Lesson 24: Isaac and Rebekah

I am posting this lesson a little late.  We did the lesson over a week ago, but later that afternoon, Jenna started running a fever and both girls were really sick for a week.  I'm praising God that they are finally feeling better!  We were in survival mode for a while...so, I'm a little behind on posting!

The last story lesson that I did was about Abraham and Isaac.  I was surprised to see that my storybook Bibles skipped right on to Joseph in one and Leah and Rachel in the other!  I think there are a few important names and stories to introduce our preschoolers to in between those two stories!   So, for Isaac and Rebekah, I relied on Google to help me find a children's version of the story!  Here's the lesson:

1.  Verse - no new verse today.  This lesson comes from Genesis 24.

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review the past Bible story about Abraham and Sarah and how they had baby Isaac.
• Then review the story of Abraham and Isaac and how God provided a lamb.
• When Isaac grew up, his dad (Abraham) thought it was time for him to get married.  So Abraham asked his servant, to go to the place where his family lived to find a wife for Isaac.  Here is the story...
• Read a children's version of the story.  (Since this story was in neither of my storybook Bibles, I used this one I found on the web, at www.childrenstory.info:  http://www.childrenstory.info/biblestoryforchild/chdbblisaacandrebekah.html
  (I did add a couple of sentences to the story because I thought they helped the story a little. 
  After "When I ask a girl for a drink, let her offer to get water for all of my camels also." I added, "Then I will know that she is the wife you have chosen for Isaac."
  And also, at the very end of the story, I added, "So, Rebekah left her family and traveled back with the servant to be Isaac's wife and Isaac loved Rebekah very much.")
• Summarize the story and talk about how the people in the story were obeying God.  Abraham was obeying God by looking for a wife from his own family.  Abraham's servant obeyed Abraham and prayed to God for help and obeyed Him.  Rebekah obeyed God by leaving her family and her home to go marry Isaac.

3.  Craft - Coloring page.
I found this cute coloring page that nicely illustrates the story!

You can find it here at biblewise.com.

Jenna didn't finish hers...maybe another day!

4. Song - "The Lord is my Shepherd." #9 on Wee Sing Bible Songs

5. End by reviewing the main names in the story:  Isaac and Rebekah!

**Awesome side note:  I found our Bible verse cards that I had misplaced in our move!!  (very excited about this!) They were so "wisely" tucked neatly into a box of craft supplies.  Good thing Jenna was asking me for stickers, or I never would have found them!!

Lesson 21: Abraham and Isaac

Hi friends, I am so behind on posting this lesson and I only managed to plan this one lesson this week!  I'm hoping to get on a twice-a-week rhythm in the fall, but we'll see!  Once again, this is a lesson that is a little hard to explain to preschoolers.  I think it'll be years before Jenna really gets what happened in this story, but I hope that by teaching it now, she'll gain some initial exposure to the story, the names, the details and it will provide a basic framework for learning it again later. One of my storybook Bibles skips it altogether, but I thought it was valuable to teach.

1.  Verse - no new verse this week, but the lesson is from Genesis 22.

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review the names of the people in our last story - Abraham, Sarah, baby Isaac.
• Review the last lesson - God wants us to trust Him.  Trust in the Lord and do good. Psalm 37:3
• Today's story is about trusting God because He loves us so much.
• Baby Isaac grew every day and he became a big boy.
• This story is about Isaac when he was a big boy and his daddy, Abraham.
• Read the story from a storybook Bible.  I read "The Present" from The Jesus Storybook Bible. 
•  
• Summarize the story on a preschool level:  (This is how I did it!)  Before Jesus came, God's people would make sacrifices to Him.  Sacrifices were like presents for God to ask for His forgiveness and to show Him their love.  Usually a sacrifice was an animal.  They would put the animal on sticks, called an altar, and burn it with fire.  Smoke would go up to God.  But, on this day, God asked Abraham to give Him Isaac as a sacrifice.  This was sad and scary for Abraham because if he gave Isaac to God to God, then Abraham wouldn't have him anymore!  BUT Abraham trusted od and he obeyed God.  He gook Isaac up to the altar.  BUT God loved Abraham and he was happy that Abraham obeyed. So, He gave Abraham an animal to use instead of Isaac.  He gave him a ram!  
• So, from this story we need to remember that Abraham trusted and obeyed God and God loved Abraham and took care of him.

3. Craft -  Cotton ball ram.
I thought this craft was so cute and just perfect for the lesson so I was really happy to find it!  You can find the printable for it here at childrenschapel.org.  In order to get it to print as the right size, I had to download and open it. 

