Lesson 7: Jesus is God's Son

*Note - This lesson wraps up the "Who is God?" unit.  In the future, I plan to do more lessons on Jesus and stories from the Gospels, but for now I just wanted to do a short lesson on Jesus to explain a little bit about who he is as part of explaining who God is.  Some concepts (like the Trinity) are a little hard to explain to preschoolers.  So I did the best I could and I mainly stuck to Jesus is God's son and he loves us, knows us, takes care of us, etc.

1. Verse - "You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased."  Mark 1:11

2. Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review previous Bible verses.
• We've learned a lot about God.  Today we're going to learn a little bit about who Jesus is.
• Jesus is God's son.  God is Jesus' father.  Just like you are mommy and daddy's daughter, Jesus is God's son.
• God sent Him to the world to love us and save us from our sins.  (At this point I did a very quick explanation of sin - when we do things that God doesn't like.)
• What holiday is the day that Jesus was born? (Christmas)  Right!  Jesus was born on Christmas and he was a little baby.
• Then when he grew up he died on the cross.
• On Easter, he became alive again!  Then he went to heaven to live with God forever.
• Now he sits on a throne in heaven with God.
• Jesus loves us, he knows us, he takes care of us, just like God!  Because he is God too!
• There are lots of stories about Jesus in the Bible that you'll learn about in more Bible lessons.

3. Craft -  "Jesus loves me" heart hand-print
I got the idea for this craft from this blog...http://catholicicing.com/2011/07/how-to-make-jesus-loves-me-shirts-with-kids/
Instead of doing a shirt, we made a paper craft out of it.
Here's the finished product (that's supposed to be a heart in the middle.)

First, I typed out the words "Jesus" and "Me" in Word so that they would could be colored.  I'm trying this out, but I think you can find them here.  If you can't get that link to work, I used size 150 "Allstar" font in Microsoft Word.
She colored the words, cut them out and glued them to the paper, leaving space for the hand prints.

Then we took some washable paint (I thought I had red, but we were out of it...so we used purple.) and painted Jenna's hand with a sponge paint brush.  Then, I helped her make the prints in the shape of a heart!

And Madeline made one too...

You kind of need to use your imagination to see the hearts, but it was fun!

4.  Song - Jesus Loves Me.  (I'm sure everybody knows this song!)

5.  End with reviewing the verse one more time! 

Lesson 6: God teaches us about Himself in the Bible

Note* For this lesson, I used a small Bible that we've given to Jenna.  It was one we already had (a Bride's Bible given to me for my wedding) and Jenna had taken a liking to it.  So, I used it today to help teach her about the Bible.  I also had a flashlight handy to illustrate the verse.

1. Verse - "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." Psalm 119:105

2. Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review past Bible verses.
• Today:  God teaches us about Himself in the Bible.
• The Bible is like God's letter to us. 
• All of the Bible is God's words to us.  We call it the Bible, but it is also called "God's word."
• It's very important to read the Bible because that's how God teaches us about Himself.
• We read the Bible to learn about God.
• We read the Bible to learn about what God wants us to do.
• He gave us the Bible to help us through life.
• Explain the verse:  When it is dark and you can't see, you can use a flashlight or a lamp to help find your way.  God says the Bible is like a lamp that lights up the darkness and shows us where to go.
• It was morning when we did the lesson, so I planned a very short activity to do before bed with the flashlight.  I put Jenna's teddy bear in a dark room and had her use the flashlight to find her way and find him (while holding my hand.)  After she found him, we talked about the verse again.  She loved doing this.)   
• We finished up the lesson by showing her where this verse is found in her little Bible and highlighting it.  Then, we went through and highlighted all her verses.We also talked about how all these words in the Bible are from God. 

                                                  
3. Craft - Coloring Page.
I'm sure there are many creative crafts you could do with this verse, but I found this coloring page that is just perfect, so we kept it simple! 
Go to this site...http://godstruckkids.com/coloring-pages and click on "Your Word's a Lamp" to download and print the page.
Jenna enjoyed coloring it...

