The Life of Christ (continued)

4th-6th grades

This page is devoted to sharing the actual lesson plans I used while teaching The Life of Christ to 4th-6th graders in a Bible class setting. I also throw in a few personal thoughts along the way.

Peter’s Confession

It has been a while since I posted a lesson plan. We’ve been out of town, had out of town company, had parents in the hospital. It’s just been busy. My Bible class is suffering because of it. I need to keep posting the lesson plans so I stay on track. I didn’t realize how much I benefit from putting these on my blog.

During all of the turmoil around here, we had a change of quarters in the Bible class. That has put a lot of pressure on me to get everything ready. I’m about half way there and we are already 3 weeks into the quarter.

This quarter we are talking about the 2nd half of Jesus’ life. Everything seems to move much faster, or maybe it’s just that there is a whole lot more written about the last part. We’ve talked about Jesus sending the 12 out and their return, Jesus feeding the 5000 and Jesus Walking on the water. Tonight’s lesson will be about Peter’s confession. This is such a misunderstood discussion that Jesus and Peter had. We will be emphasizing the true meaning of Peter’s confession and false doctrines that have sprung from it.

During this quarter, the kids will be memorizing the following:

• Jesus instituting the Lord’s Supper in Matthew 26:26-30
• The Word is God from John 1:1-5
• Jesus The Good Shepherd John 10:14-18
• Psalms 23
• Ask, Seek, Knock Matthew 7:9-11
• The rest of what’s in each of the New Testament books

My Lesson Plan:

Review what we’ve studied so far.

Today’s lesson: Peter’s Confession I read the scripture from the Bible while the kids follow along in theirs. If the event happens in more than one gospel, we read all of them. We then discuss it as necessary.

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add 2 Timothy

Let them spend time in the stations.

The Transfiguration

Tomorrow’s lesson will be about the transfiguration. We will do a brief review of the life of Moses and Elijah and then discuss the events in the transfiguration. We will also talk about John the Baptist and remind them about his importance.

Jesus was transfigured before Peter, James and John. When they wanted to build altars to Jesus as well as Elijah and Moses, God told them that Jesus was His son. This event further emphasizes that Jesus is the son of God.

My Lesson Plan:

Review Moses and Elijah. Also review John the Baptist.

Today’s lesson: The Transfiguration. After going over the lesson, introduce the new activity about the transfiguration. Put it in the station for Bible lesson review so they can work on it at their leisure.

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add 2 Timothy. I was supposed to add 2 Timothy Wed night, but since we ran out of time, we’ll try to get to this time.

Let them spend time in the stations.

The Adulteress Woman Meets Jesus (John 8)

Tonight’s lesson is on the adulteress woman from John 8. She was caught in the act of adultery and was brought to Jesus for his opinion. He effectively turned the table back to the men and they all ended up walking away.

Jesus then goes on to say “I am the light of the world. He who follow Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life”.

I plan to start tonight’s lesson with a review of the life of Christ. I’m finding this harder to do than I expected it would be. It amazes me how often I’ve studied the life of Christ and how familiar I am with the individual events, but when it’s time to put it all in order in a way that we can tell others, it’s hard. I think one of things that makes it so hard is that it’s found in 4 gospels. A goal for myself: By the end of the quarter, I’ll be able to, more efficiently, tell Jesus’ story to my class.

I’ve been working on the kids being able to tell the whole Bible story starting from Genesis. I find that easier than telling the events in Jesus’ life in order. It probably has a lot to do with the timeline we have on the wall. It is sufficiently detailed throughout the OT, but the NT is quite sketchy. I think the kids were surprised at how hard it was to tell the whole story. Things that they thought they knew, didn’t come to mind as quickly as they liked. We’ll keep working on it and I know they’ll improve.

My Lesson Plan:

Sing: Resurrection by Gary Box and Richard Morrison. I have made a poster of this song with a picture of Lazarus being raised, Jesus’ empty tomb and Jesus coming again. It is a beautiful song. It can be found in Hymns For Worship

Review Life of Christ

Today’s lesson: The Adulteress Woman.

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add Titus.

Let them spend time in the <b”>stations. </b”>

The Blind Man Healed

Today’s lesson will cover the blind man that was healed on the Sabbath. We will also talk about The Good Shepherd from John 10. The kids are memorizing John 10:14-18 and Psalms 23. Our class time is short on Sunday mornings, so I hope we can get it all in. They may not have time to go to their stations.

