Abraham Day 1: A Happy Promise
- Materials:
- Bible – I like the NIrV (New International Reader’s Version). It’s a 3rd grade reading level and reads easily for small children.
- We are using the Say & Pray Baby Bible and/or The Jesus Storybook Bible (but any children’s Bible with illustrations would work)
- Contact paper sheet taped to a wall sticky side out
- Foam or paper stars
- Toilet Paper binoculars
- Day 1: Lesson & Activities
- Open Bible to Genesis 15:5-6. Ask if child wants to touch God’s Word. Touch gently. Then, read verses 5-6 straight from the Bible.
- Abraham believed God’s promise – clap and cheer
Sing while doing the different parts of the activity (Tune: Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush) God made a promise to Abraham, to Abraham, to Abraham. God made a promise to Abraham, and this is how it went: Your family will be so big, be so big, be so big. Your family will be so big, as many as the stars!
Activity:
- Prep: Tape a piece of contact paper to the wall using painter’s tape sticky-side out: First, peel the backing away from one corner to reveal the sticky side and place a piece of painter’s tape across it to tape the corner down. Repeat for the remaining corners. Once I have the corners done, I like to run tape along each edge because Katelyn tends to want to peel the entire sticky wall down. Place foam (or paper) stars on sticky contact paper sheet on the wall.
- I put as many stars as I could fit, so she would get the idea that it’s impossible to count the stars!
- Then I covered the stars with the back of the contact paper sheet and pushed a table in front to hide the sticky wall until it was time to pull them off during the lesson.
- Make a pair of toilet paper binoculars beforehand by taping together two toilet paper tubes.
- Look at stars through TP binoculars.
- Before revealing the wall of stars, I put Katelyn up on a couch opposite the wall. We peeked through the binoculars to see if we could see any stars. No stars!
- Then, I pulled the sheet off to see all the stars. Katelyn wasn’t too interested in peeking through the binoculars at that point. She slid off the couch and ran over to the stars.
- Count the stars and remove them from the contact paper. I started counting and then got distracted. But Katelyn could see that there were so many stars! I sang the song (see below picture) several times while she had fun pulling stars off the sticky wall.
Children’s Bible Reading (Look & Find):
- Open children’s Bible and read story (I like the Say and Pray Bible since the story is 1-2 sentences in length).
- Find the stars and point to them! Peek through binoculars or TP tube. I have some cut pieces of TP tube that I use to focus Katelyn on certain things in pictures. As I move the circle around the page, she follows with her eyes. It has been a fun way to help Katelyn focus on a specific part of the picture.
- Find Abraham.
Read Psalm 67:6, God, our God, blesses us.
- Exploration:
- For today’s lesson playtime, I added other items for Katelyn to experiment with on her sticky wall: pencils, ballpit balls, TP tubes… She brought some heavier plastic balls, but they were too heavy to stick. The binoculars also were too heavy.
Don’t forget to close in prayer! It’s such a precious time. Katelyn was running out of the room when I asked her if she’d like to come sit with Mommy to pray. She turned around and came running onto my lap. We hugged, sang our prayer song, and prayed together to close the lesson.
- Note on fitting in the lessons:
- I’ve been organizing these toddler lessons into 5 days. But rarely are those 5 days consecutive Monday-Friday. Last week we started the lessons on a Saturday, and this week we started on Sunday. There have been times I’ve started in the middle of the week, and other times that we’ve skipped multiple days in between. While completing the lessons consecutively one day after the other is ideal, it’s not always possible because things come up. There have also been days where I’ve stretched out a single day’s lesson over 2 or even more days.
- My favorite time of day for Bible Time is right after breakfast. We get dressed for the day and then start off with our focused lesson. Katelyn is the freshest at that time of day, and it’s nice to start off with something structured. I’ve found that when I’ve spend a considerable amount of focused time playing with Katelyn or doing activities with her (where I’m not distracted by my phone or household chores), then she’s ready to explore independently for a bit after that.
- If for some reason we can’t fit Bible Time in after breakfast, my other favorite time is in the afternoon right after her nap. Again, it seems like a nice way to start off her awake time and is good to spend one-on-one time together.