If you have the time, be sure and watch this (it's 30 minutes). I can guarantee you'll be entertained! The post before this one goes into a little more detail describing it. This unit in our curriculum is about understanding the Old and New Testaments. The objective is that the students will be able to give a one or two sentence description of each testament and how they fit together. Our hope with this song is that we'll be able to record it and then use it from week to week to help the kids get it down. What I love about the song Rocky created is that he used so many songs that are relevant to the kids for the tunes... Sponge Bob Square Pants, Dora the Explorer, The Little Mermaid, and so many more. Not to mention several only the adults would recognize!
The Old Testament in Song from Morning Star Church on Vimeo.
Showing posts with label preteen ministry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preteen ministry. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Old Testament in Song--Short Version
This Sunday was a large group week. We asked Rocky Wing (who was once the 2nd-5th grade director and now is one of our worship pastors) to teach the entire Old Testament. Jared had already done all the research and gave him an outline. We thought a song would be a good method for teaching, so the kids would retain it well. We also gave him the Animaniac's song about the presidents for inspiration. This is the short version of what he came up with. I'll post the full version a little later (as soon as it's done uploading). Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Unit 2 is Done!
I finished formatting Unit 2 for the curriculum today. Good timing considering the unit starts in 2 weeks. The majority of the work was done back in August when we did all our planning. I held off on finalizing it, though, until now because we wanted to make sure the format actually worked in Unit 1.
It's been an interesting process for me. I've spent the last few weeks analyzing, watching, talking with my husband about what he observes, questioning kids, finding feedback wherever I can get it. The problem with this, I've found, is I've focused so much on each individual lesson that I forgot about our big picture. While I heard stories about how our kids were starting to really think about what the Bible says, that they were reading their Bibles at home, and that our lessons were sticking, I felt discouraged that we weren't being relevant enough to a child's everyday life. Our lessons felt very academic.
But today, as I typed in the final lesson for Unit 2, I was reminded of the grand scheme of things... the over all picture... how it all fits together. The first half of our curriculum has been laying a foundation for what the rest of the year will bring. Unit 1 was necessary to the implementation of Unit 2. We needed to tell them why we study the Bible before we taught them how to study the Bible. They needed to know the layout of the Bible to understand that the Old Testament looks forward to the promise God made about bringing a savior for the world while the New Testament shows the fulfillment of God's promise.
As I typed the conclusion of Unit 2, and an invitation to salvation, I realized what an incredible experience this could be for our kids. So many of them accepted Jesus as their forever friend years ago. Some even have made a point to "see how many times they can do it" (despite being reminded that you only have to accept Jesus once). The majority of our kids accepted salvation with beautiful, innocent faith. Through the lessons in Unit 2, they'll get to see more of the why behind their acceptance. They're finally at an age where the wages of sin are real to them... death is something they understand. For once, the separation between them and God is tangible.
My hope through this unit is that not only will they gain the intellectual knowledge to distinguish between the Old and New Testaments and be able to explain how they fit together, but to also grasp a deeper understanding of what salvation is and why it is so important. Once this is achieved, then we can truly look (in unit 3) at the personal side of their relationship with the Lord. We can look at what sins they're struggling with and that God forgives them, as well as provide them with tools for resistance. We can understand the purpose of worship. See the need for fellowship. And finally, in Unit 4 we'll be able to help them take a deeper look at who they are in Christ--develop testimonies, learn about spiritual gifts and find out how we fit into the church.
I find myself even more excited for this curriculum than I was back in August when we initially prayed over and developed it. Last week, as I walked around our new modular unit, tears came to my eyes. What we're doing in teaching these students is so much bigger than lesson plans. It's greater than a new classroom building. It surpasses any personal achievement our team may have in the writing of it. Young hearts are maturing in their love for the Lord. Young minds are gaining insight, intelligence and information to withstand opposition as they grow older. I feel so much hope for these kids--they can be the future leaders of our church, our community, our country. They will grow up someday and teach their children the ways of the Lord. We're impacting generations.
This is so much bigger than just one lesson at a time. There is a big picture, and isn't it grand?
It's been an interesting process for me. I've spent the last few weeks analyzing, watching, talking with my husband about what he observes, questioning kids, finding feedback wherever I can get it. The problem with this, I've found, is I've focused so much on each individual lesson that I forgot about our big picture. While I heard stories about how our kids were starting to really think about what the Bible says, that they were reading their Bibles at home, and that our lessons were sticking, I felt discouraged that we weren't being relevant enough to a child's everyday life. Our lessons felt very academic.
But today, as I typed in the final lesson for Unit 2, I was reminded of the grand scheme of things... the over all picture... how it all fits together. The first half of our curriculum has been laying a foundation for what the rest of the year will bring. Unit 1 was necessary to the implementation of Unit 2. We needed to tell them why we study the Bible before we taught them how to study the Bible. They needed to know the layout of the Bible to understand that the Old Testament looks forward to the promise God made about bringing a savior for the world while the New Testament shows the fulfillment of God's promise.
