Key Concept. God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms].

Transcription

1 In the Beginning... Jumping into God s Story UNIT 1: Courage at the Fun Factory LESSON 4: Esther Key Concept God wants us to have courage. Bible Summary Esther 1 10 Esther was a Jew, chosen to be queen by King Ahasuerus. Her cousin Mordecai discovered a man named Haman was planning to kill all the Jews. Mordecai told Esther to ask the king to stop Haman. Even though the king could have had Esther killed for visiting him without an invitation, Esther had courage and went to the king. The king welcomed her, listened to her, and helped to save the Jews. Bible Verse I will strengthen you and help you. Isaiah 41:10b Objectives KNOW WHAT (LG): Children will hear the story of Esther and how she had courage to save her people, the Jews. SO WHAT (LG): Children will learn God helps us have courage to obey Him. NOW WHAT (SG): Children will review stories from the unit and identify ways they can have courage to obey. Spiritual Formation Courage and Obedience People Needed Teacher, Helper KEY CONCEPT MOTIONS: God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms]. Supplies and Visuals (Labeled items below can be found in the Lesson 4 Visual folder on the Summer Quarter CD.) CD player Music for singing Sound effects CD #1 The Beginner s Bible White lab coat covered with fun, colorful patches Child-sized robe and hat for Mordecai Child-sized dress or shawl and tiara for Esther Child-sized purple robe and/or crown for King Crayons For each child: Bible story review sheet (Lesson 4 LG 1) Bible story review book (Lesson 4 SG 2 Lesson 4 SG 10) Key Concept sticker (Lesson 4 SG 11) Take-home coloring sheet (two-sided) (Lesson 4 SG 12, Lesson 4 SG 13) Snack 1 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4

2 Notes: In Advance Recruit a Helper to operate the music and sound effects CDs and to help you with crowd control. Determine which songs you will use and be prepared to lead the children in singing. Song suggestions: Upbeat song for transition from Activity s to the Creative Bible Teaching Let s Go (Touch the Sky CD) Having a Good Time (Reach Up High CD) Dance, Shout & Sing (Touch the Sky CD) Gather the supplies listed above and arrange your classroom as follows: Create the Fun Factory in your room with Macy the Mixer and K.C. the Computer. See the Unit Overview for suggestions. Place all of the Bible story and application costumes and props in or behind Macy the Mixer. Print and copy the Bible story review books one per child. SG 2 is the cover page. The pages should be copied front-to-back so the Bible character page (starting with SG 3) is on the left side when the book is open and the pictures of kids obey or not obeying (starting with SG 4) are on the right side. Staple or use a book ring to attach the pages in the upper left-hand corner. Prepare the rest of the materials that will be given to each child. To prepare the stickers, print or copy the pages onto Avery label sheets #5294. Consider cutting the stickers apart for easier distribution. Print the lesson and practice the teaching time. Teacher s Prep READ ESTHER (You may wish to read several chapters each day this week.) Queen Esther s courage was amazing. She had to choose between facing the King and possible death in order to save a nation or staying quiet and saving herself. Esther chose to rely on God in this overwhelming decision. But sometimes it seems easier to trust God with the giant problems we know we can t solve than with the small things. Are you like that? Do you find it easy to hand the big problems to God, while feeling you need to solve the smaller matters on your own? Take courage: there is no detail of your life too small for God s care. Give Him all your anxieties, both great and small. Activity s (20 MINUTES) Choose which Activity s you will use from the list included in the Activity s folder. 2 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4

3 Creative Bible Teaching (15 MINUTES) [Play upbeat music as children transition to the teaching area. Encourage kids to clap their hands along with you. Clap in a variety of styles like overhead, on your knees, on your belly, etc.] Welcome to the Fun Factory! My name is, and I m the Official Funologist here. Funologist means I know everything there is to know about having fun! And as the Official Funologist here at the Fun Factory, I just have to tell you I have a lot of fun things planned for you. Let s remember two rules so we can have the most fun. Rule number one: be kind. What is it? [Kids respond, Be kind! ] We can be kind by sitting down so everyone can see and by being very quiet so everyone can hear. Rule number two: be safe. What is it? [Kids respond, Be safe! ] You can be safe by keeping your hands to yourself. Good job! [SFX 39: Computer thinking.] Oh, this is my friend, K.C. the Computer. K.C. loves to take all kinds of information and help us learn from it. [SFX 40: Machine noise.] And this is Macy the Mixer! Macy loves to make fun things for the Bible story. They ll help us have fun at the Fun Factory, too. Okay, friends, I have a question for you. Touch your nose if you ve ever done something really brave or courageous! [Kids touch their noses.] Wow, almost everyone is touching their noses! Today we re going to hear a great Bible story about a girl who did something really courageous. Macy, we need to get our bodies ready for the Bible story. [Push several buttons.] Let s stand up and sing! MUSIC Song suggestion: Let s Go [Invite kids to sit down on the count of three.] [SFX 41: Machine noise.] [Reach inside Macy and pull out the Bible, two robes, dress, tiara, crown, and hat.] Wow! Look 3 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4

