Paint By Shape

Tuesday: Paint By Shape
Preschool Lesson: Adam and Eve Sin
Age Groups:
  • preschool
Supplies Needed:
  • Paint
  • Brushes
  • Cleaning supplies
Preparation:
Find a simple coloring picture for the day's lesson, perhaps something with the snake talking to Eve. Create a key associating each color of paint with a shape: circle, triangle, square, star, etc. Mark each region of the picture with a shape indicating which color it should be painted. Photocopy. Use crayon or marker to go over the colors on the answer key, in case some of the preschool children cannot read all the color names.
Instructions:
This craft is just like paint by number except there are shapes instead of numbers. Have the children paint in the picture of Adam and Eve with a snake in the tree, using the colors indicated by the shapes.
Lesson Tie-In:
The picture they are painting is a scene from the Bible lesson.

Garden Stone Craft

Friday: Garden Stones
Bible Lesson: The church was begun in order to witness for God in all parts of the earth.
Memory Verse: Acts 2:32
Preschool Lesson: The church is made up of people (Acts 16)
Age Groups:
  • elementary
  • preschool
  • teens
Supplies Needed:
  • cement mix
  • sand
  • disposable open-topped containers (e.g., you can use the bottoms of old milk jugs)
  • decorative objects (colored stones, shells, large glass beads, etc.)
Preparation:
Experiment ahead of time to determine the ideal ratio of cement mix to sand. Premix them.
When it's almost time, start adding water a little at a time, stirring, until the mixture is wet through but still thick. (A hand placed in the mixture and removed should leave a visible print and not fill in immediately.)
Spray each milk jug with Pam or other cooking spray before putting the mixture in, it will keep it from sticking when the kids try to remove it. Have the mixture ready in the bottoms of milk jugs when the kids come. Do not do it so early that it begins to dry. Timing is everything. Station a helper at the sink (or hose) to assist with hand washing.

Instructions:
Assist them in putting their hand print or (bare) foot print into the crete and then allow them to push decorative objects (colored glass beads, stones, sea shells, tiles) into the surface before it dries. Give each child a limited supply of decorations so that you have enough reserved for all age groups. Tell them they have to dry for 2 or 3 days in the milk jug and that they can cut the jug off or slide the stone out after that time.
Lesson Tie-In:
The stone itself does not correlate with the lesson, but you can ask them questions about the Bible lesson while they do the craft. There should be some time available while they are waiting for the cement to set firmly enough that they can remove their hands and feet.

Abraham and the Stars Window Hanging


Thursday: Abraham & the Stars Window Hanging
Bible Lesson: We should have faith like Abraham. God's promise to Abraham is a blessing to us even today.
Memory Verse: Hebrews 11:6
Age Groups:
  • elementary
  • preschool
  • teens
Supplies Needed:
  • black paper
  • star constellation pictures
  • pushpins (elementary and teens)
  • junk cardboard (elementary and teens)
  • coloring-book picture of Abraham with one arm raised, looking at the stars.
  • posterboard or colored construction paper (for frames)
  • star stickers (preschool only)
  • string or yarn
Preparation:
Find a suitable coloring-book picture of Abraham and photocopy it, as well as some
star constellations.
Create a pattern for the frame.
For preschool, you should pre-cut the frames
and may want to pre-assemble some parts of the craft as well.

Instructions:

For elementary and teens, give each person one of the
constellation pictures (you can have different ones and let them
pick) with a sheet of black construction paper attached to the back
with tape around the edges. They also each need a push pin and a
piece of junk cardboard. Have them push the push pin through each
dot on the picture (using the cardboard as a backing so the pin
doesn't go into anything it shouldn't, such as fingers or the
table). When every hole has been punched, remove the constellation
picture from the front, leaving the black paper with its star
pattern of small holes.

For preschool, have them stick star stickers directly
on the black paper. You can show them the constellation pictures
for reference if you want.

Have them trace the frame pattern onto the colored
construction paper or poster board and cut out their frame.

The star pattern goes behind the frame (or between
front and back halves of the frame if you have time to let them cut
two) and attaches with either glue or tape. The Abraham image
should be cut out (so it's just Abraham) and placed on the front
of the craft, so that the black paper sky with the star holes
is in the background. If you have time, they can color Abraham
before gluing him in place.

