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Read this first to introduce Bravery

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After reading David and Goliath, you can let children feel some real rocks of all different shapes and sizes, just like the rocks David used to defeat Goliath. Then hop into this activity and create their own rocks using play dough. This hands on activity engages children in sensory play to construct knowledge. This activity promotes creativity because they can make whatever color and shape rocks they choose.

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This David and Goliath Preschool Theme is based on 1 Samuel 17:1-50.

Through his faith in God, David was able to overcome what others thought impossible.

Whenever we talk about this Bible account, we always talk about David defeating Goliath with 5 smooth stones. And wow, it is an amazing account! However, let's not forget that this little boy, David, could ONLY have defeated Goliath with God's help.

You'll find more themes to help you with your planning on my bible preschool themes page.

David was a shepherd. God had a plan for him: to one day be King. This victory over Goliath is truly a story of the strong faith in God of young boy and of him following God's plan for him.

God has a plan for each of us (Jeremiah 29:11). Talk with the children about this strong faith. Talk with them about HOW David had such faith (prayer and reading God's word).

Let the Theme planning begin!

You can either scroll down through this page to see all of the preschool activities for your theme or click the link below to go to specific preschool activity types you are looking for.

To read my Statement of Faith,

DAVID AND GOLIATH Art Activities Block Area Circle Time Activities Cooking Recipes Dramatic Play Ideas Easel Ideas Gross Motor Games Library and Literacy Math And Manipulatives Activities Music and Movement Sand and Water Table Science Activities Writing Activities

Here is a Rocks Theme that may give you more ideas to add to this theme!

Art Activities

David and Goliath Theme Art

David and Goliath Paper Bag Puppets

Provide small paper lunch bags (brown or white) and markers, yarn for hair, googly eyes, glue

The children make a David and Goliath paper bag to act the story out with.

Collect medium sized stones (smooth ones).

Provide paint.

The children paint their own "5 smooth stones".

David had a gift and that gift saved his people from Goliath's army. We all have gifts.

Encourage the children to paint (using watercolor) a picture of what their gift is. What are they good at? Helping others? Drawing?

David and Goliath Theme Block Center Ideas

David was a shepherd. It was an important job to keep track of an entire flock of sheep!

Add toy sheep and people (shepherds) to your block area. Also, add some cotton balls for fun!

David and Goliath Theme Circle Time Ideas

Circle Time is such a great time for children to learn the social skills of being together as a large group AND to learn more about your theme!

Whenever we talk about David and Goliath, we always talk about David defeating Goliath with 5 smooth stones. And wow, it is an amazing account! However, let's not forget that this little boy, David, could ONLY have defeated Goliath with God's help.

David was a shepherd. God had a plan for him: to one day be King. This victory over Goliath is truly a story of the strong faith in God of young boy and of him following God's plan for him.

God has a plan for each of us (Jeremiah 29:11). Talk with the children about this strong faith. Talk with them about HOW David had such faith (prayer and reading God's word).

In this David and Goliath account, we find that David was brave. He knew that God was with him during this time.

Talk to the children about things they are afraid of. List these things on a large piece of paper. It will be very helpful for the children to realize they are not the only ones with fears.

Then, talk about how children can overcome some of these fears. Children are so wonderful at making suggestions to help each other! List these solutions on the chart paper also.

Remind the children that God is always with us and hears our prayers. When we are afraid, we can pray to him anytime.

Lead the children in prayer.

We all have gifts, or things we are good at, at all ages! Have the children share the things they are good at! List them all!

Accept all thoughts! They may range from I'm Good At.... making silly faces, painting, making my Mom laugh, taking care of my dog, etc.

Try to find a small harp to bring to circle. Or, bring pictures of harps to story. Also, find a CD that has harp music.

Explain that shepherds often played music while watching their sheep.

Discuss what a shepherd is. Let the children try playing the harp if you have one.

Tell them that David played a harp, it was one of his many gifts.

Play the music quietly as you tell the story.

Bring a scale to circle. Let each child get on the scale and list how much they weigh.

Show a picture of Goliath in his armor.

Tell them that Goliath's armor weighed over 125 pounds! Explain to them that it would be like having _______ and __________ and ___________ on your back (add up weights to 125 pounds)! Wow!

Snack Recipe Ideas to Cook Up for Your David and Goliath Theme!

Cooking with children helps develop their math skills and helps them to learn how to follow directions. It also allows for some great conversation! Ask many questions while cooking with your children to encourage conversation! Be sure to ask specific David and Goliath themed questions while making these fun snacks!