4 at all these cool costumes for the Bible story. I ve got a great idea. We can pretend to be the people in the Bible story. I need three people to help me. [Call up three kids by name. Put the costumes on them and place them in a line across the teaching area. Instruct them to stay in their places. Stand behind each kid, one at a time, and introduce them as their character: Esther, Mordecai, and the King. Have the other kids wave and say hi to each character.] [Open Bible.] Click on your listening ears, friends. Click! Click! [Tug on each earlobe.] Now, let s put on our special eyes. Shookum! Shookum! [Hold hands to eyes, one at a time, shaping glasses.] Good job. [Throughout the Bible story, stand behind the kid who represents the character you are pretending to be. Use different voices for each character: a high voice for Esther, a lower voice for Mordecai, and a deep, bass voice for the King.] This is the story of a beautiful, young, Jewish girl. Her name [Stand behind Esther.] Was Esther. [Step away from Esther.] One day, Queen Esther s cousin came to see her. He said [Stand behind Mordecai.] TEACHER/MORDECAI: Queen Esther, you must help us! Someone wants to kill our people, the Jews. Queen Esther looked at her cousin and said-- [Stand behind Esther.] TEACHER/ESTHER: But how can I help? [Step away from Esther.] Esther s cousin told her she could go to the King and ask for help. [Stand behind Mordecai]. Esther s cousin told her TEACHER/MORDECAI: You can tell the King not to hurt our people. [Step out front.] But Queen Esther couldn t just go and talk to the King. You see, the King had a funny rule. He didn t want anyone coming to see him unless he invited them. If people came uninvited, the King could have them killed! Esther told her cousin [Step behind Esther.] 4 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4

5 TEACHER/ESTHER: If I try to talk to the King now, I could be killed, because he didn t invite me. [Step out front.] But her cousin still asked her to go see the King. Esther wanted to help her people. But Esther was afraid, but she knew God would help her be courageous. Esther went to see the King. Friends, what do you think happened when Esther went to the King? [Kids respond.] The Bible says Esther walked down the hallway [SFX 42: Footsteps down a hall.] and stopped in front of the throne room. She took a deep breath and walked through the doors. [SFX 43: Doors opening.] The Bible says the King was on his throne, and he saw Queen Esther come in. [Step behind King.] He looked at her... and then he smiled. He was happy to see his queen! He didn t want to kill her! The King asked: TEACHER/KING: What do you want, Queen Esther? [Step away from King.] Esther told the King what she had heard. [Step behind Esther.] She asked the King to help her people. TEACHER/ESTHER: There is a mean man who wants to hurt my people. And, since I am a Jew, he will kill me, too. [Step away from Esther.] Friends, what do you think is going to happen next? [Kids respond.] The Bible says the King loved Esther so much he wanted to save her and her people. The King said [Stand behind King.] TEACHER/KING: I will stop this mean man and not let him hurt you or your people. [Step away from King.] When Esther heard the King was going to help her, she was very happy. Esther showed great courage and helped her people. Her people were saved because Esther was courageous. Let s say thank you to our helpers. [Kids respond. Take the costumes from the volunteers and have them sit back down.] 5 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4

