By Rev. Doug Forbes

Refrigerator magnets make wonderful gifts, and they don’t take much space.  It’s a fun craft to create and educational.

For refrigerator magnets you need:  Bibles, Bible concordances, colorful magazines or a camera, poster board, scissors, tacky glue, rulers and a roll of self-stick magnets from a craft store.

Begin your activity with a Bible theme.  For instance, you could have your young people find stories about animals in the Bible, and share their findings with the class.  Next, have your students turn to the story of Noah’s Ark in Genesis 6:8-17, and read selected passages that tell the story.  Discuss how God saved Noah, his family and the animals on the ark.  Tell the children that God loves them and wishes to help them during emergencies in their lives, and that His help is always, only a prayer away.

Pass out magazines that contain pictures of animals, and have students cut out a picture of their choice three inches across by two inches down.  Cut a piece of poster board the same size, and glue it to the back of the picture.  Simply attach self-stick magnets to the back of the poster board, and you have a refrigerator magnet!

At another time you could have your students use their Bibles and concordances to discover Bible passages on friendship.  Allow time for each child to share his or her findings.  Share stories of some of the great friendships in the Bible such as David and Jonathan, and discuss the importance of friendships.

Take a class photo with a digital camera and use the edit features at the photo store or in your computer to make a photo for each child that is exactly three inches across by two inches down.  Have your students cut them to size and glue them onto a piece of poster board that is the same size.  Attach self-stick magnets to the back.

At Christmas you could take individual pictures of your students and edit them down to three inches across and two inches down and make them into refrigerator magnets your students could use as gifts for parents, guardians or grandparents.

Whenever you meet with your class try to vary your activities and make sure that you and your students always have a good time.  Fun, interesting active learning is the best learning.