Week One Preschool BIBLE STORY The Christmas Story JESUS IS BORN LUKE 1:1-20 MEMORY VERSE For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son John 3:16 NIV MOVIE Veggietales: The Toy That Saved Christmas BOTTOM LINE Jesus is God s gift to me! 20 10 10 25 SOCIAL: Providing time for fun interaction. Christmas Cookies Taking Care of Baby Felt Nativity Scene WORSHIP: Inviting people to respond to God. Jesus, Savior! STORY: Communicating God s truth in engaging ways. Bottom Line Movie Snack : Creating a safe place to connect. Game or Craft Christmas Tree Christmas Story Pray WHAT YOU DO 1. Go to myfreedom.org/kidsleaders to do the following: 1. Read through preschool leader guide several times throughout the week to familiarize yourself with what to say, how long it should take, and the order of activities. 2. Watch the Bible story video. 3. Preview the worship songs and get familiar with the motions to help lead your preschoolers in worship. 2. Arrive on time to tag in briefly with the team, set up activity materials, and connect with early arrivers. 3. Teach kids about God s Word with energy! WHAT YOU NEED (provided for you) -play-doh -felt board -masking tape -cookie cutters -felt nativity pieces -Christmas story cards -play-doh tools -gift tin -crayons -cookie trays -wrapped present (1) -coloring pages -baby dolls -Week 1 DVD -candy canes -baby blankets -pretzel packs -drive time cards -baby bibs -mini waters -baby bottles -felt Christmas tree -diapers -Christmas present cutouts
SOCIAL Christmas Cookies Welcome kids as they enter your room with energy! Use the social activities during the social time as an option for kids to do as they check in. CUE: Play Veggietales Christmas CD. -Place the play-doh, cookie cutters, and metal trays on the activity table. -Encourage kids to choose one color of play-doh to play with. -Allow 3-4 kids to be at the table at one time. -Encourage kids to make Christmas cookies using the tools provided. -When finished, have kids place their color of Play-Doh back in WHAT YOU SAY: Friends! It s Christmas at Freedom Kids! Let s pretend we are at the north pole and make some Christmas cookies with our friends! Will you help us? (Do activity.) Wow, these cookies look delicious. You are great bakers! 1 SOCIAL Taking Care of Baby -Place the baby dolls and accessories in an open area of the room. -Show kids how to take care of a baby. -Invite kids to take care of the babies by feeding them, changing them, swaddling, and rocking them. WHAT YOU SAY: -I have lots of babies here that need to be taken care of. Will you help me? We can use the blankets to keep them warm. We have diapers to change them. We even have bottles if they get hungry! (Do activity.) Today we will hear about a very special baby. He was born in a stable and one day would grow up to change the world! 2
SOCIAL Felt Nativity Scene -Set up the felt board in an area of the room. -Set out the felt nativity pieces. -Show kids how the felt pieces will stick to the felt board. -Invite kids to tell the Christmas story of baby Jesus being born. -Allow time for kids to demonstrate using the different pieces provided. WHAT YOU SAY: Look at what we get to play with this month! We can use these felt pieces to tell a story! You press the pieces onto the felt board and look! They stick! Will you help me tell a story? (Do activity.) Wow! You are great story tellers! Later today we ll hear one of the greatest stories of all time that has all of these people, animals, and stars in it! 3 WORSHIP LEADER: It s time to clean up! Let s hurry because I have a gift for you! Let s work together to clean up and when you are finished come sit with me! CUE: Clean Up Song (on DVD) at 8:35/10:05/11:35. Give kids a few minutes to clean up and sit near you; challenge them to finish before the song is over! Good morning friends! We are going to have a great day today! Who knows what holiday is coming up? Allow kids to respond. Christmas! Today we are going to pass this tin around but don t open it yet! When the tin comes to you, tell us your name and one thing you want for Christmas. Pass the tin around the circle and let kids share. Great job friends! Are you ready to see what s inside? Open the tin. It s a...present! Hold up the present. Friends! God gave us a special present! He sent his son Jesus as a baby and that s why we celebrate Christmas! Repeat after me: Jesus (point up) is God s gift (hand out like a book) to me (point to yourself with thumbs)! Say main point one more time. Jesus is God s gift to me! Let s all stand and sing with our loudest voices to thank God for sending his Son Jesus! CUE: Jesus, Savior! music video. 4
