Baby Moses in the Basket

This week's lesson begins the saga of Moses. After reading the story of Baby Moses in The Young Learner's Bible Storybook we used the Baby Moses poem found at the end of the story to draw pictures to correspond with each phrase. You can find the activity sheet for free on my TpT Store.

Dream, Dream, What Does it Mean?

This week's lesson is from Genesis 40, 41 where Jospeh interprets dreams. After reading the story from The Young Learner's Bible Storybook kiddos will imagine something wonderful of their own. We'll discuss how everyone dreams but they're often confusing and it can be hard to tell what's real and what's not. We'll learn that only God understands everything, and whenever we have questions we can ask God to help us understand. I also included a fun puzzle/word search for students to complete. Answers are below! Here's the bundle to download pages 4-5.



1. daydreaming
2. sleep
3. nightmares
4. imagine
5. remember
6. beyond
7. king
8. Joseph

Ladder to Heaven

Our lesson this week is called "Ladder to Heaven," or "Jacob's Ladder."

The first time reading the story in The Young Learner's Bible Storybook we will stand up/crouch down each time the words "up" and "down" are used.

Then, we'll make a web on the board of where God was in Jacob's dream and story, and then we'll brainstorm where we know God is today.

I created an activity sheet you can find in my free OT bundle where my kiddos will draw or write place we know God is today. I suspect the list will include "my heart," "hospitals," "at home," "at church," "at school," etc.

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!)

Learning the Old Testament part 3

Each week I'm focusing on teaching the books of the Old Testament. In addition to practicing the song (see my blog "Learning the Old Testament part 1") and playing the game ("Learning the Old Testament part 2") I'm going to have the kids work in small groups to sort the books in each category of the Old Testament. By breaking down the parts into manageable chunks they will hopefully remember better. Here is a link to my free book sort. I'm going to do one category each week: law, history, poetry, major prophets, and then minor prophets, with a few weeks between to learn what those books are about. Here are a couple screenshots of what the cut-and-paste activities look like.

Learning the Old Testament part 2

As I begin my mission of teaching students the books of the Old Testament, we will start each week singing the OT Canon and end the lesson playing a game, called "I Have..., Who Has..."

To play, cut out the cards and pass out to kids. (If you have fewer kids than cards, give each child more than one.) Start with the beginning card, "Who has Genesis?" The person that has Genesis will read his card, "I have Genesis, who has Exodus?" and the game continues, with students taking turns reading the books in order. The game ends with "I have Malachi."

Download the game cards for free here

Here's an example of the pages. I recommend copying onto cardstock for durability.

Learning the Old Testament part 1

A goal I have in 2017 is to teach my church kids the books of the Bible. We're going to start out with the Old Testament, and then in July swap to the New Testament.

There are many versions of songs to teach the Old Testament books, but a favorite of mine is Rappin Rabbit's O.T. Canon. (Yes, it's incredibly lame and old and totally from my childhood!) I like it because in addition to learning the books in order, it also teaches categories. Here the Youtube video along with a copy of the lyrics. You can click on the image to save and print.

The O.T. Canon

The books of the Bible are split into two

testaments: the Old and New

In the OT there are 39 books

What are their names? Let’s take a look

The Book of the Law starts with Genesis

Exodus and Leviticus

Numbers and Deuteronomy

Next are the Books of History

Joshua, Judges, then you’ve got Ruth

First and Second Samuel, full of God’s truth

Next is the First and Second Kings

First and Second Chronicles telling ‘bout things

Ezra, Nehemiah come up next

Esther ends the Historical Text

Job is the first Book of Poetry

followed by Psalms and Proverbs, see

Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon

We’re over half way through all of ‘em!

Next are the prophets in the Major League,

Isaiah, Jeremiah, would you believe?

Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel all have tales to tell

The Minor Prophets are a little less famous

There’s Hosea, Joel, and Amos

Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, and Habakkuk

Funny name, huh?

Zephaniah and Haggai

Zechariah and Malachi

Check ‘em all out and see if you can

Start all over and say them again! 

September 6: God's Promise Remains

Last week the students destroyed their beautiful artwork to symbolize God destroying the temple Solomon built for Him before turning his heart away. We kept the pieces in a ziploc bag for today.

Read part 11 of The Big Picture Story Bible "God's Promise Remains."


