Whale week!

Unpacking after a trip to my Mom’s I found the kids had smuggled a few books into their suitcase. One of these became the inspiration for the activities for this week – Whales!

We also used this as an opportunity to read Jonah and the whale – their all time favorite Bible story.

Monday we colored a picture of a whale (and Jonah) with crayon then painted blue water over it (the idea was that it wouldn’t stick to the crayon). Some people have asked where I get my ideas – this one came from a toddler Bible curriculum my mom just gave me.

The next day we made a whale out of a milk jug. This came from some random site I found on the internet as I looked up toy whales. Lance fell in love with the whale right away and stuffed everything in it’s mouth.

Wednesday we watched videos of whales spouting on YouTube so the kids would have an idea of what I was talking about. Lance loved saying “thar she blows!” Afterward we went swimming and practiced “spouting” (or blowing bubbles).

We also watched a few clips of dolphin shows so Ivy is making the dolphin jump “really high!’”

Thursday we hit the pool again (hey, it’s summer!) and re-enacted the story of Jonah. (We were going to do it the day before but I forgot the whale and didn’t feel like hauling everyone back upstairs to get it). The kids told Jonah to “go to the Nibabah” but Jonah disobeyed and took a boat. Ivy makes a big storm which gets Jonah thrown overboard.

Lance quickly scoops up Jonah (a little wooden man).  Inside the whale Lance says that “he prayed to God.”

This prayer results in Jonah being spit out on land (Lance impersonates the whale). Set free, Jonah goes to Nineveh and Ivy knows that he tells the people to “stop being bad!” Lance finishes the story with, “he obeyed God.”

And for the last day, we made whale shaped pancakes – or at least two turned out with decent shape (Lance thought the other one looked like a rabbit). I also made a Jonah.

The kids were so delighted with the pancakes that they ate them without any syrup! They ate Jonah first, I think they believed themselves to be whales.

Coming up next: Dinosaurs!! (scary!)