Tag Archives: preschool bible craft

Jesus Calls His Disciples

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The holidays are over, we’re settling into life with a new baby, and we’re ready to get back to “school” with the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, picking up where we left off with Week 20: Jesus calling the 12 disciples.  I’m so excited to be getting back to our Bible lessons for a number of reasons.  First, Elijah is growing up so fast, and he’s showing more interest in what we’re doing so he’ll be joining us a lot more.

Also, we’ve spent so much time in the Old Testament and now it’s time to focus on the New Testament.  I’m excited to “introduce” my boys to Jesus.  Obviously they’ve heard His name at home and at church, and they know a few stories about Him, but we haven’t spent any time really intentionally going through the gospels.  (Elijah flips through The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers saying, “There’s Jesus, there’s Jesus, there’s Jesus… The End.” It makes me smile, because really, isn’t that what the whole Bible is about?  But I’m hoping he’ll soon be able to differentiate between the stories of men in the Old Testament and the stories that are actually about the Lord.)

The last reason I’m excited is because Ian got a new Bible for Christmas and I’m looking forward to using it with our lessons.  He loves bringing his Bible to church, and we’ve enjoyed spending time just flipping through it, getting familiar with where certain stories are, the maps at the back, etc.  I want it to be a part of his daily life.  I chose the ESV Seek and Find Bible because it uses the full ESV text while making the Bible accessible to kids 5 to 9.  Okay, so Ian’s still a couple months shy of 4, but it was the best I could do when searching for a “real” Bible.  I love that has so many full-page color illustrations, each accompanied by a clearly written story that can be read separately from the text.  (These stories aren’t exact copies of the Scripture passage, but they use a lot of the same wording while telling the story in a way kids can easily understand.  So it’s almost like a really good Bible storybook integrated with a full Bible translation.)  I’ve read a few of these stories to Ian and they really keep his attention, probably because he can see the picture right there.

My two main objectives this week were to help the boys 1) understand that that the disciples followed Jesus to copy what He did, and 2) start becoming familiar with the names of the Twelve.  I used a few different passages for this week’s lesson.  The curriculum suggested Luke 5:1-11, but I focused on Matthew 4:18-23 because it contained the verse I chose to have the boys memorize: “Come, follow me… and I will make you fishers of men.” Matthew 4:19 (NIV1984).  I also referenced the list of the twelve disciples from Luke 6:14-16.

Rather than introducing the story using our flannel board set as I’ve always done, I started out our week by putting on our iPod playlist as we ran errands Monday morning.  Here’s what we listened to several times throughout the week:

We listened to the whole list a couple times through as we drove, and both boys started asking questions about what they heard.  As soon as the story started, Elijah asked, “What’s this movie, Mommy?” so I knew he was interested.  After hearing it, he tried to list the disciples from the passage (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) all on his own and only needed a little help from me before he had them down.  Ian wanted to know why we were singing about being a disciple, so we talked about how we can choose to follow Jesus just like those fishermen in the story.  It was a great introduction so they were really receptive when we got out the flannel board set later on.  (There weren’t really pieces to tell the story of Jesus calling the men in their boats, so I just chose 12 men and a Jesus figure and did the story on my own.)

I read with Ian from his Bible, but I wanted to make sure Elijah really understood it as well, so we also read from The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley) and Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury

Other things we did were to play “Follow the Leader,” and sort (these) disciples picture cards, putting them into three groups as a memorization tool, as they seem to be grouped in the lists in the Synoptic gospels and Acts. (Oops, is my nerd side showing? Sorry. I just love studying the Bible, and if my children can start learning things like this while they’re little I want to jump on it!)  At first I tried to teach the boys this song about the 12 Disciples (to the tune of “Jesus Loves Me”), but then I realized the Karen & Kids episode on our playlist used this one (to the tune of “Bringing in the Sheaves”).  So I switched since it was more fun singing along (though it breaks up the groups by putting Bartholomew at the end).

For our Bible notebook page I combined a fun fish craft from DLTK with a “Fisher of Men” idea from Danielle’s Place.  We colored with markers on coffee filters, then sprayed them with water to make the colors run.

