We had big plans for this spring break but alas, with travel and playgroups, pools and playgrounds, libraries and kids play areas all closed for a global pandemic, plans changed — causing my son to declare this “the worst spring break ever.” (A sentiment which honestly, just made me giggle a little since he’s in kindergarten… This is your only spring break experience, kid!)

Nonetheless,  I did want him to be able to look back on a fun (albeit low-key), first spring break. I also needed projects to keep him from getting bored while we’re stuck social-distancing at home. Learning about the Fruit of the Spirit is a great way to integrate numerous Biblical lessons throughout the day, all the while having fun with crafts and activities.

Each day includes a verse, an activity, Bible reading, and a few other suggestions for how to tackle each “fruit.” I may not be a “homeschool” mom but we’re trying our best to keep learning and have fun doing so!

Fruit of the Spirit Colouring

Day 1: Introduction
Monday, Week 1

Bible verse: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”

(Galatians 5:22-23 ESV)

Craft: Today was our introduction to the Fruit of the Spirit. Most of our time was spent creating a giant tree to tape our fruits onto. Using posterboard and paints, we hung the finished product on the back of my five-year-old’s bedroom door, and he was amazed by the result. (He’s still saying, “I can’t believe we made this tree!”)

Read and Discuss: We also spent some time reading through Galatians 5:22-23 and going over some of the basic questions that arose. (Example: Clarifying the fact that you can’t actually “eat” the fruit of the spirit.)

Questions for Discussion:

  • Why is it called a “fruit” of the Spirit?
  • How do we get the fruit of the Spirit?
  • Which of these fruits have you heard of before?

Colouring: All of our colouring pages for the week were found at Christian Preschool Printables. Today’s free colouring page was found here.

Fruit of the Spirit Tree

Day 2: Love
Tuesday, Week 1

Bible Verse:A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 ESV)

Activity: We started off our day with a breakfast of “heart-shaped” Honey Nut Cheerios (which I’d bought at the grocery store by fluke.) Perfect for our “love day” snack. After that, my kindergartener got to work colouring and cutting out his “fruit” of the day. He was beyond excited to tape today’s strawberry onto the tree we’d made yesterday.

(Today’s “love” colouring page was found here.)

Read: Today’s reading came from our 5 Minute Bible Stories book — the story of the Good Samaritan. From there, we dove into a discussion on love and what it looks like in our lives.

Questions for discussion:

  • How do we show people we love them?
  • What are some new ways we can love those around us?
  • Why does God ask us to love our neighbours?
  • How does God show His love for us?

Craft: “Strawberry Love Bug” Bookmark
Since today’s fruit of the Spirit was love, and our physical fruit was a strawberry, it was fun to “mash” the two together with this easy craft. We cut paper hearts, decorated them like strawberries, and added an antenna and googly-eyes. Voila. Strawberry, love bugs. These were glued on to a decorated strip of cardstock to make a quick bookmark.

mommymannegren.com

Day 3: Joy
Wednesday, Week 1

Bible Verse: Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” Philippians 4:4 (ESV)

Activity: We launched into our “joyful” day with a cherry colouring page. (You can find the printable we used here.) A highlight for my five-year-old is always sticking it on his “fruit of the Spirit” tree each morning — such simple joys!

We also intentionally sought out things that bring us joy. And what better way than making popsicles together? With our fruit popsicles freezing in the freezer for a snack later, we headed to the park for a bit of fresh air and some time on the swings.

Craft:  The one upside to this pandemic is that we’re getting in lots of family time! While I made dinner, my husband set to work making tambourines out of paper plates with the kids. This was an easy craft for both my five-year-old and one-year-old. (Although the littlest was disappointed that she couldn’t eat the dried noodles…) We talked about how we can “rejoice” in the Lord through music.

You can find inspiration for the craft here.

Read: This discussion led us to our reading for the day: 2 Samuel 6. In this chapter, King David dances before the Lord with all his might. We talked about how being in God’s presence brings us to uncontainable joy and looked for examples of such joy found in the passage.

Questions for discussion:

  • What does the word “rejoice” mean?
  • Why did King David dance before God?
  • What are some things that bring us joy?
  • What are some ways we can rejoice in the Lord?

We finished off the day with a couple rounds of “Just Dance” on the Xbox — wearing us all out before bed and finishing off a joyful day strong.

Fruit of the Spirit Joy

Day 4: Peace
Thursday, Week 1

Bible Verse: “Casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7 (ESV)

Activity: Feeling a bit stir-crazy from being housebound for the past week, we needed some time to actively work on seeking out peace today! (At one point during the day, we had our first-ever sign taped to a bedroom door proclaiming “no dad in my room.”) Nonetheless, these fruit of the Spirit lessons are timely for us all — and after colouring and taping our paper “peace peach” to the tree, we started off our morning with canned peaches and peach applesauce for snack.

Today’s peace colouring page was found here. (And because sometimes mama wants to colour too, check out Stevie Doodles for a set of Fruit of the Spirit colouring pages for us bigger-ones.)

Read: Our reading for the day was “The Good Shepherd” from The Jesus Storybook Bible (a version I HIGHLY recommend for those with littles. This is the same Bible we used to create our advent craft series a couple years ago.)

In “The Good Shepherd” story, we linked the verses in Psalm 23 (He makes us lie down in green pastures, leads us beside the still waters, fearing no evil, etc) to the beautiful sense of peace that God gives us. No matter what we may be facing, He is our comfort. He is our Prince of Peace.

Questions for discussion:

  • What does peace mean?
  • Does peace mean that we never feel scared? Or anxious?
  • What can we do when we feel that way?

Craft: My five-year-old was especially proud of how his craft turned out today (and couldn’t help but show it off to everyone via Facetime.) Running with the well-known symbol for peace (a dove), we created this little white bird out with just a plain, paper plate, some markers, and some white, printer paper.

Dove Craft

Day 5: Patience
Friday, Week 1

Bible Verse: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” Colossians 3:12 (ESV)

Activity: Our little tree is quickly filling with fruit! Today’s “patience orange” colouring page can be found here. Another lesson in patience we faced today? To help with social distancing / the pandemic, all the playgrounds in the city are closed — much to my son’s dismay. Yep, this is definitely going to be an extended lesson in patience…

Read: Our reading today was from The Jesus Storybook Bible — “God to the Rescue.” This is the story of the plagues of Egypt and how God rescued the Israelites. We tied patience into the long wait that the Israelites experienced as they cried out to God for relief.

Questions for discussion:

  • What are some things we have to be patient for?
  • What can we do when we’re not feeling patient?
  • Do we always get what we want? Even when we’re patient?

Snack: Instead of a craft, we made jello for today’s snack. This snack doubled as an extra lesson in patience as we waited “patiently” for the jello to be ready to eat.

Fruit of the Spirit Patience

The end of week one draws to a successful close. So far, the greatest hits were sticking the daily fruit on the tree, making a dove, and all the “fruity” snacks (of course!)

Check back next week for Week 2 of our “Fruits of the Spirit” activities!


Share in the comments, what sort of crafts/activities do YOU like to do with your five and under crowd?

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