Fish, Questions & Commandments...

It has been sometime since I've posted any art.
It has been sometime since I've been able to DO any art.

I've been working hard at both of these things: jobs and school/studies, since Fall of '05 with nary a break in between - let alone a vacation of any kind. It is all just beginning to seem like such a soul-sucking thing to me... I need art to breathe!

Fortunately my calling at church, to teach Sunday school to the little children, has given me brief outlets here & there for my creativity.

I thought I'd share these little Fishes with you.

These little fishes came about because, neither I, nor the other church ladies putting together the "Follow Him in Faith Carnival" activity last September, thought that sharp, pointy darts were a good idea in the hands of 5 to 11 year olds!

So, rather than put up a "dart the balloon board,"
I made up some fishing poles from wooden dowel rods, glue, string and magnets.
Next, I created these little fishes.

I drew them in outline first, about the size of an index card each, scanned that into the computer and then Photo-shopped on the colors & textures. Since fish eyes all look the same to me, I made up one eyeball, in Photoshop, & duplicated & modified that to fit all the fish.

Since my printer at home is on the fritz I loaded the image up on a flash-drive & took it to the office supply store in town & they pulled it up. I'd been careful to size the images to fit on regular sized (8.5 x 11) paper, so, I had them print it all out on some 20 pages of card stock.
(yes! 120 fish!)

We roughly cut them apart then (we didn't have time to be too exact & the one's with the flipped tails need that extra blank spot for stability). Then we put a paperclip on each one.

I used a felt tip marker & wrote either a commandment, or a question from the Sunday school lessons manual (I'd been teaching the kids all year), on the back (blank) side of the fish.

I put all the fish I had paper clipped (paper clips come in 100 count boxes, btw... something I hadn't bothered to pay attention to when I had 20 pages of card stock printed up) color side up on the floor of the classroom (at the church) where we were having the activity. This worked rather well, as the carpeting in that room is a nice, deep, blue color.

When it was time for the kids to begin the game I talked to them about Jesus and the disciples and the fishing that they had done. Then I explained to them about the fishing poles & what they were going to find on the backs of the fishes...
If the kids got a question, they were to answer the question - and 'throw the fish back in.'
If the kids got a commandment, they then got to 'keep the commandments.'

Man-o-man, this was a 'hit'! Those kids really got into this & they loved counting out their fish (& commandments) to keep.

The Bible is chalked full of commandments. I drew them from all parts of the scriptures that seemed most applicable to the children, I didn't just write out 'the 10 commandments' alone, repetitiously, although I did use a good many of them as well.

Having a few left-over, extras, as it turned out, has been a good thing. I've had a few visits from friends with little ones in tow at my house, since this activity. The fishes and fishin' poles have been a great way to help keep the little children entertained while the adults visit. And, of course, I've let those little visitors take a pole and a few fishes home with them as well! How could I not? They really enjoyed playing with them!