The Passover story will NOT be Passed Over by this Preschool Class.

I will be the first to admit that the Passover story is not an easy story to teach to Preschoolers, There is death, sacrifices, blood, darkness, etc. It kind of makes this a hard story to teach.

Yet, if you look at the story you see how much GOD loves HIS people. You see how important the story of Passover is when studying and learning about the death of Jesus...our PASSOVER LAMB.

I will admit the TYPE/ANTI TYPE story is extremely deep for the children.....so, my focus will be on the History of the Hebrews Obedience, Protection, and Deliverance. We will learn how they DID ALL that God commanded and were saved! This is still the commandment today. " “If you love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15

Our activity for today is a "Hebrew's Door." The door (made of cardstock) will be colored by the children. They will glue on buttons for a door handle. They will then color the "inside of the door." Because, inside is "Hebrews" enjoying their Passover feast. They will add stickers for the lamb and bitter herbs. They will glue on unleavened bread. Then they will get to PAINT the "blood" (red paint) on the door post and lintel. The kiddos will love the painting part of the activity. Every Preschooler I know LOVES to paint.

They will have a new Memory Verse this week. We will say it several times and SING it several times before class period is over. Their new Memory Verse is Exodus 12:13.

We will also "PLAY" "Scrambled Plagues."
I have places an Ordinal Number of each plague and a picture of Moses and Pharaoh in each plastic egg. The children will answer questions and then get to pick an egg. They will open the egg....and then place the egg in the correct numberd spot in the egg carton. I know the children will LOVE this game.....and there was NO real expense to it. The eggs were leftovers from Easter. I had the egg carton in the fridge. I printed the pictures on my printer....and lamintaed them for stability and longevity. Cheap, Easy and Useful....my type of DO IT YOURSELF project.

Blessings,

Ronda

Working on Ideas that do NOT go along with my current topic.,

I love to work on Bible Materials. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to impress the Word of God upon the hearts and minds of children.

I write Bible songs, write materials, work on review games, work on visuals, and bulletin boards ideas all the time. I keep a notebook on me at all times. I am constantly sketching out ideas and plans. I may be teaching through the book of Exodus at the current time...but, I am always thinking about other Bible stories and facts. This helps keep the creative juices flowing.

I had these pieces of packing material in my "Treasure Closet." I knew I was going to make a Bible City or Tower out of them. I had saved them to show them at a Workshop that I was teaching, so I had not done anything productive with them.

The other day, I had a spare 10 minutes and decided to put them to uses. I went ahead and glued them together for the beginning stages of a Tower of Babel or Bible Time Temple. I have not decided completely yet. I know I have the stories of the building of the Temple coming in the future....So I am leaning towards them becoming a Temple. However, in the current state...they would make a great Tower of Babel....Just a little detailing needed.

This was a free VISUAL to make....The materials came in a box as packing materials. Normally, you would probably throw the packing materials away....but, think before you pitch it in the trash. Ask yourself, "Could this work for a visual aid, activity, review game, etc?"

If you are always thinking about Bible Stories it will help you come up with ideas to teach the stories.

Wednesday's Explorer Journal Activity....

As you know Wednesday Evening is time for reviewing what the children learned on Sunday Morning.

On Wednesday Evening, we do our Explorer Journal Activity. The Explorer Journal Activity this week is the 10 Plagues. The children will be coloring, gluing and sticking 3D items to the "Plagues Pyramid."

This activity will then be placed in their Explorer Journal....they take home their Explorer Journal the very last day of class. That way ALL their Wednesday Evening Activities are collected and compiled into one book. The parents LOVE this way of keeping up with their activities...and the kids love looking back at ALL they have learned. I find this to be a wonderful addition to my teaching plans.....no longer are activities lost, left in the church building, thrown in the floor board of the car, etc. Now they are collected into one binder for the children.

On Wednesday Evening the Children will be helping me put the plagues in chronological order. We will be using these NUMBER PLAGUES....I will have them all mixed up on the table and then by answering a question from the lesson they will get to move one Plague card around and help to get them in correct order. Since most of my students are able to recognize their numbers this should be a simple, yet challenging review game. I am looking forward to Wednesday Evening....the children were so excited about this lesson on Sunday and I know they will be excited about reviewing what they have learned. This is their opportunity to tell me the story and my opportunity to correct any misunderstandings. I LOVE REVIEW NIGHTS!!!!


Being a Bible Class Teacher is a Blessing. Put your whole heart into teaching young ones the Bible and you will reap an amazing reward.

