I have found that when I do not write things down I forget them. I recently taught about God’s Prophets from the New Living Bible Lessons series. The quarter was interesting to teach. Each lesson not only covered a prophet (sometimes several) but also brought in a New Testament teaching that went along with the prophet’s teachings.

I did not write out lesson plans. I really need to do this. My classes are always more organized and productive when I follow a lesson plan.

If I had written lesson plans, I would not need to write this post. I know that some day I’m going to come back to these lessons and, if I’m using a different curriculum, will wonder why, for instance, Peter and Cornelius were taught while studying Ezekiel. I’m going to give a summary of the lessons and links to the activities we used during that lesson.

Following my own advice in The Big Picture, I read through the curriculum for that quarter completely. Well…maybe not every word but I did a fairly thorough read through and got the main idea. I went back through it and took notes of some activities I thought might work for each lesson, noted the vocabulary words and prophets being discussed for each lesson and noted songs or hymns that would be good to use for each lesson. This wasn’t done in any formal way at all. In fact, you probably wouldn’t be able to understand the notes I took. In a few years when I get the chance to teach it again, I probably wouldn’t understand them either. That’s why I’m writing this.

On the back page of the teacher’s manual, I sketched pictures of the bulletin boards and project folder as I thought they might look. These were just sketches, nothing fancy. The bulletin boards I ended up with can be found here: Bulletin Boards. The project folder can be found here: Project Folder. the songs can be found in the song book and the memory work can be found here: Isaiah 53:2-9

You may notice that the bulletin board lists Daniel but the Meet the Prophet activity in the project folder does not. Daniel was not covered during this quarter. He gets most of the attention during the next quarter.

Now we’ll go lesson by lesson. Four of the lessons did not have individual activities devoted to them. This was either because I was out of town that week or I couldn’t come up with anything. Plus, there was only so much room in the project folder.

Lesson 1

Meet the Prophet — Isaiah (Messianic Prophet)
Vocabulary — Prophet, Messianic
Song — He Carried My Sorrows by Glenda Schales
Activity — Introduce Project Folder
Memory Work — “For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground…”

Lesson 2

Meet the Prophet — Isaiah
Vocabulary — sin, forgiveness
Songs — Steps to Salvation, Though Your Sins Be As Scarlet by Fanny Crosby and Wm H Doane
Activity — Salvation
Memory Work — “…he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.”

Lesson 3

Meet the Prophet — Isaiah
Vocabulary — prophesy, savior
Songs — Jesus, Name Above All Names by Naida Hearn, Tell Me The Story of Jesus by Fanny Crosby and John Sweeney
Activity — Jesus, Name Above All Names and corresponding bulletin board activity
Memory Work — “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief…”

Lesson 4

Meet the Prophet — Isaiah
Vocabulary — baptism
Song — Hallelujah! What a Savior by PP Bliss
Activity — God’s House Then and Now
Memory Work — “…and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Lesson 5

Meet the Prophet — Jeremiah (Weeping Prophet)
Vocabulary — lamentations, scroll
Song
Activity
Memory Work — “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Lesson 6

Meet the Prophet — Jeremiah
Vocabulary — confess
Song — Standing on the Promises by R Kelso Carter
Activity — Old Law / New Law
Memory Work — “But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities…”

Lesson 7

Meet the Prophet — Ezekiel
Vocabulary — vision, repent, prodigal
Songs — God Will Take Care Of You by Civilia Martin and WS Martin, Parables of Jesus
Activity — Happy Are The People
Memory Work — “…upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.”

Lesson 8

Meet the Prophet — Ezekiel
Vocabulary — believe
Song — Give Me The Bible by Priscilla J Owens and ES Lorenz
Activity — Peter and Cornelius
Memory Work — “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned — every one — to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Lesson 9

Meet the Prophet — Hosea
Vocabulary — blessing
Song — O How I Love Jesus by F Whitfield
Activity — Physical and Spiritual Blessings
Memory Work — “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth…”

Lesson 10

Meet the Prophet — Joel, Amos
Vocabulary — locust, drought, abhor, cleave
Song
Activity
Memory Work — “…like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth”.

Lesson 11

Meet the Prophet — Jonah, Nahum
Vocabulary
Songs — Trust Obey by John H Sammis and Daniel B Towner, Jonah
Activity
Memory Work — “By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation…”

Lesson 12

Meet the Prophet — Obadiah, Micah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Haggai
Vocabulary
Song
Activity — Seek Ye First
Memory Work — “…who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?”

Lesson 13

Meet the Prophet — Zechariah, Malachi
Vocabulary
Song
Activity — Parable of the Tenants
Memory Work — “And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.”