Tomorrow starts a new quarter in our Bible classes.  I have been teaching a “Mommy and Me” class for the past 2 years.  I have loved every minute of it.  But I have been “promoted” to the elementary class.  I plan to teach an Old Testament survey with the goal of helping the students see the big picture of who God’s people were before jumping into a year long study of the New Testament in September.

Teaching the “Mommy and Me” class is challenging. Keeping the attention of babies requires lots of preparation before class and during class flexibility to meet the babies where they are at that day.  I taught one lesson for 4-6 weeks loosely based on To Toddlers With Love by Palma Smiley.  Teaching the elementary class still requires plenty of preparation but flexibility is not quite as important.  Having a lesson plan will help keep me on track to cover all the material necessary and keep the class moving at a comfortable pace. With that in mind, I will be posting my lesson plan here before each class.

I will be using Bob Waldron’s 17 Time Periods presenting one time period each Sunday.  Obviously I won’t be able to cover everything in each time period but just the main stories.  We will be using The Illustrated Bible Timeline from Shaping Hearts for God and Creation to Revelation visuals.

Now for tomorrow’s lesson plan:

Opening Activity:

I’m not sure how well these kids know their Old Testament so we are going to spend some time in their Bibles finding the different divisions.  Then we will sort the Old Testament scrolls into baskets.  I have different baskets since these were made but the scrolls are holding up amazingly well.

Review activity:

Since this is our first class our review activity will be reviewing the 5 Bible stories found in the Bible Story Bag.  Each students will reach inside the bag, pull out a small bag and tell what they know about that story.

Introduction to 17 time periods:

Discuss the plan that God had before the beginning.

Sing: God Had A Plan by Glenda Schales

Using the flip chart created from the Creation to Revelation digital files, introduce the 17 time periods with both words and hand motions and then adding the song.  (Song and hand motions will be shared later)

Before the Flood:

The students will get to help place the “Before the Flood” picture on the bulletin board.

Discuss the main events that happened before the flood: creation, Adam/Eve sin, Cain kills Abel.  I have the 17 Time Period Complete Cycle book to use as a visual when talking about the events in each time period.

Then the students will place the small pictures in the correct pocket on the bulletin board.  Each week we will add a picture and the events associated with that picture.

Singing hymns:

The last part of class will be spent singing hymns that go along with the lesson or that are just amazing for kids to know.  We will be using the hymnal for this.  Although our congregation does not use power point for hymns, I have noticed that children everywhere are not being required to participate in worship by singing.  Giving them the skills to find the hymn, follow along from verse to verse will help them be able to confidently worship God along with the adults.

Tomorrow’s hymn will be This Is My Father’s World

Worship Notes:

Before class is over, I will introduce the worship notes pages they will take with them and hopefully fill out during the worship service.  They will have a notebook to add their worship notes to that they will decorate with stickers tomorrow.

Worship Notes pdf

Well, that’s the plan.  We’ll see how it goes.

Diana