Jonah
This page is devoted to sharing the actual lesson plans I used while teaching Jonah to a preschool class in a Bible class setting. I also throw in a few personal thoughts along the way.
Below is a list of the lessons taught. Scroll down to view each lesson.
- Jonah Lesson 1
- Jonah Lesson 2
- Jonah Lesson 3
- Jonah Lesson 4
- Jonah Lesson 5
- Jonah Lesson 6
Listen/View the song Jonah by Diana Dow
Jonah Lesson 1
This is our last lesson on the prophets. We have studied Elijah, Daniel and now Jonah. With help from a few of my friends, I have almost got Jonah complete. There are a few more activities that need fine tuning, but the bulk of what we need this month is finished. We’ll be using:
- Jonah Flip Chart
- Large Flannelgraph (Betty Lukens)
- Jonah song
- Jonah and the Storm Magnetic Puzzles
- Jonah and the Fish Magnetic Puzzles
- Sequence Pictures
- Jonah Blacklight Story
- Attendance Chart
- God Will Take Care Of You Flip Chart
My lesson plan is:
Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E
Opening Activity: Jonah and the Storm Magnetic Puzzles
Sing: Jonah
Jonah Flip Chart — This flip chart was made using pictures from The Children’s Bible Cards
Sing: God Will Take Care of You using the flip chart. We’ve been doing this throughout the prophets. It just really seems appropriate with these lessons. The kids call it the Rain Song. The first picture I chose for the flip chart is a little boy looking out his window at lightning and rain. He has a worried look on his face.
Black Light Story — Jonah
Read Can God See Me? — A Happy Day Book about a little that wonders if God can see him while he’s on his camping trip and other places.
Attendance Chart — The attendance chart this month is about prayer. I’ve taken a picture of each child praying (well, some of them — the others will get their pictures tomorrow). The attendance chart says, “God Hears Me Pray No Matter Where I Am!”. Each class they will add a picture of different places they can pray — tree, bed, house, car, tricycle, boat, swing set. As they put their picture on the attendance chart, have them sit down on the floor.
Review the lesson with the Jonah Flannelgraph story.
Old Testament books — Work together with the large blue cards (books of law), large red cards (books of history), the green cards (books of poetry and the Major Prophets (We’ll add Ezekiel, Daniel and one minor prophet, Hosea). Let each child take a turn pointing to and saying the books on the wall with the hand pointer. After each child has had a turn, let them return to their seat. Give each child his set of OT cards to put in order on his own. This activity is getting quite time consuming. I’ll have to play it by ear how much we actually do.
Let each child that wants to say a prayer.
Jonah Lesson 2
We are having a VBS starting next week. I’m teaching the 5 and 6 year olds. It is going to be challenging to keep this class going and be working on that one, but with help from some of ladies in the congregation, we’ll get it done.
We had our regular monthly singing last Wed PM, so we didn’t have class. We will probably also have a singing the Wed PM during the VBS. That means I’ll just need to present Jonah in 6 lessons.
My lesson plan is:
Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E
Opening Activity: Jonah and the Storm Magnetic Puzzles
Sing: Jonah
Jonah Flip Chart
Sing: God Will Take Care of You using the flip chart.
Black Light Story — Jonah
Attendance Chart — The attendance chart this month is about prayer. I’ve taken a picture of each child praying (well, some of them — the others will get their pictures tomorrow). The attendance chart says, “God Hears Me Pray No Matter Where I Am!”. Each class they will add a picture of different places they can pray — tree, bed, house, car, tricycle, boat, swing set. As they put their picture on the attendance chart, have them sit down on the floor.
Review the lesson with the Jonah Flannelgraph story.
Jonah Cheat Sheets PDF
Old Testament books — Work together with the large blue cards (books of law), large red cards (books of history), the green cards (books of poetry and the Major Prophets, and the new Minor Prophets (We’ll add Joel, Amos, Obadiah). Let each child take a turn pointing to and saying the books on the wall with the hand pointer. After each child has had a turn, let them return to their seat. Give each child his set of OT cards to put in order on his own. This activity is getting quite time consuming. I’ll have to play it by ear how much we actually do.
Let each child that wants to say a prayer.
Jonah Lesson 3
My lesson plan is:
Opening Activity: Old Testament books — Work together with the large blue cards (books of law), large red cards (books of history), the green cards (books of poetry and the Major Prophets, and the new Minor Prophets (We’ll add Joel, Amos, Obadiah). Let each child take a turn pointing to and saying the books on the wall with the hand pointer.
Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E
Jonah and the Big Fish Magnetic Puzzles
Sing: Jonah
Jonah Flip Chart
Sing: God Will Take Care of You using the flip chart.
Black Light Story — Jonah
Attendance Chart — The attendance chart this month is about prayer. As they put their picture on the attendance chart, have them sit down on the floor.
Review the lesson with the Jonah Flannelgraph story.
Sing: Frog song (by Glenda Shales)
Ant Song (by Glenda Shales)
Mouse Song (by Glenda Shales)
Return to Seats
Read Usborne’s Jonah
Let each child that wants to say a prayer.
Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.
Jonah Lesson 4
Wow! Wednesday PM was a large class. There were 9 kids and 3 adults in class. That may not seem like a lot to some people, but with our classroom size, it is pretty close quarters with that many. Now, don’t get me wrong. I love having all those kids in class. It just kind of took me by surprise.
If these lesson plans are beginning to sound monotonous, they are. Our VBS starts Monday. I’m pre-occupied with that. So, Jonah will just have to be sort of mundane. If you can ever call Jonah mundane. The kids don’t seem to notice, just me. I was hoping to have take homes for a few class sessions, but I haven’t gotten any yet.