After they dried, I cut a fish shape out of Ian’s and glued on a boy I drew (which he didn’t want to color, so it looks pretty dull).  We taped on a thin stick to be a fishing pole and tied on a piece of yarn.

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So it was a fun first week back!  Along with our Bible story, we rowed a Five in a Row (FIAR) book, Madeline, which was a big hit.  My post on that will be coming soon.

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool

The Angel Visits Mary

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This isn’t traditionally the time of year the church celebrates the Annunciation (the angel Gabriel announcing to Mary that she was going to conceive Jesus), but since we’re in full “expecting a baby” mode, and a few weeks seem like at least nine months when you’re only three years old, it seemed like a good time for a Bible lesson on getting ready for Baby Jesus.  I figure we talk about waiting for Jesus, spend some time on Thanksgiving, and then voila!  Arianna arrives and we can soak in the joy of the Christmas season.  I’m not playing Christmas carols yet, but boy I’m looking forward to it!

I introduced the story to Ian with the flannel board set as I read Luke 1:26-38 from my Bible.  It definitely triggered a memory with him, but it still seemed new enough to be exciting.  He was so curious about the story, I decided to show him the clip from The Nativity Story where Gabriel comes to Mary.  He wanted to watch more, so we jumped to the end when Jesus was born and the shepherds and wise men arrived.  Ian was so excited by the whole scene.  He kept saying, “He’s so cute!  I wish we could go and see Him!”  I think his excitement was more about the tiny baby than the fact that it was Jesus, so I said, “Well, God’s sending us Arianna soon, so we’ll get to hold her instead.”  He wanted to make sure we had a blanket to wrap her in like the one Joseph and Mary wrapped around Jesus in the film.  There are plenty of scenes in the movie that Ian’s not ready to see, so we won’t be watching the whole thing this year, but just seeing those two scenes was very powerful and seemed to really affect him.

I was surprised to find that two of our storybook Bibles didn’t contain any mention of the angel coming to Mary.  We read it in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), and of course Ian didn’t want to stop there.  I was trying to save the birth of Jesus and the shepherd’s visit for December, but I decided not to fight him on it.  After all, with a newborn in the house, who knows how often I’ll get to sit down with him and talk about it!  We also read the story in Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury, which was accompanied by a beautiful illustration (my favorite thing about this book).

Our Bible verse is Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God.” (This had been the Bible verse assigned to the lesson on Daniel in ABC Jesus Loves Me Week 17, but I’d gone with a different one.  Since it actually comes from this story, it seemed like good time to use it!).  As suggested in ABCJLM, we sang it to the tune of “London Bridge”:

For nothing is impossible with God, impossible with God, impossible with God.  For nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1:37

I was kind of surprised I couldn’t find any songs in my library that went with the memory verse to include in our iPod playlist for the week.  Here’s what we did listen to (short list this week!):

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Daniel in the Lions’ Den

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Daniel in the Lion's Den

We’ve all been looking forward to this week, when we spent time on Ian’s favorite story Bible story: Daniel in the lion’s den.  It also got us back on track with the  ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum, picking up where we left off at Week 17.  It’s the last Old Testament story we’ll be studying this year, both because of the way the curriculum’s written and because we’re getting so close to our new baby arriving.  I have a few ideas we might do if I’m feeling up to it before she gets here, but we’ll probably just spend some time enjoying getting ready for the holidays and our new addition!

I got the pieces for the  flannel board set cut out and set up a few days early, and Ian got excited as soon as he spotted them.  Even though he could probably recite all of Daniel 6 from memory (we read it every night for almost a year at his request, and we still read it several times a month at bedtime), he wanted me to tell the story using the figures.  I did that first day, but he returned to it many times to act out the story himself and tell it to Elijah.  (We didn’t read from any Bible storybooks this week, but we’ve probably read the story in all the ones we have at some point due to Ian’s fascination.)

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For a little change of pace and excitement, on Wednesday we headed to the zoo to enjoy all the animals, but especially to see lions.  What a disappointment!  The only lion there was a female who never woke up the whole time we were in that part of the zoo!  Ian wanted to go back later and see if she was awake, but this very pregnant mama did not feel quite up to trekking back up the hill to that exhibit.  Maybe next time.  Thankfully, all the other animals we wanted to see were much more satisfactory, so overall the trip was a success.

