Jesse Tree Ornaments: Advent Coloring Activities and Craft Projects for Kids with Bible Stories for the Jesse Tree Symbols Paperback – September 12, 2015

This is a great book for elementary children. They give you 24 ornaments in 3 different designs - same picture - for the ornament. One is it as a round circle, one as a star ornament, or one as a circle with a "frame" around it. NOTE: On the back of the star & circle with frame ornaments there is the biblical reference & story printed which is very neat. LOVE how they made it so easy to duplicate the pictures. I teach a faith formation class and there is permission in the book for teachers to duplicate these designs for their kids if they wanted to. Plus, it has all the pictures/ornaments on the front and back page in color so if you don't want to color them, this is another option for you. They give you the biblical reference & the written version as well as an easy explanation to use with the kids. The only thing I would have liked would have been to have a "prayer" added for each ornament to the book but that is something I can do. Great book for the price. The book I recommend for middle school kids on the Jesse Tree is "The Advent Jesse Tree" by Dean Meador Lambert. Pictures are a little more detailed and not child like plus they have the biblical reference, a devotion that explains this more in depth, questions that you can ask, a memory verse, a prayer and a hymn recommendation. There is also an excellent preface in this book that explains the Jesse Tree and the significance of the symbols. All in all, a great book as well.

This is a great activity book for my children. I bought it to use during Advent to teach them more about the Bible and our Catholic faith. The ornaments each have a picture to color with a Bible verse on the opposite side. There are 24 ornaments, 1 for each day of Advent (starting Dec 1st through Dec 24th). There is also a full page description with Bible verses about each topic. It can be used for younger or older children depending on how descriptive you choose to be. My children are 6 years and under. I love it!

I love this! A great daily reminder of what we are celebrating. There are pages to photocopy the ornaments from (or you could cut up your book if you like to live dangerously, lol). The ornament pages have two different types of ornaments on each page, but the two ornaments have the same pic and verse on each, so for my two kids it's perfect because each kids has one to,color and I only have to make one copy of each ornament page. The book also has a simple version of the Bible portion discussed on each day AND there is the actual Bible excerpt as well. So you can choose which portion or portions to read based on your child's level of understanding and attention span. We are having a great time as a family with this. There's an ornament for each day from Dec. 1 to the 24th.

My kids and I enjoyed the ornaments and the stories, but I bought this to go with another Jesse tree devotional and was surprised that the stories weren’t in the same order or sometimes different stories all together.

We did a Jesse Tree study in our women's group at church and then did an ornament exchange last December. I loved this book as there were different ways to use it. I printed a copy out and let my 6 year old daughter color them after reading the scripture each night up until Christmas and we made a magnetic tree for our fridge. She also designed some of her own for the Christmas tree. I used the patterns in the book to cut out felt and made ornaments to give to each of the ladies at church. I will definitely use this book again, in my family and in my Sunday School class!

Having never created a Jesse Tree before this book allowed us to do it all with just the ONE purchase so perfect for those on a tight budget. The first half of the book provides ALL the templates needed for creating the ornaments. On each page there are three to choose from. The images are the same but one is just a plain round, the other two are double sided with the scripture written on the back. All the images are black and white line art providing your child and/or you the opportunity of practicing their/your coloring skills. If you do not wish to do this, all 24 cards can be cut from the front and back covers of the book. IMPORTANT to note that the inside images are only on paper. I laminated all our completed ones so that we now have them for each year.What about the tree template? That is provided in the book in FOUR parts. You will need to cut the templates out and join them together. The author advises using cardstock or construction paper to make the tree. I didn't have any on hand so used cardboard. I would not advise this as it was just too thick. Next year I'll be sure to have some green cardstock on hand which will make the job much simpler and it will look better also. You will find star templates in the book to enable you to create a star to put on the top of your tree if you so wish.The second half of the book provides the daily 'devotional' and scripture reading. For smaller children you probably will not want to read both but older kids will be okay with both. The Bible translation used is the World English Bible which was created for the public domain so that anyone could use it. (You can google it and learn about its origins.) Yahweh is the name used for God throughout the readings. In the author's narrations Richard and I did question some of her theology on a couple days and in fact discussed it with our children so it wasn't all bad. On December 19th when talking about Mary she says:"When she was a young teenager the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and asked her if she would be the mother of Jesus, the Messiah foretold by the prophets. Mary agreed and said...."Nowhere in scripture does it say that Mary was asked if she would be the mother of Jesus! The angel told her this was going to happen!On December 23rd when talking about the angels the author writes:"Angels are spiritual beings. When God created the angels, he gave them free will just like he does with people. He let them choose if they wanted to love and obey God, and live with God in Heaven or not. The good angels chose to love God and obey him. The bad angels disobeyed God and are now called devils." We'll let you make your own informed decision on that quote.Typos? I found one on December 2nd:"The devil is a fallen angel who disobeyed Go and lost Heaven."On each page of the devotions there is a variety of paintings of said subject. At the end of the book you will find some blank templates and more copies of the single sided ornaments.Although I have critiqued this book fairly hard I still believe it is a worthwhile purchase. It is good for children/families to see that from creation to Jesus (and beyond), God had a plan and he used HIS people to bring forth that plan. I purchased this book from Amazon. I was not required to write a review but chose to do so. Thanks, Liz

