Sunday School - May 16 and 23rd

Friends! We are wrapping up our Sunday School year! 

Our last Sunday School before we break for the summer will be May 23. 

We will be concluding our Sunday School zoom sessions by exploring the stories of The Ascension of Jesus and Pentecost.  Below are links to all the scriptures and some videos we will be sharing. I encourage you to grab a Bible and read through the scriptures together!  If you have a children's story Bible at home - grab that and read it together. During our zoom sessions, I will be sharing the stories using the Spark Story Bible and Children of God Storybook Bible by Desmond Tutu. 

I will also be sharing the YouTube videos linked below. These stories are from the Jesus Storybook Bible.

(Although these videos are uncredited, I believe the videos are from the curriculumn kit that goes along with the Bible  by Sally Lloyd-Jones and Sam Shammas, illustrated by Jago, and narrated by David Suchet.)

May 16 - The Ascension of Jesus

Scripture to read together: 

Luke 24:44-53

Going Home 

Coloring Sheet 

May 23 - Pentecost

Scripture to read together: 

Acts 2

 

God Sends Help

 

Coloring Sheet 

Sunday School - May 9, 2021

 In today's scripture, we are going to be hearing about Peter and Cornelius. Our passage today is Acts 10: 44-48.

Before the story: 

Share the picture and discuss what you see.

Color pack 21

Discuss: Can you tell about something that you were not permitted to do, or something you were allowed to and others were not?

 

Scripture Story: 

Today’s scripture is about Peter and Cornelius. 

Read Scripture from the Story Sheet or read together Acts 10: 44-48

We’ve been talking about the disciples and apostles. Apostles were people that followed the teachings of Jesus.  One apostle who was an important leader in the early church was Peter. Today’s story is about Peter and a man named Cornelius.

As we listen to our story, listen for a way that people were using a rule, a kind of measure, to keep some people from being part of the church.

Story Sheet 

Color pack 22 

Questions for after the story and about the picture above: 

• Who are the people in this picture?

• What do you think is happening?

• In the story, what happened before this scene?

• What happened after it?

• What title would you give this picture?

More questions about the story: 

• What surprising things did Peter learn in this event?

• Who was welcomed in the story?

• What do you think it means that “God loves and accepts everyone”?

• Can you name all the people in this story who welcomed someone?

• How did each of them welcome someone?

• How can you welcome people at school? At church? At your home? In your

community?

 Coloring Sheet: 

 

Storybook to share: 

“Wolfie the Bunny” by Ame Dykman

“We All Sing With the Same Voice”

"The Big Orange Splot" by Daniel Manus Pinkwater

Today’s Time for Children: 

 

Sunday School - May 2, 2021

Today's scripture is from the Gospel of John and we will hear about how Jesus uses the image of the vine and the branches.  (John 15: 1-8)

 

Before the story: 

Begin the exploration of this passage by talking about grapes. How do they grow? Where do they come from?  Jesus always used things that people knew about in his teachings. So, if we were alive and lived around where Jesus traveled and taught, you would know about grapes. 

Scripture Story: 

 

Read Scripture from the Story Sheet or read together John 15: 1-8

Questions to ask after the story: 

• How does Jesus describe himself in this story?

• How does he describe God?

• How does he describe the people who believe in and follow him?

(We are the branches that grow the fruit. If we aren’t attached to the vine what happens to the branches - we can’t grow grapes!) 

• What can we do to stay attached and stay close to Jesus?  

Story Activity:

Print out the picture below and together write the names of people that you know they know from our church family into the grapes on the picture as a visual picture of our congregation and how we are all connected.  

 Coloring Sheet: 

 

Videos to Share:

How Grapes Grow

The Grapes

 

Storybook to Share: 

"The Imaginary Garden" by Andrew Larson

Sunday School - April 25, 2021

With today's scripture, we are going to be hearing about Jesus as the Good Shepherd. Our passage today is John 10: 11-18.  

Before the story: 

Ask: Whose voice did you recognize right away - without being able to see them? 

Watch this video together and see how many of the voices you can recognize: 

Today our scripture is about shepherds and sheep.

Questions to ask:

• Do you think a sheep needs to be able to recognize the shepherd's voice? 
• If you have a pet - do they recognize your voice? 
• What do you know about shepherds? 