Attach a piece of string or yarn to serve as a
hanger. The craft can be hung in a window so that the light
shines through the pinpoint holes, making the stars shine.

Lesson Tie-In:
God promised Abraham that his descendants would be too
numerous to count, like the stars.

Painted Ark Scene


Wednesday: Painted Ark Scene
Bible Lesson: Sin brings a penalty. Jesus paid our penalty so that we can be saved.
Memory Verse: 1st Corinthians 15:22
Age Groups:
  • elementary
  • preschool
  • teens
Supplies Needed:
  • large paper (11"x17" is barely adequate)
  • cardboard or posterboard (for stencils)
  • paint and brushes



Preparation:
Prepare large cardboard stencils of the ark. These should be a bit too large to fit entirely on the paper. On the ark drawing shown here, there are internal lines; cut out short segments of these in places so that the kids can draw lines on their ark to better show the shape (otherwise it will look like a blob).
Prepare cardboard stencils of various animals, scaled down so that they are an appropriate size compared to the ark. Large animals, such as elephants and giraffes, work best.
You can find sillhouettes of many animals at the Open Clip Art Library.
Scale some of them to appropriate sizes, print them out, and trace them onto cardboard to make the stencils.
For preschool, go ahead and trace the outlines onto the paper ahead of time, so they can just paint.

Instructions:
Hand out the stencils for the kids to trace around on
their large piece of paper. They should place the ark first and
then place animals around it.
Allow them to free-hand draw a path from the ark
door to the bottom of the paper and, if they have time and space,
some trees to show scale. Make sure they put their name on the back
before painting, and allow the teens to add more detail to the
animals and the ark with a pencil. Remind everyone that the ark is
really much larger than the stencil but it just wouldn't fit on the
paper. When they have successfully drawn a scene allow them to
paint it in and lay to dry. Display a scene of your own so they can
see what it can look like. (Some variation of animal placement is
expected.)

Lesson Tie-In:
The picture they are making is a scene from the Bible
lesson. The ark saved Noah and his family from the flood, just as
Jesus saves us today.

Cross Wall Hanging


Tuesday: Cross Wall Hanging
Bible Lesson: Humans are sinful and require salvation. (Genesis 3)
Memory Verse: Romans 3:22
Age Groups:
  • teens
  • elementary
Supplies Needed:
  • wooden bases (perhaps 6"x8" or so)
  • nails
  • metallic thread or fine wire

Preparation:
Get a volunteer to cut the wood into appropriately sized pieces
and sand and varnish it ahead of time to make the bases. You will want to
go ahead and make one copy of the craft for reference and to familiarize
yourself with the winding pattern.

For younger children, you may want to pound the nails into the bases ahead of time. Teens should be able to do their own nails.
Instructions:
Hand out a plank of wood, a pattern, pencil, and nails
to each teen. Have rulers available (or use a hole puncher to make
holes in the pattern at the nail spots, so they can draw through
it). Have them put a pencil marking where each nail goes according
to the pattern. Show them how to pound the nails into the wood,
leaving each nail sticking out the same amount in a cross pattern.
(Some teens may need assistance getting the nails started.) When
they have this completed show them how to wind the metallic thread
or fine wire around the nails in a pattern. Make sure they put
their name on the back of the plank. If sufficient time and thread
or wire are available, you can let them do a second or even a third
winding.

Lesson Tie-In:
The cross represents the penalty for sin and the means of salvation.

Wax-Dipped Origami


Monday: Wax-Dipped Origami
Bible Lesson: God created the world and deserves our worship. (Genesis 1, Acts 17)
Memory Verse: Acts 17:24
Age Groups:
  • teens
Supplies Needed:
  • brightly colored paper
  • folding instructions
  • wax
  • something to heat the wax (e.g., an old crock pot)
  • sewing needles
  • thread
Preparation:
Go to your local public library and find origami folding instructions for a number of things that God created: different kinds of animals and birds and fish, maybe even plants and trees. You will want to test out the instructions ahead of time to ensure that you are able to follow them, so that you will be able to help anyone who has problems. Try to find options with different levels of complexity and difficulty, in case some of your teens are more ambitious than others. If most or all of the instructions you find call for squares (which is typical), you may want to use a paper cutter to cut the ends off the paper so that it is square. (If using letter-sized 8.5x11" paper, cutting 2.5 inches off one end will give you an 8.5" square.)

