Up and Down Tower

For this fun lesson kids got into partners to create the tallest tower using gum drops and toothpicks. I set the timer for 10 minutes, and they begged and pleaded for more time! I read the story and asked questions aloud to reinforce understanding.

A fun alternative would be that group members are not allowed to speak to each other while building the tower. Talk about hard!

Our tallest tower ended up being 8.5 inches tall.

Two by Two

We started the lesson by taking a pop-quiz of "What Pair Do You Wear?" from The Young Learner's Bible Storybook.

1. When it's snowy outside, what pair do you wear on your feet?

2. When you want to protect your eyes from the sun, what pair do you wear on your nose?

3. Before you put on your shoes, what pair do you wear?

4. When you want to make a snowball, what pair do you wear on your hands?

5. When you walk on a hot, sunny beach, what pair do you wear on your feet?

After reading the story, I made copies of Noah's page from the Bible Doodle Book where students had to draw a second copy of each animal in the boat, and then add their own. All of the kids, up to 5th grade, really enjoyed this activity! 

The First Seven Days

For "The First Seven Days" we read the story of how God created our universe. I used The Young Learner's Bible Storybook to retell the story, but there are a lot of great choices. (Genesis 1:1-2:3).

The storybook suggests going on a number hunt and singing "He's God the Whole World in His Hands," but we didn't have time due to weather.

Here is the link to the free sequencing activity I created for my kids to cut and glue.

The Young Learner's Bible Storybook

One of my favorite Children's Bibles is The Young Learner's Bible Storybook by Dr. Mary Manz Simon. I've been using it since 2005 for lessons with young children. We are going through the Bible again this year, January-June focusing on the Old Testament and July-December the New Testament. I'm going to be using this early Bible as a guideline of which story to focus on each week, as I have a tendency to reteach personal favorites more often (and oddly enough I skip commonly-known ones, which really isn't great for kids who are enjoying their first taste of the Bible in my lessons! They need to know about Noah's ark, too!)