I am going to try a Snip-n-Tell story by Karen Henley again. I’ve had a lot of success with these, until Daniel came along. I couldn’t seem to get the lion to have anything less than 2 eyes, 2 noses and 2 mouths. The Jonah one is really cute.
My lesson plan is:
Opening Activity: Old Testament books — Work together with the large blue cards (books of law), large red cards (books of history), the green cards (books of poetry and the Major Prophets, and the new Minor Prophets (We’ll add Jonah, Micah, Nahum). Let each child take a turn pointing to and saying the books on the wall with the hand pointer.
Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E . We’re still working on the sign language to these songs. The kids are so sweet doing it.
Jonah and the Big Fish Magnetic Puzzles
Sing: Jonah
Jonah Flip Chart
Sing: God Will Take Care of You using the flip chart.
Jonah Snip-n-Tell by Karen Henley
Attendance Chart — The attendance chart this month is about prayer. As they put their picture on the attendance chart, have them sit down on the floor.
Review the lesson with the Jonah Flannelgraph story. Due to the large amount of children, we haven’t done this activity yet. I like to do it sitting on the floor. Our floor space can really only accommadte 6.
Sing: Frog song (by Glenda Shales)
Ant Song (by Glenda Shales)
Mouse Song (by Glenda Shales)
Return to Seats
Read Usborne’s Jonah
Let each child that wants to say a prayer.
Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline
Jonah Lesson 5
We have two more lessons on Jonah. After that, 4 of my kids move up to the next class. That’s a good thing, because last Sunday AM I had 12 in class. Our classroom is not designed for that many. The teacher’s nerves aren’t either :) That will leave me with 5 regular students in class, a much more managable group. Plus, they’ll all be closer in age (3 and 4 year olds), so I will be able to better concentrate on their skill level.
My lesson plan is:
Opening Activity: Old Testament books — We took the Old Testament book cards off the wall for VBS. Since we just had 2 more class sessions in the Old Testament, I didn’t put them back up. The ones we use on the table are backed with flannel. I’ll try to get the large flannel board (it’s actually a Home Interior display) to use for these 2 classes. The kids will get to put them on the board in the proper order. We’re going to go ahead and finish all the books.
Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.
Jonah and the Big Fish Magnetic Puzzles
Sing: Jonah
Jonah Flip Chart
Sing: God Will Take Care of You using the flip chart.
Jonah Snip-n-Tell by Karen Henley
Attendance Chart — These were also removed from the wall for VBS. We’ll just pass them out when it’s time to do them.
Review the lesson with the Jonah Flannelgraph story. I hadn’t done this yet, and really wanted to, so Sun AM I moved the flannelgraph board to the table. Half of the kids had to stand behind the other kids while we talked about it. They cooperated very well. If there are 6 or less kids, we’ll do it on the floor. Otherwise, we’ll do it at the table.
Sing: We learned a bunch of new songs at VBS. The kids will probably be requesting these. They weren’t new to me, just the kids. I had forgotten about most of them.
Return to Seats
Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline. There are really too many of these songs to do at a setting now (9 in all). Sun AM, I chose the prophets and we sang about them. Tomorrow, I’ll choose either the judges or the kings.
Read Usborne’s Jonah
Let each child that wants to say a prayer.
Jonah Lesson 6
Tonight is our last lesson on Jonah. It is also my last class session with the 5 year olds. They will move up to the next class on Sunday. When I took this class in October, I was not too excited. I was thoroughly enjoying myself teaching the 4th graders. We have a great bunch of 4th graders. But, there wasn’t anyone to teach this class that quarter. Well, I’ve taught the class for 9 months now and I’m really enjoying it. In fact, one of the other teachers came up to me last week and said she would take this class this quarter. I stood up for myself and told her I wanted to teach it until January. She graciously took the next class up.
Next quarter we will begin studying in the New Testament. We will spend a month on the life of Christ, a month on the parables of Christ and a month on the miracles of Christ. I’m really looking forward to it.
My lesson plan is:
Opening Activity: Old Testament books — This will be the last class session for these. I was mainly doing it for the older kids and they will be moving up. Their new teacher has said she would like to keep it up. We will review with the flannelgraph set of OT cards tonight.
Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.
Jonah and the Big Fish Magnetic Puzzles
Sing: Jonah
Jonah Flip Chart
Sing: God Will Take Care of You using the flip chart.
Jonah sequence pictures. Review with the large set and let each child try to put the story in order with the smaller set.
Attendance Chart — These will go home tonight.
Review the lesson with the Jonah Flannelgraph story. I hadn’t done this yet, and really wanted to, so Sun AM I moved the flannelgraph board to the table. Half of the kids had to stand behind the other kids while we talked about it. They cooperated very well. If there are 6 or less kids, we’ll do it on the floor. Otherwise, we’ll do it at the table.
Sing: We learned a bunch of new songs at VBS. The kids will probably be requesting these. They weren’t new to me, just the kids. I had forgotten about most of them.
Return to Seats
Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline. There are really too many of these songs to do at a setting now (9 in all). Sun AM, I chose the prophets and we sang about them. Tomorrow, I’ll choose either the judges or the kings.
Let each child that wants to say a prayer.
Thank you for the lessons. I will enjoy using them with my sunday school class. I wondered if you could tell me where I could find The Frog Song, The Ant Song and The Mouse Song you mention by Glenda Schales. I have her CD “God Had A Plan” and enjoy it greatly. I would love to learn and share these too. Thank you!