First, Jenna colored it.  Then I cut it out for her.  She glued it to construction paper and finished by gluing on the cotton balls.   I wrote "God gave Abraham a ram." on the top of the page to help her remember the story later. 

Even little sis had fun making one playing with glue!

Jenna started out going with true-to-life colors and then at the last minute decided the face should be blue!

It's still pretty cute!

4.  Song - "Praise Him, Praise Him"   #31 on Wee Sing Bible Songs

5.  End by reviewing that Abraham trusted God and God provided a ram for him.

Hope this helps you approach a difficult story for little ones!  Of course, I've read/heard this story many, many times, but this time I felt like I read it with fresh eyes, as a mom.  You really can only read it in awe.  In awe at Abraham's level of trust and awe of the ultimate sacrifice that God gave us...His only son!  I love when God speaks to my heart through studying for these lessons! 

Lesson 19: Abraham and Sarah, Part 2

1.  Verse - No new verse.  This story is from Genesis 18:1-16, 21:1-7

2. Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review the last lesson and the things they learned about Abraham and Sarah.  I showed Jenna her craft from last time and reviewed the main points from that.
• Remember that Abraham was a very old man, but God promised that He would give him a baby, a son, and that He would make all the people in his family as many as the stars in the sky.
• Finish the story about Abraham and Sarah. I continued reading from "The Beginner's Bible." I know I always mention how good the pictures are in this book, but seriously...how cute is this baby Isaac??
• So, God gave Abraham and Sarah a baby boy named Isaac.
• God gave Isaac to Abraham and Sarah the same way He gave you and Madeline to mommy and daddy.  Abraham and Sarah were so thankful, and so are we!

3. Craft - Coloring page
Today's craft is a simple coloring page.  You can find it here.

I wrote the names under the picture when Jenna was done coloring.  It was a good way to review!

4.  Song - "Father Abraham" (again)

5.  End by reviewing the main points of the story one more time.

Lesson 18: Abraham and Sarah, Part 1

 1. Verse - no new verse today, but the story is from Genesis 12:1-5, 15:1-6, 17:1-6, 17:15-16

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Quickly review the people that you've already done lessons about...Adam and Eve and Noah.
• Now there was a man that God thought was very special, his name was Abram.
• His wife's name was Sarai.
• They were married, but they didn't have any kids.
• They wanted to have kids, but they had to wait until God wanted to give them a baby.
• God decided Abram was special so he told them to move to a far away, special place...
• Let's read a story about it....I read "God Makes a Promise" from The Beginning Reader's Bible. I only read the first half because I thought that introducing Abraham and Sarah was enough for one lesson.  Remember, you can use your own story book Bible! 
• Review the details of the story by explaining the pictures in the book. (This particular book has fantastic pictures!!)  
• Since I split this lesson in half, I got as far as...God told Abram and Sarai to move to a far away place, God made a promise to Abram that He would make a great nation out of him with many descendants, and God changed their names to Abraham and Sarah.

3. Craft  - Abraham and Sarah "paper dolls"
You can find the printables for these paper dolls here at makingfriends.com (be warned there's a video on this page that automatically starts playing, so don't be alarmed if you're computer starts talking to you!!)
Anyway, choose the dolls, clothes, and hair that you want to use.  I chose these...

Then have your child color the pieces that he/she wants to use.

 Then cut the people and the pieces out and glue them onto a piece of construction paper.  We glued the people first, then the hair, then the clothes.  Here's our finished product:

As a great review, I wrote down what Jenna remembered from the story.  Of course, I helped her along with some of these!  We put all her crafts like this in a binder and regularly look back at them and read them.

*Note - this craft was fun, but it was definitely a little more work.  I did all the cutting and I helped with some of the glue application because the little pieces were hard for her to glue.  She was able to do the coloring and putting the pieces on.  She liked it a lot! 
Also, one other little problem with this craft is that it slightly misrepresents Abraham and Sarah.  Jenna said, "Abraham and Sarah were babies??" (because the dolls look like little kids!)  Whoops!  SO, I had to explain and clarify that Abraham and Sarah were actually very old.  So, just be warned about that glitch!