You will need: celery stalks, raisins, cream cheese or yogurt, a plastic knife

Have the children help to rinse the celery.

They then use a plastic knife to spread the cheese or yogurt in a celery stalk.

They place 5 raisins (5 smooth stones) on their snack.

VARIATION: Color the cheese or yogurt blue by adding a small amount of blue food gel coloring and mixing.

David and Goliath Theme Ideas to Transform Your Dramatic Play Area

In our David and Goliath Bible story, we find that the armor was too big and too heavy for David.

Provide items that are a bit larger than the children for this:

A large helmet (football helmet perhaps).

A large heavy jacket.

A large shield.

Also, provide child sized items that fit. Perhaps bathrobes, slippers, sandals, etc.
More Than Just Painting (Although that is always THE favorite in our classroom!)

David and Goliath Theme Ideas for your Easel--

Instead of paint, provide Do A Dot (bingo dobbers) with paint in them!

Encourage the children to make big and small items:

Goliath and David

Big dog, small dog
that help build their muscles while they have fun together

Big flower, small flower

David and Goliath Theme Large Group Games

Play duck, duck goose but change the words!

David and Goliath Theme Ideas for Your Library and Literacy Activities for your Preschool Classroom

Bible verses for this David and Goliath theme are: 1 Samuel 17:2-11; 16; 40; 45-50

Memory Verse Print 1 Samuel 16:7 and hang in library: "The Lord looks on the Heart"

Book Suggestions for the Library

(I LOVE Amazon, and if you choose to get yours there, they do send me a few cents--which supports my coffee habit!)

The Children's Book of Heroes by William J. Bennett

David and the Giant Pickle by Veggie Tales

David and the Giant by Kelly Pulley (an I Can Read book)

David and Goliath Theme Activities to help your Preschoolers develop those small muscles in their hands!

Provide a large variety of colors of playdough and scissors

Most children are great at making "snakes".

Let's now work on making "balls".

This is a great activity to help develop their muscles by pinching, rolling and manipulating the dough and using scissors to cut the dough. And those muscles are the ones that are needed for future writing skills, so you can NEVER have enough playdough and scissor activities in the classroom!

Provide cups, tongs and black and white pom poms.

The children sort their "sheep" into the "pens" (cups).

You could program these in many ways to go along with the concepts you are working on such as:

Tape a dot on each cup with a number. The children place that many pom poms in the cups.

Provide colored pom poms and program the cups with colored dots (or provide colored cups!) for the children to sort by color.

Provide a small, medium and large bowl for the children to sort by size.

David and Goliath Theme Music and Movement Activities and Ideas to get your Preschoolers Movin' and Groovin'

This is sung to Pop Goes the Weasel

Goliath had a sword and shield.

Goliath was a giant.

David slung a rock at him.

Down went the giant.

Say this poem and add your own hand motions to it.

Only a boy named David

Only a little sling

Only a boy named David

But he could pray and sing

Only a boy named David

Only a rippling brook

Only a boy named David

But five little stones he took.

And one little stone went in the sling

And the sling went round and round

And one little stone went in the sling

And the sling went round and round

And round and round

And round and round

And round and round and round

And one little prayer went up to God

And the giant came tumbling down.

David and Goliath Theme Activities for the Senses!

Why not add it all! Add gravel, rocks, pea gravel, pebbles AND sand to your table this week!

David and Goliath Theme Science Activities--for your Preschool Scientists in Training!

Provide a balance scale (or more if you have more than one), rocks, magnifying glasses and a regular scale.

Be sure to allow this to be out all week so that the children have enough time to explore and use these items to measure rocks and themselves!

Provide a journal for each child to record (by picture or words) their thoughts (I make journals by stapling a piece of construction paper on top of several pages of blank paper).

Writing Activity Ideas for Your David and Goliath Theme!

David was a harp player!!!

Provide a harp shaped stencil.

The children trace it on paper and cut it out.

Then have them draw "strings" on it.

Encourage them to practice printing their names on their harp strings!

It would be helpful to have an actual harp or picture of a harp for them to see!

Here is a Rocks Theme that may give you more ideas

Go to Bible Themes main page from this David and Goliath Page

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This David and Goliath Preschool Theme is based on 1 Samuel 17:1-50. Through his faith in God, David was able to overcome what others thought impossible. Whenever we talk about this Bible account, we always talk about David defeating Goliath with 5 smooth stones. And wow, it is an amazing account!

