A Teaching Guide for the Booklet by Marcia Stoner
A Teaching Guide for the Booklet Copyright 2011 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. Permission is granted to print and duplicate this free downloadable teaching guide for local church use only. Written by Marcia Stoner Production Editor: Janet Patterson Karns Designer: Keitha Vincent ISBN 978-1-426-73537-0 PACP00921316-01
A Teaching Guide for the Booklet Before the class arrives: Decide if you will cover this material in one or two sessions. Arrival activity (5 minutes) Call each student by name and check in with them. How are things going? (This is the most important part of your lesson.) Write the letters of the word ADVENT on index cards, one letter per card. Mix up the letters and ask tweens to arrange them into a word. (If your tweens know ADVENT well, then add three random letters and tell them three letters don t belong in the word, but don t say which ones.) What Is Advent? (5 minutes) Pass out the booklets and pencils, asking tweens to complete the puzzle on page 4. Together read What Is? on page 5. Use Your Bibles (10 minutes) Divide students into two teams. Ask one team to work the He Said It puzzle on page 6 and the other team to work the And He Said It puzzle on page 7. Have each team read their Scriptures and the correct Scripture references aloud, alternating between Old Testament and New Testament readings. Have the same two teams race to see which team can complete the puzzle on page 9 to discover just some of the names for the Messiah. Name That Tradition Game (5 minutes) Divide tweens into two teams, giving each team a bell, buzzer, or noisemaker. Explain that you will give clues one at a time about an Advent tradition (no more than five clues per tradition). When team thinks they know what the tradition is, a team member is to ring the bell or buzzer (or use the noise maker). The team ringing the bell will be given one chance to name the tradition. If the answer is correct, the team gets one point. If incorrect, one point is subtracted and the opposite team gets to hear the rest of the clues. Use the information on pages 11 and 12 to give clues about those three traditions. Other traditions might be the Nativity set, Christmas cantata, Christmas play (all come before Christmas), or any tradition that your church has, such as a specific mission project. What Is Advent? A Teaching Guide for the Booklet 3
A Teaching Guide for the Booklet If you are going to do two sessions, this is a good stopping point. Depending upon when you are doing the session, choose one of the Advent worship possibilities from the booklet (pages 15-18) and close with that worship. For the second session choose a second Advent worship with which to close. Sacred/Secular Toss (10 minutes) To prepare, gather old newspaper or other used paper for paper wads and bring in three wastebaskets, buckets, or other containers. Label one container OF GOD, label another OF WORLD, and label the third EITHER. (Label at least two sides of each container.) Together read the definitions of sacred and secular on page 20. Explain that celebrating the time of Advent and Christmas with both sacred and secular activities is just fine. However, the sacred (of God) things and experiences need to be central to how we celebrate the birth of the Savior. Directions for play: Place containers in center of room and have children form a circle around them. Give each participant a paper wad. You will read out a list of things that are associated with Christmas celebrations (list is on page 21 of the booklet). As you read an item they are each to decide if it s of God, of the world, or if it could be either. They are each to vote by tossing ONE paper wad into whichever container has that label. After each toss, remove the wads and tally them. (Have each tween retrieve a paper wad for the next round.) If more participants got one wrong than right, take time to talk about it. If at any time there are votes for both, ask them to explain how it could be OF GOD and how it could be OF THE WORLD. (Example: candy cane the candy cane is OF GOD because it originated as the symbol of the visit of the shepherds to the stable. It can be OF THE WORLD because many people think of it as just pretty colored candy.) Make Your Own Advent Calendar (15 minutes) Ask students about what types of Advent calendars they have seen (calendars that count down the number of days until Christmas). Explain that there is another kind of Advent calendar. That is a calendar that counts down the days of Advent by reminding you to do something that prepares your heart for the coming of the Savior. (See pages 22-25 in the booklet.) 4 What Is Advent? A Teaching Guide for the Booklet
A Teaching Guide for the Booklet Who Is Jesus? (5 minutes) Ask students to color the puzzle on page 29 to discover what Jesus has to do with Christmas. Explain that the Messiah is the Savior God sends to bring us back to a right relationship with God. Christians believe that Jesus is that Messiah. That s the whole point of Christmas: celebrating the birth of the Messiah. Encourage the students to read and do the rest of the activities in their booklet at home. For more information see the following resources: Seasons of Faith, by Marcia Stoner (Abingdon Press, 2004). Provides information, activities, and reproducible patterns for all seasons of the church year. For intergenerational use, but most appropriate for eight- to twelve-year-olds. Paperback, $17.00; ISBN-13: 978-0-687-03736-0 Symbols of Faith, by Marcia Stoner (Abingdon Press, 2001). Provides information, activities, and reproducible patterns for Christian symbols. For intergenerational use, but most appropriate for eight- to twelve-year-olds. Paperback, $18.00; ISBN-13: 978-0-687-09475-2 What Is Advent? A Teaching Guide for the Booklet 5