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Exploring God's Word 3rd Grade |
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Spiritual Characteristics of this age group:
- often express opinions and feelings about God and church and ask many “why” and “how” questions.
- often include prayer in their daily routines. Their prayers are frequently self-centered but are sincere and offered in faith.
- often still see issues in black and white.
Concepts with this age group:
- Exploring the Lord’s Supper – 2nd Grade
- “Taste the Bread” Parents and Children explore the Lord’s Supper - Welcome to Worship II
- Communion instruction. We learn about Passover and how Jesus changed that celebration. We talk about meals and how important it is to all celebrations we know, including birthdays. Children get to see how the Lord’s Supper is prepared. Their names are in the bulletin that day. Participate in the communion liturgy on World Communion Sunday.
- Practicing our Faith at Home – 2nd Grade
- Prayer and family devotions. Praying together and looking to God for strength, comfort, and celebration is foundational to the life of a Christian. Making time for conversation with God becomes part of each day’s ritual, when families are given the tools to make this time a habit. The Milestone for grade 2 is based on prayer and family devotions. The purpose is to provide families with tools and resources that will encourage them to pray with and for each other on a regular basis. Children in the second grade are old enough to begin a rich prayer life of their own that will grow and mature as the child and the child’s faith grows and matures. In class we learn about prayer: what it is, and why it is important. Ideas and resources for praying together as a family are offered, and a prayer journal is given to each child to use at home over the course of a month. (Most habits can be established in about three weeks.) On Sunday, the children are recognized in the bulletin.
- “Taste the Bread” Parents and Children explore the Lord’s Supper - Welcome to Worship II
- Exploring God’s Word – 3rd Grade - “Learning to Use Our Bible” - Discovering and Receiving the Bible
- Child receives a Bible
- During the class we learn how the Bible was formed and its parts, and also practice using the Bible. Another important part of the class is talking about why we need to know what is in this “library.” What does God’s Word have to do with the lives we live on a daily basis?
- Child receives a Bible
Scripture
- Become familiar with some of the names of the books of the Bible and persons in the Bible.
- Learn the names of the four Gospels and that Gospel means “Good News”
- How to find verse, chapter, and book in the Bible
- Read simple verses for 1st grade and 2nd grade read simple passages aloudBy the end of the year, 1st grade children will know there are two main parts: one (Old Testament, or Hebrew Scriptures) is about people and events before Jesus was born; and one is about Jesus, his followers, and the early church (New Testament). Second graders will begin to identify if stories as being from the Old or new Testaments
- Learn about customs, dress, and food of Bible days
- Basic knowledge of the major events of Jesus’ life (birth, teachings, miracles, healings, death)
- Begin to associate books with the sections of Bible (proverbs=wisdom; Romans=Letters, and so forth)
- Bible is made up of many different books with many different authors
- There are many different modern translations
- Learn how to compose prayers
- Be able to look up verses
- Much of the Bible comes from oral tradition
- Recognize some common abbreviations for books of the Bible
- Know three things their money goes for in the church
- Explore ways they can be more involved in service like greeting and ushering
- Learn the Apostles Creed
- Have opportunities to meet people from different cultures, recognizing that there are many ways of doing things
- Have expanded opportunities for songs, games, and stories from other cultures
- Grow in accepting responsibility of own actions and acknowledging need for forgiveness
- Begin to look for situations from different viewpoints
What stories are appropriate?
Age appropriate Bible stories for middle elementary children:
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This video is 37 seconds long
Worship
- Participate in offering
- Learn something about the two sacraments: Baptism and Communion
- Learn how to receive Communion
- Learn parts of the sanctuary
- Learn the order of worship
- Learn about the church seasons
- Learn about appropriate worship behavior
- Learn the Biblical stories behind our stained-glass windows in the sanctuary
- How to use a hymnbook
- All are invited to the table, the night before
Prayer
- Learn prayers of thanksgiving and Praise but also begin asking God for help in prayers
- Have opportunities for sentence prayers after discussion of what to be thankful
- Become familiar with the table of contents to find a book
- Who the 12 disciples were
- Know the Lord’s Prayer
- Know the 23rd Psalm
- Five kinds of prayer ACTS (adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication)
- Praise and Thanksgiving
- Let the child compose his or her own prayers
- Create a litany of prayers together
- Give opportunities for sentence prayers of what we are thankful for—don’t force child to pray
Music
Bible Reccomendations
Ages 7-12
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Suggested Ages 3rd Grade and UP
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3rd and UP
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