The Unmerciful Servant s8

First Look 2-year-olds, September, Week 4

September 25, 2016

Basic Truth: God loves me. Key Question: Who can you trust? Bottom Line: I can trust God. Memory Verse: “Trust the Lord with all your heart.” Proverbs 3:5, NCV Bible Story Focus: I can trust God even when it’s hard. Naaman • 2 Kings 5:1-14

Here’s an overview of what you’ll be teaching in 2s this week.

Make It Fun (Choose one or both of these activities) • 7 Times • Hard Stack • OUCH!

Make It True • Worship • Bible Story

Make It Stick (Choose as many of these activities as you like) • Hearts • Retell and Dip • In the Air

September 25, 2016

Basic Truth: God loves me. Key Question: Who can you trust? Bottom Line: I can trust God. Memory Verse: “Trust the Lord with all your heart.” Proverbs 3:5, NCV Bible Story Focus: I can trust God even when it’s hard. Naaman • 2 Kings 5:1-14

Make It Fun

Prepare to offer one or more of the following activities as your 2-year-olds arrive. Let one or two teachers lead small groups of children in activities throughout the room while another teacher greets parents and kids at the door. At this age not all children will participate, but most will want to be part of the fun.

1. 7 Times “7 Times” is an activity that teaches counting and uses repetition to teach a key concept of the Bible Story.

What You Need: No supplies needed

What You Do: Before the Activity: Have the children stand in front of you. Count to seven together.

During the Activity: Do the following movements seven times while counting out loud: jump, raise hand, blink eyes, stomp foot, and pat your knees. Repeat as desired.

What You Say: Before the Activity: “Can you count to seven? (Pause.) Awesome! Let’s try together! (Count together with the children.) Great!”

During the Activity: “Now let’s jump seven times! (Jump and count to seven as you jump.) Way to go! Now let’s raise our hand high in the air seven times!” (Continue with the activity.)

After the Activity: “You are very good at counting to seven! A man in our Bible story today does something seven times too! Let’s find out what it is!”

2. Ouch “OUCH” is an activity that allows the children to role-play with a concept of the Bible story.

What You Need: Several baby dolls, small red dot stickers, and BAND-AIDs®

What You Do: Before the Activity: Place the red dot stickers on the dolls’ bodies. These will represent boo-boos. Take the BAND-AIDs® out of their wrappers so that they children will be able to handle them easier.

During the Activity: Give the dolls to the children and ask them to work together to place BAND-AIDs® on the dolls’ boo-boos.

After the Activity: Be sure to discard all BAND-AIDs® away from the children. They may be a choking hazard for some small children.

What You Say: Before the Activity: “Oh, my goodness! It looks like our babies have boo-boos!” (Hold up baby dolls.)

During the Activity: “The poor babies! Can you help me put BAND-AIDs® on our babies’ boo-boos?” (Do activity.)

After the Activity: “Thank you so much for your help. The babies feel much better now. Our Bible story today has a man that also has boo-boos. I wonder if he feels better too, like these babies. Let’s find out!” Make It True

After children have participated in Make It Fun, tell the Bible story and then encourage the kids to have fun singing with you.

When sharing the Bible story, guide kids to gather around you on the floor. Some kids (especially the younger ones) may wander. That’s OK. They’re still listening and learning!

Worship What You Need: CD player, this month’s worship song, “Every Day I Can,” downloaded from the Website, and the motions for the song

LEADER: “Hello, friends! It’s our last time together this month. Let’s DIVE IN and have lots of fun singing together!

(Lead children in singing “Every Day I Can.”)

LEADER: “Way to go! You are all such amazing singers. Now remind me: Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] I can trust God. That’s right, friends. You better believe it!”

Bible Story

What You Need: Bible, red dot stickers, and a towel

STORYTELLER: “Hello, my friends! You’re looking happy and full of energy today. I have a super awesome Bible story to share with you today. And as you know, if you read it in the Bible (hold up Bible), you will know that it’s TRUE! Today’s true story is about a guy with a pretty funny name. His name was Naaman. Can you say ‘Naaman’ with me?

CHILDREN: “Naaman!”

STORYTELLER: “Good job! Naaman was the commander an army. He’d won lots and lots of battles for the king, and everyone really liked him. But sadly, he had boo-boos all over his body.

(Take the red dot stickers and place them all over your arms and neck.)

“These boo-boos hurt and there was no medicine that could make it better. Poor Naaman. But Naaman heard about a man who loved God that could help him! So he asked the king if he could go see the man. Everyone wanted Naaman to get better, so the king agreed. And Naaman went with his horses and chariots to find the man that could help him. The man was named Elisha.

“When they got to his house, Elisha sent a messenger to talk to Naaman. The messenger told Naaman that if he wanted to get better, he needed to go wash himself SEVEN times in the river.

“Well, this made Naaman really angry. He got this big angry face with his angry eyebrows. Can you show me your angry eyebrow face? (Pause as kids respond.) Ooh, that’s very angry! Naaman was mad because he was going to have to take SEVEN baths. That’s SEVEN times in the water and SEVEN times out of the water. That seemed WAAAAY too much for someone like him that was so important! Naaman

wondered why Elisha didn’t come out himself to heal him. (In a whiny voice) Why did he have to take a SEVEN baths? (Normal voice) Naaman didn’t think it was fair.”

