March Weeks 1 and 2 OVERVIEW CARD March 5th/6th March 12th/13th Key Question: Bottom Line: Memory Verse: Who can you follow? I can follow Jesus. Bible Story Focus: God sent Jesus to do an important job. Follow Me The Gospels Coloring Page: Jesus says, Follow me. Music: Jesus is My Best Friend Praise the Lord Everyday Hosanna Rock Nobody Loves Me Like You Bible Lesson: The Beginner s Bible Jesus Chooses His Disciples Pages 308 to 313 Story: Five Silly Fishermen By Roberta Edwards Service Time: 67 minutes (week 1) 66 minutes (week 2)
ACTIVITY 1 Catch the Fish Catch the Fish is an activity that reviews this week s Bible lesson while children use gross motor skills and hand-eye coordination to catch the fish. What You Need: Fish (30 per classroom), buckets (3 per classroom) and timer (volunteers can use their phones as timers) Before the Activity: Scatter the fish in an open area on the floor. During the Activity: Have the children catch (pick up) as many fish as possible and put them in the bucket. Continue playing as long as children are having fun. (For older children, divide the children into teams and assign a fish color to each team or you can give the children less and less time each round you play.) After the Activity: Sit down and review the Bible lesson. Before the Activity: Hello, boys and girls! Let s go fishing! (Set out buckets) I need you to help me catch (pick up) all these fish and put them in the buckets. (Pause.) Are you ready? (Pause) Go! Keep fishing until all the fish have been caught! During the Activity: Great job! Let s do it again! (Repeat as many times as desired.) After the Activity: That was so much fun! You are great fishermen! We heard about some fishermen today in our Bible lesson. Do you remember what Jesus asked them to do? (Pause) You are right, Jesus asked them to follow Him and tell others that God loves them. Who can you follow? I can follow Jesus.
ACTIVITY 2 Memory Verse with Motions Memory Verse with Motions is an activity that uses repetition and movement to teach the memory verse. What You Need: Hula-Hoops (4 per classroom) and masking tape Before the Activity: Place the Hula-Hoops in a row on the floor. Criss-cross lines of tape on the floor to make nets inside the Hula-Hoops. Show the children how to jump from one hoop to another while saying parts of the Memory Verse each time they hop to a different hoop. (Keep playing as long as the children are interested.) During the activity: We have a new memory verse this month. It is Come, and follow me, Jesus said, Matthew 4:19. Now let s say it together! Now, watch what I can do! (Jumping from hoop to hoop as you say each word of the Memory Verse) Come And Follow Me- Jesus said- Matthew 4:19. Can you jump from hoop to hoop while saying Come- And Follow Me- Jesus said- Matthew 4:19? Sure you can! (Repeat as many times as desired.) After the Activity: You guys did a great job jumping! In our Bible lesson Jesus asked His friends, the fishermen, to follow Him and tell others that God loves them. Who can you follow? I can follow Jesus.
ACTIVITY 3 Animal Moves Animal Moves is an activity that uses gross motor movements to review today s Bible lesson. What You Need: Animal Moves Game Cards from the Activity Pages found on the Website on white cardstock (2 per classroom) Before the activity: Print the Animal Moves Game Cards onto the cardstock and cut apart. Put the cards in a stack in an open area of the room. During the activity: Go around the circle, allowing each child to take a turn. Each child must draw three cards and then follow what they see on the card by acting it out for the rest of the group. When all the cards have been used, shuffle and restack them. Go around the circle at least once to allow every child to follow the cards. During the activity: I have a fun set of cards I want to show you today! On each card, you will see a picture of an animal and a way to move like that animal. (Hold up a card and show them what you mean.) We re going to take turns drawing three cards each. When it is your turn, I want you to draw three cards and then follow the animal move you see on the card and show the rest of the group. Do you think you can follow these animal moves? (Pause.) Okay, let s go! After the activity: You did a great job following these animals moves on our cards today. Awesome! Do you know who else you can follow? (Pause.) That s right! Jesus! Who can you follow? I can follow Jesus.
ACTIVITY 4 Leave the Net Leave the Net is an activity that allows the children to reenact the Bible lesson. What You Need: Parachute, and plush toy fish During the Activity: Spread the parachute out and allow each child to grab a piece to hold. Toss the fish onto the parachute and have the children bring their arms up and down to make them bounce. Say, Leave the net and follow me, and have the children drop the parachute and walk away. After the Activity: Repeat several times. Before the Activity: Let's be fishermen! Everyone grab hold of the net, and we can catch our fish! During the Activity: Here we go! Everyone raise your hands up (parachute will go up) and now down (parachute will go down). (Continue with the movements.) In our lesson today Jesus told the fishermen to leave their nets and follow Him. So when I say, Leave your nets and follow me, drop the net and walk away. Are you ready? (Pause.) Leave your nets and follow me. (Children should drop the parachute and walk away.) Great job! Let's do it again! After the Activity: Jesus teaches us that we should always follow Him. God sent Him to us so that He could be our friend forever! Who can you follow? I can follow Jesus!