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This activity correlates with the brave little monster book and provides children with the opportunity to express what they feel it looks like to be brave. After reading the book the lesson provides a few questions about how the little monster in the book was brave and how we can be brave too. Then the children will use a brown paper bag to create a brave puppet that reflects what they look like when they are being brave. children can use a variety of materials including safety scissors, construction paper, crayons, glue and yarn to create their unique puppets.

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Social Studies, level: Pre-School
Posted Tue Oct 16 14:56:23 PDT 2001 by Ken Baker ( ken@bravemonster.com).
Teacher Resources
Author, Orem, Utah
Materials Required: Paper lunch bag for each student
Activity Time: 30 minutes
Concepts Taught: What it means to be brave, and dealing with real and imaginary fears.

Ask the class what it means to be brave? After listening to the children's responses, explain that being brave means a lot of different things, such as:
-Doing something that is really hard to do like trying to learn to ride a bike
-Getting a shot at the doctors even though it might hurt
-Saying "No" to someone who is trying to get you to do something that you know is wrong
-Trying to help yourself and others be happy even though you feel sad
Ask the class if they think it is possible to be scared and brave at the same time. Explain to the class in your own words some of the following ideas:

-It is okay to be scared sometimes and that brave people get scared too.
-Sometimes the bravest people are the ones who do what they are supposed to do even though they are scared.
-It's okay to be scared or have fears; being brave means that you try not to let those fears control how you live or act.

Tell the class that you're going to read them a story about a young monster. Ask them to think about what the monster is afraid of and how the monster acts brave. Read to the class the children's picture book, Brave Little Monster by Ken Baker and illustrated by Geoffrey Hayes (published by HarperCollins; ISBN 0060286989).

Ask the class what Albert the monster was afraid of (Answer: children hiding in his room during bedtime).
Ask the class, even though Albert was afraid did he act brave. What are some of the brave things that Albert did (Possible answers: he asked his mom for help, he tried to scare the children away, he threw a smelly sock at his closet, etc.)?

Ask the class how they can act brave like Albert when they are afraid of something. Guide their answers toward some appropriate actions or responses.

Optional discussion for younger students to help them recognize some imaginary fears: Ask the class if they think Albert really saw a girl hiding in his closet? Suggest that maybe it was just a shadow or clothes hanging in his closet that were in the shape of a girl. Ask the class if they think Albert really heard a boy coloring under his bed. Suggest that sometimes the wind, home heater/AC, or other things make noises in the night and that maybe that's really what Albert heard. Ask the class if they think Albert really saw a boy and girl dancing outside his window. Suggest that maybe it was just the silhouette of the tree waving in the window. Explain that sometimes, like with Albert, our imaginations plays tricks on us, making us think we hear or see something that really isn't there.

Activity: Have the students use the lunch bags, crayons, yarn, and glue to make puppets of themselves being brave-these will be their brave puppets to help them be brave or act out being brave. As an optional activity, you can have the students make monster puppets instead.

For more information about the Brave Little Monster children's picture book, other teaching resources, and author visits to your school, check out Ken Baker's official web site at www.bravemonster.com.

Copyright 2001 by Ken Baker

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Lesson Plan #2404. Being Brave and Dealing with Fear

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Social Studies, level: Pre-School Posted Tue Oct 16 14:56:23 PDT 2001 by Ken Baker ( ken@bravemonster.com). Teacher Resources Author, Orem, Utah Materials Required: Paper lunch bag for each student Activity Time: 30 minutes Concepts Taught: What it means to be brave, and dealing with real and imaginary fears.

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Read this to show acts of bravery

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North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development

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North Carolina Foundations for Early Learning and Development

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• Goal APL-5: Children are willing to try new and challenging experiences
• Goal ESD-6: Children identify, manage, and express their feelings.
• Goal CD-1: Children use their senses to construct knowledge about the world around them.
• Goal CD-3: Children demonstrate the ability to think about their own thinking: reasoning, taking perspectives, and making decisions.
• Goal CD-15: Children explore the natural world by observing, manipulating objects, asking questions, making predictions, and developing generalizations.

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• Senses
• Self-awareness
• Change
• Perspective
• Textures/Materials
• Comparatives
• Temperature
• Quantity
• Choice

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• What does it mean to be brave?
• Do you think you can be brave and afraid at the same time?
• Is it okay to be afraid?
• Do you think you are brave?
• Would you like to do the activity?
• Do you feel excited, scared, nervous, etc?
• What does it feel like when you touch it?
• Does it have a smell?
• What is the temperature like? Is it warm or cold?
• Do you like the way it feels?
• How have your feelings about the activity changed now that you have started?