You can also find videos on the internet that demostrate various origami, e.g., an elephant, a flower a raven, a crab.

On the day, you will need to start melting the wax well ahead of time, as it may take a couple of hours (depending on what you use to melt it).

Instructions:
Have the teens select one of the available origami options and the color of paper they desire and fold the paper according to the provided instructions. You may need to help them interpret the instructions. When they have completed folding, have them pull a length of thread through a point near the top edge of the piece, using the sewing needle, and knot it (leaving a few inches of loop). The thread helps with the dipping and becomes a hanger thereafter. Then assist and monitor the wax dipping process; each piece of origami should be fully emmersed in the wax, hanging by the thread, but it does not need to be under for any length of time, as long as it's entirely covered. Hang to dry.

Lesson Tie-In:
Each of the origami choices should be something that God created, which ties in (albeit loosely) with the Bible lesson on creation.

Inflatable Origami Creation Box

Monday: Inflatable Origami Creation Box
Elementary Lesson: God created the world and deserves our worship.
Memory Verse: The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. Acts 17:24
Age Groups:
  • elementary
Supplies Needed:

  • crayons (or something to color with)
  • photocopies of the pattern (see image)
Preparation:
Familiarize yourself and as many of your helpers as possible with the folding instructions ahead of time, until you are comfortable demonstrating how to fold the box without looking at the instructions.
Instructions:
Hand out the photocopied page. Have the children color by number. Once they've colored it, have them cut out the square and fold it according to the folding directions (below). Once each child has folded his box, he can hold it by opposite corners and blow into the small hole in the top, and the box will inflate.
Folding Directions:
  1. Color the pictures on your creation box paper, with the colors according to the numbers in each shape. There is a list at the top of the page that tells what color to use for each number. After coloring, cut off the top and edges, along the lines, so that you have one big square.
  2. Fold the square along one major diagonal, with the markings on the outside. Crease, then unfold.
  3. Fold along the other diagonal with the markings on the outside. Crease, then unfold.
  4. Bringing the top down to meet the bottom, fold the square in half horizontally, with the markings on the inside. Crease, then unfold.
  5. Using all the creases you have made, fold into a triangle shape, as shown. The left and right halves of the triangle should each have two flaps, formed by the top and bottom corners of the square.
  6. Fold the front flaps up, so that their tips meet at the top of the triangle, as shown.
  7. Flip the triangle over, and fold up the flaps on the other side in the same way, forming a diamond shape, as shown.
  8. Fold the left and right corners of the diamond shape inward to meet at the middle, as shown.
  9. Fold down the top corners to meet in the middle as well.
  10. Fold down the top flaps again, tucking them into the pockets in the tops of the side flaps.
  11. Flip over and repeat the same steps on the back side.
  12. Hold the box by the edges of two flaps and blow into the bottom end (i.e., the end with the small hole in it). The box should inflate into a six-sided paper cube, with one day of creation pictured on each side. See if you can match up the six sides of your cube to the six days told in Genesis 1.
Lesson Tie-In:
The pictures on the six sides of the box represent the six days of creation.

Building The Ark: 1/24 Scale Model

Building a scale model of the ark is a significant undertaking, but it is very worthwhile if you can manage it. There are several good reasons to build one:

  • It makes a very impressive, very memorable decoration. We first did this in 2006. It is now 2012, and people in our church still remember it. How many of your Bible School decorations from six years ago do you remember? You'll remember this one.
  • It provides a good way to get more people involved with your VBS. Building it the way these instructions indicate is a very parallelizable task. What I mean is this: you can easily put 20-30 people to work on it at the same time. Much of the work involves gluing cardboard boxes together and holding them in place while the glue dries. Virtually anyone can participate. Hold a workday, perhaps on a Saturday a couple of weeks before your Bible School, and get as many people involved as possible.
  • Most people, including most Christians, have a very inadequate conception of the ark's size. The fact that people can even ask the question, How could all the animals fit on the ark, betrays a fundamental lack of any sense of exactly how large the ark was. You can tell people it was 450 feet long, but that's just a number. To really grasp how large it was, people need to see it. Building a scale model, and placing appropriately scaled animals inside, provides a much more intuitive, tangible picture that people can readily understand and remember. (Building it full size would be even better, but you might not quite have the budget for that. This scale model is much more affordable.)

