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BACKGROUND NOTES & OTHER NEAT INFO.
THE BOOK OF DANIEL
is one of the prophetic books of the Bible.
SHARES CERTAIN TRAITS WITH ESTHER.
Introductory notes to this book in the NOAB/NRSV give this explanation:
"Blending theological emphasis on personal piety and divine intervention with staples of folktales such as wise courtiers,
endangered heroes, and foolish kings, the first six chapters [of Daniel] entertain and edify even as they provide encouragement
to Jews living as a minority under foreign rule.
"The accounts of Daniel and his friends, Jewish youths taken into Babylonian captivity, reflect a time in which the imperial
rule is ignorant and often dangerous rather than malevolent, and in which Jews can live at peace with their non-Jewish neighbors,
though not perhaps with a complete sense of security.
MAP.
The following map gives an idea of the scope of the Babylonian Empire during Daniel's time. To see it, click here.
SO WHEN WAS THIS BOOK WRITTEN?
Again according to our introductory notes: "the tales are most often regarded as products of the Persian (539 - 333 BCE) or
early Hellenistic (333 - 168) periods." [The later, darker, more apocalyptic chapter were more likely written just prior to
the Maccabean revolt circa 167 BCE.]
WHAT WE LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK OF DANIEL.
Introductory notes conclude: "The folktales [from chps 1 - 6] speak to all peoples persecuted as religious and ethnic minorities,
especially under conditions of colonial rule. The apocalyptic material, whose meanings would have been known to the author's
own circle, have provided for over two thousand years occasion for speculation and, often, hope."
SO WHO WAS DANIEL?
Lois Wilson has a nice description of the character of Daniel in her book Stories Seldom Told, in the section on Susanna --
a book in the Apocrypha and Hebrew Scriptures that features Daniel. The Canadian writer and former moderator of the United
Church of Canada notes that in the Susanna story, Daniel's youth is emphasized, as it is in the earlier material. "Daniel
seems a child, but to God he is a prophet. His wisdom is a gift of the Spirit," she writes.
DANIEL'S PRAYER.
In Chp. 2, Daniel has been given insight on the first of many dreams he interprets. At the moment of revelation, he comes
up with a very nice prayer or hymn. It might be the kind of thing he thought about overnight with all those lions. I like
the version in the New King James Version and include it here below:
Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
For wisdom and might are His.
He changes the times and the seasons;
He removes kings and raises up kings;
He gives wisdom to the wise
And knowledge to those who have understanding.
He reveals deep and secret things;
He knows what is in the darkness,
And light dwells with Him.
I thank You and praise You,
O God of my fathers;
You have given me wisdom and might,
And have now made known to me what we asked of You,
For You have made known to us the king's demand.
There's a nice piece of art that illustrates Daniel at prayer. It's by Edward Poynter from 1865.
OTHER AWESOME ART.
Here's the one my daughter really liked when it showed up on the screen. It's by Tissot.
I liked the 'tame as pussycats' feeling behind this picture.
And this sculpture by Bernini.
Count on Chagall for colour.
Again, you can find lots more great images yourself by going to this page at textweek.com.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. When did this story take place? Was it at a time when the Hebrew people governed their own affairs?
2. Who was Daniel?
3. What was special about him?
4. Why was he thrown in the lions' den?
5. Did he get hurt?
6. Why or why not?
7. What protected him?
8. Do you ever feel surrounded by lions with no one in sight to help you?
9. What works for you to turn your lions into pussy cats?
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WORKSHOPS, ROTATION 1
Please find below suggested workshops for this unit. For each one, when you are in real time with the children:
1. Quickly review or recap the story with them before starting activity. Each week, see how much more detail each group of
kids can supply on the story they've been studying.
2. Link or explain your activity to the current story.
KITCHEN
ACTIVITY: MAKE 'LION CUB CHOW.' WILL EMPHASIZE HOW THE LIONS DIDN'T HURT DANIEL.
INGREDIENTS:
7 cups rice chex, 1 bag butterscotch chips, broken pretzels, mini m&m's
DIRECTIONS:
Mix chips in large bowl, microwave 1 min at a time 50% power until melted, stir in chex and pretzel bits. add more to coat,
last add m&m's for garnish. chill and eat. yummy!
*This idea (with slight modification) comes from the Prophets/Daniel & Lions discussion topic at rotation.org.
REAL TIME WITH THE CHILDREN
Ready. Quickly review or recap the story with them before starting activity.
Set. Link or explain your activity to the current story.