Ian’s been enjoying figuring out mazes on the computer, so printed out a Daniel maze from www.dltk-bible.com.  I slipped it in a plastic page protector so that using a dry erase marker he could do it over and over again.  Then as I was preparing our literature unit for the week (see my post on Angus Lost) there were a number of simple worksheets I printed out as well.  That inspired me to go one step further.  I had printed out most of the pre-writing worksheets from ABC Jesus Loves Me a while back, and Ian has enjoyed doing them occasionally, but it’s not like there’s a lot of variety.  So I decided to make Ian a workbook for the week combining the Daniel maze, the Angus pages, and some prewriting worksheets.  He LOVED it.  I used a small 3-ring binder with plastic page protectors and he did each page with a dry erase marker so we could erase and reuse.  He did these several times throughout the week (at first with my guidance, then on his own) and delighted in showing Daddy how he did them.  Plus he was very proud of himself as he got better at them through the week.  I think we’ll keep this idea in mind and change out the pages each week with various appropriate activities.

(NOTE: If anyone had asked me if a 3 1/2-year old should be doing worksheets, I would have answered with an emphatic, “NO!”  However, Ian started Yamaha music lessons a little while back, and they’ve got him starting to write music notes.  I didn’t want him to build bad habits, so we’ve been working on how to hold a pencil, starting a circle in the right place for letter formation, etc.  He’s been enjoying that kind of activity so much I thought I’d extend it to school time.  I don’t make him do this work (I don’t even usually suggest it unless he’s bored and looking for something to do, and then I include it in a list of options), but I leave it out and if he asks to do it then I help guide him through it.  As soon as he wants to quit, I let him.)

I came up with my own idea for our Bible notebook page since most of the lion crafts I saw online used paper plates, which I just didn’t think would lay flat enough for our notebook.  Ian is fascinated by handprint activities, so we made a ring of handprints with brown paint for a mane. Then later I just cut out some simple shapes from construction paper to make the rest of the face.

  

We watched a few related videos this week.  I really like the Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible: Daniel in the Lion’s Den because it covers most of the major parts of Daniel’s life as recorded in the Bible (NOT just the title story).  We also enjoyed Animated Stories from the Bible: Daniel (I could only find it in VHS on Amazon, but we had it on our DVR), and Veggie Tales: Where’s God When I’m Scared? (available streaming on Netflix).

Our memory verse for this lesson was Psalm 56:3. “When I am afraid I will trust in you.” (NIV1984).  It was the first song on our iPod playlist:

  • “When I Am Afraid” from Hide ’em in Your Heart Vol. 1 by Steve Green
  • “Daniel” from The Singing Bible
  • “Daniel 6 The Lion’s Den” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
  • “Royal March of the Lion” from Carnival of the Animals by Camille Saint-Saens (I love to throw in a little classical music when I can find something appropriate!  The recording we used came with a wonderful book that helps kids know what they’re listening to with each piece.)
  • Karen & Kids podcast: “Old Testament Stories” (also talks about the 3 men in the furnace, Noah, and Jonah)
Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool

In the Fiery Furnace

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We enjoyed another great story last week as we learned about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being thrown into a blazing funace for refusing to worship an idol!  Once again, as I planned I checked out what ABC Jesus Loves Me had to offer, and found some great ideas in the 4-Year Old Curriculum week 2 lesson plan.  Ian has had an affinity for the book of Daniel since shortly after he turned two, and while that mostly focuses on our next story (Daniel in the lion’s den), this story is also a favorite for him.  He couldn’t seem to get enough of it this week.

I told the story from Daniel 3 over and over using our flannel board set, as well as reading it several times in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley) and once in Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury.  He also requested it for his bedtime Bible story, which I read in the NIV.  (I would prefer to read it in the ESV, but he won’t have his own copy of it until Christmas, so I just use the NIV that we keep in his room.)

For our Bible notebook page, we used a craft from dltk-bible.com.  We used the sponge painting option for the fire since Ian had never done that.  Also, the craft only had the three men and I wanted to add the fourth, so I printed out both the color characters and a black and white copy to make the “one like a son of the gods”.