My Lesson Plan:

Sing: The Lord’s My Shepherd (I don’t have the correct version in front of me. There are 2 in the Hymns For Worship)

Review the miracles from John that we’ve discussed so far:

• Turning water into wine — John 2:1
• Nobleman’s son healed — John 4:46
• Man healed at the pool of Bethesda — John 5:1
• Feeding the 5000 — John 6:1
• Jesus Walks on the water — John 6:15
• Blind man healed — John 9:1

Today’s lesson: The blind man healed and Jesus the good shepherd

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add Titus.

Let them spend time in the stations.

The Good Samaritan

Last week we had a good discussion of the blind being healed from John 9. The kids were amazed to what extent the Jewish leaders went to justify themselves. Because of that good discussion, we didn’t get to talk about The Good Shepherd. We will do that this morning. We will also talk about The Good Samaritan. I think this may be the first time I’ve taught this lesson to someone old enough to actually discuss it. I’ve taught it many, many times in the baby class.

My Lesson Plan:

Sing: The Lord’s My Shepherd (I don’t have the correct version in front of me. There are 2 in the Hymns For Worship)

Discuss The Good Shepherd (John 10)

Today’s lesson: The Good Samaritan

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add Titus. I still haven’t gotten a chance to do this. I’m not sure we’ll have time to get to it today either, but I put it here just in case.

Let them spend time in the stations.

The Lost Parables

Tonight’s lesson is on the “lost” parables. Not that the parables are lost, but that they are about lost things — the woman’s coin, the shepherd’s sheep, the prodigal son. Jesus told these parables to illustrate how God feels when a sinner returns to Him.

I’ve written a children’s song about these stories. I’ve threatened to sing some of the children’s songs in class, but my son objects. I’m going to have to sing this one tonight. You can see/hear/print the song here: The Parables.

My Lesson Plan:

Sing: We’ve been singing the following in class:

• Tell Me The Story of Jesus
• How Shall The Young Secure Their Hearts
• Jesus Name Above All Names
• Resurrection
• The Lord’s My Shepherd

Tonight, I’ll let them choose one or two to sing.

Recite (in unison): The Good Shepherd and Psalms 23

Today’s lesson: The Lost Parables

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add Titus. I still haven’t gotten a chance to do this. I’m not sure we’ll have time to get to it today either, but I put it here just in case.

Let them spend time in the stations.

Lazarus

Last week we had a discussion during class about this blog. One of my students had seen it. I told them that they could find out what we were going to do in class if they take a look. I also told them that they could see if I followed my lesson plan if they looked at it after class. Now I’ve got to keep on my toes and follow “the plan” or else I’ll probably hear about it.

Today’s lesson is on Lazarus being raised from the dead. We can’t study this lesson without studying about Mary anointing Jesus with oil (Matthew 26:6-13) and Mary and Martha serve Jesus in their home (Luke 10:38-42). This will take up most of our time in class, so we probably won’t get any time in the stations.

 

My Lesson Plan:

Sing: Ressurrection

Recite (in unison):The Good Shepherd and Psalms 23 — we probably won’t have time for this, but I’ll keep it here in case we do.

Today’s lesson: Lazarus, Mary and Martha

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. We finally got Titus on the wall. Now we’ll add Philemon.

Let them spend time in the stations.

The Rich Young Ruler

We had a very interesting discussion in class Wednesday night about the rich man and Lazarus. This age (11-12 year olds) are a great age to teach. They have some very thought provoking questions. They wanted to know about the 2nd coming, what Heaven will be like and so on. I told them that they were asking excellent questions and that many Bible scholars continue to ask the same questions. I also told them that God told us what He wanted us to know. The rest we have to assume that God didn’t want us to know. Our faith in God is what’s important, not whether or not we know all the answers.

Today’s lesson will be on The Rich Young Ruler. It is mentioned in Matthew, Mark and Luke. I usually like to read from all the gospels when the story is found in them, but today, we’ll read from Mark. All the accounts are very similar and I think we’re going to need all the time we can get.

