Still Talking about Noah: Rainbow Party!

October's topic at Mustard Seeds is Noah and one thing I've been waiting to do is a Rainbow Party!! 

Since we've been talking about 'trusting in God's rainbows', our parent discussion topic was: 'Talk about a situation where you had to trust, but it was hard'.  All our parents had great input on this question. 

Since this was a bit more of an involved topic, I let the kids have fun with paint while we talked about our topic.  That's right.  We had fun with paint.  On a Sunday morning at church.  Here's how:  I took paper, glopped two colors of paint on the paper, put it in a Ziploc bag (letting the air mostly out), zipped it and then taped the zipped opening shut.  the kids had fun using their hands to mix the two colors into three and playing with paint.  Of course this mess-free project isn't foolproof.  Kids are so smart and you never know who will figure out how to open the tape, but the parents were right there with the kids and *this* year, we had no problems (I've done this a few times and each time has ended well).  The sensory elements of painting with real paint (painting with a brush, finger painting with pudding or paint, etc.) is awesome.  Just...not necessarily on a Sunday morning when they're all dressed up : D 
Here are some of the masterpieces:

 

Then, when you're at home, you can take the painting out of the bag, throw the bag away and let it dry.  I think the kids loved making their rainbow paintings!

The kids also got to eat rainbow goldfish

 And ended the class with dancing and rainbow wrist ribbons.  I "lead" them in a few easy motions that the parents followed or helped their little ones' arms follow or the toddlers followed along (each with their own style) as we listened to a CD from Augsburg's Splash! resources.  I really like their choice of songs and the way the music is played and sung. 

After the kids left, my 2-year-old put one wrist ribbon of each color on her wrists (they are wrist ribbons from Lakeshore) and danced while I cleaned up.  We'll have to use them again soon!