The Life of Christ

This page is devoted to sharing the actual lesson plans I used while teaching The Life of Christ 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.

Listen/View the song Jesus Grew In Wisdom by Diana Dow

The Life of Christ Lesson 1

Tomorrow is the big promotion day. I will lose 4 kids and I don’t think I gain any. That’s fine. I’ll have 5 regular kids — a perfect size class for this age.

This is the first lesson about the life of Christ. We will spend a month studying:

I don’t have everything ready yet, so my lesson plan looks pretty weak. I will probably add some things from my toddler’s Baby Jesus box to get us through the morning.

My lesson plan is:

Opening Activity:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.

Baby Jesus Magnetic Puzzles

Sing: Jesus Grew In Wisdom

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story. Thanks to my soon to be daughter in-law, this is ready.

Life of Christ Cheat Sheets PDF

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

Baby Jesus Blacklight story.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

Life of Christ Lesson 2

I think I’ve finally got it mostly finished. All I need to do is finish decorating the room and I’ll be done. There is definitely enough activities to keep us happy now. Sunday’s class was really an eye opener. I’ve had up to 10 kids at a time in there recently. With the 5 year olds moving out, it left me with 5 kids. These kids are 3 and 4 year olds. They have pretty much been following the older kids’ lead. Since they are the “older” ones now, they don’t quite know what to do. It’s going to take a little adjusting for all of us, but I think we’ll all enjoy it.

My lesson plan is:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language. We’re trying to add new movements to these songs once in a while. The kids are coming along quite well.

Introduction to Story: Snip’n’Tell Manger scene

Baby Jesus Magnetic Puzzles

Sing: Jesus Grew In Wisdom

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Touch and Feel Book: We’re going to make a touch and feel book about Baby Jesus. Today we’ll do the first page. It is a picture of baby Jesus that we’ll glue a piece of felt on top of (just on one end). The kids will be able to lift the “blanket” to see the baby underneath. We’ll add a page to this book each week.

Attendance Chart: Our attendance chart this month is a manger scene. I’ll let the kids glue Mary, Joseph and the baby on tomorrow. Then, each class session we’ll add an animal or a star. These pictures came out of Palma Smiley’s To Toddler’s With Love.

Move to the floor.

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story. Thanks to my soon to be daughter in-law, this is ready.

Return to Seats and do the small Flannelgraph boxes. The pictures in these this time are of Jesus as a baby, as a young boy and as a grown man. The kids will be able to put them on their flannel board in order. This would also be a good time to sing the new “Jesus Grew In Wisdom” song again.

As time permits, do the following:

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.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

The Life of Christ Lesson 3

Sunday morning, my 3 year old woke up sick. since we live next to the church building I would normally let one of the older boys stay with him so I could teach my class. But, it just seemed better for me to stay home with him. He needed his mommy. The decision to stay with him was made shortly before time for class to start. That meant that my assistant teacher didn’t know she was going to teach until she got to class. I hated to do that to her, but I understand she did fine.

They didn’t do the “touch and feel” book Sunday AM, so we’ll get to do that tonight. I have the blacklight story ready to go. It was all put together, but I needed to put the story on the back of the pages. This time, I used really large print, so it would be easier to see in the dark. The room is finally decorated. I hope to have pictures to post soon.

My lesson plan is:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language. We’re trying to add new movements to these songs once in a while. The kids are coming along quite well.

Introduction to Story: Snip’n’Tell Manger Scene This is not an activity to be done on the spur of the moment. It didn’t get done Sun AM, so I’ll attempt it tonight. I’ve got to find time to practice.

Boy Jesus Magnetic Puzzles

Boy Jesus Flip Chart

Sing: Jesus Grew In Wisdom

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Touch and Feel Book: We’re going to make a touch and feel book about Baby Jesus. Today we’ll do the first page. It is a picture of baby Jesus that we’ll glue a piece of felt on top of (just on one end). The kids will be able to lift the “blanket” to see the baby underneath. We’ll add a page to this book each week.

