Early Childhood Essential: God is with His people.
Memory Verse: "The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action." — Daniel 11:32b
Bible Story Focus: Jonah and the Whale | Jonah 1–4
Early Childhood Essential: God is with His people.
Memory Verse: “The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” -Daniel 11:32B
Bible Story Focus: God’s People Build the Wall | Nehemiah 1-3
Circle Time: (Preschool Purple only) What is something you need help to do?
Activities: Nehemiah Builds a Wall
Early Childhood Essential: God is with His people.
Memory Verse: “The people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.” -Daniel 11:32B (ESV)
Bible Story Focus: Elijah and the Contest | 1 Kings 18
Circle Time: Have you ever watched someone start a fire? What did they do?
I Wonder Questions: I wonder… Why were Ahab and Jezebel a bad King and Queen? (Ahab and Jezebel were not following God, Jezebel didn’t even believe in God!)
I wonder… How did God prove to His people that He is real? (God sent a drought, He sent fire to Elijah’s altar, and He sent rain after the people said sorry!)
I wonder… Who is our Ultimate Hero? (God is our Ultimate Hero!)
Activities: 8:15 & 10:45: Stamp Fire
9:30: Stone Fire
Unit: Echoes of Eden
Elementary Essential: Not only are books a way to connect and build community, but they can also teach us, help us understand emotion, and give us perspectives that may be different than our own. Echoes of Eden is a curriculum written by Crossing Kids that uses popular children’s picture books and helps pull in concepts of the Gospel, or “Echoes of Eden”.
In this unit, children will examine the way the Gospel helps us to make sense of all of life, including art in the words and illustrations of great books. Together, we will search for places where the beauty of the Gospel intersects and points to the greatest story of all and discover how to engage with our culture in winsome ways. Each week, kids will read a book and hunt for Gospel truths within while focusing on one key verse connected to the literature. They’ll do an activity (ex. craft, game, science experiment) to help them have a tangible reminder of what they just learned.
Lesson Title: Move!
Lesson Summary: Jenkins uses a variety of verbs to demonstrate how animals move their bodies. This simple text provides children with the opportunity to craft creative verbs and to move their bodies as well. Children act out and illustrate the song “Go” (Matthew 28:19) from Seeds Family Worship.
Essential: God is relational: God takes care of us through his people, the Church.
Lesson Scripture: Matthew 28:19-20
Lesson Objective: Understand that God’s word is shared when we go into the world and tell others about him.
Application: I can go (or move) into the world to help others know about Jesus.
Unit: The Lord’s Prayer: Teach Us to Pray
Elementary Essential: God is relational: He invites us to talk to him through prayer.
Elementary Essential: Jesus’s friends and followers asked Jesus how to pray. He gave them the Lord’s Prayer as a model. Jesus gave this prayer for his followers then, but also for his followers today. Throughout the summer, children will learn that prayer is talking with and listening to God. They will explore what prayer is, how to pray, and work to memorize The Lord’s Prayer. Each week will unpack a phrase of this famous prayer in hopes that children will understand why Jesus uses this as a model prayer to teach us how to pray to God.
Listen to the Lord’s Prayer playlist as you drive around town: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6KuVB9MvASNML50KNHMWsX?si=ghxkmKjyTnGddhOWB2u06Q
Lesson Title: As we forgive those who sin against us.
Lesson Summary:
This week we’ll focus on the phrase: “As we forgive those who sin against us.” They will read about the Unmerciful Servant from Kevin DeYoung’s adaptation in The Biggest Story Bible and learn that when we realize just how much we’ve been forgiven by God that we also ought to forgive others, even when it’s hard.
Lesson Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13, Matthew 18
Lesson Objective: Children will remember they are greatly forgiven and can forgive as they’ve been forgiven.
Application: I have the power to forgive others through the Holy Spirit, even when it is difficult.
Unit: Questions Jesus Asked
Elementary Essential: In this 13-week unit, 4th and 5th graders will spend their time looking at some of the questions Jesus asked real people in the New Testament. Each week, students will explore a question and the context surrounding it. They will discover that Jesus did not ask questions to learn the answer but rather to help us learn more about Him.
Students will explore the life and ministry of Jesus, and most importantly, they will learn about the Jesus who sees us, hears us, and loves us. Students will discover that far more than our outward actions, Jesus cares about the desires of our hearts and invites us into a relationship with him.
Each lesson will be rooted in building a greater understanding of how the entire Bible points to Jesus’s work on the cross. All of Jesus’s encounters with people were built around pointing them toward the good news of his death and resurrection and how that brought us into a reconciled relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Lesson Title: Do you love me?
Lesson Summary: Students will look at the question the resurrected Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” after Peter denied knowing Jesus three times at the crucifixion. Students will also play a marshmallow toss game, trying to toss marshmallows in “campfire” buckets to earn points for their team.
Essential: God is our rescuer: God sent Jesus to be our rescuer. Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again so that those who trust in him as Savior can have a new life in him.
Lesson Scripture: John 21:15-19
Lesson Objective: Students will have a deeper understanding of Jesus’s restorative love for them.
Application: Just like Peter, I know I need a rescuer.