Early Childhood curriculum snapshot

The preschool & 2's teachers got together last night to plan out the next 2 months of curriculum. We provide curriculum so it's not that they were working from scratch. But what they did is added to it and reworked it so that it reflected more of who we are as creative people made in the image of God and who response to God. Here is what they came up with. Here is what my 4 year old will be gleaning from the next 2 months. Thank you God for these people who care about the little things for little kids. There's nothing like young children "getting it" (learning about God) for the first time.

october



wk 1

Creation Day 1: Light & Dark Gen 1:1-5

Activity/Movement area: Blob

sensory: shadow play

Art: Light & Dark Painting

Need: black construction paper 8x11 & white paint (sponges for the 2's class)

Key Verse: Gen 1:3 God said, "Let there be light."



wk 2

Creation Day 2 Sky & Water Gen 1:6-8

Activity/Movement area: catching clouds with parachute/ bubbles

sensory: water

Art: Sky Collage

Need: blue construction paper

Key verse: Gen 1: 6-8 "God made the sky and water."



wk 3

Creation Day 3 Land, Plants and Sea Gen 1:9-13

Art: leaf rubs

Sensory: potting soil

Playdough - create things on land

Need: potting soil, printer paper,and coffee filters

Key Verse: Gen 1: 9-13 "God made the land, sea, and plants."



wk 4

Creation Day 4 Sun, Moon and Stars Gen 1:14-19

Movement: Moving Moons

Art: Sun & Moon Foam Balls

sensory: tin foil strips

Need: foam balls (talk to Jen about oriental trading), glitter, silver & yellow paint, flat pushpins, tissue paper- red , orange, & yellow

Key Verse: Gen. 1:16 "God made two great lights."



November

wk 1

Creation Day 5 Fish and Birds Gen 1:20-23

Movement: Bird walk

Dramatic Play: Bird Nests

Sensory Table: Eggs, worms

Art: Rainbow fish

Need: plastic eggs, packing strips paper, tissue paper white, blue construction paper in shape of a fish

Key Verse: Gen 1:20 "Let the water have fish and the sky have birds."



wk 2

Creation Day 6 Animals

Movement: Surprise

Dress up: Pet Vet

Art: Masks

Need: paper plates, construction paper brown, orange, and yellow

Key Verse: Gen 1: 24-25 " God made all animals"



wk 3

God made people so we can know Him/ Adam & Eve Gen 2:7, 20-23, 3:8

Movement: My Name

Art: Body Maps

Sensory: People

Need: butcher paper, crayons & markers, rubber bands

Key Verse: Gen 1:27 " God created man and women in His own image."



wk 4

God provides for us / The Garden Gen 2:8-15

water works

Art: My garden

Garden Scents

Need: koolaid (without sugar), & white card stock

Key Verse: Gen 2:15 "God put man in the garden to care for it."



wk 5-

Creation Celebration Gen 2:1-3

Art: Mural of Creation

Need: 11x17 white paper, Blue Paint

Key Verse: Gen 2:1 " The heavens and the earth were completed."

End of Summer Announcements!

• Today (Aug 30) is the last day of Summer Electives! It’s been one of our best summer’s ever as far as quality in teaching, line up/variety of classes, and involvement from staff, pastors and mature adults in our community. Kids have gotten a great view of the bigness of God and how He is at work in all aspects of life.
  

• Next Sunday (Sept 6) all elementary kids will be IN SERVICES with their parents. We will not have elementary ministry going on. Have fun worshipping together before back to school craziness begins.

• Regular Imago Dei Kids elementary ministry starts Sept 13th. 10 returning teachers are excited to serve and know your children this fall. Please take some time on the 13th to meet your child's teacher!!! Would be great to have a few more teachers to lead small groups or people that are great at leading all group games or being part of worship. Let Karen know if you are available. karen@imagodeicommunity.com

• Parent subs needed throughout the year. We are gathering a list of parents who can sub in for teachers throughout the year. If you are not able to be on a regular Imago Dei Kids rotation but could sub in from time to time to cover a teacher who needs a week off, please let us know. Jen@imagodeicommunity.com
  

• Sunday Sept 27th is our Fall Elementary Parent Meeting!!! It is during the 11am service in the Library. Please make this a priority to come and be together as parents and hear the vision of Imago Dei Kids and what we are teaching your child this year.