Go. Chow down!
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DRAMA WORKSHOP
ACTIVITY: ACT OUT PLAY FOR DANIEL IN LIONS' DEN STORY.
MATERIALS: costume box, script. Click these links to find scripts for younger and older children.
IN REAL TIME WITH THE CHILDREN
1. Quickly review or recap the story with them before starting activity. Each week, see how much more detail each group of
kids can supply on the story they've been studying.
2. Link or explain your activity to the current story.
3. Act up!
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ARTS WORKSHOP
ACTIVITY:MAKE FAUX CERAMIC TILES FOR GARDEN FROM TILE GROUT AND FOUND OBJECTS. REPRESENTS HOW GOD STUCK WITH DANIEL.
MATERIALS & INSTRUCTIONS:
* For an art workshop, we took the mosaics idea a little further, and make real mosaics. The kids mixed up white tile grout,
purchased at Home Depot, in large coffee cans. They then poured the mixed grout in clear plastic platters, the kind you get
to go under a potted plant, they are pretty cheap. We put out pieces of broken tiles, beads and those flattened glass marbles.
They had to dry until the next week. While kids may not have been able to make pictures of the story, the mosaics will last
forever, even out in the garden! We did talk about how God's love and our faith in God holds us together, just like the tile
grout.
**This idea as well is from the Prophets/Daniel & Lions discussion topic at rotation.org.**
****We just did a household test of this with plaster of paris. Looking good. The best one, I think, will be the one we poured
into a clean margarine container. It's thicker and has the heft of a garden stone.
Re supplies: when we went to our friendly neighbourhood Canadian Tire, tile grout was about $9 CDN for a 3 cup premixed pail.
Plaster of paris was $3.49 CDN for a box of powder that will make a lot more. The staff guy (accounting for the fact that
sometimes they don't know) said it would dry hard and not crumble with exposure to water. So this looked like the best cheapest
option to us.
Get your used marg tubs at a waste recycling depot. I would also look for old tea cups and saucers and make my own broken
pottery tiles. Think I have read somewhere that if you put the pottery in a thick sack (like 2 pillow cases), and give the
bag a few whacks with a hammer, you can get some nice pottery tiles.
The diameter of the marg tub stone isn't big enough for painting much text on after it dries. But they will look nice painted.
We mixed it too thin for etching words into. Mix at ratio of 2 pp: 1 water (or less) for thicker plaster. Will post pix when
our samples are done.**** Here they are. Click oh thumbnails for larger views --
Neil's stone, front and back view:
Susannah's stone, front and back view:
Holly's stone (the classic bead-drop!):
IN REAL TIME WITH THE CHILDREN
1. Quickly review or recap the story with them before starting activity. Each week, see how much more detail each group of
kids can supply on the story they've been studying.
2. Link or explain your activity to the current story.
3. Tile one on!
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COMPUTER WORKSHOP
ACTIVITY: USING COMPUTERS, INPUT, ILLUSTRATE AND OUTPUT A 'FINE ART' REPRODUCTION OF DANIEL'S PRAYER (SEE SECTION IN BACKGROUND
NOTES.).
**Here's the link to a slideshow with illustrations by my daughter that we worked up as a visual re-introduction to the story for young children in the computer
lab.****
INSTRUCTIONS:
Kids can use Typepad and Child's play art program to type in Daniel's Prayer. (Pretype words, of course for little kids.)
IN REAL TIME WITH THE CHILDREN
1. Quickly review or recap the story with them before starting activity. Each week, see how much more detail each group of
kids can supply on the story they've been studying.
2. Link or explain your activity to the current story.
3. Boot up!
****** This turned out really well. We ran the little slideshow linked in above at the beginning of the lesson. In the later
rush I had forgotten about it, but was glad to hear a 3 1/2 yr old girl tell her uncle later that she watched a movie.
I pretyped a short version of the prayer on to one of the Kid Pix backdrops. Then they added stamps, and printed out. At another
table, big kids helped them augment the wide borders with Crayola Gel FX markers and gold and silver pens. I also had a nifty
star shaped hole punch that they punched many times, and then ran a string thru for hanging up at home. I had four children
under 6 in waiting for turns on one computer. They were all engrossed in the activity. There were of course more cars, trains,
frogs in the pond, etc. than with the older kids. But like the poem says, God changes times and seasons!
Older kids typed in the prayer, then added their own backdrop and stamps, also made large poster frame. Just like Daniel,
they can keep God in front of them thru this poster prayer.