4.  Song - "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet."
We're going old-school here!  This song isn't on the Wee Sing Bible Songs CD, but I decided to teach it to Jenna.  She liked learning a new song!  Here's a Youtube video of the song with the words, if you want to learn it!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SLHWFpSlq4
We mostly just sung the chorus about 20 times! 

5.  End by reviewing the verse one more time!

I'm happy to say that little sis was much happier during today's lesson!  I've just finished three weeks of lessons and I am really enjoying doing them.  Not only is Jenna learning about God, but it's also nice to have focused time where she's getting my full attention (except when Madeline needs some thing :) when we're working on something together.  God is so good and I know he's working through these simple, short lessons!  I hope things are going well for you, too, and I hope you all have a great weekend!

Lesson 5: God Takes Care of Us

1.  Verse - "My God will meet all your needs." Philippians 4:19

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review past Bible verses and past topics.
• Today:  God takes care of us.
• He gives us all the things we need to live and grow.  
• What are some things that you need to live and grow? (food, a home, clothes, warm bed, money to buy things, mommy and daddy to take care of you, etc...)
• God is the one who gives these things to us.
• God is so good.  He loves us and he takes care of us.
• When someone gives you something, what do you say back to them?  (thank you!)
• This is why we pray to God and thank Him for giving us everything we need.  
• Stop to pray with your child again.  Ask your child, "What do you want to thank God for?" and invite your child to do the praying.

3. Craft - Food collage

• Materials - one piece of construction paper, printer, paper, glue stick, scissors, crayons or markers

The night before - Write on the top of a piece of construction paper "God takes care of us."  Then go to this website http://www.classhelper.org/coloring-book-pages/food-and-drink/page_4.shtml , click on the cheeseburger and print out a couple of the food pages (whichever ones you like!)

Have your child color the pictures of the food.  Then cut them out and glue them to the construction paper:

 When we did it, Jenna did everything but the cutting!  :)  You gotta love glue sticks!

4.  Song - He's got the whole world in his hands." (#39 on Wee Sing Bible Songs)
"He's got the whole world in His hands. (4x)
He's got the itty bitty babies in His hands (3x) He's got the whole world in his hands.
He's got the mommies and the daddies in His hands (3x) He's got the whole world in his hands."

5.  End by reviewing the new Bible verse one more time!

Notes -
I thought I'd share how our lesson went today because I'm sure some of you can relate!  During the "lesson" part (which is supposed to take all of 5 -10 min), Madeline (17 mos) was not cooperating.  Within those 5 - 10 min I had to get her out of her booster seat because she didn't want to join the lesson, take her down from standing on the tricycle, put the tricycle outside so she'd stop climbing on it, clean up cheerios she spilled all over the ground, bring a basket of toys into the kitchen for her, and then just when she was content again, a random alarm started going off in the other room!  All while Jenna sat patiently waiting for me to finish explaining how "God takes care of us."  :)  So, we were FULL of distractions this morning!  But the good thing is that I remembered to pause, take a breath, and ask God for help!

Also, I wanted to encourage you to let these simple, simple truths fill your own heart today.  How quickly we busy adults forget that God provides our every need!  We are currently facing some uncertainty regarding my husband's job and we are learning to be at peace and trust in God's perfect provision.  He touched my heart in a special way singing the simple line, "He's got the mommies and the daddies in his hands."  So simple, yet so able to restore our hearts and fill us with hope.  Praise God for His goodness and care!

Another, more administrative, thing I wanted to share is something I came up with to organize the crafts we've been doing.  I got a one-inch binder (that I already had :) and let Jenna color a page for the front of it.  We're gonna hole-punch anything that will fit in it and make it into a book for her to look at later.  If you go to www.twistynoodle.com , you can change the text on any of the coloring pages to what you want it to say (love this!).  We chose the Noah's Ark page and typed in "Jenna's Bible Crafts."  This is just an idea you might want to use!