Ronda

Sunday is a Coming.....and I can hardly wait!!!

Sunday is coming and I am so excited about this lesson on the plagues. I have my room ready and have made a few more items for the purpose of teaching this lesson.

I used clipart from phillipmartin.com to make a standing Pharaoh and Moses. I printed them, laminated them, and attatched them to toliet paper tubes. This will allow them to stand freely as I tell the story. I will be bringing in a glass bowl, filled with water and a vial of red food coloring. My plan is to drop the red food coloring in the water as I tell that part of the story. I will have my 3D Moses sort of "strike" the water as I drop the red food coloring into the bowl.

We will also be playing a Plague review game. It is a Pyramid shaped bean bag toss game. I will be having the students answer a question from the lesson. Then they will have the opportunity to toss the bean bag onto the Plague Pyramid. They will then have to tell me which plague they landed on an one "NUMBER Sequence" the plague is. I know they will love this...anytime they get to toss beanbags they get excited.

I decided to place frogs all over the room. That way when the kiddos walk into class they will know something exciting is about to take place. I always am looking for ways to peak their interst from the minute they walk into the door.

Hope the pictures are helpful. Hope you are enjoying teaching Bible class. Hope you will return to this website in the future.

Ronda

Working on the 10 Plagues

To day has been an extremely busy day. I have been working on the lesson about the 10 Plagues that I will be teaching on Sunday. I am so excited about this lesson (I seem to be that way with each lesson.) and I know the children will find it exciting too.

We are going to point out the need to NEVER HARDEN OUR HEARTS TOWARDS GOD. The kiddos will be learning all 10 Plagues. They will be learning how stubbornness towards God is NEVER a good choice to make.

Their TAKE HOME ACTIVITY this week is an Egyptian Pyramid with Plagues included. The Painting of the Pyramids has been done for them.....Now they will have to attach the Plagues to the Pyramids....I am using velcro dots for this. That way they can take the Plagues off the outside of the Pyramid and store them on the inside. We will sing the song a few times...and add the correct Plague to the Pyramid as we sing about that Plague.

*This TAKE HOME ACTIVITY was made using a pattern of a Kleneex box. I had bought a few at Target during the spring. When I could not find any more to purchase, I diassembled one and used it as a pattern to make the Pyramids. I made the Pyramids out of Poster Board. I then painted the Pyramids with Terra Cotta colored paint. 3 coats....The PLAGUES are added with velcro dots. That way the PLAGUES can be stored inside the Pyramid. The 3D Plagues (locust, hail, cows, frogs, flies, etc.) were items purchased at the Dollar Tree, hobby stores, party store, and such. For some of the plagues I printed out pictures and laminated them for sturdiness. This is a fairly easy project to make. Tracing, cutting, assembling and painting the Pyramid was the most time consuming, But, once you get the first one done it seems to become easier. START EARLY. This is NOT a SATURDAY night before class type project.

I want my students to realize that God ALL POWERFUL....I want them to learn that no matter your station in life God's Word is ALL Authority. I am looking foward to this next Sunday.


Enjoying Being a Bible Class Teacher,

Ronda

It's OK to change your mind sometimes.

I was struggling this past few days with the activities for the lesson on Moses and Aaron appeal to Pharaoh. The activities I had come up with were just to similar to one another. So, I began thinking and praying. I NEVER want my kids to be BORED in class.

So, on Saturday it finally hit me. I decided the kiddos could make a "SERPENT." I began running ideas through my mind. I knew I had paper, foam, eyes, glue, etc. on hand. So, I began designing. I thought about using Circle shapes. (Decided they would look like worms.) Thought about Ovals. Thought they looked a bit like caterpillars. Tried the diamond shape and LOVED it.

This serpent was super easy to design. I made the diamond shape on my publishing program. I typed the verse on the diamonds. Printed and copied on card stock. Then colored, glued on a tongue that I had cut from red foam sheet. Added googly eyes...made the eyes stickers and pop up by attaching them to double sided (sticky) foam dots. Then attached all the diamonds with brads.

I think the kids will love this activity.

So, now I will use the activity I had planned to use this Sunday for their Explorer Journal Activity on Wednesday.

Happy Teaching.

Getting Ready for Sunday-- I know it is only Thursday.

Today I have spent several hours copying, cutting, gluing, making, coloring, laminating, etc. I am in full go for this next Sunday's Bible Class. We will be learning about Moses and Aaron speaking to Pharaoh.