  

The only video we watched to go along with the story was Veggie Tales: Rack, Shack, and Benny (available streaming on Netflix), which was certainly fun, though there were so many elements that were different, I’m not sure how much connection Ian made with the Bible story.

We continued learning Proverbs 3:5-6 as our memory verse for this lesson, so much of our iPod playlist was the same as last week:

The new songs, however, were a big hit!  From the first day, Ian started singing along with the songs about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and I know this is one story that will stay with him forever.

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool

Jonah and the Big Fish

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This week we talked about the story of Jonah.  It’s so familiar, but I actually got a lot out of our lesson as the repeated exposure brought new insights into my mind.  Somehow I developed more empathy for Jonah, yet at the same time I felt more frustrated by his lack of mercy than I’ve ever felt during previous readings.

We did tell the story with our flannel board set, but only two or three times (we usually do it several times throughout the course of a week).  It was just a hard story because the scene kept changing!  Actually, Ian liked helping with all the changes, but I found it challenging to keep all the pieces in a place where I could help the story flow smoothly.  We got plenty of exposure this week in other ways.  All four chapters of the book of Jonah were on our iPod playlist (see below) and Ian surprised me with how quiet he got almost every time we listened to the Bible reading.  This was one story that was in all our Bible storybooks, but we only read it in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley) and The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers.  I had the pages marked, but we never got to the versions in Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury, The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes,  or The Rhyme Bible Storybook.  Hopefully we’ll hit those next time, because I know the boys would love the pictures.

I was thankful for the ABC Jesus Loves Me 4-Year Old Curriculum (lesson 25) on Jonah which provided some fun ideas of things to do throughout our week, such as a dot-to-dot of the fish spitting Jonah back out.  This was a really good activity for Ian.  We practice counting every night with our calendar activity (most people do this in the morning, but we have found it much easier to be consistent at bedtime), so he recognizes the numerals and is almost able to count up to 30.  I helped him find each numeral the first time, and then he wanted to retrace it over and over.  I’d never thought of doing that, but it was good practice.  (And Elijah worked diligently alongside us, which was good practice for him!)

Ian also played the game that goes with the story of Jonah on Charlie Church Mouse: Preschool.  When I first found out about the CCM computer games, I read reviews online (generally pretty good) and downloaded the free demos (which include one story from each CD-ROM).  To be honest, I was a little disappointed.  The animation seemed rather outdated compared to some of the kids’ games I’d seen.  But Ian really enjoyed playing the games.  So I went on Amazon and bought cheap copies of the Preschool and Kindergarten games from a Marketplace seller.  That was a few months ago, and he still plays them a LOT, and Elijah loves watching.  I know Ian’s caught details from the stories through them, as well as practicing some important skills.  So my opinion on them has definitely changed for the better.  I’m pretty sure I’ll buy the Early Elementary level once I think he’s ready for it.  (And Elijah’s just itching to be able to do “Church Mouse” all by himself.  He asks for it every day!)

For our Bible notebook page, we used a craft from sunday-school-fun-zone.com.  There were two pages to print out: the whale (with a lift up flap so you can peek “inside”) and a bunch of Jonahs.  (Ian got in some good scissors practice to get one of him praying.)  Simple, but so cute (at least before Ian decided to use almost every color marker he had on Jonah)!

  

I chose Proverbs 3:5-6 as our memory verse for this lesson.  It was a little long, but I always hear both verses together, and I think it’s an important passage to have memorized.  So we worked on just verse 5 this week, and next week we’ll add verse 6.  The memory songs on our iPod playlist include both verses, so I don’t think it will be too hard for Ian to learn the whole passage.