STORY Bible Story Great job, everyone! Who is God s gift to us? Jesus is God s gift to me! Let s look over at these schedule cards on our wall to find out what s next! Hmm let s see. We have played Flip the play card over. We did our worship. Flip the worship card over. What s next? Pause. A Movie! Could I have one of my friends who is sitting quietly come stick our schedule star on the movie card? Pick a child to place the star on the movie card.great job! We will use our schedule this month to help us know what comes next! Now, we are doing something extra special this month! We will be at the movies! Yay! Today we are going to watch a veggie tales movie called The Toy That Saved Christmas! Are you ready to watch?! Show me by wiggling your listening ears! Wiggle ears. Mouths are quiet. Finger over mouth. Let s put our special eyes on the screen. Point to eyes. CUE: Movie video. (30 minutes) Play the movie located on your DVD. About 15-20 minutes into the movie, pass out pretzel snack bags to each kid. Give kids with allergies a fruit snack pack. That was a great story! Christmas is about celebrating God s Son Jesus being born! Not about toys and presents we want. Is Christmas about the presents we want? No! At Christmas we celebrate the best present God gave us, Jesus. Let s say it together! Jesus (point up) is God s gift (hand out like a book) to me (point to yourself with thumbs)! Adjust the schedule star to find out what comes next. 5 Game Activity -Gather the children to sit in a circle in an open area of the room. -Play Duck, Duck, Goose but replace the usual words with Gift, Gift, Jesus. -Demonstrate how to play by walking around the circle as you tap friend s heads, saying, Gift, gift, Jesus! When you say, Jesus, the selected child will jump up and try to beat you back to the open seat. -Continue as long as time and interest allow. WHAT YOU SAY: Today we re going to play a new version of Duck, Duck, Goose to go along with our Bible story today. Instead of using the words, duck, duck, goose, let s say, gift, gift, gift, Jesus! If your head is tapped when a friend says, Jesus! you must stand up and race around the circle to get back to your seat before your friend does. Here, let me show you! (Demonstrate.) That was SO fun! Jesus is God s gift to me! 6
Christmas Tree -Have kids gather around the felt Christmas tree on the wall. -Explain the real meaning of presents under the tree. -Hand a present cutout to each kids. -Give each kid a roll of tape to put on the back of their present. -Allow kids to bring their present up one at a time and stick it under the Christmas tree. -Each time a present is put up, encourage kids to say, Jesus is God s gift to me! WHAT YOU SAY: Let s all gather around our Christmas Tree! C mon! Have kids stand up and hop like a frog over to the tree. At Christmas time we give presents because God gave us the best present of all - God s Son, Jesus. When we see presents under our tree, we can remember that Jesus is God s gift to us! Who wants to help me put some presents under our tree? I need listening ears and special eyes first! When I give you a present you may stand up and I will give you some tape to place on the back of your present. Then you can stick it under the tree! Friends, each time a present is put under the tree let s say, Jesus is God s gift to me! Jesus is God s gift to me! Adjust the schedule star to find out what comes next. 7 Christmas Story -Using the story cards, read the Christmas story. -The words will be on the back of each card so that you can read while the kids see the pictures. -Each card will prompt kids to do certain actions that go along with the story to keep them moving. -Encourage kids to do the promptings when needed. WHAT YOU SAY: This time of year we get to talk about a very special story from the Bible. Hold up a Bible. It s the Christmas story! Are the stories from the Bible true? Yes! And today s story is extra extra special. Will you help me tell it? Let s all stand because I am going to need your help! (Read the story cards and prompt kids to do the action when asked.) Great job, everyone. Let s say our bottom line together! Jesus is God s gift to me! Adjust the schedule star to find out what comes next. 8
Pray WHAT YOU SAY: It s Prayer Group time. C mon friends! Follow me! (Lead group to specific area in the room.) Here we are! Let s sit down in 1, 2, 3! Sit down with me! Today we learned that God gave us the best gift of all - his Son, Jesus. Let s pray and thank God for giving us this gift! Would anyone like to pray and thank God for Jesus before I do? Allow each kids that would like a turn to pray. Close with the prayer below. Dear God, thank you for giving us the best gift ever - Jesus! We are so thankful for the presents we get but we are extra thankful for Jesus. We love you! In Jesus name, Amen. Adjust the schedule star to find out what comes next. 9 HOME Coloring Pages -Allow kids to spread out in the room and/or at the activity tables. -Give each kids a coloring page. -Point out that Jesus is in a gift box. -Set out the crayons and allow kids to color during check out. -Greet parents at the door. -Give each parent at the door a Drive Time card to take home. -Give each kid a candy cane on their way out. WHAT YOU SAY: It s almost time to go home! Let s move our schedule star and see what s last! Pick a kid to move the schedule star to the last card Color. It looks like it s time to color while we wait to be checked out! Look at our coloring paper today! It has baby Jesus inside of the gift. It reminds us that Jesus is God s gift to me! 10