As I typed the conclusion of Unit 2, and an invitation to salvation, I realized what an incredible experience this could be for our kids. So many of them accepted Jesus as their forever friend years ago. Some even have made a point to "see how many times they can do it" (despite being reminded that you only have to accept Jesus once). The majority of our kids accepted salvation with beautiful, innocent faith. Through the lessons in Unit 2, they'll get to see more of the why behind their acceptance. They're finally at an age where the wages of sin are real to them... death is something they understand. For once, the separation between them and God is tangible.
My hope through this unit is that not only will they gain the intellectual knowledge to distinguish between the Old and New Testaments and be able to explain how they fit together, but to also grasp a deeper understanding of what salvation is and why it is so important. Once this is achieved, then we can truly look (in unit 3) at the personal side of their relationship with the Lord. We can look at what sins they're struggling with and that God forgives them, as well as provide them with tools for resistance. We can understand the purpose of worship. See the need for fellowship. And finally, in Unit 4 we'll be able to help them take a deeper look at who they are in Christ--develop testimonies, learn about spiritual gifts and find out how we fit into the church.
I find myself even more excited for this curriculum than I was back in August when we initially prayed over and developed it. Last week, as I walked around our new modular unit, tears came to my eyes. What we're doing in teaching these students is so much bigger than lesson plans. It's greater than a new classroom building. It surpasses any personal achievement our team may have in the writing of it. Young hearts are maturing in their love for the Lord. Young minds are gaining insight, intelligence and information to withstand opposition as they grow older. I feel so much hope for these kids--they can be the future leaders of our church, our community, our country. They will grow up someday and teach their children the ways of the Lord. We're impacting generations.
This is so much bigger than just one lesson at a time. There is a big picture, and isn't it grand?
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
We've started experimenting...
In the past, our fourth and fifth graders have been in a learning environment that spanned from kindergarten to fifth grade. For years we've felt like we weren't reaching our oldest elementary kids in the way they needed, but haven't known how to make a change. One year we had the fifth graders leave the room after worship and spend the rest of the service in small groups. The teaching came completely from their small group leader. While our leaders were amazing and did a great job with the kids, something was still missing for the fourth graders. This year we had the fourth and fifth graders be apart of worship and large group, but went to a different room for small group time (that way they'd feel recognized for their age and maturity). It's worked well on the small group side of things, but in regards to the teaching--in order to reach the kindergartners we miss the fourth and fifth graders, and in order to reach the fourth and fifth graders, we miss the kindergarten and first graders.
At the Conspire Conference this year, Aaron Reynolds talked about what it really means to know your audience while teaching, and to enter the world of your kids. It was convicting to be reminded of how much we're not doing for our older kids. But we knew we didn't have the resources or the people to pull off another program. I went to the workshop titled, "The Fourth Fifth Experiment." They talked about doing things differently--to really think out of the box when approaching the older elementary kids. David Rausch said, "The answer is not more, but different. Break our current thinking and look at it differently." He talked about how fourth and fifth graders are in an age of self discovery. They are tired of people talking at them and want to discover truth for themselves.
Mindy Stohms explained their new approach to our "tweeners," "What if, instead of stories, we taught them skills for reading the Bible? We don't want to give them a fish, we want to teach them to fish."
We left Chicago knowing we can create a ministry just for our fourth and fifth graders, and we can do it this fall. Jared Boltman (our Elementary Director), Jesse Eastes (working on completing a degree through Corban College and is doing this as his major project) and I have begun the process of creating Bridge 45--our late elementary ministry. We'll be posting what we learn, what we try and the details of our experiment. We're excited! We hope you'll join us on the journey!
At the Conspire Conference this year, Aaron Reynolds talked about what it really means to know your audience while teaching, and to enter the world of your kids. It was convicting to be reminded of how much we're not doing for our older kids. But we knew we didn't have the resources or the people to pull off another program. I went to the workshop titled, "The Fourth Fifth Experiment." They talked about doing things differently--to really think out of the box when approaching the older elementary kids. David Rausch said, "The answer is not more, but different. Break our current thinking and look at it differently." He talked about how fourth and fifth graders are in an age of self discovery. They are tired of people talking at them and want to discover truth for themselves.
Mindy Stohms explained their new approach to our "tweeners," "What if, instead of stories, we taught them skills for reading the Bible? We don't want to give them a fish, we want to teach them to fish."
We left Chicago knowing we can create a ministry just for our fourth and fifth graders, and we can do it this fall. Jared Boltman (our Elementary Director), Jesse Eastes (working on completing a degree through Corban College and is doing this as his major project) and I have begun the process of creating Bridge 45--our late elementary ministry. We'll be posting what we learn, what we try and the details of our experiment. We're excited! We hope you'll join us on the journey!
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