Have multiple copies of enlarged cards for each character- Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel- and also a poster for each action- "raise the Temple and give the people new hearts," "a forever King would come from David's family," "the people would return home in 70 years," and "prayed for God's promise to come true."

Students will work in small groups to match each prophet with what they said. Then go over together.

After many years and God's people finally were able to come back to God's special place, they were very sorry for disobeying Him for so long. The city and the temple had been destroyed and they had to work hard at repairing their mess.

Hand out puzzle pieces from last week along with a slightly larger sheet of construction paper and glue. 

Just as God's people rebuilt Solomon's temple, you are going to rebuild your artwork today. It will take some hard work and a lot of time, but when you are done it will be cause for celebration!

After giving students time to work, have them review their final project. Does it look like it did before? How is it different? Is it better or worse? Why?

The pictures will look similar, but not identical, to their picture from last week. Students may note that their are missing pieces, open spaces, torn edges or rough spots. I had a quick mini-lesson about how this is similar to when we sin, also. Even though we say we're sorry and we try to fix our mistakes, we can't take away hurt or pain we've caused someone else. Saying hurtful things to someone can't be undone, just as the temple couldn't go back to it's original condition. Only God can fix what's been broken and make it like new, we can apologize for our mistakes and try to fix our problems, but our relationships with those we've hurt will never be "like new."

"The old men cried because they remembered Solomon's beautiful temple and knew that Israel could never completely rebuild God's place. They cried because they still longed for God's forever king to come."

August 30: Another Very Sad Day

Hand out temple pictures from last week (have copies of a fancy temple available for students who weren't here) and review the story of Solomon building a special temple to honor God. Review how God was keeping all of His promises to Abraham; He made him into a great nation, he gave Israel the land, and now He was bringing God's blessing to other people on the earth.

Unfortunately, though, this story doesn't have a happy ending. Read part 10 of The Big Picture Story Bible, "Another Very Sad Day."

Even though Solomon loved God, he wasn't happy with obeying Him. Just like many others we've learned about, Solomon wanted to be happy on earth, even if it meant not listening to God's word.

Hand out scissors. (At this point some of my older kids were getting a little antsy.)

God told Solomon that his kingdom would be torn apart because they didn't obey Him. (At this point, my kids who figured it out started shaking their heads and saying, "No!" "Don't make me do what we're about to do!")

Solomon worked very hard on his temple. But he turned away from God. God's people turned away from God. They disobeyed God's word and rejected God as their king. God no longer wanted a huge temple for people to worship at if they weren't worshipping Him.... so He had it destroyed.

Last week we made beautiful temples to remind us of the beautiful temple Solomon built to honor God. But because His people did not honor Him, it was destroyed. Using your scissors, cut up your temple and destroy the beautiful artwork you created last week. (At this point my kiddos are like "WHAT!!!! I WORKED SO HARD ON THIS!!!" One of my boys even refused to do it- He said he honored God all week long and didn't think his deserved to be destroyed!)

We put the pieces in a ziploc bag to save for another week.

Review with the kiddos why God's temple was destroyed. Be sure to go over each of these points:
-God will punish sin. He punished His people back then, and there are still consequences for sinful behaviors today.
-God's people need a Savior. We cannot save ourselves. We're too weak on our own and fall into the same trap as Solomon; we're selfish and don't want to live for God.
-Only God is the true God, idols are worthless. Just like King Ahab trying to make his fake god light a fire on an altar, when we put our faith into things of this world it's not going to work!
-God blesses those who follow His word. God answered Elijah's prayer, even though He was upset with the people as a whole. Sometimes it may seem easier to go along with what others are doing, even if it's wrong, but God knows! God knew exactly who was following Him and who was not.

August 23: God's Blessings Grow

Ask students to describe a really fancy house- keep notes on chart paper for reference. Encourage ideas of grandeur, shiny, gold-encrusted things; things they've seen on TV or movies but likely don't have at their houses.

Review with kiddos that God had promised Abraham three basic things: 1. His family would become a great nation 2. God would give them a special place to live and 3. God would make them a blessing to all the people on the earth.

A few weeks ago God began giving Abraham his great nation. Last week God gave them a special place to live. This week we're talking about how God continued to bless His people.

Read Part 9 of The Big Picture Story Bible "God's Blessings Grow." Discuss how King David {remind them of the kid-David we've talked about previously and explain this is him all grown up!} wanted to build God a special house, but God wanted David's son, Solomon, to build it instead.

