Sunday School Recap 11/10/24

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!

Sunday School Recap 11/03/24

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.

Sunday School Recap 10/27/24 & Trunk or Treat!

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

Sunday School Recap 10/20/24

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.

Sunday School Recap 10/13/24

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

Sunday School Recap 10/06/24

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.

Sunday School Recap 09/29/24

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!

Sunday School Recap 09/22/24

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!

Sunday School Recap 09/15/24

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. 

Sunday School Recap 09/08/24

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!