Free Sunday School Sample Lesson
Free Sunday School Lesson for Children The following Sunday School lesson for children is a free sample Sunday School lesson.
The Christmas Story Tree The Prophets Tell About Jesus
Scripture References: "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14 "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." Matthew 1:22-23 Teaching Concept: God told the Israelites through his prophets about Jesus' birth thousands of years before he was born. Early Arrivals Activity Make Crown Ornaments - (Appropriate for any age.)
What to do:
The Lesson Did you ever have to wait for something you really wanted? Maybe there is something you really want now that you heard about on TV. Maybe you asked your parents for something for Christmas. Is it hard to wait for something you really want? Maybe you've wanted something for a long time, but so far your parents haven't gotten it for you. (Let your children share about waiting for something. Try to get them to express how it feels to wait for something.) The people in our story today had been waiting a long time for something. The Israelites had been waiting so long that most of them forgot about what they were waiting for. God told them through his prophets that he was going to give them a Messiah, a Savior, or King. That is why we made these crowns this morning. Let's hang our crowns on our Christmas tree to remind us that the Israelites were waiting for a king that God had promised he would send many, many years before. (Let your children hang their crowns on the tree and then give each of them an Isaiah 7:14 scroll paper.) God told the Israelites exactly how it would happen through his prophets. Moses had told them over a thousand years earlier that God would raise up a Prophet like himself." (Open your Bible and read Deuteronomy 18:15, "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren." You can have one or more of your children try to open your Bible to Deuteronomy to find what Moses had said about the coming of Jesus.) (Have older children read the verse, and ask them what Moses said about the promised Messiah.) The Prophet Isaiah had told the Israelites about Jesus about 700 years earlier. He told them that he would be named Immanuel and be conceived by a virgin. (Open your Bible and read Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." You can have one or more of your children try to open your Bible to Isaiah to find what Isaiah had said about the coming Jesus.) (Have older children read the verse, and ask them what Isaiah said about the promised Messiah.) And the Prophet Micah told them exactly where their king would be born. (Open your Bible and read Micah 5:2, "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." You can have one or more of your children try to open your Bible to Deuteronomy to find what Moses had said about the coming Jesus.) (Have older children read the verse, and ask them what Micah said about the promised Messiah.) There are many, many more scriptures that describe when Jesus would be born, how he would live, and how he would die. We will talk more about these later. Now we are going to make another Christmas ornament that will remind us that God had promised to send Jesus a long, long time ago. Everything was written down in the scriptures, but back in Bible-times most people didn't get to read the scriptures. Only the priests got to read them. The scriptures weren't written in a book like they are today. A long time ago people wrote on stone or clay tablets. You may remember the story of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were written on stone tablets. In the time of Isaiah the Prophet, they also used animal skins and papyrus (plants) to write on. They didn't make books out of the skins and papyrus with many pages; instead they would fold them or roll them up into tubes. We are going to make our pieces of paper look like old manuscripts to remind us that God told everyone through the prophets hundreds of years earlier that he was going to send a Savior. (Have your children wrinkle up their papers and then flatten them out. Then have them do it again. Give them watered down brown watercolor paint or concentrated tea to paint lightly over their pieces of paper. Wipe of any excess water and place them on paper towels to dry. Denise King sent in this idea: If you don't want to use the paint or tea water just use brown paper sacks. Have your children crinkle them up and then glue the saying onto the sack that has been rolled into a scroll shape. Then glue yarn on to hang the scroll on the tree.)God told his people exactly what he was going to do and when he was going to do it, but the people got tired, or didn't remember what he had promised. Some of them gave up and didn't believe anymore. But if they had known what was about to happen, they would have been so exited -- even more exited then how you feel the day before Christmas. God was about to give them the best gift anyone could ever give, but the Israelites weren't paying attention. We will talk more about this wonderful gift next week. Games and Activities 1. Play a Waiting Game - (Any age) Preparation: Before class print out the scripture papers, cut them apart, and roll them up and tie them with ribbon to make them look like Bible scrolls. Cut out some more pieces of paper and write, "Have a snack" on them. Place them all in a pretty Christmas gift bag. Set up chairs like you would for Musical Chairs. Have one chair for each child. Place a special sticker on one of the chairs. Have your children walk around the chairs in a circle while you play Christmas music. When you stop the music have the child who sat on the chair with the sticker pick a piece of paper from the bag. Read the paper and have him do what it says to do on the paper. Before you start the game talk about the following: How much did your parents know about you before you were born? They may have known if you were going to be a boy or a girl. Doctors can take pictures of a baby before it is born, although sometimes they are wrong. Your parents may have picked out a name for you before you were born. They may have known what hospital they would go to when it was time for you to be born. But parents don't really know much at all about their babies. They just have to be patient and wait and see. God told the Israelites all about Jesus before he was born. If they had read the scriptures and believed, they would have been expecting him. They would have known that it was time for their new king to come. They would have known all kinds of things about him. (Hold up your bag.) I have a bunch of pieces of paper in this bag some of them have scriptures from the Bible on them that tell about Jesus. These are the same scriptures that the Israelites had long ago. Some of the papers have, "Have a snack" written on them. We are going to take turns picking out pieces of paper. If you get one with a scripture, I will read it to find out what God said about Jesus, and you will have to wait just like the Israelites had to wait. If you get one that says, "Have a snack", you get to go sit down and eat your snack.