I plan on starting class reviewing God’s plan. We need to talk about the first sin, the promises given to Abraham, and the fulfillment of the 1st promise when God gave the Israelites a law. I want to briefly go on and remind them of when the 2nd promise was fulfilled (Joshua and the Israelites conquered the land) and then remind them that the Jews are looking for the promised messiah that will be fulfilled in Christ. This is important not only to keep reminding them of the big picture, but because the law is mentioned in the story of the rich young ruler.

After the review, we’ll read in our Bibles (Mark 10:17-31). I actually want to back up a little bit and read the story of Jesus blessing the children. Not because it has anything to do with the lesson for the day, but because it is something they’ve heard all their life and I want them to read for themselves (and questions if they want) from the Bible.

The last part of the lesson (if we have time), we’ll talk about Jesus predicting his death again. As we head into the last week of Jesus’ life, they need to know that all of this was part of God’s plan, not an accident that God had not intended to happen.

My Lesson Plan:

Let them spend time in the stations.

Today’s lesson: The Rich Young Ruler

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. We finally got Titus on the wall. Now we’ll add Philemon. I know we won’t have time today, we’ll do it Wednesday. If I take it off the lesson plan, I’ll forget to add it later.

Sing: Ressurrection

Recite (in unison):The Good Shepherd and Psalms 23 — we actually got to do this Wednesday night. We’ll try to fit at least one of them in today.

The 2nd Temple Cleansing (Matthew 21:12-17)

Wednesday night I sat down to the computer to write my lesson plan. For some reason my computer decided not to let me type. I could do anything else on the computer but type. So, I went to class with no written lesson plan. Thankfully, the computer has given me permission to type, so we’ll have a written lesson plan in the morning.

Our lesson for tomorrow is about the 2nd temple cleansing. It is found in Matthew 21:12-17, Mark 11:15-19 and Luke 19:45-48. I’ll be reading from the passage in Matthew during class. Before I read the lesson, we’ll review the 1st temple cleansing and read about it (John 2:13-22).

After reviewing the 1st temple cleansing and reading about the 2nd temple cleansing, we’ll turn to Isa 56:7 and Jeremiah 7:11 to read the scripture Jesus quotes.

My Lesson Plan:

Let them spend time in the stations.

Today’s lesson: 2nd Temple Cleansing

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add Hebrews.

Sing: I started teaching them a song that I wrote last Wed. We’ll continue working on it. It is called Is It I?

Recite (in unison): The Word is God — John 1.

The Parable of the Two Sons, The Parables of the Wicked Vinedressers and The Parable of the Wedding Feast

We are a little over half way through with this quarter. We’ve settled into a nice rhythm in the class. The kids know what to expect from me and what I expect of them. It took me longer than I would’ve like for this quarter to begin jelling, but it finally has.

In less than 2 weeks we begin our VBS (which is on the parables). I will be teaching the 2nd and 3rd graders. I’ve never gotten to teach these particular kids before. I ‘m really looking forward to getting to know them all better.

After that, we have 2 weeks before the next quarter begins. Even though we’ve rearranged the lessons from when I did the stations the last time, I think the quarter coming up is going to be easy to pull together. Well, I hope it will be any way.

Our lesson for tonight is found in Matthew, Mark and Luke, but we will be studying from Matthew 21:23-22:14. After the triumphal entry and the 2nd cleansing of temple (not to mention the raising of Lazarus), the Pharisees and the chief priests are really mad at Jesus. They keep wanting to kill him. It is so interesting that they never can seem to do it. He’s right there amongst them, even talking to them. We know from our study that they couldn’t kill Jesus until Jesus allowed them to. His death was His choice. The chief priests and Pharisees would not decide when it would happen.

Before Jesus taught the parables we will study tonight, the chief priests confronted Jesus about His authority. Jesus did not respond to their foolish questions. Instead, He responded with a question which they were not willing to answer. As a result, He didn’t answer them.

Then Jesus taught the parable of the 2 sons. One chose not to obey his father but later repented and did what he was told. The other said he would do the job but never did. This is a great lesson on obedience and repentance.

The next parable was about the wicked vinedressers that killed the landowners servants and finally his son when they came for the fruits of the vineyard. The parallel is easy to see. God sent prophets and then finally His Son. They were all mistreated and/or killed. In the end, the vineyard would be given to others. This is another reference to the Gentiles being offered the gift of salvation just as the Jews.