I bought this to use alongside Ann Voskamp's Advent book, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift. There are slight variations between the stories that are included in this book and the stories that Voskamp includes, but this book has some blank options in the back to draw in your own supplemental stories. Even the front and back cover can also be cut into ornaments for a more durable option. Quite pleased with it especially for the price.

Lovely book. Excellent line drawings to colour in. In depth bible passages. Excellent resource. I didn't buy it for children. I would love it it the colour pictures on the back and front covers were available separately to use on a Jesse tree. I could cut out the pictures on the cover, but it doesn't feel right to cut up a book cover.

Great book to prepareJesse tree during Advent.

Great tool to help visualize the bible stories of the Jesse Tree. Great Advent activity for families or classroom teachers.

Having never created a Jesse Tree before this book allowed us to do it all with just the ONE purchase so perfect for those on a tight budget. The first half of the book provides ALL the templates needed for creating the ornaments. On each page there are three to choose from. The images are the same but one is just a plain round, the other two are double sided with the scripture written on the back. All the images are black and white line art providing your child and/or you the opportunity of practicing their/your coloring skills. If you do not wish to do this, all 24 cards can be cut from the front and back covers of the book. IMPORTANT to note that the inside images are only on paper. I laminated all our completed ones so that we now have them for each year.What about the tree template? That is provided in the book in FOUR parts. You will need to cut the templates out and join them together. The author advises using cardstock or construction paper to make the tree. I didn't have any on hand so used cardboard. I would not advise this as it was just too thick. Next year I'll be sure to have some green cardstock on hand which will make the job much simpler and it will look better also. You will find star templates in the book to enable you to create a star to put on the top of your tree if you so wish.The second half of the book provides the daily 'devotional' and scripture reading. For smaller children you probably will not want to read both but older kids will be okay with both. The Bible translation used is the World English Bible which was created for the public domain so that anyone could use it. (You can google it and learn about its origins.) Yahweh is the name used for God throughout the readings. In the author's narrations Richard and I did question some of her theology on a couple days and in fact discussed it with our children so it wasn't all bad. On December 19th when talking about Mary she says:"When she was a young teenager the Angel Gabriel appeared to her and asked her if she would be the mother of Jesus, the Messiah foretold by the prophets. Mary agreed and said...."Nowhere in scripture does it say that Mary was asked if she would be the mother of Jesus! The angel told her this was going to happen!On December 23rd when talking about the angels the author writes:"Angels are spiritual beings. When God created the angels, he gave them free will just like he does with people. He let them choose if they wanted to love and obey God, and live with God in Heaven or not. The good angels chose to love God and obey him. The bad angels disobeyed God and are now called devils." We'll let you make your own informed decision on that quote.Typos? I found one on December 2nd:"The devil is a fallen angel who disobeyed Go and lost Heaven."On each page of the devotions there is a variety of paintings of said subject. At the end of the book you will find some blank templates and more copies of the single sided ornaments.Although I have critiqued this book fairly hard I still believe it is a worthwhile purchase. It is good for children/families to see that from creation to Jesus (and beyond), God had a plan and he used HIS people to bring forth that plan. I purchased this book from Amazon. I was not required to write a review but chose to do so. Thanks, Liz

Easy to understand and perfect for children !