Share the photo below and share and discuss the Shepherd Facts from the resource sheet:

 

Scripture Story: 

Today’s scripture is about Jesus talking to his followers and describing himself as the Good Shepherd. 

Read Scripture from the Story Sheet or read together John 10: 11-18

Questions to ask after the story: 

• What does a good shepherd do?

• Why does the sheep owner take better care of the sheep than someone hired to care for them?

• Why did Jesus call himself a “good shepherd”?

• We talked earlier about the sheep recognizing the shepherd's voice.  How do we recognize Jesus? How do we recognize God’s voice in the world? 

Share the photo below. Explain that many artists have portrayed Jesus as the Good Shepherd.

Invite the children to look at this photo carefully. Ask:

• What did this artist do to show Jesus, the Good Shepherd?

• How do you think Jesus is a good shepherd for us?

 

Here are some options to do this week at home: 

Bible Readings:   Read together these scriptures which are stories about how Jesus was a Good Shepherd.

Psalm 23
Luke 15:2–7 

Matthew 15:32–39 
Luke 8:22–25 
John 5:1–9
Matthew 8:14–1 

Shape Poem:

Putting their thoughts into words will help the children think about Jesus,

the Good Shepherd, and how to relate to him. Encourage the children to use their

imagination as they write poetry. Ask them to think of themselves as sheep and name some things they might say about Jesus, their Good Shepherd, or to Jesus. Provide

scrap paper for the children to write some thoughts before composing the shape poem.

Explain that they will write their poem in the shape of a sheep. 

Coloring Sheet

 

Story Book to Share: 

Betsy Who Cried Wolf by Gail Carson Levine, illustrated by Scott Nash

 

 

 

This week’s Time for Children: 

Scripture: Acts 4: 5-12

Sunday School - April 18, 2020

With today's scripture, we are going to be hearing about what was happening with the followers of Jesus after the resurrection. 

Before the story, ask children to tell about someone they haven’t seen in a while and that they miss. 

How will you feel when you see that person again? 

Scripture Story: 

Today’s story has two parts.

Here is the first part of the story from the Spark Story Bible.  (Page 280-281) (Luke 24: 13-35)

(Screen share and read story)

Spark story Page 1

 

Spark story Page 2

 

Questions to ask after the story: 

• What was your favorite part of the story?

• Why do you think that the followers didn’t recognize Jesus?

• What was Jesus doing when they recognized him? 

• How do you recognize a friend? By hair color? Eye color? Voice?

• How do we remember people who are important to us? 

So, what do you think happens next? Let’s read the next part of the scripture passage to find out.  Read Luke 24: 36b-48

A few more questions to ask after the story: 

• Why do you think they were frightened when they just saw him on the road?

• Why did Jesus eat with them? 

• How would you feel if you saw Jesus?

Story Activity:

Video to share:  Share the following cartoon version of the story and talk about how it is or isn’t different from what we just read. 

Coloring sheets to share: 

Eating with Cleopas 

 

Road to Emmaus

Wrap-up: Prayer (ask for prayer concerns) and close in prayer. 

This week’s Time for Children: 

https://youtu.be/HHafq5K3SwM

Sunday School - April 11, 2021

This week's lesson is from the Acts of the Apostles and is a story of the disciples in Jerusalem in the days after Jesus' resurrection and ascension.

Today's Scripture - Read the NRSV version here: 

Acts 4: 32-35

Today’s Bible story is about being generous.

Invite children to tell a story about this picture. What do you think is happening in this picture?

Share the Story:

Story Sheet

Questions to ask after the story: 

• How are the stories you told the picture like the Bible story?

• How did the people care for each other in the Bible story?

• At the end of the story, the believers in Jesus were called generous people. What do

you think generous means? A simple definition of generosity is “showing kindness and concern for others.” In the Bible story, the people shared what they had to help others.

• How can we be generous today?

Story Activities:

Generous Acts:  These stories will help children imagine how generosity is beyond giving

money. Read the stories from Resource Sheet 3  to the kids and ask them to suggest what they might be able to do in response.

Generosity Mural:  Children will imagine ways that the church today is or can be

generous to persons in need. On a large sheet or several pieces of paper taped together, have the kids draw an outline of your church building that takes up most of the space. Ask the kids to fill in the picture of the church with small drawings of ways that the church is generous to others. 

 

Storybook to share:

"Should I Share My Ice Cream?" By Mo Willems

This week’s Time for Children: