Song of Solomon

VBS is over. Now we're on to our regular Bible classes. Today is the last day of the quarter. We've been studying the books of poetry. Because our monthly Wednesday evening singing is this Wednesday night, I just get one class session to teach these kids about Song of Solomon.

This quarter we memorized Psalm 100 and Psalm 127. We also are learning to recognize some key passages and which book of poetry they belong in. You may remember the wall decoration we had where the kids put the phrase or verse in the correct poetry book. Here's a picture of it:



I thought it would be fun to test the adults out there on this so I scoured the internet to find a way to make an online multiple choice quiz. If you would like, click the link and see just how much you know about the books of poetry.

How Well Do You Know The Books Of Poetry » Quizzes


Lesson Plan:

Marriage: To make sure this activity goes smoothly, we need to jump right in there and do it at the beginning of class. This idea came out of the Shaping Hearts for God curriculum and from a friend on Facebook. Each child will have 2 paper dolls. We have some of the die cut people in the resource room to use for this. We'll talk about God's plan for marriage going back to the beginning (Genesis) to find out what His plan is. I'll let each child glue their couple together -- either holding hands or with their arms around each other. As these dry, we'll continue on with our lesson

Bible Facts: The kids have had the opportunity to view all the Bible facts in the light boxes. We'll review today. This was a great activity that was a challenge to get started but once it was up and running was something they looked forward to every class.

Psalm 127: We'll review this and let anyone that hasn't gotten to say it all the way through by themselves do so.

Song of Solomon: We'll read parts of chapter 2 (most of the phrases to be put on the wall come this chapter) and chapters 4 and 5. These 2 chapters are the ones where they are describing each other. We'll talk a little about the descriptions and the language used.

Books of Poetry Activity: Let them take turns reading the cards with the poetry phrases on them and choose which book they belong in. This is the first time they will be doing this with all 5 books.

Bible Facts Light Boxes: Quickly go through the questions from the previous Bible facts.

Marriage again: All this time, the couple they glued together should be on the table in front of them. Talk about marriage again. Then we'll talk about divorce and how much God hates divorce. Read Malachi 2:16. Briefly talk about some of the problems arise when a couple chooses to divorce. Then let them "divorce" their couple by tearing them apart. This should leave some damaged paper dolls. Hopefully the message that divorce is not good will be driven home.

Sing: Let them choose their favorite songs. Since we just finished VBS this may include some of those songs as well.

Review Memory Work: If there is time, review Psalms 23, 100 or 127

Prayer

VBS -- Remember Your Creator -- Friday

It's the last day of our VBS. It has been a lot of fun as well as a lot of work. Danny was looking through some old VBS song books he had put together. It was interesting to see the topics we've studied in the past. I think the earliest he came across was 1991. Back then we were buying packaged curriculum. The curriculum available years ago was actually pretty good stuff. Then, things changed. It seemed like all of the publishers were competing to see who could have the most exciting, fun-filled VBS. Many of themes I've seen published had to be looked through deeply to find any Bible being taught. So, we started writing our own. Basically, Danny comes up with a theme with a few scriptures and objectives and then tells the teachers to go for it. Our teachers have always worked very hard and the students come away with lessons that just can't be found in modern packaged VBS curricula. I'm very proud of our teachers and the work they put into this. It is not only good for the students. It is good for the teacher as well. It is a known fact that the teacher always learns more than the student does.

Tomorrow's lesson is on Timothy. Timothy was chosen because as a young boy his mother and grandmother taught him about God. He later went on to become a teacher of God's word to many other people. He's a great example for our young people to follow. My class will be talking about how thankful we should be to the people that teach us about God. Whether it's our parents or grandparents or teachers or whoever, we need to realize what a gift they have given us. We'll also talk about how we can teach others like Timothy did. Now, I know that 5 and 6 year olds are a little young to be having Bible studies with their friends, they can begin thinking now that teaching others is something they will want to do later.

As I sit here typing at 12:30 AM I just realized that I forgot to do a project for tomorrow. Unless I wake up early to do it, I guess it will have to wait for another class time. I'm sure we'll have plenty to do tomorrow as it is.

Lesson Plan:

Attendance Chart: Each child will add Timothy to the chart

Creation Bulletin board: I'll let them add as many of the animals that are left as they want to.

Activities Room: We go to the activities room about 10:30.

Memory Work: Pass out Memory booklets. "Read" the passage with them. They should be able to say the whole verse by now. Most of them have 3 stickers already. The 4th one will complete the picture of their animal.

