Gideon A Judge of Israel

We are continuing our lessons on the Judges.  This week's lesson is about Gideon.  Gideon was a humble Judge with a great amount of Faith.  He did as God commanded and had victory over the Midianites.  

God told Gideon how to win the battle against the Midianites and Gideon did just as he was told.  300 men and Gideon went into battle with pitchers, torches and horns.  They were victorious!  

Our "Take Home" activity is a Torch.  It is made from a paper towel tube, paper (wrapped around the tube), and tissue paper.  The kiddos will color the paper that wraps around the paper towel tube and then we will assemble them with a bit of glue and tape in class. 

Our memory verse this week is Judges 7:8...We will sing it to the tune "The Law of the Lord."   I know the kiddos will have it memorized before leaving class on Sunday.  That makes it easy for their parent to help them review the verse with them, so they will be ready for Wednesday.

Our Review game for this week is based off the fact that Gideon and his arm carried torches.  So, the kiddos will attach flames to the top of the torches if they answer a question from the story correctly.  There is velcro dots on the board and on the back of the flames so  it is easy for them to attach the flame to the torch.

On Wednesday Evening the kiddos will be coloring a picture of Gideon.  They will then get to add a 3D trumpet and a torch to Gideon's hands.  I have cut slots in his hand so that the torch can be easily slid into his hand.    The horn has two foamy dots on the back of it so that it is "3D" and puffs off the page.

Hope you enjoy teaching Bible class.

Blessings,

Ronda

Wednesday's Explorer Journal Activity for Rahab

This Wednesday the children will be doing the review of the lesson on Rahab and they will do the activity for the Explorer Journal. We had a wonderful class period on Sunday. We had all my students there plus a visitor. I am glad the are all healthy. Hopefully, with the end of winter approaching the children will all stay well.

The kiddos were really into the lesson...I think they love the idea of being a spy! :-) They seem to really get into the fact that the Canaanites feared the Israelites!! They understand with God on our side we will always WIN!!!

The Explorer Journal Activity is a house with a flip top roof....under the roof is the spies....they will add the "flax" to hide the spies. I know they will LOVE this activity.










The kiddos will also be adding a piece to their Memory Verse Map. I know they will all have it memorized by Wednesday.







They loved the "Spies Escape" game... So, they will play it again. They will answer questions from the lesson in order to get to move the spies down the wall.

Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Blessings,

Ronda

Wednesday's Explorer Journal Activity Balaam and the Talking Donkey

Our Wednesday night review is taught by another teacher...I am currently teaching a YOUNG LADIES Bible Class on Wednesday Nights. However, I want to keep you updated on what we do in our Wednesday Night Review Nights.


This past Wednesday night the teacher reviewed the story of Balaam and the Talking Donkey. Again, the children LOVED this story. My co-teacher uses all the same visuals, games, etc. as I do on Sunday Morning.

However, on Wednesday Evening the activity the children make is kept in the classroom, in a book we call their Explorer Journal. This has been a great way to preserve all the kiddos HARD WORK...I BELIEVE THEY WORK VERY HARD IN CLASS!! The parents get to take home the Explorer Journal at the end of a quarter. The parents have been thrilled with these JOURNALS. It is wonderful to go back an look through them and see what all the children have learned.



Well this past Wednesday's Explorer Journal activity was a "moving" picture of Balaam and the Talking Donkey. The Donkey can move towards the angel. I decided to do this by using yarn and a straw...kids colored their donkey, Balaam, angel, and background. The yarn and straw were already attatched to the paper...they just colored around it. After gluing on the angel they TAPED the straw to the back of the DONKEY and walla, a movable, walking, "talking" donkey.






This takes a little more time than most of our activities, but the end product is great...they loved moving their donkey along the road.






They all said their MEMORY VERSE and placed a sticker on the Explorer Journal Backpack. (I will take/post a picture of their "Backpacks" soon.

They also had just a few minutes to play the "PIN THE MOUTH ON THE DONKEY" game. We may have to play that game again on review SUNDAYS.

Blessings,

Ronda

Balaam and the Talking Donkey

This is our LAST lesson in the second book of my Exploring Bible History Curriculum.

The children have really enjoyed these lessons...and we will shortly be going on into book THREE...however we have a few weeks of REVIEWING FUN COMING UP FIRST. I will post about our review days.


This lesson was about Balaam and the Talking Donkey. The Children LOVED!!! this lesson. It is amazing how excited they get over the Donkey Talking. The focus of the lesson, of course, was we MUST LISTEN TO GOD!!! Because, I do NOT have a talking Donkey....I ended up using a donkey that I had found at Micheal's Craft store for $1.00. I LOVE this sturdy little donkey. To make a Balaam, I cut one of my makingfriends.com Bible Friends, that I had made and laminated years ago, to fit on the donkey. I think it turned out cute.




For the kiddos "Take Home" activity, we made a Paper Bag Donkey Puppet....I loved hearing them sing "Balaam Rode a Donkey" with the Donkey Puppet on their hands. They are soooo cute!!! I had planned on adding YARN hair to the donkey, but do to the snow and ice we were having I was unable to make it to the craft store. The kids were OK without the yarn...however, I think it would have made them a little cuter.

Again, due to the weather...I had to take home the supplies to make the puppets (remember I think crafts should NOT take up too much time in Bible Class...So, I do 90% of the work before class.) Here they are drying on my kitchen table. :-)

Our Memory Verse was a good verse to help remind us to LISTEN TO GOD! We sang the Memory Verse to the tune: "Ten Little Indians."