4.  Song - "Father Abraham"
# 23 on Wee Sings Bible Songs

5.  End by reviewing the important parts of the story again!

Lesson 15: Tower of Babel

1. Verse - No new verse today, but the lesson is from Genesis 11:1-9

2.  Lesson -

•  Pray with your child about the lesson
• Review the people from the Bible that she's already learned about - Adam and Eve, Noah.
• After Noah and his family had lived on the earth for a while, there were lots more people.  Some of these people gathered together to build a great big tower.
• Read the story.  I used "A Tower Called Babel" from The Beginning Reader's Bible.   This book uses actual scripture for the stories and has beautiful pictures!  Love it!!
• Recap the story:  At the beginning of the story, all the people spoke one language.  (We stopped and talked about languages.  Jenna is familiar with the concept of English vs. Spanish (Thank you, Dora!), so I used that to explain how everyone in the story spoke the same language.
• The people started to build a great, big tower, a big building.  
• They wanted to be famous and show how big and strong they were!
• But they thought that they didn't need God.
• God didn't like this and he know it wasn't good for them, so he confused them and made them speak in different languages.  Then they couldn't finish the tower.  (Again, we talked about Spanish vs. English and I mentioned that there are lots of other languages now...German, French, Chinese, etc...)
• So, God wants us to always remember that we need him and everything we have and everything we can do is a blessing from him.

3. Craft - Tower of Babel Coloring page.
We used this coloring page and you can find it here!

 Both girls had fun coloring today!

4.  Song -
I planned this lesson late last night and I actually forgot to pick a song!  So, I decided to take requests!  Jenna chose "Jesus Loves Me."  So, that's what we sang.  :)

5.  End by reviewing the name of the tower and important parts of the story.

**Note -  This will be my only lesson this week!  The fam and I are headed to the beach for a few days!  We are very blessed to have this trip as we are just tagging along with my husband for a conference he's attending for work!  It was an unexpected blessing.  :)   We'll be back next week!

Lesson 13: Noah's Ark

Hi friends!  Hope you enjoy this Noah's Ark lesson!

1.  Verse - no new verse today.  The lesson is taken from Genesis 6:9-9:17.

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review previous Bible verses.
• Read the story to your child from a storybook Bible.  I read, "A new beginning" from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. 
• Recap after the story: God told Noah to build a giant boat, called an "ark."
• Noah obeyed God and God protected him from a really big storm.
• Sometimes it rains at our house.  Now, think about if it rained for forty days at our house.  The water would get higher and higher and our house would fill up with water!  That's called a flood.
• That's what happened at Noah's house!
• But God wanted to protect Noah and all the animals so he put them in Noah's boat.  There were two  of every kind of animal - a boy and a girl.
• When the storm was all over and the boat was on dry land, God made a promise that He would never flood the whole world again.  He put his promise in the sky - a rainbow!
• Whenever we see a rainbow, we can remember the story of Noah and God's promise!

3.  Craft - Ribbon Rainbow Craft
I came up with this craft idea because I already had this ribbon in the house (and the cotton balls).  If you don't have the ribbon, you could use the coloring page below or google "Noah's Ark craft" or "Rainbow craft" and find an idea that will work for you!
Here's what we started with: cotton balls, pieces of ribbon (about 6 in long) in rainbow colors (for some reason my purple ribbon looks brown in the picture!  It is actually a dark purple.), and a piece of construction paper cut in the shape of a cloud with "God's Promise" written at the top.  You also need a small strip of white paper, to cover the glue at the top of the ribbon (not pictured here.)

 1.  flip cloud over and let your child glue the ribbons on in rainbow order.  Then cover the glued ribbon with a piece of white paper.

2.  Then have your child glue the cotton balls on the front!  (Jenna really enjoyed this!)

Simple, but cute!  It's still laying somewhere in our kitchen, but I told Jenna we could hang it in her room!

Here's a nice coloring page, if you'd rather go that route!

4.  Song:  "Who Built the Ark?"  #29 on Wee Sing Bible Songs
"Who built the Ark?  No-ah, No-ah!
Who built the Ark?   Brother Noah built the ark!..."
It's a cute song!

5.  End:  By reviewing what a rainbow means!

*Note for mom - There was one quote from our storybook, that I just loved!
"But Noah didn't mind so much what other people thought, he minded what God thought.  So he just did what God told him to do."
Simple obedience!  And what an amazing example in Noah.  Oh that I would have a heart like his!
God bless you all!  I'm praying that your lessons are going well!

Lesson 11: Adam and Eve - The Very First Sin

Hi friends!  We're home from our trip and starting back up with our lessons!  Here is today's lesson...
*Note - For this lesson, I used one of our storybook Bibles, The Beginning Reader's Bible, learn more about it here.

