First Look TM Curriculum for Preschoolers We want preschoolers to take a first look at who God is and understand... God made me. God loves me. Jesus wants to be my friend forever. September 8/9, 2012 Basic Truths: God made me. God loves me. Jesus wants to be my friend forever. Key Question: Who loves you? Bottom Line: God loves me. Memory Verse: Nothing can separate us from God s love. Romans 8:9, NIrV Bible Story: God loves us more than a shepherd loves His sheep. The Parable of the Lost Sheep Luke 15:1-7 Here s an overview of what you ll be teaching in 2s this week. Make It Fun (Choose one or all of these activities) How Many Can You Herd? Where s the Sheep? Sheep 411 Make It True Led by the Preschool Storyteller Worship Bible Story Make It Stick Sheep! Hide and Sheep Dismiss Curriculum Materials for 2-year-olds 2012 Orange. All rights reserved. http://www.whatisorange.org 1
September 8/9, 2012 Basic Truths: God made me. God loves me. Jesus wants to be my friend forever. Key Question: Who loves you? Bottom Line: God loves me. Memory Verse: Nothing can separate us from God s love. Romans 8:9, NIrV Bible Story: God loves us more than a shepherd loves His sheep. The Parable of the Lost Sheep Luke 15:1-7 Make It Fun Prepare to offer one or more of the following activities as your 2-year-olds arrive. Let one or two teachers lead small groups of children in activities throughout the room while another teacher greets parents and kids at the door. At this age not all children will participate, but most will want to be part of the fun. 1. How Many Can You Herd? "This activity engages the children in an open-ended activity that utilizes gross and fine motor skills while introducing the idea of the Bible story. What You Need: Cotton balls and pipe cleaner shepherd crooks. What You Do: Before the activity: Throw out cotton balls all over the area. Some could be in the incomplete square. During the activity: Encourage children to get down low and help herd all the sheep (the cotton balls) from the open pen to the closed pen. The goal is to use the crooks, not their hands. Count how many sheep they were able to herd into the pen. For extra fun for older kids, time them and see how many they can herd in a minute (or whatever time you d like to use). What You Say: A shepherd s job is very important. He takes care of all his sheep. Each and every one of them is important, just like each and every one of us are important to God. In our Bible story, we ll hear about one little sheep that got lost but the shepherd found him. Can you help me herd all these sheep that got loose? Yahoo! You did some great herding! Curriculum Materials for 2-year-olds 2012 Orange. All rights reserved. http://www.whatisorange.org 2
2. Where s the Sheep? This activity invites children into the room by joining in a search and rescue mission that uses cognitive and gross motor skills. What You Need: Small paper plates and sheep stickers. What You Do: Before the activity: One paper plate has a sheep drawn on it. Place that paper plate facedown on the floor. Then spread out 10 to 15 more paper plates, facedown, on the floor. During the activity: Encourage kids to find the missing sheep. Repeat. What You Say: I ve lost my sheep! Wherever did he go? He s hiding under one of these plates. Can you help me find him? He s not under this one. And he s not under this one. Where or where could he be? Look! (Insert a child s name) found my lost sheep! Thank you for finding him. I m not the only one who lost a sheep! We ll hear more about another lost sheep in our Bible story today. 3. Sheep 411 This activity is an investigation-geared activity to explore and learn all about sheep on a preschool level. What You Need: Age-appropriate books on sheep; lamb s wool or Poly-fil ; pictures of real sheep (a lamb, an ewe, and a ram); toy sheep; and anything else that is sheep related. What You Do: Display all the sheep items and allow the children to explore them at their own pace. What You Say: Have you ever touched a sheep? They are covered in wool. Wool feels like this. What does it feel like? Here are some books about sheep. Look at all these neat pictures. A mommy sheep is called an ewe, a daddy sheep is called a ram, and a baby sheep is called a lamb. Do you know what a sheep says? (Pause.) Baaah, that s right. Let s hear all the little lambs. (Pause for kids responses.) What sweet sounding lambs you are. Our Bible story is going to be a good one. What do you think it s about? A sheep! That s right! Curriculum Materials for 2-year-olds 2012 Orange. All rights reserved. http://www.whatisorange.org 3
Make It True Led by the Preschool Storyteller After children have participated in Make It Fun, encourage the kids to have fun singing with you and then tell the Bible story. When sharing the Bible story, guide kids to gather around you on the floor. Some kids (especially the younger ones) may wander. That s okay. They re still listening and learning! Make It Stick Choose two or more of the following activities to help make the Bottom Line stick. Lead the activities with small groups of children. Encourage children to play on their own if they do not wish to take part in an activity. 1. Sheep! Sheep is a fun, hands on craft activity that will reinforce the Bible story while allowing the kids to use their fine motor skills and get a little dirty too. What You Need: Sheep Activity Page, a black ink pad, wet wipes, glue, and cotton balls. What You Do: Give each child a copy of the Activity Page. Stamp each child s hand with the black ink and place it on the Activity Page. You should stamp the hand upside down so that the fingers become the sheep s legs, the thumb the head, and the palm the body. Then glue cotton balls onto the handprint as wool. What You Say: In our Bible story, there was a little animal. Do you remember what that animal was? A sheep! That s right. Let s make a sheep on this paper with your hand. First we need to cover your hand with ink. It may tickle a little. Then we ll stamp it on the paper, just like this (demonstrating). Does that look like a sheep? No, not yet! What is missing from this sheep? It s fluffy, white wool! We'll use these cotton balls. Glue them all around this part of your sheep s body (mostly the palm of the handprint). Great job! In our story, we heard about a shepherd. What does a shepherd do? Does a shepherd take care of cows? No, he takes care of sheep! The shepherd in our story loved his sheep so much. He made sure they had food and water, and he kept them safe. He didn t want anything to happen to his sheep, but one day one of his sheep went missing. He looked and looked until finally he found it. The shepherd really loved his sheep, but God loves us even more than that. (Pointing) God loves you and you and you and me. Who loves you? God loves me. Curriculum Materials for 2-year-olds 2012 Orange. All rights reserved. http://www.whatisorange.org 4
2. Hide and Sheep This is a fun, interactive game to reinforce the Bible story. Children will use cognitive, communication, and gross motor skills in this activity. What You Need: No supplies are needed. What You Do: Play hide-and-seek around the room. Let the kids hide and you look for them. What You Say: Can you pretend to be sheep? Do sheep walk on two feet or four? Four! What do sheep say? Baa! That s right. I m going to count to five, and then I want you to hide. But remember, you are sheep. Ready? One, two, three, four, five. Ready or not, here I come. Where or where could my little sheep be? Here, little sheep. There s a sheep, and another sheep! I found you! I love all my little sheep! (Hug the kids.) God loves you, too, even more than the shepherd loved his sheep in our Bible story today. Who loves you? God loves me! Get Ready to Dismiss Set any take-home creations on the nursery counter where you or parents can get them easily. Curriculum Materials for 2-year-olds 2012 Orange. All rights reserved. http://www.whatisorange.org 5