So, we want to build this:

Wood is expensive, and the model doesn't need to be seaworthy, so we'll just build it out of corrugated cardboard boxes, glued together with plain white glue (e.g., Elmer's). We chose the cardboard boxes that our local Wendy's restaurant gets its fries in, for two reasons: first, we were able to get a large number of these boxes, all the same size, and second, the size of the box (16" x 13" x 13") just happened to work out so that the width and length of the model are very close to an exact multiple of the box size. Thus, we only have to cut for height. When we get the boxes they have been "broken down" (i.e., unfolded and laid flat).

The ark will be made of 14 sections. Each section is made from six boxes, like this:

The bottom part of each section consists of three whole boxes. Simply glue the flaps closed (like they would have been before the boxes were opened to get the original contents out -- first glue the bottom of the box closed, then the top), then glue three of them together side-to-side, like this:

The top part involves cutting. Start with the middle top box. The bottom of this box should be glued closed, but the top flaps are not needed. Measure the height of the corners at twelve inches (from the bottom), and find the middle of each end (along the top edge). Draw straight lines from the 12-inch mark on each corner to the center mark at the top middle of the end. Cut along these lines. Along the sides of the box, draw straight lines from the twelve-inch mark on the one corner to the one on the other corner. Cut along these lines too. The end of the box should look like this:

Set the top-middle box aside for a moment and we'll make the two top-side boxes next. Along one side of the box, measure the height at twelve inches (from the bottom) at both ends. On the other side of the box, measure the height at nine inches (from the bottom) at both ends. Draw straight lines between the height marks at the corners and cut off the top. Make two of these, and we'll be ready to finish assembling the section.

Glue the six boxes together as shown. This makes one fourteenth of the basic structure of the ark. If you have enough people (and enough space), you can construct all fourteen of these at once.

For the roof, we will use boxes that are not glued shut. Start with two of them. Orient one of your boxes so that the long side is upward and the other so that the short side is upward. (Along the entire length of the roof, alternate orientation every-other-box. This will improve the stability of the roof so that it does not bend as much and stays in place better.)

Slice the top edge (corner) on both your boxes, then flip them over so that the sliced edges hang down. You should have a center fold at the top of each box, with two panels (one long, one short) hanging down on each side. Measure the height of the sides at 21 inches down from the fold: draw a straight line there and cut off the extra from the bottom.

Move the two boxes together so that the flaps overlap. One box will have its flaps on the inside while the other box will have its flaps on the outside. On the side facing you, one box will have its tall panel above the short one, and the other will have its short panel above the tall one. (On the side away from you it will be the other way around.) Once you get everything in position, with the folds at the top lined up and the flaps exactly overlapping each other (but not overlapping the main parts of the other box), glue them together. Link a total of twelve boxes like this. When you are done, you should have a single continuous long roof, hinged at the center. Altogether it should be 225 inches long and 42 inches wide (21 inches on each side of the fold).


Glue the sections together end-to-end-to-end.


If you created open sections with decks where you will display the animals and stocks of food and so forth, make sure you get them in the part of the ark where you want them, so that people will be able to walk up and look inside. Altogether, there should be fourteen sections in all.


Now, drape the roof over the top, and secure it in place. (You can use small L-shaped pieces of cardboard as brackets.)


Cover the whole surface of the ark with pitch (we used black paper; it would also be possible to use spray paint). Display it in a prominent location, such as on the stage in your auditorium, or in your foyer or entryway if it's large enough. (Our stage is too small, so we angled the ark from the back corner of the stage out across and off the front of the stage on the other side; we used additional boxes to build a stand to support the ends that sticks off, and we covered the stand with a tarp —blue to represent water or green to represent grass.)

