Gather large toy trucks, cranes, buckets, toy barns, boxes, toy houses, a grain such as rice, a template of a boy called Joseph and finger paints. The template and the paints will be used for the craft portion of the activity while the other materials are used to cover gross motor, math and literacy portions of the lesson plan. The total time necessary for the lesson and craft will fill a morning or afternoon portion of a preschool day, or a full Sunday school session.
Pour the rice into the sensory table or other large table. Add cups, measuring spoons and other materials used to scoop and pour. Park the large vehicles under the table and place the buckets next to the table. Place the barns, houses and boxes across the floor. After the children are settled in for the day, discuss the story of Joseph from the presentation of his coat to his heroic storing of grain. Show the students the sensory tub filled with rice.
Instruct the students to scoop rice into the vehicles and buckets and move it to the houses, barns and boxes, just like Joseph in the story. Encourage them to count scoops as they move and dump the rice. The literacy part of the activity is the Joseph story, so ask students to repeat the part of the story they are emulating. When all the rice is moved, exclaim, "We are safe for seven years!"
Give each child a Joseph black and white template. Allow them to use the finger paints to paint his hair, eyes, face and pants solid colors. Remind the children that Joseph's coat was a multicolored gift from his father, then encourage them to mix the colors together to create new colors on the paper. The idea is to encourage imagination and use of color to represent what the children believe Joseph's coat looked like in Biblical days.