Lastly, As I've been looking at crafts online, I've seen a lot that use paper plates.  So, while I was at Walmart today, I picked up some paper plates and more glue sticks!  If you're following along you may want to pick up some paper plates for future lessons.

That's all for now!   God bless!

Lesson 4: God knows me

Hi friends!  I was very excited about this lesson because it requires some "acting out" and the first five verses of Psalm 139 perfectly apply to this preschool lesson!  love it!

1.  Verse- "O Lord, you know everything about me." Psalm 139:1

2. Lesson - 

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Talk about what we learned over the last few lessons and review the other Bible verses.
• Today's lesson - God knows me.
• God knows everything about you.  He sees you all the time.  He hears everything you say.  He even knows what you think about!  
• Now, a king named David in the Bible wrote a song to God.  We're gonna read it and act it out!  Have your child stand up and act out the verses as follows...
• Psalm 139:1-5 (New Living Translation) 1 O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. (make a heart shape with your hands on your chest)
  2 You know when I sit down or stand up.  You know my thoughts even when I'm far away. (sit and stand, stretch hands out far)
  3 You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. (walk and then make your hands a pillow)
  4 You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord. (point to your mouth.)
   5 You go before me and follow me.  You place your hand of blessing on my head. (put your hand on your head.)  
• Talk about each verse with your child and how it applies to him/her.
• God sees you all the time, even when you're hiding from mommy.  (We had an issue lately where Jenna thought it was okay to do something wrong if mommy couldn't see her.)
• This is so wonderful because God loves us, he is good, and he takes care of us!

3. Craft - God Sees Me and Hears Me Collage
Prepare the night before by cutting out magazine pictures of ears and eyes.
Take a piece of construction paper (or whatever kind of paper you have) and write "God knows me.  He sees me and hears me." across the top of the paper.
Then, your child can use a glue stick or glue to make a collage of the magazine pictures.

Here's what Jenna's turned out like...

4. Song - "Rejoice in the Lord always." #62 on Wee Sing Bible Songs
"Rejoice in the Lord always.  Again, I say rejoice. (2x)  Rejoice, Rejoice!  Again, I say rejoice! (2x)
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I say rejoice."
This is a really good song to clap along with.  At our house, little sis loved joining in with this one!

5.  End by reviewing the new Bible verse one more time.

*Note - when I did this lesson, I didn't think to prepare collage supplies for Madeline, but I wished I had.  Once she saw big sis's glue and pictures she had to have her own.  I quickly cut out some random pictures for her....but she mostly just played with the glue! :)

Lesson 3: God is good.

Before I get started sharing the lesson, first let me say that this one was a bit of a challenge for me!  When I started writing things out, I realized that the concept of "God is good." is a little hard to fully explain to a 3 year-old.  So, I did my best, but you may want to think about it and add some of your own thoughts!

God is good.
1.  Verse - "For the Lord is good." Psalm 100:5  or you could use "Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good." Psalm 136:1  (I used Psalm 100:5 because I memorized that one as a child.  It holds some sentimental value for me! :)

(I also had a hard time coming up with a picture for this verse!  I chose a smiley face with a gold star, but you may come up with a better idea for yours!)

2.  Lesson - 

• Pray with your kids about the lesson, that God would teach them about himself and help them understand.
• What did you learn about God last time?  (God loves me.)
• God loves you and God is always good!
• Read the Bible verse and recite it together.
• God is always good all the time.
• What does it mean to be good? (Jenna had a hard time with this one.)
• To be good means to be nice, loving, helpful, not mean.
• God is that way all the time!  He is never mean, always nice, always loving, always helpful.
• If mommy tells you that you've being such a good girl, what does that mean?
• God teaches us what is good because He is good.
• We learn to be good so we can be like God and be how he wants us to be.