If you made an open section, set up the animals and food bins and so forth inside the ark. If not, perhaps you could set up some animals approaching the ark, for scale. Be sure to use animals that are at the right scale. One inch represents two feet, so a six-foot-tall Noah would be three inches. A typical elephant would be between 4 and 5 inches tall at the shoulder. You can look up the sizes of other animals and scale them: simply take the after size of a young adult animal in feet, divide the number by two, and your model animal should be that many inches. (If you want something a modern child who doesn't go to the zoo much can relate to, a standard US school bus would be 18 inches long. Split a picture of a school bus in half so you can print it out, glue the two halves together onto posterboard, and display it near the ark.

Congratulations, you've built a 1/24 scale model of the ark.

Update: I've put up photos showing the one we built. part 1, part 2.

Beginning of the Church, Preschool Lesson

Friday:Beginning of the Church
Story Passage: Acts 16:9-15
Other Passages: Acts 16:40, Philippians 1:1
Objective: The church is made up of people.
Introduction: The Early Church
After Jesus left the world to go back up to Heaven, his followers went all around to many other places to tell people the good news about Jesus. They told how Jesus is God and how he came to earth to die for our sins so we could be forgiven.
One of Jesus' followers was Paul. He went on many trips. Sometimes he walked. Sometimes he went on a boat. But however he traveled and wherever he went, he told lots of people about Jesus.
Story: Philippi
One day Paul was in a city called Philippi. He went down by the river. There he found Lydia. She was a woman who sold purple cloth. She was by the river with some other people. The Bible says she worshiped God. But she had never heard of Jesus.
So Paul told Lydia and the others about Jesus, and God helped them to know it was true, and they believed. Lydia and other people in her family believed in Jesus and were baptized. Lydia and her family and friends told other people about Jesus too. After a while there were many people in their city who believed. They met at Lydia's house to learn more about God and to pray. They choose leaders to help. And so, they became one of the first churches.
Application: What Is the Church?
Did you know that a church is not a building? It's not. Our church has a building, where we can meet together, but a church is a group of people who believe in Jesus and get together to read the Bible and pray. They tell others about Jesus too. Lydia's church got together in her house. We have too many people in our church to go to someone's house, so we have a building; but the building is just a building. We are the church. God wants us to learn about him and tell others about him too.

Abraham's Faith (Preschool Lesson)

Thursday:Abraham's Faith
Story Passage: Genesis 15
Other Passages:
Objective: We should have faith in God, just as Abraham did.
Introduction: Abraham
Has anyone here heard of Abraham before? Who was Abraham? Abraham lived in Bible times.
God ask Abraham to leave his home land and go to a new place that God would show him. He had never been there before. But he took off walking. God took him through several different places before he finally got where he was going.
Did you ever get in the car and go all sorts of places and not know where you would end up? Abraham wasn't worried. He trusted God, just like you probably trusted your parents when they took you places in the car.
Abraham finally came to the place we now call Israel. God promised Abraham that his family would live there. It would belong to them.
Story: Countless Offspring
One day, Abraham was complaining. He said, My wife, Sarah, and I don't have any children. When we die, all our land and all our stuff will go to my servant, Eliezer.
But God said, No. Eliezer will not get your land and all your stuff. You and Sarah will have a child.
Now Abraham and Sarah were already very old. Old people don't have babies. But then God showed Abraham all the stars in the sky. God said, Count them, if you can. There were too many to count. God told Abraham that someday his family would have as many people as all the stars in the sky. And Abraham believed God. Would you believe God if he told you that you would have that many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren? Abraham believed God.
One day Abraham and Sarah did have a baby. They had a little boy and they named him Isaac. After awhile, Abraham's family did get very, very big, just like God had promised.
Conclusion
We can always believe what God tells us in the Bible.