Camp

A couple weeks ago I was asked to be the camp speaker for a week at Camp Tadmor. It was for Jr Camp so it was 220 3rd-6th graders. None of which I knew. I had never been to a week long camp before nor had I ever spoken that many times in a row for that many kids in that age group. I'm more familiar with Sunday to Sunday. Or a one time, evening/Saturday deal. As many years as I've worked with kids and parents I felt suddenly very out of my element. I was pretty nervous - panicked as it were.

The first night I got introduced as a "he" only because the program staff hadn't met me yet and assumed I was a male speaker. So my nerves were pretty thrown and I did my best to recover and get the kids excited about having a woman speaker. But I came back to the lake house that night (where my husband, son and I were staying) and was about in tears regardless. I was up till 1:30am planning my talk for the next night and was pretty sure I was invisible and was going to SUCK at speaking.

But God surprised me as He often does. At my low points I was on my knees exasperated with planning and worrying and told Him it was a mistake that I was there and somebody else should come or at the very least I should go home. So God came and did what I could not. Be Himself in the midst of counselors, kids and staff.

On the 2nd night I spoke about Sin and how we aren't perfect. 3rd night was all about Jesus and who He is and how much he LOVES us. Loves you. Loves me. I was starting to love speaking to this group of kids but was concerned that their hearts weren't engaging. By the eve of the 4th night I asked counselors what God was doing in their cabins (as I had every night but only general comments had come thus far) and expected more of the same as in nights past (general niceties). But suddenly hands were raising and counselors were all chiming in passionately. A child had received Christ the night before! 3 kids in another cabin. An entire cabin received Christ and danced around saying they wondered if the angels were dancing with them! Another gal told her church counselor that because I spoke she learned that Jesus is for everyone...she always thought He was just for Christians. She received Him and told her counselor the next morning she felt "new". An hour or so later I was to speak on new life and how it changes everything.

I was in tears at the counselor meeting and couldn't hide my surprise at the kids response. Together with the counselors we celebrated and talked about allowing God to speak to the kids and not get in the way with ourselves. Suddenly speaking wasn't scary and I was getting to know the kids and it was an absolute privilege to be sharing the gospel with them all.

After that it felt to me all mayhem ensued in the realm of what God was doing in kids and counselors hearts. We had a worship night that night and the kids were way into it and praising like I'd never seen a group worship. We shot up colored/silver butterflies over the kids symbolizing life, had ballons bouncing everywhere and just celebrated. The last night I spoke on loving others and we talked a lot about when our heart breaks for someone and when the moments are that we most feel loved. By the time the week was over I estimated 40-50 kids had received Christ or rededicated their lives! I've never seen anything like it. It changed me in many ways and gave me much more confidence to speak again. But more it re inspired me to come home and be with our local church to be in the lives of our kids who are growing up here.

For sure I'm taking our kids to camp next year. And for sure I'm coming home again refreshed and excited to be part of what the day in and day out life in Christ looks like with them. Thanks Camp Tadmor for a chance to speak and see God work.

Beautification!

One of the summer elective classes for this Sunday - awesome idea!

Elective Class Name: Beautification

Class Limit: (girls only)

Opening Activity: Soaking fingers in Palmolive!

Elective Course:
We ladies are going to push back our cuticles, file down our rough edges and paint our nails! We are also going to make a natural face scrub to take home with us.

Truth Piece:
Scripture:
Ps 139.13-14 I am God's work, and His works are wonderful!
Luke 12.7 God knows everything about me, and still, I have so much worth to Him!
Ps 45.11 The King is enthralled by my beauty, so I will honor him because he is my lord.
God uses the bible to talk a lot about what He values as beautiful in us. Dive in and find out how you can please our Lord with your beauty!
I Peter 3.3,4 [your beauty] should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

Main Theme/Character attribute:
God loves us and thinks we are beautiful! The beauty that God sees in us is unconditional, and is far greater than anything beautiful we can create. The value of beauty that is ascribed to us by God, being His creation, is far greater than the world's value of beauty. To know and believe God is to know and believe that we are beautiful to Him...not because of how we look or what we wear or what gifts and talents we have. We are valuable to Him and beautiful because we are HIS, and His creation.

