Teaching Little Ones 4: Promises

Teaching Little Ones  is a superb Bible-based curriculum for young children in your Sunday School or Kid's Church. The syllabus provides six years worth of material for 3-8 year olds, and contains everything you'll need for one creating and teaching compelling lessons—including lesson plans, story scripts, action rhymes, prayers, activities and craft ideas. You won't have to worry about recurring licence fees or buying workbooks—all the material is available as PDFs, so that you can distribute individual lessons to teachers via email, allowing them to prepare in advance and print off only the sheets they need. Each of the following six modules has 40 lessons:

1. ‘First Steps’ (Transition Crèche; 2 to 3-year-olds)
2. ‘Learning about God’ (Preschool 1; 3 to 4-year-olds)
3. ‘Introducing the Bible’ (Preschool 2; 4 to 5-year-olds)
4. ‘Promises’ (5 to 8-year-olds)
5. ‘Kingship’ (5 to 8-year-olds)
6. ‘Salvation’ (5 to 8-year-olds)

Promises sample lessons (zip file)

Promises: Sunday School material for 3–5 year olds

Why Teaching Little Ones?

What better time to start teaching children than when they are young. Paul reminds Timothy that he had the privilege of knowing the holy Scriptures “from infancy” (2 Timothy 3:14-15).

So what is the goal of this syllabus? We want to help young children learn about God so that they can develop a relationship with him at their level. We are not wanting just to increase their head knowledge, but focus on a relationship with their Creator.

Promises—where it fits

In the first three Teaching Little Ones programs there is a syllabus of lessons for preschoolers—First Steps, Learning about God and Introducing the Bible. How you use them depends on what age children begin attending Sunday School in your church.

The First Steps syllabus is written with a particular group of children in mind—namely, the 2-3 year olds who are too young to join the traditional Sunday School, but are ready for a bit more Christian input than they would normally get in a typical crèche. (I sometimes refer to this age group as ‘transition crèche’.) The aim of First Steps is to teach these children simple concepts: helping them learn about God and develop a relationship with him at their level, learning that God is great, that he made the world around them, and that he loves them. They are also introduced to Jesus in the Christmas story.

The Learning about God syllabus is intended for pre-school children, aged 3-5 years. It is a syllabus that begins with foundational truths about God—God made, God loves and God knows—and introduces the Bible, prayer, and God’s Son, Jesus.

The Introducing the Bible syllabus is also intended for pre-school children. It is a syllabus that begins with Jesus as God’s Son (leading up to Easter) and then moves from Genesis (creation, Noah, Abraham, Joseph) to Moses, Samuel and David in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we are introduced to Peter and Paul and then we learn more about God’s Son, Jesus, at Christmas.

What follows the pre-school syllabus? There are three year’s worth of lessons for 5-8 year olds: Promises, Kingship and Salvation.

If one class is systematically working their way through each syllabus, then the place to begin would be the Promises syllabus, followed by the Kingship syllabus and finally the Salvation syllabus. However, each syllabus is self-contained so that they can be used in a cycle and children can join in whichever year the cycle is up to.

The Promises syllabus explores the biblical theme of ‘promise’ and ‘fulfilment’. It includes lessons about Abraham, the Israelites and the Promised Land from the Old Testament. From the New Testament it includes lessons on Jesus, God’s promised Son, and how Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises.

The Kingship syllabus explores the biblical theme of ‘kingship’ with lessons on King Saul, King David and King Solomon, as well as other kings in the Old Testament. These lead into lessons about Jesus—the King of kings.

The Salvation syllabus includes lessons from the Old and New Testament about God’s salvation. This salvation is ultimately found in Jesus, and is one to which we must respond. Therefore, included in this syllabus is a unit of lessons which gives an overview of the gospel, helping the children understand God’s message of salvation. From the Old Testament there are lessons on Elijah and Jonah. From the New Testament there are lessons on Paul and how Jesus is our Saviour.

Promises—what it is (and isn’t)

The lesson notes for Promises do not do all the work for you—you will still need to set aside some preparation time. The visual aids will not all be made for you, and there is no activity book to be handed out each week for the children to fill in. The lessons are varied and include as much craft as possible. In order for the children to learn, we want them to understand and remember what we teach them. Therefore, the main message is important and the take-home activities try to reinforce this.

What follows are notes for the teaching component of your Sunday School class. If your Sunday School includes a singing time or a time for activities when children arrive, you will find suggestions in my book, Their God is so BIG (Matthias Media). Also, if you would like to understand more about the age group you are teaching or about how to manage a class or tell a story or pray then, again, the fuller picture is explained in my book.

The lessons notes follow roughly the same order in each lesson. However, you may need to make adaptions, where appropriate, to suit your class. If the children in your class are unable to concentrate well without frequent concentration breaks, then factor these into each lesson—for instance, do an action rhyme more than once in the lesson and use it as a means of giving the children a ‘controlled’ chance to have a little wriggle. On the other hand, if I have positioned an action rhyme in the lesson (eg. after the ‘Conclusion’, but before the ‘What about us’) to provide a concentration break and you think that for your class it would be preferable to keep the momentum and do it at the end of the lesson, then do so.

Although the lessons in the Promises syllabus are aimed at 5-8 year olds, I realize that in many Sunday Schools there will be a wider age range than specifically 5-8 year olds. These lessons can be used for a wider age range, though you may have to make a few adjustments. If you have younger children in your group, provide concentration breaks throughout the lesson as their ability to sit and listen will probably be shorter than the others. If you have older children in your group, you could spend more time on the ‘what about us’ section of the lesson (even while other children commence one of the activities). Many of the activities suggested in these lessons will suit older children. One activity in every lesson is specifically suitable for younger children, though you will find other activities are suitable as well.

Introduction to the syllabus