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Diaper pins are the same thing but have a rubber cap for safety

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Use large balloons to place over the buckets so that you cannot see what is inside of them.

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To fill with different sensory items. Make sure the buckets are not see through.

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Examples include feathers, slime, pompom balls, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, plastic figurines, small stuffed animals, hard balls, sand, rocks, buttons etc.

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This activity helps children to have a reminder that they are brave. Using construction paper, stickers, crayons, scissors, and safety pins, students will create their very own bravery badge. After creating the bravery badge you should ask each child to tell you one thing they are afraid of. After each child tells you their fear, you place the badge on them and tell them that they are brave enough to face the fear.

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For this activity, as a group, the children and teacher should discuss what has been learned about bravery and what the children think it means to be brave. Then each child will receive a piece of construction paper with a line in the middle. On the top half of the paper, they will draw a picture of a time that they were brave. Once the children are finished have them describe the picture and teacher will write about it on the bottom half of the page.

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Stephanie Kelley has been writing articles and columns online for SGM Radio and SGN Scoops Digital since 2005. She has a Bachelor of Arts in art history/anthropology from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. and writes on a number of topics including art, frugal living, children and travel.

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Stephanie Kelley has been writing articles and columns online for SGM Radio and SGN Scoops Digital since 2005. She has a Bachelor of Arts in art history/anthropology from Western Washington University in Bellingham, Wash. and writes on a number of topics including art, frugal living, children and travel.

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For this activity, fill 3 buckets with different sensory items. An example of this would be one bucket of slime with different object in it such as pompoms, another bucket filled with sand and  rocks, and the last bucket filled with feathers, pompoms, and buttons. After the buckets are filled, stretch a large balloon over top of each bucket and cut a small hole just high enough for the children to put their hand through. Ask the children if they are nervous or uneasy about exploring the buckets. Ask them what they think are in the buckets. Then let them individually explore the buckets and ask some prompting questions. “What does it feel like?” “What is the temperature like? Is it warm or cold?” “Do you like the way it feels?” “If you were nervous, are you still?” After everyone explores and you ask the same questions, ask if the children think that they were brave while exploring the buckets and why.

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“6 Pcs Kids Safety Scissors Art Craft Scissors Set for Kids and Students Paper.” EBay, EBay Inc, www.ebay.com/itm/6-Pcs-Kids-Safety-Scissors-Art-Craft-Scissors-Set-for-Kids-and-Students-Paper-/113721896531.

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“Large Sand Bucket Pail with Shovel [12 Pack Bulk] 9’ Beach Toys for Kids - Sand Castle Toys for Beach - Summer Outdoor Beach Pool Party Supplies Favors.” Amazon, www.amazon.com/4Es-Novelty-Shovels-Assorted-Birthday/dp/B012U19YM6.

“Lesson Plan #2404. Being Brave and Dealing with Fear.” Teachers.Net, teachers.net/lessons/posts/2404.html.

Liptak, Robert. “Rainbow-Colored Yarn Balls, Viewed from Above.” 123RF, Inmagine Lab Pte Ltd 2021, www.123rf.com/photo_104104901_rainbow-colored-yarn-balls-viewed-from-above-.html.

M, Dhayna, et al. “David and Goliath.” Booktopia, www.booktopia.com.au/david-and-goliath-dhanya-m/book/9781486700493.html.

“Make a Bravery Badge.” Education.com, www.education.com/download-pdf/activity/60184/.

“Man Reaching into Grab Bag.” IndyScan.com, www.indyscan.com/man-reaching-into-grab-bag/.

“Mini Holographic Star Stickers.” BakerRoss.com, Baker Ross Limited, www.bakerross.com/mini-holographic-star-stickers-1.

“Mini Paper Sacks.” HOBBY LOBBY, www.hobbylobby.com/Party-Baking/Themed-Party-Collections/Bright-Ideas/Mini-Paper-Sacks/p/MS209410.

Myers, Katie. “Playdough Balls.” BONBON BREAK, www.bonbonbreak.com/talking-about-diversity-using-playdough/.

“Pile of Graphite Pencils.” Fegol, Fegol, 12 Mar. 2019, fegol.net/en/2019/03/12/graphite-pencil-vs-mechanical-pencil-which-is-the-best/.

“Rectangular Colour Paper.” IndiaMART, Intermesh Ltd, www.indiamart.com/proddetail/colour-paper-140-gsm-21147458297.html.