Attendance Chart: Our attendance chart this month is a manger scene. I’ll let the kids glue Mary, Joseph and the baby on tomorrow. Then, each class session we’ll add an animal or a star. These pictures came out of Palma Smiley’s To Toddler’s With Love.

Move to the floor.

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story.

Return to Seats and do the small Flannelgraph boxes. The pictures in these this time are of Jesus as a baby, as a young boy and as a grown man. The kids will be able to put them on their flannel board in order. This would also be a good time to sing the new “Jesus Grew In Wisdom” song again.

As time permits, do the following:

Activities borrowed from my Baby Jesus box for the toddler class.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

The Life of Christ Lesson 4

Wednesday night we had a class of 4 kids, 3 adults. Now, that may seem like a lot of adults, but that class session I needed them both. One of the little girls is learning to come to class without her grandmother. Her grandmother has been my helper for the past 9 months. She was not too happy about coming. She cried and cried. Finally, she cried herself to sleep. I was very thankful for the helpers.

Tomorrow we talk about Jesus as a young boy. Most of the activities will be the same, but we’ll emphasize his experience in the temple when he was 12 years old.

My lesson plan is:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.

Introduction to Story: Snip’n’Tell star. The manger scene worked well Wednesday PM. Most of these Snip’n’Tells are about Christ’s birth. We’ll do the star one this time.

Boy Jesus Magnetic Puzzles

Boy Jesus Flip Chart

Sing: Jesus Grew In Wisdom

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Touch and Feel Book: We’ll do the 2nd page. It is a picture of a sheep. The kids will get to glue the cotton balls on the sheep. Then one of the helpers will the first page to the 2nd page.

Attendance Chart: They’ve put up Mary and Joseph. Tomorrow we’ll put the baby in the manger. After that, I’ll let them choose which animal they want to add. This will give any of them that missed one of the main characters a chance to put it on their attendance chart. I hate to send attendance charts home that don’t look finished.

Move to the floor.

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story.

Return to Seats and do the small Flannelgraph boxes. The pictures in these this time are of Jesus as a baby, as a young boy and as a grown man. The kids will be able to put them on their flannel board in order. This would also be a good time to sing the new “I’ll Grow Up Like Jesus” song again.

As time permits, do the following:

Activities borrowed from my Baby Jesus box for the toddler class.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

The Life of Christ Lesson 5

Sunday morning I taught solo. Both of my helpers were sick. The class went well, but I learned just how much I depend on my helpers. We got through about half of what we normally do. I definitely prefer having helpers that can spend individual time with the kids. I think they learn a lot more.

I had intended for our touch and feel book to be added to once a week. I think I’ll do it every class session until it’s done. We’ll do the star page tonight. It is just a black piece of paper that the kids will stick foil stars to. I purchased larger stars that each child will be able to glue one on their page.

My lesson plan is:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.

Introduction to Story: Snip’n’Tell shepherds. I think this is actually angels like paper dolls. I’ll get to class a little early and practice on it.

Jesus Loves The Children Magnetic Puzzles

Sing: Jesus Grew In Wisdom

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Touch and Feel Book: We’ll do the 3rd page. It emphasizes the star that was in the sky when Jesus was born.

Attendance Chart: I’ll let them choose what animals to add to their attendance chart from now on.

Move to the floor.

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story.

Return to Seats and do the small Flannelgraph boxes. The pictures in these this time are of Jesus as a baby, as a young boy and as a grown man. The kids will be able to put them on their flannel board in order. This would also be a good time to sing the new “Jesus Grew In Wisdom” song again.

As time permits, do the following:

Boy Jesus Flip Chart

Activities borrowed from my Baby Jesus box for the toddler class.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

The Life of Christ Lesson 6

We had a good class Wednesday PM. My little girl that has been upset about coming did great. We should finish up our touch and feel book tomorrow. I may keep them for one more class period, or maybe even until the end of the month. That way we can use them for review.

We’re going to emphasize Jesus Growing Up tomorrow. We have a Black Light story that tells the story really well. It emphasizes that fact that the Wise Men came and visited Jesus after He was a little older, not the night of His birth.

My lesson plan is:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.

Introduction to Story: Snip’n’Tell camels.

