoyed looking at and smelling all Helen's beautiful flowers and talked about how these made Helen's home and yard such a nice place.

Back in class we got ready to draw with crayons. Since the Biblical story asks us to care for our world as our home, I asked them to think of things they care for in and around their homes. Then they did the art work from their own experiences of caring. Lastly, I told the Bible story and we discussed God's instruction to care for our world.

Each Sunday I use a similar method, but the ideas and the Bible story will differ.

Don't worry about exhibiting the work in your home because I want them to continue to enjoy the thinking, feeling, and doing, rather than for them to worry about how pretty the picture is. It's alright to exhibit it if that is their expectation, but in any case, invite them to talk about it and how the Bible story was about some of the same things.

Please feel free to let me know how your child is responding to Sunday School. I value your suggestions and ideas about making this a good experience for your child.