Our review game was soooo much fun. We played 'PIN the MOUTH ON BALAAM"S DONKEY." Some of the kids did not want to wear the mask...however, most of them LOVED wearing the mask. For a turn they had to answer a question about today's story.




I will post about Wednesday Nights Activities Shortly.

Blessings,

Ronda

On Wednesday night, the children had a new teacher. She will still be teaching my materials. She will be reviewing the story we learned on Sunday with them and doing their Explorer Journal Activity.

This weeks Explorer Journal Activity is a Golden Calf Picture, The children colored the altar gold, using a gold paint pen, add a golden calf that had been pre-painted, and then added three things that might be idols in our lives.


The children enjoyed coloring with the paint pens.
They enjoyed gluing on the little golden calf and the 3 other "idols."

It is nice to have someone teaching for me on Wednesday Evenings, but, don't think I have given up teaching on Wednesday Nights. :-) The elders asked me to teach a class for young teen girls. I am excited about this class too, so I may do a bit of bloggin about that class as
well.

Blessings

Ronda

The Golden Calf

The lesson about the Golden Calf was a hit with the kids. We learned how the Hebrews were impatient people and decided they wanted a god. Aaron made them a golden calf and they began to worship it. We talked about how having idols in our life is NEVER pleasing to God.




For the Sunday's Take Home Activity, the children made a "Golden Calf" Pop Up. The little calf was a wooden calf that we painted gold. The children colored a "Mount Sinai" in the background and added a cotton cloud to the top.







For a Visual Aide, I used the Mount Sinai diorama that I had made years ago. The paper dolls can be printed from makingfriends.com. I added a "golden calf" (a toy cow that I painted gold) placed upon a set of blocks that are painted gold with the word calf on them, for an altar.






The Memory Verse for this lesson is Psalms 97:7...we sang it to the tune "auld lang syne."









Our Review Game was this NO, NO IDOL! game. The children answered questions from the lesson and then pulled down a piece of the idol. The idol was velcroed to the poster board. The children LOVED pulling down this "idol."


My desire if that the children learn the stories and begin to apply some of what they learned. We talked about how anything that takes us away from God is an idol.


Blessings,

Ronda

The Ten Commandments

We have been studying the story of the 10 Commandments for the last two weeks. There is soooo much information on the Mount Sinai story that I decided we needed to take it a bit slower. So, here is some of what I did with the children during this study.

We focused on the fact that the Hebrews were told to move and camp at the basin of Mount Sinai. We talked about how they were to prepare for something AWESOME. We talked about Moses going up the Mount...and how the Hebrews were NOT supposed to come near or touch Mount Sinai.

We then focused on what was happening to Mount Sinai. The rumbling thunderous sounds and the lightning. We talked about the cloud being on top of Mount Sinai and God speaking to Moses. I taught the children about the 10 Commandments. How, they were written on stone. We then spent most of the class time talking about each commandment and it's meaning for the Hebrews. We talked about how if we love God we will keep all of HIS commands today.
Jn, 14:15

We also covered the fact that Moses was up on the Mount for 40 days, (However, I did not go into the golden calf story....that is for next Sunday.) I did explain that God gave Moses more that just the 10 Commandments. HE gave Moses the instructions for the Hebrews daily life and the instructions for the tabernacle.

The children enjoyed this lesson very much.

As their "Take Home" activity we made a "Mount Sinai." It is made out of paper...folded into a triangle box. We added stickers (I made them from my computer and sticker maker machine.) of Moses, #10, 40 days, and Clouds and lightning, The children had to tell me what each sticker had to do with the story. We also glued a cloud (cotton) on the top of Mount Sinai,



As a visual aid I used the "Stone" tablets seen above. I had made these several years ago and they are still a wonder visual. I also, use a Mount Sinai, diorama that I made several years ago, The paper dolls are from www.makingfriends.com. I printed and laminated them a long time ago. I reuse them when ever I need to tell the story of Mount Sinai. The children LOVED this interactive visual.







The Memory Verse for the week was John 14:15










The review game was a Match the Picture represetation to the correct commandment. This was a bit of a challenge....but, they enjoyed it.







These numbers each represent a commandment. The children really enjoyed these VISUALS. They seemed to help the kiddos remember the commandments a bit easier.

The Red Sea Story

I will be a the first to admit that this has been a busy week. We have had appointments, Bible classes, school conferences, and so much more going on this week. That made for an extremely busy week. So, I had to make my time management a MUST!

This Sunday and next we will be leaning about the RED SEA story. I am soo excited about this story. I love how God manifests HIS AWESOME power to the Hebrews and the Egyptians. God will fight the battle if we let HIM. We must have faith.

Our "Take Home" activity is a Red Sea Diorama type Activity. It is easily constructed out of sandpaper, foam core board, and card stock. There is very little expense to this activity, yet it packs a big punch in the ability to learn the story. I know the children will love that they get to have their OWN "RED SEA" to take home with them. During class they will have to color the Hebrews, fish and crab...then glue them on their 'RED SEA." Since time is an issue, I pre-made the "RED SEAS" for each student.







Our memory verse this week is from Hebrews 11. It is a simple verse and I came up with a song to help ease the memorization of the verse.






Our REVIEW activity is a Balloon Made RED SEA. The children will move a balloon (pretending to be Moses.) by answering a question from the story. After all the balloon have been moved and the "Dry Land" is visible we will all walk through our version of the "RED SEA." I am looking forward to seeing their excitement about this lesson.






Blessings,

Ronda

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