Before class time you might want to visit the following tutorial blog for a rough idea of the lanterns your students will make as a reminder activity today. You won’t be having them decoupage tissue paper on the lantern, but the tutorial will share the basic construction of cutting the plastic bottles, punching holes in the plastic, and creating a handle with the chenille wire. Making a sample is always helpful. The tutorial can be found here:

How to Make a Lantern

In today’s lesson we learned that Jesus referred to Himself as the Good Shepherd. He stays with and cares for His sheep: us!

• Think about your day to day activities, both the joys and struggles. Now imagine yourself as a sheep and Jesus as your shepherd. Describe how differently you might see day-to-day life from this perspective. (Answers will vary. Students might mention that they would keep moving and not spend so much time on social media or watching TV. They might look differently at things that might become a predator. They might eat healthier. They might get more sleep. They might not complain as much about things they don’t want to do.)

To help us remember how well Jesus knows us, cares for us, and loves us, we are going to make a shepherd’s lantern night light. Remember how Janice Reuter mentioned this in the video we watched earlier? She said shepherds jammed their crook into the ground and hung a lantern from it. They would lie down near the lantern and the sheep at night.

Distribute supplies. Lead your students through the following steps to construct their Shepherd’s Lantern Night Light.

Cut the top off of your water bottle. Demonstrate how they can pinch the plastic to make a small cut to get it started and then trim until they end up with a wide-mouth cylinder with the bottle’s bottom side intact.

At the top, punch one hole on each side of your plastic cylinder.

Cut a small tag from the cardstock and punch a hole in the top. On one side of the tag write “I know My sheep.” On the other side write: “My sheep know Me.”

Thread the tag onto the chenille wire and then thread the wire through the holes on your cylinder to make a handle; twist each end to secure it. Give each child an LED tea light to place inside of the lantern.

Place this at your bedside so when you lie down at night you can remember that Jesus is with you, loving you, and caring about you and all that concerns you.

Close in prayer thanking God that Jesus is our Shepherd, who knows and cares about us. Ask for help to know Jesus more.