Noah and the Flood (Preschool Lesson)

Wednesday:Noah and the Flood
Story Passage: Genesis 6-9
Other Passages: 2nd Peter 2:5
Objective:
God expects us to obey him.
God takes care of those who love and obey him.
Introduction: Sinful World
After God made the world, people began disobeying God. They did not remember, or did not care, what God said. They were being very, very bad. God looked around and saw that people were thinking up bad stuff to do all the time. God was very sad. He was sorry he ever made people. The Bible says his heart was filled with pain. So God said, I will wipe men from the earth, men and animals and birds. I am sorry I ever made them!
Story: Noah and the Flood
BUT, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. That means that God was happy with Noah, because Noah obeyed God and did what was right.
God told Noah that he was going to get rid of all the bad people. he told Noah to build an ark. A BIG box. He told him exactly how big to make it. (450ft. long, which is 1½ times as long as a football field, by 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.) He told him to put a roof on top, a big door in the side, and to make three floors, like a basement, a main floor, and an upstairs. He told him what kind of wood to use, and he was to cover the wood, inside and out with tar so that it wouldn't leak. God also told Noah that he would send animals to put on the ark. Noah was to take his wife, his three sons, and their wives.
So Noah and his three sons began to build the ark. They made it just like God told Noah. They had to cut down trees, make boards, put it all together and cover it with tar. It was such a big boat that it was a BIG job. It took Noah and his sons 100 years to build it. While he was building it, Noah told other people about God. He told them they should obey God, but they would not listen.
When the ark was finished, God sent every kind of animal and bird. He sent a boy and a girl of each kind. God told Noah to get on the boat with his family and all the animals. They had to take food for themselves and for the animals too. It took a whole week to get everything on the ark.
Then God shut the door. Boom. After God shut the door it was too late for anyone else to get on. God had made a way for Noah and his family to be safe in the big storm because they obeyed God, but nobody else got on the boat: only Noah and his family.
After God shut the door, it began to rain, hard, and lots of water came up from inside the ground. It rained hard for 40 days and 40 nights. The whole world was covered with water, all the houses, all the trees, even the highest mountains were covered with water, but Noah and his family were safe because Noah obeyed God. Is it important to God that we obey him? YES! It's very important.
Noah and his family stayed on the ark for a long time. They had to take care of the animals by giving them food and cleaning up the messes they made. The earth was completely flooded for 150 days. Then God sent a wind to dry up the water. It took a long time, but finally it got dry enough that they could get off. They had been on the ark for a year. I bet they were glad to get off! Noah and his family thanked God for taking care of them.
Conclusion
When we remember Noah, we remember that God takes care of people who obey him. Sometimes there are troubles. Noah had to work hard to build the ark. It probably wasn't fun to have the flood. But God took care of them and he'll take care of us too.

Adam and Eve Sin (Preschool)

Tuesday:Adam and Eve Sin
Story Passage: Genesis 3
Other Passages: Revelation 12:9
Objective: Adam and Eve sinned. We all sin. Sin is when we disobey God.
Introduction: The Garden
When God made people, he put them in a beautiful garden called the Garden of Eden. They were to be in charge of all the animals. There was lots of good food to eat in the garden, and every evening God came and talked to them.
Story: The Fall
But there was one rule. Only one. I bet at your house there are lots of rules. Don't play in the street. Obey your mom and dad. Don't be sassy. Don't hit your brother or sister. There are lots of other rules. Adam and Eve only had one rule. God said, "Don't eat from that tree in the middle of the garden, or you will die." That doesn't sound too hard to remember, does it? Just that one tree.
One day, a snake came and talked to Eve. It was really the Devil. He was being very bad and sneaky. He asked Eve, Did God really say that you must not eat fruit from any tree in the garden? [That's not what God said, is it?] Eve answered, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God did say that we must not eat from that tree in the middle of the garden, or we will die.
The snake (who was really Satan, the devil) said, Oh, you won't die. God knows that when you eat from that tree, you will be like him, knowing good from evil. Eve thought about that. She looked at the fruit on that tree. It looked nice. It looked like it would taste good, and she wanted to be wise like God. So she ate some. And she gave some to Adam and he ate some too. And then they knew they had done wrong. They had disobeyed God.
That evening, when God came to talk to them, they hid. God called to Adam, Adam, where are you? (God knew where he was, didn't he?) Adam said, I heard you coming and I was afraid, so I hid.
God said, Why are you afraid? Did you eat from the tree that I told you not to eat from?
Adam said, Well, that woman you put here with me, she gave it to me, so I ate it. Do you ever blame someone else when you do wrong?
God said to Eve: What is this you have done?
Eve answered, Well, the snake tricked me, so I ate the fruit.
God said to the snake, Because of what you have done, you will crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
Adam and Eve were punished too. Because they had disobeyed, they had to leave the beautiful garden and never go back. Now they would have to work harder to get their food. There would be weeds and ouchy thistles and things to get rid of, and someday they would die.
Application:
We need to be careful, because Satan, the devil, wants us to disobey God too. He can be very tricky. He doesn't come as a snake to talk to us. But he can trick us in other ways. So we need to be careful and remember to always obey God.