We watched two videos related to the story.  The first was Jonah and the Whale from the Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible series (which I recorded on the DVR a few months ago and saved for this week).  I have some reservations about this movie.  They took quite a bit of creative license.  It starts with a fictional back-story to explain Jonah’s antipathy toward the Ninevites.  There’s also a very unrealistic seen of Jonah in the water before the fish swallows him, and some odd moments inside the fish as well.  I found it confusing how they seemed to go back and forth in calling it a “whale” and a “big fish.”  And like the rest of this series, the men are wearing really short tunics with nothing underneath, so at least half their thighs are exposed, which just doesn’t sit right with me.  Ian’s never commented on the clothes though, so I try to bite my tongue.  He did get a lot out of watching it, and it prompted some good discussions about what really happened.  It also really captured Elijah’s attention and had him asking questions about the story, so he seemed to get more out of the story this week than I think he usually does.  At the end of the week we watched Jonah – A Veggie Tales Movie (available streaming on Netflix) for fun, which obviously takes a lot of license as well (but since I was expecting it with Veggie Tales, it didn’t stand out as much to me).  It was actually helpful watching two interpretations, because Ian really noticed the things that they had in common, as well as some of the differences.  It drove us to dig into our Bibles for the truth!

We had a rather long iPod playlist this week, but we listened to it a lot as we worked, played and rode in the car:

One thing I really loved about this week was seeing Elijah really participating.  I don’t know whether he’s just entering a new developmental stage or if something about the story really captured his attention, but he seemed like part of our lesson this week.  He kept asking questions, pointing out Jonah in the movies, and singing the Karen and Kids “Jonah” song over and over and over (at least “Jonah, Jonah.. Hey, Jonah! Jonah, Jonah….).  It’s so fun to see him learning and interacting with Ian about the lesson.

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool

King Josiah and the Hidden “Treasure”

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We had so much fun this week!  We learned about King Josiah and how excited he was when the Book of the Law was found in the Temple.  When they found the lost scroll, it was like finding a treasure, so we talked a lot about how special the Bible is and how we “hide” it (the NASB says “treasure” it) in our hearts.

I told Ian the story of King Josiah over breakfast Monday morning.  (I was so frustrated last week with not being able to keep his attention, so I thought I’d try something different.  It definitely captured his attention better!)  As soon as we’d eaten, I got out crowns for both boys.  I had cut them out and decorated them with glitter paint the night before so it could dry, and then we got out the markers to finish up with their own artwork in the morning.

Then we went over to our flannel board set to review the story.  I had all the things inside the temple lying on their side, with a scroll for the Book of the Law hidden behind a table, and we talked about how the temple was in need of repair. Ian helped act out Hilkiah the priest finding the scroll and bringing it to Josiah.  Then we all helped “clean up” the temple by setting things straight and tossing out the statues bad kings had set up.  We talked about what a special place the temple was and how excited they were to find the “treasure” of God’s law.

The story is from 2 Kings 22:1-20, which we read at bedtime.  The only Bible story book we had that talked about Josiah was The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), so we left that out all week and read through it several times.

We just happened to have the perfect Bible  for this lesson: this Bible that looks like a treasure chest.   To emphasize how precious God’s Word is, we played a game of “hot and cold” where I hid the “Treasure Bible” and had the boys look for it.  Ian loved it!  He and I took turns hiding it over and over and looking for our treasure.  We played this game several times throughout the week, and Ian was excited to “teach” it to Daddy.

After the first time we played, I introduced our memory verse, Psalm 119:11. “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”  (See our iPod playlist for memory songs.  The first two use this NIV text.) For our Bible notebook page I wanted to “hide” a Bible inside a heart, but I also wanted to convey the idea of the Bible as treasure, so I drew a treasure chest with a Bible inside.  Then Ian glued it inside a folding heart.  I’m not much of an artist, but it got the point across.  Such a simple notebook page, but it really captured the essence of the verse.

  

Ian really liked our iPod playlist this week and requested it almost every time we got in the car (in addition to listening several times at home).  I didn’t have anything for the story of Josiah, but I found lots of songs about our memory verse.  Here it is:

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Elijah vs. the Prophets of Baal

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This week we talked about one of my absolute favorite stories in the Bible!  I love imagining the scene on Mt. Carmel with Elijah and the prophets of Baal.  In fact, Elijah’s faith as demonstrated in this story was the main reason we chose to name our second son after him.  It’s one of those stories that’s so incredible, but if we’ve heard it over and over it can start to lost its “punch.”  So I had a lot of fun bringing it to life at our house this week!

To introduce the story as dramatically as possible, I told it on my own with our flannel board set.  Then throughout the week I reinforced it by reading 1 Kings 18:20-39 from my ESV Bible as well as from The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley), The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury, and a new story book this week, The Rhyme Bible Storybook, which provided some review of our previous stories about Elijah.