Go back to your brainstorm list and explain that students will be drawing the temple Solomon built for God. Read over a few specifics and have kids discuss why he made it so fancy. Encourage students to take their time and use the whole sheet of paper to show details.

Make sure students put their names on their temples- we'll need them next week!

August 16: Going into God's Place

August 9: God's Great Sign

August 2: God's People Become Great

Last week we learned that Joseph, who was sold into slavery by his brothers, actually saved Abraham's entire family. Joseph was in charge of the food during a great famine, when there was no food available for those who hadn't saved up.

Joseph invited his brothers and their families to live with him in Egypt. Let's read what happens next.

Read part 6 of The Big Picture Story Bible about Jacob's family of 70 moving to Egypt, and how over the course of 400 years the Egyptians began hating them.

Why did the promised family go down to Egypt?

What does this story add to what we know about God's promise? (God had promised Abraham that his family would be God's People and they would live in God's place. God wants to bless all the people).

While part of the promise is being held up, that God's people keep growing bigger and bigger, they did not yet have their own land. They became slaves in Egypt and were forced to work for the evil Pharaoh.

How did God take care of His people? What job did He give Moses? Did the Pharaoh listen?

What did God do to make Pharaoh listen to His word?

We read today about 9 of the plagues God sent on the people of Egypt: God made the river turn to blood, the entire land swarmed with frogs, the dust turned into gnats, God made the houses full of flies, the animals of Egypt got sick and died, and the people got painful sores on their bodies. Then, God made hail fall from the sky, locusts covered the ground, and then darkness spread out over the land.

Students will make a booklet outlining the plagues, then predict what will finally happen to help His people escape.

Can you imagine watching those things happen!? Would you rather be an Egyptian, or one of God's people?

Many people respect Moses for listening to God. Sometimes God calls us to do things and we might feel nervous or afraid, but if we trust in Him like God's people trusted in Him back then, we can be sure everything will turn out favorably. God loves us and wants to bless us, just like He wanted to bless His people long ago. We are all God's people!

July 26: God's People Grow

After reviewing the last 4 weeks, read "part 5" of The Big Picture Story Bible. I started out by giving each child a coloring page of Joseph. I explained that the this story begins when his dad, Jacob, gave him a coat of many colors. I encouraged the kids to color the picture while I listed several reasons Joseph's brothers hated him, before beginning the story.

After reading, we discussed what happened.

What did Joseph's brothers do to him? Why? Was Joseph alone in Egypt? Who was with him?

How did God take care of Joseph? Why do you think God made Joseph a helper to the Egyptians?

When Joseph's brothers came for food, how did he respond?

What parts of God's promise to Abraham can we see in this story?

If Joseph had chosen to be spiteful to his brothers and turn away their request, God's promise to Abraham could have ended right there. He would've had his revenge on his brothers, but would have (unknowingly) lost God's blessing for the family to become great. God's people kept growing!

Do you think Egypt will be the promised land for Abraham's family?

July 19: God's Big Promise

We reviewed how so far God had created humans and they chose to disobey Him. Over time, people continued to disobey so He sent a great flood and save the only obedient family: Noah's. After some time, people began to disobey God again and He wanted to honor Abraham, who had chosen to obey Him when so many others chose not to. He had a big blessing promised for Abraham and his wife, Sarah. 

How many stars are there in the sky? After reading the story, we discussed that God told Abraham that he would have many descendants (kids, grandkids, great-grandkids, etc.) The kids estimated about how many descendants they thought he might have. Many thought that 2-3 kids, 5-10 grandkids, and about 20 great-grandkids would be adequate for God's blessing.

We discussed how God told Abraham to look at the stars in the sky- he would have as many relatives as there are stars! Most of the kids guessed 10-1,000,000 stars, so we created our own starry nights to see about how many stars there might be.

We did this by going outside and flicking white paint from dollar-store toothbrushes onto blue or black construction paper. The older kids had a blast using the toothbrushes for "play" instead of work (haha!) and although some of the little ones used it more as a paintbrush, everyone agreed their artwork looked like a night sky.

Then week came back inside and had snack as our paintings quickly dried. After eating, I asked the kiddos how many stars were in their skies. Many started (and tried miserably!) to count but everyone decided there were just too many to count.