3.  Craft -  Coloring Page
     girly coloring page -  http://www.coloringpagespot.com/joomgallery/bible/god-intends-good-coloring-page-94#joomimg
      less girly coloring page :) - http://twistynoodle.com/god-is-good-coloring-page/

4.  Song - "God is so good." (#51 on Wee Sing Bible Songs)
"God is so good.  God is so good.  He's so good to me.
 God loves me so.  God loves me so.  He's so good to me."

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

Also, review all the verses whenever you think of it!  We like to review ours when we're sitting down to eat.  I keep the verses hanging on a hook on the fridge.  So, they're right there to remind me!

We used the girly coloring page because it looked so much like my girls!  Jenna offered Madeline her assistance with the coloring...

 and Jenna ended up coloring both sheets...

Since we had two, I stuck them in the Mother's Day packages for the grandmas and sent them on their way!  I know they will appreciate getting a "Jenna original."

To be honest, friends, right after we did this lesson on God's goodness, we had a pretty terrible morning!  Ugh, it did not feel good!  It was part bad behavior from the girls and part lack of patience on my end.  Definitely one of those days when I'm grateful that his mercies are new every morning!  Actually, I should change that to his mercies are new every morning AND afternoon!  And as I'm finishing up writing this, Madeline is waking up from a VERY short nap.  -sigh- 
Blessings to you all!  I hope your day is filled with goodness and joy!

Lesson 2: God loves me.

1. Verse - God is Love.  1 John 4:16b

2.  Lesson

• Start by praying with your child about the lesson.
• Review the verse from the last lesson, then read the new verse and practice saying it together.
• What did you learn about God last time? (God made me.)
• God made you and God loves you sooo much.
• He loves everybody - Jenna, Madeline, mommy, daddy, everybody in our family, all of our friends, and even strangers that we don't know.
• What does it mean to love somebody?  (get ready for some cute answers here!)
• If you love somebody it means they are are really, really special to you.  You really like them and you want to be with them all the time.
• Who loves you tons and tons?  (this is phrase we use a lot in our family!)
• Who do you love?
• God loves us even more than mommy and daddy love you, etc. (fill in with the answers your child gave.)
• He always loves you and will never stop loving you.
• And because He loves us, He wants us to love other people too.

3.  Craft - "God loves me" heart chain
     Instructions for making a heart chain (in case you don't already know how:)
         1.  tape two pieces of paper together long ways:

          2.  Fold the papers along the tape.  Then fold it in half two more times.  It should look like this when 

               you are finished folding:

 

          3.  Draw a heart on the folded paper, making sure the edges touch the sides of fold:

 

         4.  Cut out the heart, making sure you leave the space on edges to hold the hearts together, and
              unfold!

 

         5.  On the eight hearts write:  God, L, O, V, E, S, me!, (smiley face)

         6.  Then have your child color it and hang it up somewhere.

         *note - When I did this, I taped and folded the paper the night before.  Then during the lesson, I drew and cut out the heart and wrote the words.  Jenna was very excited that the scrap looked like a crown!

       And then I let her hang hers in her room above her bed!

4.  Song - Praise Him, Praise Him
     "Praise Him, Praise Him all ye little children.  God is love. God is love."
     This is #31 on the Wee Sing Bible Songs CD.  If you don't have this CD or don't know this song, pick your own song!  I'm really big on using what you have!  So far I haven't bought anything new to use for these lessons!  BUT, if you are looking to purchase a kids bible songs CD, we love this one.  Jenna listens to it everyday during nap time and it has 63 tracks! 

5.  End by reviewing today's verse one more time!
  
Cute moments from our lesson - When I asked, "What does it mean to love somebody?"  Jenna said, "It means that you trust him."  It was super sweet to hear her say this, not sure she knows what trust means, but precious nonetheless!  Then when I said, "Who do you love?"  (I KNEW what her answer would be this time.) She shouted, "CHA-CHA!" and went running to get her favorite bear, Chaucer.  She is 500% in love with this bear, so I knew I could get the love concept across with him! 