Song: We'll sing the Remember Your Creator song about Timothy.

Introduction to Timothy: Pass our Timothy books. The first activity in the book is to draw a picture of someone that has taught them about God.

Tell Story of Josiah: We will read the story of Timothy from their little books.

Timothy Puzzle: This is an eight piece puzzle I made using one of the pictures in the little book. It goes into the pocket inside the front cover.

Sing: Thank You This song is a mouthful. We worked on it Thursday so they are a little familiar with it.

Blacklight story: I've been wanting to show this one to them for the past couple of days. I will make time for it today.

Get Ready To Go: Pass out back packs and let them start filling it with their stuff they did this week. Pass out each book and remind them briefly about the story. Pass out the memory booklet and see if they say the verse from memory again. Pass out the pillow cases. Pass out the attendance charts (these will have to be folded to fit in the back pack) and the attendance certificates.

Pictures: Take a group picture

Songs: Let the students choose their favorite song to sing.

VBS -- Remember Your Creator -- Thursday

Josiah is the lesson for today. Josiah is a great example of a young man standing up to the establishment of his day and doing things God's way. My class will be concentrating on the respect Josiah had for God's word once he found it.

This lesson is not as easy as the others to prepare for because there just isn't that much available out there in the way of visual aids. One of the problems we run up against making our own VBS curriculum is the lack of visual aids. I know that most teachers are like myself and scour the internet for material to use. We have a few good sources of visuals in our resource room and this year, Danny (my husband) put his artistic skills to good use and drew pictures of the Bible characters we are studying. Now if I could get him to do that all the time, I'd have it made.

I plan on doing the "big" art project today. I had the kids draw a picture of themselves on Monday. Then, the ones that can copy are going to copy the phrase from Samuel "Speak Lord, I'm listening". Tonight I plan to go over their pictures and copy work with a sharpie, scan them in the computer and print them with iron-on stuff so I can iron them onto a pillow case. I have placed a square of contact paper to the middle of their white pillow cases where I am going to iron on their picture. Today, they will spray around the contact paper and wherever else they want on the pillow case with fabric spray paint. Tomorrow they will have a pillow case they decorated that hopefully will remind them of our lesson about Samuel and how listened to God.


Lesson Plan:

Attendance Chart: Each child will add Josiah to the chart

Creation Bulletin board: Our bulletin board is beginning to look like something now.

Creation Stickers: Light blue paper with birds. This will be the last of these sticker pages to do and will go in their memory book with the rest of them.

Activities Room: We go to the activities room about 10:30.

Memory Work: Pass out Memory booklets. "Read" the passage with them. Allow them to copy the passage. The activity today is to learn to say thank you by spelling it out in sign language.

Song: Introduce the theme song for the week: Remember Your Creator. This is a song I wrote. There are 2 verses that will be sung everyday and then each day a verse dedicated to the Bible character we're studying about will be included. We'll sing the Josiah verse today. Click here to listen to a recording of Remember Your Creator In The Days Of Your Youth -- Josiah.

Introduction to Josiah: Pass our Josiah books. Today we will be learning about respecting God's word and how a young king destroyed all the idols and people that were involved in worshiping those idols. The activities on the first page are to help them know the difference in God's book and man's books. There are pictures of stories we learn from the Bible and stories we read in picture books -- Noah, Creation, Baby Jesus, Little Bear, Clifford, Madeline. They will decide if the pictures go under the "God's Book" column or the "Man's Book" column. The 2nd activity is similar but there are pockets with actual pictures of book covers from books like Corduroy, Harry The Dirty Dog, etc. There is a little book made of black construction paper with white paper stapled inside to represent the Bible. The ones that would like will get to write GOD inside their "Bible".

Tell Story of Josiah: We will read the story of Josiah from their little books.

Sing: Josiah

Review Memory Work: Go over the memory verse either with their booklets or just by memory. Today they should be able to put their third sticker on the back of their books. Some of them can tell what their pictures are already. Some will need to wait until the last sticker is in place.

Samuel Pillowcase: Go outside and paint the pillowcases. I live next door to the church building and I have a clothes line in the backyard. We will be hanging the pillowcases from the clothesline to paint and to dry.

Blacklight story: If there is time use the blacklight flip chart about things God made.

One last song: If there is time I'll introduce a new song to them called Thank You. It is intended to be sung on Friday, but it is long with lots of words and fun to sing so we'll start it today -- if there is time.