Boy Jesus Magnetic Puzzles

Sing: Jesus Grew In Wisdom

Boy Jesus Black Light Story

Touch and Feel Book: We’ll do the 4th page. It emphasizes the gifts the wise men brought to baby Jesus. The kids will get to decorate the gifts on the page with rhinestones and ribbon.

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Attendance Chart: I’ll let them choose what animals to add to their attendance chart from now on.

Move to the floor.

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story.

Return to Seats and do the small Flannelgraph boxes.

The pictures in these this time are of Jesus as a baby, as a young boy and as a grown man. The kids will be able to put them on their flannel board in order. This would also be a good time to sing the new “Jesus Grew In Wisdom” song again.

As time permits, do the following:

Boy Jesus Flip Chart

Activities borrowed from my Baby Jesus box for the toddler class.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

The Life of Christ Lesson 7

Tonight we will talk about the baptism of Jesus. We’ve mentioned at every class session so far, so it is not new to them. We will talk about how Jesus was doing this to fulfill prophecy. We’ll also talk about how God used a dove and said “This is My son in whom I am well pleased”.

We finished our touch and feel books Sunday AM. We’ll use them tonight and Sunday AM to review the lesson of baby Jesus.

My lesson plan is:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.

Jesus Grows Up Small Flannel Graph Boxes. There are 3 pictures of Jesus in each box. They are of Him as a baby, boy and man.

Sing: Jesus Grows Up — I finally put this online along with about 4 other songs. If you follow the link, you can see the words, sheet music and listen to me singing it. Sorry, I couldn’t find anyone else to do the singing.

Touch and Feel Book: Review the story of Jesus’ birth.

Boy Jesus Black Light Story

We’ll talk about baptism. I’ll give the kids a chance to “baptize” a plastic farmer in a container with water. This is a leftover activity from VBS that I used with the next class up. These littler guys will enjoy it.

Jesus is Baptized Magnetic Puzzles

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Attendance Chart: I’ll let them choose what animals to add to their attendance chart from now on.

Move to the floor.

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story.

As time permits, do the following:

Boy Jesus Flip Chart

Activities borrowed from my Baby Jesus box for the toddler class.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

End class with a prayer. Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

The Life of Christ Lesson 8

This is our last lesson on the life of Christ. We’ll focus on the parables of the miracles of Jesus over the next 2 months. Our lesson tomorrow will focus on Zacchaeus. It is a good lesson about how anyone can do good for Jesus no matter what their size or age. It is also a good lesson on seeking Jesus.

My lesson plan is:

Sing: Jesus Loves Me and The B-I-B-L-E with sign language.

Zacchaeus Magnet Puzzle

Touch and Feel Book: Review the story of Jesus’ birth.

Small Flannel graph boxes for review of Christ’s life.

Sing: Jesus Grows Up — I finally put this online along with about 4 other songs. If you follow the link, you can see the words, sheet music and listen to me singing it. Sorry, I couldn’t find anyone else to do the singing.

Boy Jesus Black Light Story

Introduce Zacchaeus with snip-n-tell Zacchaeus. This is really a cute one. While you’re telling the story, you’re cutting out a big tree. Then you cut a man out of the tree. I think they’ll probably all want one to take home with them.

Sing: Zacchaeus Was a Wee Little Man — I want to make sure the kids understand that Zacchaeus wasn’t 6″ tall. The song implies that he was incredibly small as do a lot of the pictures I found. He was just a short man that couldn’t see over the crowd.

Life of Christ Flip Chart

Attendance Chart: I’ll let them choose what animals to add to their attendance chart from now on.

As time permits, do the following: (these are all activities we’ve done over the month, but don’t necessarily have time to do each week)

Review the lesson with the Jesus Flannelgraph story.

We’ll talk about baptism. I’ll give the kids a chance to “baptize” a plastic farmer in a container with water. This is a leftover activity from VBS that I used with the next class up. These littler guys will enjoy it.

Boy Jesus Flip Chart

Activities borrowed from my Baby Jesus box for the toddler class.

Review previous lessons with the Song Timeline.

End class with a prayer. Let each child that wants to say a prayer.

Return to List of Lessons