September 20: God's Promised One is Born

Last week the kids played a game to learn about the purpose of the census and why Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem. This week is the actual "Christmas Story" of Christ's birth, but since it's only September I desperately wracked my brain trying to think of what would bring everything we've learned up to the point where we FINALLY learn who God's Forever King is.

I decided to focus on the genealogy of Jesus. BORING! You say. TOO HARD! You agree with yourself. THERE IS NO WAY TO TEACH KIDS THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS! You scream in your head.

Wrong.

That's what I thought, too, until I figured out a way to do it. And I was blown away by the awesomeness my kiddos remembered from the last 3 months as we went over it. It was a PERFECT review! (Not many lessons make me as pleased as this one did).

Basically, we reviewed last week and read the story this week from The Big Picture Study Bible. We talked a little about Mary and Joseph, and then I mentioned that all of the stories we learned from the Old Testament have led up to this moment, and I gave them this paper I created:

I gave them a minute or so to read over it and asked if they recognized any of the names. Surprising themselves, they did. I explained that this was a list from the first man, Adam, to Jesus, following through dads {except in one or two cases where there were no males and it used the female that married back into her own tribe. I also mentioned also that this is Joseph's genealogy, but Mary's is available, too. Since we talked about Jesus being born in Bethlehem because of his dad-Joseph, I decided to take the "legal" way.}

Then I gave each student a highlighter and we reviewed, beginning with Adam, all of the names that we read about. As we read, we discussed that character and what he did... "Even though Adam disobeyed God, he still got to be part of Jesus' family line... God promised Abraham that he would be the father of many- can you believe his family line traces all the way to Jesus!?... Remember David, who killed Goliath and eventually became King?! Jesus had the royal line for a bit!" The kids were SO excited and loved highlighting the people they remembered that we've read about. Some even noticed a couple others we didn't talk about... "Hey, is that the Boaz from the Ruth lady?" I was really pleased to see how much the kids remembered as we reviewed Jesus' line.

After we finished highlighting, they cut out their book and glued it onto a piece of construction paper. Then we cut around it to make a book cover, and some chose to fold it to make their own part of the Bible.

September 13: Many Silent Years

We went outside for a big-area activity with this lesson. 

Set up a cone labeling each area (You may want to use a map of Israel during Jesus' time to get an accurate-ish idea of where to set the areas in relation to each other)
-Nazareth
-Jericho
 -Bethlehem
-Jerusalem
-Capernaum
-Bethany

Read part 12 of The Big Picture Story Bible, "Many Silent Years" and explain how the census works today and how it worked back then.

Take the kiddos outside and set up cones labeling different areas of Israel. I have about 25 kids, so I had 6 cities. You can always set up more if necessary.

I color-coded each one of my cities to help the younger ones out, so blue=Nazareth, green= Jerusalem, etc. Have students go to a city of their choice to begin the activity. 

We are in the ancient city of Israel and the city you're in now is where you live. Our country was taken over many years ago and we're now part of the Roman Empire. Our government leader, Caesar Augustus, has declared that everyone must go to their home city to be counted for the census.

Hand out cards {mine were actually colored balls} that list what city each person must return to. Give students about 30 seconds to reach their destination. Mix the cards up and repeat, giving only 10 seconds. {My kiddos didn't need an actual challenge, they really enjoyed traveling, but read below if you're up for more adventure.}

If you want to make the game into a challenge, lay out hula hoops at each "city." Only the first 3 citizens to reach their home city are allowed to stay, the others must leave the game. Continue playing, only allowing 2 to stay, and then once more with only the 1st person. Lastly, have the remaining players all rush from their current location to Bethlehem. The first person will be the winner. 

Describe how Mary and Joseph had to travel from Nazareth, where they lived, to Bethlehem, where Joseph's family was from. Talk about the distance and how with other travelers on the road it was a very long and at-times-confusing journey for many people.