I struggled a bit with this lesson....only in the fact that I can in NO way turn a rod into a snake. God's power is truly AMAZING!!! So, I came up with the idea of a type of "flip a flap" activity. The idea being on one side of the flap is a rod...the children lift the flap and there would be a snake. I will be letting the children "pick" their snake of choice out of several I bought at the local Dollar Tree. (One of my favorite places to shop for Bible Class.) They will glue the snake on under the flap...that way they can use the picture as a way of retelling the story to their Mom and Dad.

We will also be playing a review game called "Rods and Snakes." I made this to resemble the game "Chutes and Ladders." The children will answer questions and move "Aaron" the number of spaces the question card tell them to move him. If they land on a snake head....down they will slide....if they land on a rod bottom....then UP they will glide. I play all my review games in such a way as to have the entire class be the winner. Competition (only have 1 winner) is not a good idea with young ones. I have learned that if the entire class wins (together) we do not have any unhappy/crying young ones.

It may only be Thursday...but, I am 90% ready for Sunday. I have a few things left to finish up....I need to add the cards to my Who? What? When? Where? Where? Why? and How? Wall. I need to make sure the Take Home Activity Table is ready with crayons and glue.

However, now I can spend time in review the lesson....praying that I can teach the children, in such a way as they understand God's Awesome Power....Focus on what and how I am going to tell them the lesson....and sing the songs that go with this lesson several times, before Sunday morning.

Spending time preparing makes for a more comfortable teaching experience...both for the teacher and the students. RLD

Today Was a Day of Rejoicing for this Bible Class Teacher.

Today was a good day....I was so excited as I printed the last page of Book 2 of my Exploring Bible History Curriculum. I truly enjoyed laminating the visuals, the Who? What? When? Where? and Why? cards, the final review game, etc.

Book 2 starts with the birth of Moses and ends with Balaam and the talking Donkey. I am currently teaching this Book in my class. We are on lesson 2 out of 13. So, I have been writing, planning, laminating, cutting, drawing, etc. like crazy for the past few weeks. I normally like to be completely done writing a quarters material before I begin to teach that material. But, life sometimes throws you a bit behind in your plans. After all, I still have 4 kids at home, a husband, a dog, a new grandbaby, a house to clean...that call for my well needed and deserved attention.

Book 3 will pick up with Moses, just prior to his death, and Joshua. We will focus on Joshua being the new leader of the Hebrews, the conquering of the land and the Judges. As I "celebrate" the finishing of one task, I am always looking forward, contemplating and praying about what I will be writing on next.

I have benefitted so much through the writing of this material thus far. I am so excited when the children easily recall a story we had learned in the past. It is so encouraging to me to see the children learning so much. I pray they will all take what they have learned and grow up to serve the Lord with all their being.

Teaching Bible Class is a Blessing....To the Children and To YOU!!!!!

Encouraging you to teach.

I want to make a plea to all of the women who have thought about teaching a Bible class, but don't.
Teaching Bible class is truly a blessing to you as a teacher. You learn so much while prepping for class. The study time you put in will not only benefit your students but, will also benefit YOU! And the pure love that children have for God, Jesus, the Bible, God's Creation, etc. will touch your life forever.
I have been brought to tears by a child's prayer. I have been caused to smile brightly, because of a child's "light-bulb" moment. I have been encouraged to study more to be better informed and ready to answer my students questions.
But, one of the biggest blessing that comes through being a Bible class teacher is felt the day one of your students commits their life to Christ. The day you see a young person, that you have taught as a child, stand before the congregation and make their confession of belief in Christ and then follow that confession by obedience to God through Baptism is a day of great rejoicing. You will be so humbled and grateful that you had the opportunity to be one of His/Her Bible class teachers.
Children need good Bible class teachers. Children need dedicated Bible class teachers. Children need encouraging Bible class teachers. Children need YOU to be the best Bible Class Teacher You Can Be. Do your part of teaching God's Word....Teach a Child's Bible Class.

Slower Week...Wednesday Night Singing Night.

Due to our 5th Wednesday Night singing we did NOT have classes this past Wednesday. Due to that my students will be reviewing the lesson from Sunday a week ago. This worked out to be a blessing...I had soo many students out sick this past Sunday (including my own son). So I am thankful that we will be "reviewing."

The children will be making their Wednesday Night activity for their Explorer Journal. If I have visitors (which I should because of our Gospel Meeting.) I will just allow them to take home their Explorer Journal Activity.

Hope all are doing well...we are battling the typical rounds of illnesses that children face this time every year. We pray for health, well being, strength, and patience.

God Bless.