Remember to have one leader at the door to greet the child and the parents.

Transcription

1 Bible Story: The LORD is our Shepherd Psalm 23 Bottom Line: God is always with us Memory Verse: we trust in the name of the LORD our God. Psalm 20:7 God is first He is in charge of everything God is good God is faithful God loves us Pray with the other leaders in your room. Set out activities to be ready for when children begin to arrive. Remember to have one leader at the door to greet the child and the parents. See Large Group Bible Story lesson. Pray and have children sit in a circle as one leader reads a book while other leader helps wash hands. Have one leader at the craft table while the other leader works with the children either in the block area or with the games listed below. Rotate the children as they finish their craft. You will have a notebook/journal provided for you. Please begin to take prayer requests and write down the children s names and anything they had to say about today s lesson. One leader greets parents at door while the other leaders interact with children.

2 Remember to have one leader at the door to greet the child and the parents. Welcome Children/Arrival Activities Decorate white take-home bags. (Located in cabinet above sink; make sure names are printed where it can be seen on the sacks). Transition Time: Preschoolers love repetition; they love the routine of knowing what is going to happen next! Having the same song for a time transition time allows a consistency in the morning for the children. Consistency in the schedule and routines will help a preschooler feel secure and safe. Today we are going to learn another TRUE Bible story about how powerful and mighty Jesus is! Our God is so big and He loves us so much! If you are seated, but have to wait on large group time to begin, you may want to sing another familiar song such as Jesus Loves Me, My God is So Big, (see words in Worship Time) or Be Careful Little Eyes. Routine is established week by week. Soon the children will easily learn to gather and prepare for Worship/Bible Story Time as you begin to sing this familiar song. See Large Group Bible Story lesson. Have prayer and wash hands. Have the children sit in a circle while one leader reads a book to them while the other leader is helping in washing hands. Have one leader at the craft table while the other leader works with the children either in the block area or with the games listed below. Rotate the children as they finish their craft.

3 Have the children color the page and then add small flower stickers around the edge of the page. As they decorate their page say, Today we learned God is like a Shepherd. God loves us. He protects us. God is always with us! The Bible says we are like sheep and God is our Shepherd. Wherever we go God will always be with us. If we go to the store is God with us? If we go to the playground is God with us? If we go to the other side of the world, is God still with us? Yes! God is always with us! At the end of the activity help the children take their page and place it their sack. Here are some options and activities to reinforce the lesson and Bible verse. Please use these activities throughout the morning however they fit best in your schedule. Practice our monthly verse with the children:.we (point to self) trust in the name of the Lord our God. (point up) Psalm 20:7 (open palms like a book) Blocks and barn, barn animals and several sheep for the barn Encourage children to explore and play with the blocks and barn set. Let s build a fence for the animals. Do you know what this animal is called? (Hold up one animal at a time and then pause for children to answer.) (Picking up a sheep) What is this animal? That is right a sheep. Today we talked about God is our Shepherd. We are like sheep. God loves us, protects us and God is always with us! We can remember no matter if we are happy, sad, or scared, God loves us and God is always with us! Heart-shaped die cuts and blue painter s tape At the start of the activity: Hide heart cutouts all around the room; some in obvious places and others in not so obvious places. You could tape them to the underside of a table. Place them inside a play kitchen cabinet, etc. During the activity: Encourage kids to walk around the room and find the heart shapes. Repeat as desired. At the start of the activity: Who knows what a heart shape looks like? (Hold up a cutout.) That's right! I hid lots of hearts around the room, and I want you to find them.

4 At the end of the activity: Great job finding the hearts! The heart shape means love, and in our Bible story today, we heard about God s great love for us. God is faithful and good. God is always with us! Play dough and cookie cutters including heart shape cookie cutters (located in the cabinets above the sink). Encourage the children to make heart shapes with their cookie cutters. Who is our good Shepherd? That is right, God. Who are like sheep? That is right, we are. God is first He is in charge of everything. We need God to love us, provide for us and protect us. Is God always with us? Yes! God is always with us! Soft ball located in your teacher s bin. Roll ball back and forth as you recite the question and bottom line. Come sit down with me and let's play with this ball. I'm so glad you are here today. We learned a lot of neat things today, didn't we? We learned that God is always with us. God loves you and God loves me. As I roll the ball to you, I'm going to ask you, Who loves (child's name)? Then I want you to roll it back to me and say, God loves me.' Ready? Great, let's roll! Who loves (child's name)? God loves me! Continue as long as the children are interested. You will have a notebook/journal provided for you. Please begin to take prayer requests and write down the children s names and anything they had to say about today s lesson. This is a wonderful time to get to know your children as you take notes in the journal. The children do have such a short attention span, but as you begin to do this each week they will continue to learn the importance of prayer and what it means to pray and talk to God. Pray with the children. Remind the children that Jesus is our best friend and He loves for us to talk/pray with Him every day. The journal will be left in your bin to use each week in your class. After prayer time, lead the children in singing Jesus Loves Me. Transition Time: Some children will be leaving for the morning and others arriving for the next service. This is a transition time that can quickly become chaotic if you do not have a plan. By providing

5 consistency in the schedule each week, children will learn what is expected of them and know what to expect as they are arriving or leaving. Consistency in a routine allows a child to feel safe and secure. After your last prayer, have the children remain in the circle and have a leader read books provided or review the story by asking questions from the take-home page. You can also review the Bible verse for the month, play a quieter game, such as I spy, play with play dough at the table, or the memory games provided. Have one leader at the door to greet parents while another leader is reading a book to the children or working with play dough at the table with them. Set any take-home creations where you or parents can get them easily. Greet parents at the door and let parents know that today preschoolers learned that God is always with us. Encourage parents to repeat the bottom line and the Bible verse at home, and help their child understand that God is always with us! Make sure each child goes home with the day s activity pages. Encourage parents to use the activities found in take-home page to reinforce today s Bible lesson. Security is important. Please check child name tag with parent tag. Never release a child to a parent/guardian who does not have a matching receipt tag.