6 Today we re learning that God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms]. Say that with me, everyone. God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms]. Now just the boys say it. God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms]. Just the girls. God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms]. Great job! Let s stand and sing. MUSIC Song suggestion: Having a Good Time [Invite kids to sit on the count of three.] Life Application Activities (10 MINUTES) Friends, help me remember our story. Who was our story about? [Kids respond, Queen Esther. ] What did Queen Esther do that was so courageous? [Kids respond, Talked to the King. ] Who asked her to talk to the King? [Kids respond, Her cousin. ] Do you think it was easy for Esther to go before the King? [Kids respond, No. ] No, it wasn t easy. Why was it hard for Esther to go before the King? [Kids respond, She could have died. ] How did the King feel about Esther? [Kids respond, Loved her. ] That s right. The King loved Esther, and because he loved her so much, he didn t want her or her people to be hurt. He stopped the mean man from hurting Esther and the Jews. That was a great story about Esther. It s not easy to have courage. Who can help us be courageous? [Take responses.] That s right. God can help us have courage. All we need to do is ask. Activity #1 [SFX 44: Computer thinking.] K.C. has a great game for us! Let s remember the other Bible stories we ve learned about being courageous. We ve learned about Noah, Daniel, and Joshua. [Pass out the Bible story review sheets and crayons.] Lesson 4 LG 1 Maybe you can help me match the pictures on this Bible paper. Hold up your crayons so I know you re ready. [Kids hold them up.] Now put them down. 6 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4

7 Do you remember how Noah was courageous and obeyed God? What did he build? [Kids respond.] You re right! He built an ark. Let s draw a line from Noah to the ark. [Show the kids on your paper.] Do you remember how Daniel was courageous and obeyed God? What did he do? [Kids respond.] You re right! He prayed to God, even though the King threw him in the lions den! Let s draw a line from Daniel to the lions den. [Show the kids on your paper.] Do you remember how Joshua was courageous and obeyed God? What did he do? [Kids respond.] You re right! He marched around the wall. Let s draw a line from Joshua to the people marching. [Show the kids on your paper.] We got them all right. Let s stand up and do the victory dance! [SFX 45: Victory dance.] Great job, friends! [Gather papers to return at the end of class.] Let s say our special words one more time. God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms] to obey [thumbs up]. [SFX 46: Computer thinking.] What s that? Oh! K.C. thinks we should sing a song. Do you think we should sing? [Kids respond.] Up on your feet, everyone! MUSIC Song suggestion: Dance, Shout & Sing [Invite kids to sit down on the count of three.] Good job. God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms]. Activity #2 God Gives Me Courage to Obey Now I am going to give you each a picture book with the Bible stories we ve heard this month. They are all about people who had courage to obey. [Pass out the books; each two-page spread has the picture of a Bible character (Noah, Daniel, Joshua, or Esther) on the left and two pictures of a child obeying/not obeying on the right.] Draw a picture of yourself Lesson 4 SG 2 (1 of 9) There s a blank space on the front. Above it says, God Gives Me Courage to Obey. You can draw a picture of yourself inside the box. [Encourage kids to draw a picture of themselves in the blank box.] 7 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4

8 Noah UNIT 1: Good job, everyone. Now open up to the first page. [Read the questions at the bottom of the page and discuss with the kids. Encourage them to color the picture. When they re finished, have them look at the right side where there are two pictures of kids, one child obeying and one child not obeying. Instruct them to circle the picture of the child obeying. Repeat this process for the remaining pages of the book.] Good job, everyone. You remembered all our Bible stories. What are we learning today? God [point up] wants us to have courage [make muscle arms]. [Do Open them, close them. Children will say the finger play with you and repeat each line of the prayer after you.] Noah had courage to obey God. What did Noah build? (A boat/ark.) Did Noah have courage to obey? (Yes.) God told Noah that He was going to send a flood, so Noah obeyed God and built an ark. Lesson 4 SG 3 (2 of 9) Open them. [Open hands.] Close them. [Close hands.] Open them. [Open hands.] Close them. [Close hands.] Give a little clap. [Clap hands.] Open them. [Open hands.] Close them. [Close hands.] Open them. [Open hands.] Close them. [Close hands.] Fold them in your lap. [Fold hands in lap.] Dear God, Thank You for the Bible story. Please help us have courage to obey! Thank You for our snack. In Jesus Name, Amen. God wants us to have courage. Lesson 4 SG 11 God wants us to have courage. Snack and Coloring Activity (15 MINUTES) Use this time to continue building community and to learn more about your kids and their concerns. Listen closely so you are better equipped to pray for and reach out to each child. GIVE each child a snack to eat. GIVE each child a Key Concept sticker to put on their shirt while they are eating their snack. GIVE each child a coloring sheet to color while they are waiting to be picked up. ASK each child a question or two about themselves: Do you think it s hard to have courage and obey? Esther Obeyed God (Esther 1 10) Lesson 4 SG 12 8 Summer Quarter 2008 Willow Creek Community Church / Sunday School Teacher s Guidebook / Lesson 4