Creation (Preschool Lesson)

Monday:Creation
Story Passage: Genesis 1
Other Passages: Ephesians 2:8-10, Col. 1:15-16, Romans 1:16-21, Romans 8:18-25, Acts 17:16-33
Objective: God created the world and deserves our worship.
Introduction: Where Did it Come From?
Out in the back yard, there's a big tree. Was it always that big? How did it get to be that big? How long has it been there? What did it come from, before it was a big tree? It was a little tree, once, but what about before that? [A seed.] Where did the seed come from? [Another tree.] Well, where did that tree come from? Where did all the seeds, and all the trees, come from? [God created them.] The world hasn't always been here. There was a beginning. Let's go back to the beginning, and explore where things came from...
Story: Creation
God created the world. The book of Genesis, in the Bible, tells us all about it. The Bible says that in the beginning, when nothing was around, God started by creating light and darkness. Did you know that there wasn't even light or darkness before God made it? He made it out of nothing, just by speaking. He can do that, because he's God. On day two, he made the sky and the ocean, and on the third day he made the dry land that we live on. Aren't you glad he made dirt for us to walk on? Do we just have dirt, though? No, we have that tree out back, and what else is in the dirt? [Accept answers – grass etc.] God didn't stop after dirt: he also made plants on day three: all the ones that we eat from, and all the ones that look pretty and smell beautiful, and the Bible says he made them all just for us.
God had already made the light and the darkness on day one, but now on day four he made the sun, the moon, and the stars, both to give us light, and so we can tell what time of day it is by looking at them. The sun and moon also make the seasons: summer, fall, winter, and spring. He made the sun so that we would have light in the day and the moon so it wouldn't be quite so dark at night. Then on day five God was ready to put something in the sky and the oceans. They were empty until then. Do you know something that lives in the water? [Accept answers.] God made them. He also made birds to fly in the sky. Finally, on day six, God was ready to make something to live on the land: in the woods, and in the grass, and all over the land. What lives there? [Accept answers.] Animals! God made all the animals – and he also made people. The first person he made was a man, and God named him Adam. Later he made Eve, to be Adam's wife.
Conclusion:
Some people haven't read the Bible, and they try to decide how the world got here, and they come up with all kinds of ideas about that, some sillier than others. Aren't you glad that we know what God says? And God is the only one who was there, so he's the only one who really knows. Everybody else is just guessing, or making stuff up.

Discussion Questions: The Beginning of Salvation

Wednesday:Discussion Questions: The Beginning of Salvation
Story Passages: Genesis 6-9 (especially 6:13, 6:22, 7:18-8:1, 8:21-22)
Other Passages: Genesis 3:15; Romans 6:23; Leviticus 11; Matthew 24:36-42; 1st Peter 3:18-22; Hebrews 2:11-18, 9:26-28, 11:7; 2nd Corinthians 5:20-6:2
Memory Verse: 1st Corinthians 15:22
  1. What saved Noah and his family?
  2. What saves us?
  3. Which kinds of animals were there seven of? Why?
  4. Why were Noah and his family in danger in the first place? Why was there a flood? How does this compare to our situation today?
  5. How do we know that the flood was worldwide, as opposed to a local flood like we sometimes see in the modern world?
  6. Where did all the water come from that flooded the earth?
  7. We recently experienced a warmer winter than usual. How do we know that the winters won't keep getting warmer and warmer until we stop having any winter at all?
  8. Why did Jesus have to be born and live as a man? How does this help us?
If you need hints to answer some of the questions, look up the listed scripture passages.