2. Finish the Isaiah Scrolls - As your children finish their snacks have a helper give them the scrolls they started during lesson time. Show them how to roll up the ends as shown in the picture. Let them pick some decorations such as holly leaves, bows, etc. to glue to the scrolls. Help them glue on a ribbon to hang the scroll. Save these for next week. They will place them on the tree as you review the lesson.
Top Pattern (color) - (Large file or small file) Bible Verse Cards (color) - (Large file or small file) Punch a hole in the middle of the square side of the top with a pencil. Fold all the side back. Glue the triangle part together first, then place a glob of hot melt glue inside the tip of the top and place the pencil down through the hole into the glue at the top. Glue the top flap closed. How to play: 1. Write out the verse on the board or on a piece of paper so all your children can see it. Place the pile of cards in a large bowl. Songs Tell The Good News The prophets, the prophets; Scripture References
Matthew 1:22-23 - "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." To find out more about the prophecies about Jesus that have been fulfilled go to: http://www.christiananswers.net/dictionary/messianicprophecies.html
Copyright © 2005 Carolyn Warvel All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information or storage retrieval system, except for local church or school use only. This copyright notice must be included on all copies. Requests for permission to copy this material for any other uses should be addressed to Carolyn Warvel, 588 Duran Street, Henderson, NV 89015 or e-mail me at care@daniellesplace.com
Comments We would love to hear your comments about this lesson. If you taught this lesson, we would love to hear how it went, if you changed anything, added anything, what age you taught and was it appropriate. Any comments that would help others teach this lesson are welcome. I teach a 5th and 6th grade class. We use the Christmas tree story. It was great! We had to modified it a little to make it more age appropriate, but my class loved it and loved making the crafts. I just wanted to let you know how much we enjoyed the Christmas Tree Series of lessons. My class of 2 - 4 year olds had a blast! I used the bulletin board for my tree. I cut the children's hand prints out of green construction paper, and arranged them on the board in a triangular shape of a pine tree. After they were attached, I curled the fingertips around a pencil, to give it the texture and depth of a tree. I added a trunk, some cotton batting for snow (stapled over itself to make drifts) and a dark blue background. Each time we did an ornament, I made an extra one that was put on the tree. The board became an interactive tool, and reinforced all the lessons. We did additional projects such as: hosts of angels, the special star, gifts that were put under the tree, snowflakes, etc. to enhance the display. I then put the title "Best Gift Under the Tree", on top of the board the day we attached the manger, and followed with our Birthday Party for Jesus. When we did the angel, I came up with an edible angel project. I used an upside down sugar-cone (iced with white canned frosting) a marshmallow pushed down over the tip of the cone for a head, gumdrop rings (red/green) for a halo and wreath. You will also need the little tubes of colored icing for the eyes, mouth, hair, and any touches like lace etc. on the gowns. I used a paper plate for a base, with a large dab of frosting to hold the cone in place. I used rippled chips for wings. Candies, raisins, or other creative items can be used too. Have fun. Other lessons in this series available to Members Only:
2. An Angel Tells The Good News
4. The Wise Men Search For Jesus
Christmas Four-In-A-Row Game Review the Christmas story as you play this game. Each picture on the cards represent part of the Christmas story. This game comes with 13 different cards, but you can make more cards if you have more children by coloring some of the pictures on the cards different colors.
Other Great Christmas Story Crafts on The Resource Room
The lessons on this page can be found on The Resource Room a subscription site designed specifically for Sunday School teachers and children’s ministry. Join the Resource Room today! You will receive online access to complete, easy to prepare, bible lessons, new craft ideas and patterns, outreach ideas to help you grow your Sunday school class, church bulletin board ideas and much more. Copyright Notice The craft patterns, ideas, songs, lessons, etc. on this web site are copyrighted. You may not publish a copy of them on any other web site. You may publish a picture of a finished project you made from this site (not the directions and patterns) on another web site as long as you state where you got the project and include a link back to the project on this web site for the directions and patterns. It is illegal to copy material from this web site without permission and publish it any where on the web even if you include the copyright notice and author's name. If you would like to publish something from this web site on your site email us (see link above) for permission. All rights reserved. While many of the crafts on this site are free, they are still copyrighted. They may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except for use in your local church, school, home, library, and other organizations. It is illegal to copy any part of this craft and place it on another web site, bulletin board, or personal web site. To request permission to copy this material for any other use than personal use contact me by e-mail.
For more Sample Sunday school lessons go to the Sample Sunday School Lessons Page. For free Sunday school lessons go to the Free Sunday School Lessons for Children Page.
|
This is the first lesson in a series of five lessons. Each week your children make Christmas tree decorations that will remind them about part of the Christmas story. They will add more decorations to the tree for each new lesson, and will enjoy seeing the tree changing and getting more beautiful each week. If you don't have room for a Christmas tree in your room, you can send the ornaments home with your children, or make a large paper tree and tape it to your wall. These lessons can be used for any age group by adjusting the content.
What you will need: gold or silver poster board, scissors, glue, glitter glue, sequins, beads, or anything that would look pretty on the crowns.
Preparation: Have your children make the crown ornaments above. Print out the scroll patterns (
3. 
5. 