Find below a couple of thumbnails from the older kids. Click on image for larger views.
Katrina's prayer:
Holly's prayer:
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DANIEL IN THE LIONS’ DEN, ROTATION 2
New workshops include: * Arts /prayer mat * Kitchen/salad * Music/teach Dare to be a Daniel * Beatbox * Computer/mock Facebook page * Game/Mini Olympics
Please find below suggested workshops for this unit. For each one, when you are in real time with the children:
1. Quickly review or recap the story with them before starting activity. Each week, see how much more detail each group of
kids can supply on the story they've been studying.
2. Link or explain your activity to the current story.
ARTS -- Make a prayer mat for Daniel
This story makes much of the fact that Daniel took time out to pray to his God. Make a prayer mat for Daniel. The Poynter
artwork cited above in fact shows Daniel on a prayer mat.
Materials: large length of polar fleece or flannel in 2 x 3 foot rectangles, scissors. (** Any length of cheap cloth will
do).
What to do. Give each child their rectangle. Have them fringe all around the edges, creating 3 – 4 inch fringes with
scissors. Have them tie knots in some but not all of fringes as reminders of things they want currently to pray about. They
can choose to tell or not tell about the prayers tied into their mats. You could brainstorm this at beginning of class to
give them ideas.
KITCHEN -- Salad
The idea here is the usually carnivorous lions weren’t interested in meat while Daniel was in the den. So something
vegetarian in the kitchen seems appropriate. As I write this, the cucumbers are starting to ripen in the garden, so I’m
thinking a Greek peasant salad, with lots of chunky garden veg.
Ingredients: cucumbers, tomatoes, feta cheese, black olives, red onion, mild dressing ie cucumber for the kids.
Cut vegetables into bite size chunks. Cut feta into cubes. Cut strips of black olive away from the pit.
Toss tomato, cuke and feta together in a bowl. Reserve olive and red onion in a side dish for children to add in if they want
to try, since sometimes the kids find these too strong. Also set aside some cuke and/or oil and vinegar dressing, again for
children to add if they wish. Happy dining sans meat, like Daniel’s lions!
GAME -- Mini Olympics
At time of writing, the Olympics have just opened in Beijing, so there just has to be an Olympic games activity.
Daniel would have had to be mentally, physically and spiritually in shape and on top of his game to come out of the lion incident
in tact.
Here are some events with the skills Dan might need to keep lions at bay:
1. 100 m (or some short distance variation thereof) dash
2. javelin (pool noodle toss)
3. discus (Frisbee, bean bag fling)
4. shot put (bean bag toss)
5. running long jump
6. and why not end with a collaborative event – relay race.
Most events can be organized in a big-gish hall. Running events can be from one end of hall to another. Or if weather permits
when you run this workshops, take it outside!
MUSIC -- Teach Dare to be a Daniel
A terrific occasion to teach the kids this classic song from our tradition (LD’s mom’s favourite song from the
canon!)
Find lyrics and tune here on Cyberhymnal.org:
Dare to be a Daniel on Cyberhymnal.org .
BEAT BOX
Why: use sound effects and action to reinforce key plot points of this bible story.
How it works.
**This concept is borrowed from the Beat Team segment in the children’s show 4 Square on Treehouse TV. If you have a
PC, you can view a clip online. Go to Treehousetv.com and follow the links. We Mac users would appear to be out of luck on this one!
Divide class into 4 groups or parts.
Brainstorm 4 different parts to produce together like a round.
Have groups practice separately. Then try each other's parts. Then come in in sequence like a round.
Take your Beat Box to another, perhaps younger class. Or share during worship at children's story time.
Suggestions for 4 parts.
1. Say, Daniel said his prayers, Daniel said his prayer (make big praying hands gesture).
2. Say, Grrrrr, Grrrrr, Grrrrr, Grrrrr (act out lions growling and showing claws)
3. Say, Meow, meow, meow meow (act out Dan patting lions like kitty cats)
4. Say, God is good, God is good (in pair act out Daniel and king arms around shoulders, making peace sign with outside hand).
COMPUTER – mock Facebook page
Create a pretend Facebook page for one of the character in the Daniel and lions story – Daniel, king, advisors, etc.
What would their profiles look like – interests, added apps, status line, likeness quiz results, which speed racer are
you….
It's just a page mockup. so you could do this in 2 columns in simple word pro program.
Click here to return to Top of page for Background Notes and Daniel, Rotation 1 Workshops.
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