ACTIVITY 5 4 s/5 s Follow Me Follow Me is an activity that teaches concentration and following directions. What You Need: No supplies needed Before the Activity: Have the children stand in a circle. (Divide the children into small groups with one leader per group so that more children will get an opportunity to play quickly.) During the Activity: Select one child to go first. Have that child clap her hands. The child next to her should do the first child's movement and add her own (ex: clap, stomp). The next child in the circle should do both movements then add her own (ex: clap, stomp, fist pump). Go as far you can with out messing up. When a child forgets a movement start over with that child. Start with clapping again. Continue to see how far the children can get without having to start over. Before the Activity: Can you do what I do? (Clap your hands once.) Great job! I like how you were listening and following directions. During the Activity: I want you to continue listening because your friends are going to do movements and you have to watch and listen closely so that you can remember them. (Pick child to go first.) Clap your hands. (Child claps.) (To the next child in line) You now will clap your hands and do something else like stomp your feet. (Allow the child to do the movements.) Nice! (To the next child in line) Now it is your turn. You do both of their movements and you may add something else. (Continue around the circle until someone messes up.) Uh-oh! That is okay. Let's begin again! (Start with child that messed up.) Clap your hands. (Continue with activity.) After the Activity: You all did a very good job trying to follow each other s movements. Sometimes it is difficult to follow. Today in our lesson we heard about people who followed someone very special. Do you remember who they were?
CRAFT WK 1 Memory Verse Picture Frame Memory Verse Picture Frame is an activity that uses fine motor and listening skills as they make a take home craft that reviews today s memory verse. What You Need: Picture Frame, stickers (4 s and 5 s) or stampers (2 s and 3 s), magnets and memory verse. Have the children decorate the picture frame with stickers or stampers. Before the activity: Today we are going to begin learning our new Memory Verse and WOW is it a Good one! Are you ready! Repeat after me! (Say a couple of words of the verse at a time, allowing the children to echo. Do this several times and then begin saying the verse different ways together.) We are going to make a picture frame with our memory verse inside that you can take home and look at through out the month.
CRAFT - WK 2 Spread the Love Spread the Love is an activity that reintroduces the Bible lesson while children use their fine motor skills to squish and spread dot marker paint on their paper. What You Need: Spread from the Activity Pages found on the Website, cardstock, dot markers, wet wipes, and a marker Before the Activity: Copy Spread on cardstock, one per child. Fold papers in half. During the Activity: Allow children to dot marker the inside of the paper heart as you talk about the Bible lesson. Once they are done, fold the papers together and reopen the papers to show the kids what their completed heart looks like. (If the children do not want their papers folded it is ok to sent them home as is.) Write children s names on their papers and set aside to dry. After the Activity: Say the Bottom Line together. Before the Activity: What a great Bible lesson we heard today! We learned that God sent Jesus to tell everyone that He loves them. During the Activity: Look on your paper. (Unfold the paper.) What do you see? (Pause.) A heart! That s right! We are going to decorate the inside of our hearts with dot makers and fold it back. Now rub your hand over your paper. (Pause.) God sent Jesus to be our friend forever. Jesus told the fishermen that He had a job for them. Jesus wanted them to help Him tell others that God loves them. We are to spread the love. Open up the papers and show the kids what spreading God s love looks like. (Pause.) Isn t that neat?! We can spread the news to everybody that God loves them! (Write names on papers and set them aside.) After the Activity: Who can you follow? I can follow Jesus. Say it again. I can follow Jesus.
SMALL GROUP Small Group Time What you Need: Parent Take Home Card, Playdoh, Rolling Pins, Heart Shaped Cookie Cutters and Sticker Roll SMALL GROUP LEADER (SGL): Raise your hand if you like Playdoh. (Pause and raise your own hand.) I do too! Today, I have some really special cookie cutters we can play with. Can you tell me what shape they are? (Pause) You are right! They are shaped like a heart. What are some other words for a heart? (Pause) Love! You are right and do you know that God sent Jesus to do a very important job because He loves us. God wanted the whole world to know that He loves them the whole world! That means EVERY person. Every boy and girl, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa EVERYONE! Jesus could have done it all by Himself, but He asked some friends to follow Him and help Him show the world how much God loves them. And that s exactly what they did! Let s make some hearts while we talk about our lesson. (pass out Playdoh, cookie cutters and rollers) Guess what happened next? More people began following Jesus! They followed Him everywhere! This was a very good thing, because Jesus knew He would be leaving soon. He wanted His friends to keep loving God and loving people after He was gone so EVERYONE in the whole world would know that God loves them. When we follow Jesus we can help the whole world know how much God loves them! That s right! You can follow Jesus too! Who can you follow? I can follow Jesus. Our friends can follow Jesus! Our families can follow Jesus! People all over the world can follow Jesus! Let s make some more hearts and list all the people we can tell to follow Jesus. (It can be a friend, neighbor, someone in our family, anyone) Ok, it s time to review our lesson. I am going to ask you some questions and you will get a sticker for answering them. I have some really cool sticker today. Are you ready? (Pause) Great! (Ask the children the questions from the Parent Take Home Cards. You can also make up additional questions from our video lesson. Don t forget to ask them to say their memory verse for another sticker. You can repeat the same questions over and over as repetition is good for preschoolers.) You are such great listeners! Now I ll pray before it s time to say goodbye until next week. (Read the prayer on the back of the Parent Take Home Card. )