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Today's story was about Jonah, which is one of the shortest books in the Bible - only 3 pages! Jonah tried to hide from God, so Grades 1-2 made a craft that helped them look for Jonah. The oldest grades spent a lot of time with their Bibles, looking up the different verses to help solve a word find puzzle in their leaflets.
We also practiced our songs for next week today. The kids are looking forward to participating in the Christmas concert/worship!
We started our morning by gathering around the piano in the sanctuary to practice the songs we'll be singing on December 22.
Our story today was from 1Kings 17:8-18, about Elijah and how he helped a widow and her son, with the help of God. The lesson we learned is that we can trust God to help and provide for us.
Using the leaflets provided as part of the curriculum, we did a couple of puzzles and then used our Bibles to look up verses in the story to get ideas of how to illustrate story wheels that will help us remember what happened. The youngest grades used Play-Doh to make "bread" like the widow in the story as part of their lesson.
This week we learned more about Advent and how it is a time of waiting. Then each grade made a different version of an Advent wreath. The youngest grades made one with a paper plate and Grades 1-2 made one out of pipe cleaners. The oldest grades worked together to make one big wreath for our classroom using construction paper, tissue paper pieces, toilet paper tubes and pipe cleaner “flames”! We will “light” another candle on that wreath each week. The students had fun learning and explaining what each candle means and when to light each one during Advent.
All students also received an Advent calendar they can use to countdown the days until Christmas. Printed behind each window is a small segment of the story from Luke 2. By the time Christmas arrives they will have read the entire story!
Today's story was from 1Samuel 17 about David and Goliath. We saw how David was not afraid because he knew God would be with him, and learned that God is always with us too.
After we had some fun with puzzles and games about the story in the Spark leaflets, we spent the rest of the Sunday School hour making Thanksgiving cards for the residents at Senior Living, so Pastor Nancy can deliver them this week.
All grades got together today to pack shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, the ministry run by Samaritan's Purse. We first watched a video showing how the shoeboxes are delivered by truck, boat, motorbike, donkey, or even camel! We saw how excited the kids in other countries are when they receive their shoeboxes.
The kids then filled shoeboxes with essential items (like a toothbrush, washcloth and soap), school supplies and toys. After we filled the boxes the kids wrote letters to the children to include in the boxes and we the prayed together over the entire stack of shoeboxes, asking God to help get them safely to where they need to go and to bless the kids who will receive them. The kids were so excited to choose the items for "their" child and pack those shoeboxes nice and full!
Our story today was from Joshua 6:1-20, which is a continuation of the story of the Israelites who escaped from Egypt. Joshua led them to the city of Jericho where, with God's help, they caused the walls of the city to collapse by marching around the city making noise and blowing trumpets.
The first and second graders led their own march through St. James and did the same as the Israelites, blowing trumpets and eventually knocking down a wall of cardboard boxes! The older students read the story from their Bibles, solved puzzles in their leaflets, and made trumpets from cardboard tubes. When they heard the commotion of the younger grades marching by with their trumpets, they were curious to see what was happening so we also went to "Jericho" to check out the wall they had knocked down earlier!
Today we watched a movie about Moses, to recap the lessons we've had in the past couple of weeks. In the movie we saw Moses get the message from God in the burning bush, the ten plagues, and the escape from Egypt, including the parting of the Red Sea.
Kids learn in different ways, so we have approached the story of Moses in multiple formats. We have read about it from the book of Exodus in the Bible, created a puppet show and watched a movie, so the students will have a better chance of remembering the details of the story.
There was no Sunday School this week because we were out in the St. James parking lot enjoying the annual Trunk or Treat event! About 80 kids came to visit the creatively decorated trunks and collect candy. The weather was beautiful and there were so many really great costumes – so much fun was had by all
In preparation for Reformation Sunday next week, today we learned about Martin Luther. All grades came together to watch a short video about his life story and then we read more about it in the classrooms. For their craft today, the youngest grades made a construction paper Luther Rose. The older grades made quill pens out of feathers to try writing the way Martin Luther did when he translated the Bible into German.
Today our story was from Chapters 14 and 15 in Exodus, when Moses led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and God helped them cross the Red Sea. The older grades learned and practiced a puppet show about this story and then performed it for the younger grades! They did a great job, and the audience of younger kids (and parents!) really enjoyed the show.
Link to video of puppet show:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13_0S93ek1sTJSIBB2VirzWDp-C22gRJB/view?usp=sharing
Our story this week was about how Moses was chosen by God to help free the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. One of our activities was to make bricks like the slaves did, as described in chapter 5 of Exodus. Younger grades made the bricks from cardboard boxes and experienced some of the same difficulties and challenges as the Israelite slaves. Older grades made tiny bricks from PlayDoh and then tried to make a wall with them! Grades 3-5 also talked about the 10 plagues God sent to try and persuade the Pharaoh to let His people go, and we looked up each plague up in the book of Exodus to get more practice finding books, chapters and verses in our Bibles.
This week's story was from Genesis 27 about twin brothers Jacob and Esau and how Jacob tricked their father Isaac into giving him a blessing. Students in all grades heard and discussed the story, but because today is the day the Third Graders got their Bibles, we also spent a large portion of time in that classroom discovering the Bible. After we worked on how to use the Table of Contents, the difference between the Old and New Testaments, how to look up Bible passages, and generally explored our Bibles (they include stickers!).
We then played a game by forming two teams and racing to see who was fastest to put miniature wooden "books" of the Bible in the proper order on their shelves. They got some practice in using their Bibles to help them figure out the order. It was really fun, and we will continue to use our Bibles each week in Sunday School now that all Grade 3-5 students have their own!
Today we heard the story from Genesis about how Abraham and Sarah had visitors who told them that God promised to send a baby to them. We talked about waiting a long time for things, and how this story shows us that nothing is impossible with God.
With this new curriculum, each grade level approaches the same story in slightly different ways and we have colorful leaflets with extra activities and craft ideas too. It’s been really fun so far!
Our story this week was the very first one in the Bible - Creation! After we sang a few songs during music time we heard the story from chapter 1 of Genesis and then reviewed the colorful leaflets provided as part of our new curriculum. It was a beautiful day so the older grades went outside for a creation scavenger hunt and the younger grades made murals to hang in the Sunday School hallway.
WE ARE BACK!
Sunday School has started up again for the year and we are off and running! Our first day was an open house format, so kids would be able to come and go as they wanted to help with the “God’s Work, Our Hands” (GWOH) projects that were going on throughout the church. We did have a Rally Day Scavenger Hunt so kids could get to know the Sunday School space, their teachers, and fellow students. Then the kids participated in GWOH by decorating birthday bags, making homemade dog treats, tying quilts, and doing any other tasks that were needed. The energy was great and we are excited to be back in action again!