Parent Handout for at home conversation:

Portland is a city full of opportunities to think and talk about what BEAUTY really is. Look around and you’ll see many examples of a false, short-lived, dead-end kind of beauty authored by the World. Talk about where the world’s beauty falls short in fulfilling our deepest desire to know and believe God, and then talk about the true beauty that comes only from God, and feeds our hearts and draws us closer to Him…

Stories from last week

This week up for elementary summer electives is:

9am:

• Performance group of high schoolers comes to share the with the kids via drama, games, etc.

11am:

• Telling stories through drama (kids learn to act)
• Martial arts/self defense
• Singing & history of worship

• 
  

STORY from last week: Last Sunday a mother from our community made pizza dough with the kids and taught on the bread of life. Our friends from California were up visiting and their daughter went to this cooking class. Our friend Rob was so impressed with the take home ideas and the dough that was sent home that their family made pizza that night for dinner! Rob sat at the table talking to his kids about the suggested scripture and theme on her parent handout. It is so awesome to see parents get empowered to have discussions of faith with their kids!! It is so shaping for our kids to get an inside look into the lives of people in our church and in turn for that to spur parents onto sharing their own story with their kids.

Summer Electives have started!

Elementary Summer Electives
God + your passion + our kids = Real Life Learning

Every summer, we extend an open call to our Imago Dei Community to come and live out a piece of your story with our elementary children. We offer elective style classes and children choose what class they would like to take. The classes are taught by YOU, our church community. All of life is sacred. Your passions and pursuits are all done before God. Our desire in Imago Dei Kids is to connect God to our world.

This week's classes taught by people in our congregation were (July 5th):

Vegetable Painting (Making prints with vegetables, learning about how to eat healthy and take care of our bodies)

Make a Joyful Noise (worship class where kids got to make their own instrument, learn how to use it and sing worship songs with a gifted leader)

Making Smoothies (This week's most popular class of course, kids made different kinds of smoothies included some with spinach! Learned how to eat well and treat their bodies)

Adventure on the Bus (Our class for older kids this week. They totally went and rode a bus route and talked about the adventures of life God allows us to experience)

Next up for Sunday, July 12th:
- Stewardship (learn how to organize, spend and save your money!)
- Soccer!
- Poetry with all 5 senses
- Cooking

Make It Personal!

I'm quoting again. This book has some good words though. Check out this segment by Reggie Joiner in a chapter about making it personal with kids:

Kids already have a front-row seat to their parents' lives; the question is, what are they watching? Is it just a show? Or is it real-life adventure where they see courage and passion to overcome personal obstacles? Parents must show them what it is like to pursue a better relationship with God. Show them what a committed, loving marriage looks like. Show them how it looks to prioritize Jesus above anything else. Show them what it is like to reject the materialism and consumerism of this world. If parents want their children to have it in them, they have to see it demonstrated.

Kids need to see their parents
struggle with answers,
face their weaknesses,
deal with real problems,
admit when they are wrong,
fight for their marriage,
resolve personal conflict.

Children need to see their parents make relational, emotional, and spiritual growth a priority. If parents don't make it personal, it may never be personal for their kids. Some of my favorite stories through the years have been told by children of single parents who watched their moms or dads overcome difficult obstacles. Don't forget that God is writing a story in the hearts of parents, a story of redemption and restoration. One of the most powerful things that children can see is God at work in the lives of their parents, but they can't see who their parents are becoming if they never see who they were in the first place. Otherwise, how will they know the difference God has made and continues to make in their parents' lives? It is the firsthand look at that difference that will give them hope for their future and faith in what God can do in them.

Uber challenging. I am noticing as I parent my son that I always try to be my best around him. If I curse my first response is to cover it up and pretend I didn't rather than just apologize and tell him why it frustrates me that I do that. When I'm having a bad day I ignore him or hide my face from him rather than just talk about how I'm feeling. On the days when I just let it all out - we have the coolest conversations. Being vulnerable with our kids - letting them into us. That's how I want to live. I hope we'll be friends later in life because of it, and I hope more that He sees the God of the universe playing out in me (somehow, someway).