And that's the whole point, I told them! God wanted to bless Abraham, just like he wants to give us blessings today. We are okay with little things in our lives, just like Abraham would be happy with an extended family of 50, but God wants SO MUCH MORE for us. If we love and obey God He wants to give us His blessings. They might not come in the way of money or fame, but He gives us mercy, grace, patience, love, the list goes on. And the more we honor God, the more He will bless us by giving us the things we really need while we're on this earth.

July 12: Life Outside the Garden

I promised the kiddos time outside on our recently refurbished playground, so we simply read the story, answered questions, and had rice-krispie treats outside today!

July 5: A Very Sad Day

Last week we talked about how God created everything. He spoke the words and the heavens and earth were created. He spoke the words and the sun and the moon appeared. He spoke the words and made every thing come alive- even us! Last week we learned that God created Adam and Eve in His image. He created you and I in His image, too!

God put Adam and Eve in a place called the Garden of Eden. Some people think that its where the Middle East is, now. It was not a desert then, though, it was the most wonderful place on earth! God told Adam and Eve that they were in charge of all of the plants and animals- they got to pick out names for them, and everyone there lived peacefully. There was a big tree that God put in the center of the garden. Their only rule was that they could not eat the fruit from that tree. As long as they obeyed God's rule, then they were in charge of everything. 

{Read the story from The Big Picture Story Bible.}

Some people say, "Oh, I would never have eaten the fruit from the tree!" but honestly, we likely would. Have any of you ever done something you shouldn't have? Our hearts want to follow God's rules, but sometimes we still mess up and sin. Even though we know something is wrong, we choose to do it anyway.

God does not want us to live like that. He wants us to obey Him. God had to punish Adam and Eve so they would learn an important lesson about obedience. Sometimes our parents punish us to teach us to follow the rules too!

{I also showed "Creation" from The Beginner's Bible: Volume 2 DVD that I picked up at Sam's Club this week. It has the story of Creation through the Fall. It was a little long, but all 23 kids ages 3-12 sat in their seats and watched the whole thing!}

While the kids were watching the dvd, they colored an important reminder to take home with them.

June 28: Begin Old Testament "The Very Good Beginning"

June 28: Begin Old Testament "The Very Good Beginning"

Have several different Bibles sitting around the room and ask kids to take a look at them. How are they similar? Different? Do they have the same words? Do they look friendly to kids? Pull out the Big Picture Story Bible.

We're going to start way back at the beginning of time to see how the Bible comes together to tell the story of God's love. Even though grownup bibles are much bigger, this bible will help us understand the big picture- or what the Bible is truly about.

We're going to start today with the very first story in the Bible. No matter which of these books you go to, it's going to be at the very beginning. In fact, we can call this lesson "The Very Good Beginning." Bibles label the first stories into a book called Genesis. This story comes from the book of Genesis.

p16-19 Wow- that's pretty amazing. God made everything simply by speaking words.

p20-24 So people were made in the image of God.  p25-31

Look at the picture on page 32. Adam and Eve look really happy. They were in the Garden of Eden and everything was perfect.

p33-35 God gave the people His good words to obey. What would happen if Adam and Eve disobeyed God's words? What special instructions did God give to Adam and Eve? (Do not eat from the special tree)

Today we're going to make a marble earth picture to remind us that God created the whole world. He simply spoke the words and it was created. We were created, too, in the image of God. In the beginning, Adam and Eve lived in God's place, the Garden of Eden. They ruled God's world because they obeyed His good word.

Hand out circle cut from white construction paper or cardstock. On small trays (the circle can fit into), spray a bit of shaving foam for each child. Add a few drops of blue and green acrylic paint or food coloring. Using toothpicks, allow students to marbleize the foam. Carefully set the circle onto the foam and pull back up. Wipe the foam away and a beautiful earth design will remain. While drying, have students glue small phrase on the bottom of a piece of black construction paper. (add yellow dots for stars if you wish!) Then, kids can glue their earth into their solar system. The phrase should say "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He created Adam and Even in His image. We are special to God because we are made in His image, too!"

Marbleized Earth Project directions

Tony Kummer's Ministry to Children lesson

P.S.- My kiddos are using an earth pattern from Creative Clips to marbleize, then will be gluing them on a sheet like this (minus the earth) created using Creative Clips and KB Fonts.