Our church’s Children’s Department has been using the Gospel Project curriculum from Lifeway. I have to say that I LOVE it! It starts at the beginning of the Bible and is unfolding the Big Picture of Christ even from the beginning.
This week we are on The Stolen Blessing Lesson (Unit 3, Session 2), which is about Esau and Jacob. I lead the large group worship time and wanted to share a few things that I will be doing, in case it may help someone else who is doing this curriculum as well.
We will serve Lentil Soup (Campbell’s sells cans of Lentil Soup). I will put a little bit in white styrofoam paper cups and stick in plastic spoons. This will be ready ahead of time. The kids can taste these and decide if they were worth trading a birthright for!!
I will be using the game they describe in the following way:
Game
Form two teams (3 in each team). Mark off a starting line and a square some feet away using masking tape. Have the teams “make a plan” to get the coins in the square. (6 kids, 7 coins) Be sure kids know that sometime we make our own plans, but that God’s plans are perfect and always best.
Also, I will be using the questions they provide, but will be having about 5 students come up and hold up a paper plate paddle with Esau written on one side and Jacob on the other. We will do this quickly, so they have to hold their paddle with the name they select facing the audience.
Questions:
Ask the kids a series of questions and statements about
Esau and Jacob. The kids must choose which brother is the
answer to the question or statement. They can choose Jacob
with a thumbs up or Esau with a thumbs down. Below is a
list of possible questions that could be used.
1. Which brother was a hunter? (Esau)
2. Who had hairy arms? (Esau)
3. Who did Rebekah like more? (Jacob)
4. Who stayed at home most of the time? (Jacob)
5. Who was born first? (Esau)
6. Which brother ran away from home? (Jacob)
7. Who did Isaac want to give the blessing to? (Esau)
8. Who smelled like a field? (Esau)
9. Which one wanted to kill the other? (Esau)
10. Which brother did God choose to continue His
covenant with Abraham? (Jacob)
I was wondering how you incorporated these lessons into the Toddler area? I just ordered this curriculum and am excited about it, but am not quite sure how to weave this into what we do with our Toddlers. Any suggestions?
Once your order is complete, you will be able to log in to Curriculum Manager and click on the quarter. Then it actually give you this page full of links. There is a link for a Preschool Version, a Younger Version, and an Older Version.
It’s been a really great curriculum! I wish I had time to post lessons notes for every week. I’ve only posted a few here and there. I have kept my notes, so once you get started, if you see you want extra ideas for any given week…or just want to see what we did at our church, let me know and I’ll post that one! Hope that helps! Kathy:)
Kathy, that would be great! My wife is the one looking through the curriculum now but she said she didn’t see anything specific for the Toddlers so I will definitely take a look at it when I get home. Thank-you for your willingness to help 🙂