So, friends, again, I'll be doing my lessons on Tuesdays and Thursdays and posting them shortly after!  Check back for two lessons a week and pick which days are best for your family to do the lessons.  I would love to hear how your lessons are going or any input you have to offer.  I hope you and your family can enjoy a restful weekend!  Bye for now...

Lesson 1: God Made Me

So, today we did our first lesson!  To give you a little background on where I'm going with the lessons...I decided that before we jumped into Bible stories, I wanted to do a "unit" of lessons on "Who is God?" and then one on "What should we do?"  So, this lesson starts the "Who is God?" unit.  Also, for every lesson, my plan is to have a verse, an easy craft or coloring page, and a song to go along with it.  The crafts are going to be really simple, quick and involve things I have around the house.  For example, when I googled "God made me" lessons, I found a craft that involve tracing your kid on butcher block paper and decorating it to look like her.  Well, if I wait until I can get to the store and find butcher block paper, then I'll never do the lesson!  So, this one involves a simple printable.  The lesson lasted about 15 - 20 min which was just enough time for a 3 year-old and her busy toddler sister!

**One note about the pictures - First, my plan right now is to not fill the blog with pictures of my kids.  I intend for this to be a public blog and I just feel more comfortable protecting them in that way.  You can see them in my tiny profile pic, but other than that I'm going to avoid posting pictures of their face.  I know that'll make the pictures a little weird, but for now we'll just go with it!  Also, we will be doing the lessons mostly right after breakfast, so the girls will most likely still be in their pjs with messy hair.  Keeping it real here, friends!  I'm trying to remember that blog is about the lessons, not the other way around. :)**

So, here we go with the first lesson...

God Made Me
1.  Prayer - open the lesson by praying with your child about the lesson.
2.  Scripture - "The Spirit of God has made me." Job 33:4  (the full verse is "The Spirit of God has made me, the breath of the Almight gives me life."  if you want to use that.)

For each verse, I'm going to make one of these cards.  It's a 4 x 6 card which will have the verse and a picture to represent the verse.  I had that ring lying around my house, so I'll hold them all on that and we'll flip through them each time we start our lesson.

3. Lesson -

• God makes all people and he makes them special.
• He made mommy, daddy, Jenna, and Madeline (substitute with your kids)
• He makes some people girls and some people boys.  Who in our family is a boy?  who is a girl?
• He makes people with different hair color, skin color, eye color, sizes, things they like, etc.
• He makes different body parts to do special things.  What did God make our eyes for?  our nose for? our mouth for? our hands for? our feet for?  etc..
• He makes all people special and exactly how he wants them to be.
• How did he make Jenna and Madeline? 

4.  Coloring Page -
      girl version -  http://twistynoodle.com/god-made-me-13-worksheet/
      boy version - http://twistynoodle.com/god-made-me-14-coloring-page/
     Have your child color the picture to look like themselves, hair color, eye color, clothes their favorite        color, and add some of their favorite things to the page.  Here's how ours turned out...

  

5.  Song - God Made Me.  

     "God made me.  God made me.  In my Bible book it says that God made me."

     My husband's aunt gave us Wee Sing Bible Songs as a gift.  So, I'll be using songs mostly from that CD.  It's nice because it comes with a book with all the words and the music.

6.  End with reviewing the verse one more time!

Here are a couple of pictures from our lesson time.  Madeline was taking a long time to eat her breakfast, so it worked out perfectly to start the lesson while she was finishing up in her high chair!

 

We had a couple of funny moments during the lesson.  When I asked Jenna, "What did God make our nose for?"  I got, "For snots to come out of it."  Nice...I may need to follow this one up with a science lesson!  haha!  Then when it was time to sing the song, she went running into the other room to put on her Snow White princess dress so she could dance in it while we sang the song. You gotta love the mind of a 3-year-old!

So, that's what I have in mind for these lessons.  I plan to do them twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I"ll *hopefully* will be posting two lessons a week!  I hope you find something here you can use with your own pre-schooler!   God bless!