We sang our memory verse (1 Kings 18:39) to the tune of “The Farmer in the Dell,” and it was a HUGE hit!  (You never know what’s going to tickle their fancy!)  We sang it in the car, as we played, every time we read the story or randomly thought of it… and every time it turned into a wild celebratory chant.  Arms would flail, legs would dance, and both boys would be singing/shouting at the top of their lungs:

The LORD, he is God / The Lord, he is God / First Kings eighteen thirty-nine / The Lord, he is God

  

I wanted Ian to understand how powerful God’s fire was.  So in spite of 100 degree temperatures this week, we lit a (tiny) fire in the fireplace to show how wet wood doesn’t burn like dry wood, and how stones don’t burn up in an ordinary fire.

For Ian’s Bible notebook I was inspired by several ideas at christianpreschoolprintables.com, but I ended up going with their “God Brings Fire” craft because it was so different than anything we’ve done so far.  The idea was that the marble painting would create the “fire” on a paper printed with logs.  Ours didn’t look quite like the sample (Ian didn’t do much besides tipping the tray back and forth, so we didn’t get many curvy lines), but both boys LOVED marble painting. Ian also liked mixing the red and yellow to make orange (which we’ve practiced with bathtub paints, so he felt really proud knowing what the outcome would be).  I didn’t have a box the right size, so I used an old cookie sheet.  After first trying little bowls with the paint, I switched to little “puddles” on the sides of the trays that the balls could roll to and recover themselves.

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This week’s iPod playlist was quite entertaining:

 

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

Elijah and the Ravens

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Over the next few weeks we’re going to be learning about one of my favorite people in the the Bible: Elijah.  This week I introduced Elijah and the evil King Ahab with the story of Elijah proclaiming there would be no rain until he said and then following God’s leading to a place with a brook that provided water and ravens who brought him food every morning and evening.

The story is found in 1 Kings 16:29-17:7, and I read the passage from my Bible as I used our flannel board set.  Then we got out our Bible story books and read from The Beginner’s Bible by Karyn Henley (very simple but clear retelling) and The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes.

I was feeling pretty wiped out this week so we didn’t do many “extras,” which was too bad.  I had found lots of good ideas (songs, worksheets, crafts, etc.) in this free sample lesson on “Elijah and the Birds” at daniellesplace.com.  (So far I’ve only used her free material, but I’m considering becoming a member to have full access to all her wonderful content!)  We did watch the video “Elijah” from the Nest’s Animated Stories from the Bible series.

  

For Ian’s Bible notebook we made a “collage” of Elijah and the ravens using these color pictures.  (They’re also available in black and white.) Ian painted the scenery with his watercolors (and generously invited our own Elijah to help).

For memory work, we reviewed the verse from the ABC Jesus Loves Me week 8 lesson (on the parting of the Red Sea): “My God will supply all your needs.” Philippians 4:19, sung to the tune of “London Bridge.”

“My God will supply all your needs, supply all your needs, supply all your needs. My God will supply all your needs.  Philippians 4:19.”

Our iPod playlist this week was pretty simple:

  • “Sticks and Stones” song from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
  • “1 Kings 17  Elijah – Fed by Ravens” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
  • “Elijah” from The Singing Bible
  • Karen & Kids podcast: “Elijah Part 1” (I’ve downloaded all the available episodes to use as they apply to our lessons.)

Looking forward to more wonderful stories about Elijah in the weeks to come!

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

King David Brings the Ark to Jerusalem

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This week we talked about David finally becoming the King of Israel years after God chose him, and I also included the story of how he had the ark brought to Jerusalem.  We had a busy week so we didn’t spend as much time as usual on “school,” but I didn’t want to skip the week altogether so we just did what we could.  I really want Bible study to be the most important part of our days, even at this young age, and I think we’re already starting to see the fruit from that priority.  Last night Ian pulled his “real” Bible (not a story book) off the shelf and pretended to read it, first to me, then to Daddy.  He retold several stories and asked us to help him learn how to read the letters.  I love that his desire to learn to read has first manifested in a hunger for the Word of God.

