Lesson Title: A Word of many colors

 

Grade Level or Age Group:  I have used this activity with grade 7-8 students.

Lesson Objectives: 
Given a biblical notation, the students will be able to find the passage in the Bible.

Materials Needed:

  • A class set of New Testaments or Bibles.
  • A class set of copies of the Scripture Coloring page.
  • Coloring felts or pencils.
  • Appropriate scripture passage(s).

Contents/Activities:

1. Teach the students how to find passages in the New Testament. Depending on the readiness of the group you have, you might want to cover the following elements:

  • where to find the New Testament in a Bible
  • using the index
  • biblical notations

2. Use the drawing provided on the right (click on the stained glass window to get an enlarged printable version) to make a "scripture coloring sheet". Note that it should be fairly easy to create your own coloring page as well - it would simply involve tracing the general contour of an existing drawing and then dividing it into as many pieces as you wish. Steps to follow:

Stained glass windowa. print and copy the drawing and make three copies;

b. define the color scheme on one copy;

c. find passages in the New Testament that either mention the color or an object which is clearly associated with a specific color - you need to be careful here that there is no ambiguity in the verses you select , that is that there are not two different colors possible suggested by the text;

d. once you have enough scripture passage, write biblical notations in each section of the drawing to map the color scheme you have defined;

3. Student then find the scripture passages to color the drawing according to the color scheme you have defined.

N.B.: You obviously need not limit yourself to the New Testament. You can do the whole process for the entire Bible or for a single book in the Bible as well.

Resources:

Here are a few tools you may use to help you find appropriate passages in the Bible:

1. Bible Gateway allows you to do word searches for the whole Bible, for a section in the Bible or for a single book. You may choose from a number of Bible translation to do this. A very useful tool even if none of the Bible translations are Catholic.

2. The The New American Bible, a Catholic version, is also available online, but does not provide a practical search engine.

3. I have compiled a brief list of passages to get you started. Click here to access it.

Related: Gospels - Bible - New Testament - Lesson Plans

 ©Gilles Côté, 2000
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