1. Verse - no new verse for today, but read Genesis 3 beforehand to prepare for the lesson.

2.  Lesson-

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review the last lesson (about the Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve.)
• Read the story to your child.  I used "The Very First Sin" from The Beginning Reader's Bible.  You can use whatever storybook Bible that you have or read straight from the Bible, Genesis 2:8-17, 3: 1-23  OR, just tell the story to your child by summarizing it yourself.  While I read the story, I stopped and pointed out the different parts of the picture that illustrate the story.  (I love the pictures in this book!)
• After you read, summarize the important parts of the story to reinforce it and highlight the main points:
• God told Adam and Eve that they couldn't eat fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden, but the snake tricked them and told them God was wrong!
• Adam and Eve decided to disobey God.  He told them not to do something, but they did it anyway.  When they disobeyed God, they sinned.
• Disobeying God is called sin.
• Because they disobeyed God, they had to leave the wonderful garden and work hard.
• But even though Adam and Eve sinned and had to leave the Garden, God still loved them very much!  He made them clothes and he took care of them.

3.  Craft -  pasta snake/coloring page.
So...I read this craft idea on a blog and created it myself (without directions!).   Admittedly, it was a bit of a flop!  Jenna did have fun stringing the noodles and was mildly excited about her snake, but it's a little sad-looking and as we were making it, I thought, "Why are we highlighting Satan's part in this story?!?"  That didn't occur to me until we were actually making it!  I was just trying to do something other than a coloring page!  So, I just reminded Jenna a few times that the snake was the "bad guy" and he tricked Adam and Eve.  Then we colored a coloring page to kind of make up for it!
But, here are directions for the snake...in case you want to try it!
This is the finished product...

(Kind of pitiful for a blog, I know!!)

Materials - pasta (I used rigatoni), rubbing alcohol, green food coloring, yarn, two googly eyes, two large beads, hot glue gun

 Directions -
1.  Dye the noodles the night before.  I found directions for this on this blog.  But I only made this much...

Basically, I just put some alcohol in a large ziploc bag, added about 6 drops of food coloring, then added about a half a cup of noodles, swished it around and let it sit for about an hour and a half.  Then I took the noodles out and let them dry overnight.
2.  Cut a piece of yarn (the length of your snake).
3.  Tie a bead to one end of the yarn.
4.  Let your child string the noodles to make the snake.
5.  Tie the second bead on the other end of the snake, as tightly as you can to the noodles.  Leave a little extra yarn to be the "tongue."
6.  Hot glue two googly eyes to the second bead.  And you have a snake!

Soooo, if you don't want to go through all of that, here is a nice coloring page to go with the story...

4.  Song - I decided to repeat a song we did recently to help her learn it well...
"My God is So Great."  #45 on Wee Sing Bible Songs

5.  End with reviewing the important parts of the story one more time!

Lesson 10: Intro to Garden of Eden and Adam and Eve

1.  Verse - No new verse today.  We've collected quite a few verses.  So, I felt like we could use a break to review them.  BUT, this story is based on Genesis chapter 2.  I recommend that you read the chapter beforehand to prepare for the lesson!

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review previous verses and the days of creation (from the last two lessons.)
• As I told the story of today's lesson, I used the pictures from the craft (see below) to illustrate the story.
•  When God was making the earth, he used the dust and the dirt on the ground to make a man. He named the man Adam.
• Then God made a beautiful garden and it was called Eden.  That's where Adam lived!  What kinds of things are in a garden?  (flowers, plants, etc.)  All of those things were in the Garden of Eden and also trees and rivers!  It was a very beautiful place! (show the garden picture)
• God also made animals and the Garden of Eden was filled with all kinds of animals. (show the animal pictures)
• It was Adam's job to take care of the garden and the animals.  He gave all the animals their names!  What are some animal names that you know?(name the animal pictures and add others)
• Now, God decided that Adam needed a helper to help him take care of the garden and the animals.  So, God made a woman and he named her Eve. (show picture of Adam and Eve)
• So, Adam and Eve were the first two people that God made!  They were husband and wife and they lived in the Garden of Eden.
• God loved Adam and Eve and they loved God.  

3.  Craft - Garden of Eden coloring page/craft.
So, as I come up with crafts, my goal is that everything is a free printable. For this craft, I pieced together a few printables to come up with one craft.  So, you'll need the following pages from this link:
http://www.easy-child-crafts.com/bible-coloring-pages.html

Then you'll need the the "Adam and Eve" page from this site: http://www.coloringpagespot.com/joomgallery/printable-crafts/fall-of-man-puppets-coloring-page-175

I cut blank part off the bottom of the garden and then cut out the Adam and Eve and the lion, fox, and giraffe.  So, here are the pieces:

Then write "The Garden of Eden" along the top of a piece of construction paper.

Then have your child color the pieces.  Trim the smaller pieces.  Glue the garden onto the construction paper first.  Then glue the people and animals onto the garden however your child wants to!