With our flannel board set I adapted the story to fit our needs.  I wasn’t thrilled with the way it was told in Betty Lukens: Through the Bible in Felt.  I also didn’t like using the same “king” figure that we just used for King Saul, so I chose a man that looked similar to the figure we’d been using for David as a boy, then added a crown from another story.  As always Ian enjoyed acting out the story over and over, especially the part where Uzzah reached out to steady the ark and died.

I loved the pictures in our Bible storybooks showing the scene as the ark was bring carried to Jerusalem, especially in The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes (the original version) and Classic Bible Stories: A Family Treasury.  They just captured the spirit of celebration as people danced and played on their instruments along with the procession while at the same time showing their reverence for the holiness of the moment.  We also read about David becoming king in The Beginner’s Bible (by Karyn Henley).

For our Bible Notebook this week, we used glitter paint on this picture of the ark of the covenant (as well as a fun “do not touch” reminder I found on Google images).  There’s no memory verse on it because we’re finishing up with Psalm 23, which Ian’s done really well with!

  

I didn’t make an iPod playlist this week, but we listened to lots of children’s worship CD’s and celebrated with our musical instruments to get into the mood of the story.  Some of our favorites are from the Great Big God series from Vineyard Records UK, especially the volume 1 and volume 3.  They’re aimed at older kids, though there’s also a CD for preschoolers (we just don’t have it).

  

Posted in Bible lessons, Preschool

David & Goliath

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This week we headed back to the ABC Jesus Loves Me 3-Year Old Curriculum for the Week 16 lesson plan on David and Goliath.  We had so much fun with this Bible lesson!

Ian already knew the story from church, so when he saw the flannel board set all ready, he was eager to dive in as soon as he woke up Monday morning.  I was cooking breakfast and told him I do it with him after we ate, but he just couldn’t wait.  I loved hearing him tell the story (as he remembered it) as I worked in the kitchen.  And then as soon as he’d eaten, he ran back to the board and asked me to tell it over and over.  I told it twice and then just left him to act it out on his own while listening to our iPod playlist (see below).  He especially liked making David’s stone knock Goliath down!

  

We made a lifesize Goliath picture on some mural paper.  Both boys were SO excited about coloring him.  At first I tried crayons and markers, but then I decided it would be much easier to break out the dot markers.

  

Proportions are hard when drawing something that big on the floor!  I thought his arms were too long until we got him posted on the wall.  Ian is exactly 3 feet tall, so he was only a 3rd of Goliath’s height!  Measuring him out even surprised me.  9 feet was taller than I had imagined.  He barely fit on our wall, even with our high ceilings!  On Friday I let the boys throw sock balls at him as I helped him fall down.  (Of course, then Ian wanted me to put it back up, but I was not up to dragging the ladder out again!)  For our Bible notebook, I just printed out a page with these pictures.

We enjoyed two videos this week: Veggie Tales: Dave and the Giant Pickle (available streaming on Netflix) and David and Goliath from the Nest Animated Stories from the Old Testament series (so thankful for my parents’ DVR).  We also read from our Bible story books.  Ian really liked it in The Rhyme Bible for Toddlers.  (The stories in that book are short and don’t have a lot of detail, but the rhymes are a lot of fun and it’s one of Ian’s favorites.)

For some reason, Ian really wanted to sing a song about David and Goliath, so I was glad to find one in the ABCJLM lesson plan.  I wasn’t familiar with it and it wasn’t on any of the CD’s I have, but it was in our Wee Sing Bible Songs  book, so I was able to play it on the piano, and Ian had a great time singing with all his heart even though he’d never heard it before.

Along with that song, here’s our iPod playlist from the week:

As you can see, we’re still working on Psalm 23 for our memory work.  Ian can now recite the entire psalm along with me, though he can’t do it on his own yet.  We still have one more lesson on David, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he gets there.  Even if he doesn’t he is definitely on his way, and I know it will be hidden in his heart for many years to come.

“Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You.”  Psalm 119:11 (NASB)

P.S.  For more ideas, check out Jen’s post over at I Can Teach My Child.  I love the way she brought the story to life for her daughter!

Posted in ABCJesusLovesMe, Bible lessons, Preschool
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