“So what do you guys think Naaman should do? He still has all these ouchy boo-boos. Should he go home and still be sick, or should he trust God? (Pause.) Yes! He should trust God! So Naaman finally listened and took those seven baths.

“Can you guys count Naaman’s baths?

(Scrub your arms each time to get the dots off your arms and “dry” off with the towel.)

“Here we go! One (scrub off some dots and ‘dry off’), two … (repeat six times).

“WOW! Look at that! Naaman’s spots are gone. God made him all better. No more boo- boos! (Stand up and dance around.) I’ll bet Naaman did a happy dance! Can you guys do a happy dance too? (Lead kids to stand up and do a happy dance for a few seconds.)

“Whew! That was SO fun! You can sit back down. Naaman trusted God even though it was hard and God made him better! How awesome is that? And you know what? We can trust God too! Who can you trust?”

CHILDREN and STORYTELLER: [Bottom Line] “I can trust God!”

STORYTELLER: “That’s right! You can trust God even when it’s hard, just like Naaman did when he took SEVEN baths! Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] I can trust God. Let’s pray about that.

“God, we know that You are an awesome God. We know that You love us so much. Help us to trust You like Naaman did, even when it’s hard. We can always count on You. We love You. Amen.

“Awesome job, everyone! See you later!”

Make It Stick

Choose two or more of the following activities to help make the Bottom Line stick. Lead the activities with small groups of children. Encourage children to play on their own if they do not wish to take part in an activity.

1. Hearts “Hearts” is an activity that uses fine motor skills and repetition to study the memory verse.

What You Need: “Hearts” from the Activity Pages on the Website, white cardstock, red or pink inkpads, and heart stamps

What You Do: Before the Activity: Copy the “Hearts” Activity Page onto the cardstock.

During the Activity: Give each child an Activity Page. Encourage the child to stamp as many hearts as they would like onto the page.

After the Activity: Say the memory verse with the children several times.

What You Say: Before the Activity: “Our memory verse tells us that we can trust God with all of our hearts.”

During the Activity: (Give each child an Activity Page.) “You may use the stamps to make as many hearts on your page as you would like. This will show that we trust God with all of our hearts.”

After the Activity: “Great job! Let’s say our memory verse together! ‘Trust the Lord with all your heart,’ Proverbs 3:5. YES! Let’s say it AGAIN! (Repeat verse several times.) Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] I can trust God!”

2. Retell and Dip “Retell and Dip” is an activity that retells the Bible story to the children while having them act out a key point.

What You Need: A long piece of blue butcher paper and floor tape

What You Do: Before the Activity: Lay the paper flat across the floor in the activity area. Secure the edges of the paper to the floor with tape.

During the Activity: Have the children sit around the paper and retell the story. When you come to the part about dipping in the water seven times, ask the children to stand on the paper and bend their knees seven times as if they are dipping.

After the Activity: Say the Bottom Line together.

What You Say: Before the Activity: “We have pretend water in our room today.” (Point.)

During the Activity: “Everyone come and sit around the water. (Pause.) Naaman had boo-boos all over his skin. I bet that hurt! Poor Naaman. But God had a plan! Naaman had to trust God’s plan, and he took seven baths! I bet that was hard! Let’s see. Everyone come stand on our water. Now let’s dip seven times. (Demonstrate and count.) Whew! That is tough! But Naaman trusted God and he did it and his boo-boos went away!”

After the Activity: “Sometimes it is hard to trust God but He always knows what’s best! Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] I can trust God!”

3. In the Air “In the Air” is an activity that uses critical thinking and problem solving to reinforce the story.

What You Need: Small red pom-poms

What You Do: Before the Activity: Give each child three or four pom-poms.

During the Activity: Ask several questions about the story. Every time the children answer, encourage them to throw the pom-poms in the air. After each answer, ask them to gather the pom-poms up again and then ask the next question. 1. Who can we trust? (God) 2. Who dipped in the water seven times? (Naaman) 3 Did Naaman trust God? (Yes) 4. Did Naaman’s boo-boos go away? (Yes)

After the Activity: Say the Bottom Line together.

What You Say: Before the Activity: “Let’s see who was listening today! I’m going to give you some pretty pom-poms. (Give the children pom-poms.) When I ask you a question, everyone answer very loudly and THROW your pom-poms in the air.” (Demonstrate.)

During the Activity: “Are you ready? (Ask the questions and do the activity.) Great job!”

After the Activity: “You are such great listeners! We should always follow God because we can trust Him! Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] I can trust God!”

Get Ready to Dismiss

Set any take-home creations where you or parents can get them easily. Greet parents at the door and tell them that this month preschoolers are learning, Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] You can trust God! Encourage parents to repeat the Bottom Line at home and help their child understand, Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] You can trust God! Have this month’s Parent CUE available for parents to pick up or send it in a monthly email. Encourage parents to use the activities found in Parent CUE to reinforce this month’s Bottom Line: Who can you trust? [Bottom Line] You can trust God!