Finished product:

*Note about the craft - This craft requires a lot of coloring!  You may want to plan to help your child with some of the coloring.  You can see, I colored the giraffe and Jenna got a little tired of coloring by the time she got to Adam and Eve!  :)


4. Song -  "Praise the Lord Together"  #44 on Wee Sing Bible Songs
"Praise the Lord together singing Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!" (2x)

5.  End by reviewing the names in this story...Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve

Lesson 9: Creation, Days 4 - 7

1. Verse - No new verse this time, use the same verse as last time: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review previous verses.
• Review the last lesson, the verse and Days 1 -3 of creation.  We used the coloring pages to review the first three days of creation.
• So, that's what God made the first three days, today we'll talk about what God made during the next three days!
• On the fourth day, God made the sun, moon, and the stars.  Have your child look at the coloring page for the fourth day while you read Genesis 1:16 out loud.
• On the fifth day, God made the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea.  Have your child look at the coloring page for the fifth day while you read Genesis 1:20-21 out loud.
• On the sixth day,God made animals and people.  Have your child look at the coloring page for the sixth day while you read Genesis 1:24, 26.
• When God was finished making all that he made, he said that it was all good!
• Now, making all these things was a lot of work.  So, on the seventh day, God rested! Have your child look at the coloring page for the seventh day while you read Genesis 2:2 out loud.
• Talk about what he made...What kinds of animals live in the ocean? the sky? on land?
• Pray - Thank God for all of the good things that you have made.

3. Craft - Creation coloring pages
Have your child finish coloring the pages from the set of creation pages that you chose last time (from this link  http://www.coloring.ws/creation.htm)

We had a bit of a rough morning, so the coloring got finished later in the day (after naps!).  We also (later in the day when we needed something to do) stapled the pages into a book.  For the cover, I took some construction paper and wrote "Jenna's Book About Creation" at the top.  Then I asked Jenna to draw things that God made.  It was a great processing, summary activity.  Jenna's just barely starting to draw recognizable things, so it was fun to see what she came up with!

Madeline walked over and showed some interest..."Look, Madeline, this is you and this is Jenna!"

It was a fun activity!

4.  Song - "My God is so Great."
"My God is so great, so strong and so mighty.  There's nothing my God cannot do. (2x)
The mountains are his.  The rivers are his.  The stars are his handiwork, too.
My God is so great, so strong and so mighty.  There's nothing my God cannot do.  For you!"

5.  End by reviewing the verse one more time!

Lesson 8: The Creation Story, Days 1 - 3

This is my first Old Testament lesson.  I plan to spend a few days on Creation because there's a lot to it!  
With this lesson, I'll start doing Bible stories, but along the way I'll work in lessons about things God wants us to do (love Him, Obey, Share, etc.).  Just a reminder, I'll be using two different Bible story books to illustrate some of the stories...you can see them here.  And now to the lesson...
 
1. Verse - "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1 

 2. Lesson - 

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review past Bible verses.
• Read today's verse and explain that "created" means "made."
• Before God made the earth and people, there was nothing.  Everything was just dark, really dark.  What does it look like when it's dark?  (night time, really black, etc.)
• Then God made the earth and he did it in 6 days.
• Use the coloring pages from the craft to explain the story of the first three days:
• On the first day, God made day and night.  Have your child look at the coloring page for the first day while you read Genesis 1:3-5 out loud.
• On the second day he made the sky and the water.  Have your child look at the coloring page for the second day while you read Genesis 1:6 out loud.
• On the third day, God made dry land, seas, and plants and trees.  Have your child look at the coloring page for the third day while you read Genesis 1:9, 11 out loud.
• Talk about what we know about these things:  What do we do during the daytime/nighttime? What kinds of things are in the sky?  What kinds of things grow outside in our yard?
• God made all these things and God says the things that he's made are really good.
• Pray:  Thank God for night, day, the beautiful sky, the land, oceans, beautiful plants in our yard.
• Extension of the lesson - The next time you are outside with your child, point out the plants, trees, skies, etc. and talk about how God made these things!

3. Craft - Creation Coloring page booklet
Go to this website, http://www.coloring.ws/creation.htm, and choose one of the Creation coloring page sets to use.  Have your child color the first three pages.  In future lessons, they'll color the rest of them and staple them into a booklet!

Here are Jenna's!  She got a little bored of coloring today and asked for some help from mommy...
  

4.  Song:  "The B-I-B-L-E"  (#20 on Wee Sing Bible Songs)
"The B-I-B-L-E. Yes, that's the book for me!  I stand alone on the word of God.  The B-I-B-L-E!"

5.  End with reviewing the new verse one more time!


Hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend, spending extra time with family and friends!