The last parable we will be talking about is the wedding feast. It is a lesson that again points out that if the Jews are not willing to accept Christ, others will be allowed to accept the invitation.

My Lesson Plan:Let them spend time in the stations.

Today’s lesson: Parables of the 2 sons, wicked vinedressers and wedding feast
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Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add 1 and 2 Peter.

Sing: I started teaching them a song that I wrote last Wed. We’ll continue working on it. It is called Is It I?

Recite (in unison): Let them choose which passage they need the most help with and we’ll work on it tonight.

Peter Denies Jesus

Now that VBS is over, I’ve got to get back into my study routine for my regular class. Sunday morning we talked about the night Jesus ate with his disciples for the last time. We talked about the institution of the Lord’s Supper. They are memorizing the passage from Matthew 26:26-30 where this happens. I told them that if they memorized it, they would always have sit to meditate on while they were taking the Lord’s supper and the boys would always be able to use it when they served on the table.

We sang the song I wrote Is It I? again. The song was inspired by this passage. The kids all seem to enjoy singing it — especially after talking about what it means. Here are the words:

Verse 1

He knew that one would do it.

He knew which one it was.

He knew they’d ask the question, “Is it I?”

Verse 2

They though they’d stand beside him.

They thought they understood.

But still they asked the question, “Is it I?”

Verse 3

Yes, one of them betrayed Him.

The rest just ran and hid.

And now we know the answer, “Is it I?”

Verse 4

If they take away your fam’ly,

your job, your home, your life.

What then will be your answer, “Is it I?”

Chorus:

Is it I, Lord? Is it I?

As I live my life from day to day I pray that you I won’t betray.

Is it I, Lord? Is it I?

Tonight we will talk about Peter denying Jesus. It is such a sad story because Peter really thought he was strong enough to stand beside Jesus. It is a story that makes us look at ourselves and ask ourselves what would we have done? What are we doing?

My lesson plan:

Let them spend time in the stations.

Today’s lesson: Peter Denies Jesus

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add 1 and 2 and 3rd John

Sing: Is It I?

Recite (in unison): The Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26-30)

Trials of Jesus

Things don’t always turn out as planned. Wednesday night I had to get a substitute. My 4 year old was not feeling well. I would normally get one of the older boys to stay with him, but they love their Bible class so much, they didn’t want to miss it. I called on a good friend to help out.

That means that I didn’t get to do what I had planned. I know she covered Peter denying Jesus, but we’ll review it tomorrow. Our lesson is to be about the trials of Jesus and you can’t talk about them without talking about Peter’s denial.

The old saying is true: You learn more when you teach than when you’re a student. This lesson intimidated me a little. I’ve always been a little fuzzy on the details and order of events when it comes to the trials of Jesus. The kids I’m teaching are old enough that deserve more than just a quick overview of what happened. As I was studying tonight, it all pretty much fell in to place. I’ll be using Matthew’s and Luke’s account to teach tomorrow.

The lesson is going to be pretty long and I want to make sure we have enough time to discuss it thoroughly. We won’t be spending any time at the stations during class.

My lesson plan:

Today’s lesson: Trials of Jesus

Review the New Testament cards on the wall. Add 1 and 2 and 3rd John. Since I wasn’t in class Wednesday night, we didn’t get to this. We’ll try and do it in the morning.

Sing: Is It I? Click on the title to see the song. I finally put it on the website.

Recite (in unison): The Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26-30)

Crucifixion of Jesus

We covered the trials of Jesus Sunday morning. I thought it went well. Then, over lunch, my husband asked Timothy (my son in the class) what he learned in class. He could hardly recall anything we’d talked about. I don’t know if he wasn’t listening or if I wasn’t getting it across. I think we’ll just include it in a review from here on out.

Tonight I won’t be in class, but my dear friend that substituted for me last week will be doing it again. It is so nice to have someone like her that I can depend on.

My lesson plan:

Time at Stations: Let the kids spend at least 15 minutes at the stations. Several of them are getting very close to being able to recite one or 2 of them. During the time they are working at their stations, the ones that are ready can recite their passages. They shouldn’t get any prompting from the teacher.

Review the New Testament cards on the wall.

Today’s lesson: Crucifixion of Jesus

Sing: Is It I?

Recite (in unison): The Lord’s Supper (Matthew 26:26-30) or any other they would like help with.