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10:00 am

One-Room School House Curriculum

Our 2006 curriculum began in January.

We are using a new curriculum. Instead of buying a curriculum from Cokesbury this year, we are creating our own lesson plans. Each Sunday Lesson is based on the liturgical scriptures and offers a variety of mediums for conveying our message.

The goal of our Sunday School program is to help kids learn about God's love and presence in our lives through a variety of art projects, music, discussion sessions, stories, scripture readings, prayer, videos, games, magic tricks, string games, and through the participation of their teachers. Since we all have different gifts and graces from God, we all bring something different to the Sunday School. The kids will benefit both from our individual gifts and through our interaction with each other and with them.

All children from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade are welcome to join us in rooms 3 and 4. On the first Sunday of every month, we will meet in the classroom at 10:00 am and join the adults for communion. The rest of the month we will begin in the sanctuary until Children's Time, when we will then walk together to the classroom for our Sunday School lesson.

This Month's Scriptures and Themes

March 5th: Matthew 6:1-15

Theme: Parts of the Service

Teacher: Paul Fong

March 12th: Romans 4:13-25

Theme: Faces of Faith

Teacher: Kathy Wetzell

March 19th: Exodus 20:1-17

Theme: Journeys for God

Teacher: Martha Crowe

March 26th: John 3:14-21

Theme: The Great Light

Teacher: Pamela Fong

Meet Our Teachers!

Joy Jones

Why did I decide to become one of the Sunday school teachers working with your child? We been each asked to try to explain why we felt led to do this. I have been thinking about what to write. I have a daughter, now 12, named Laura. She first came to this church with my mother when she was four. Laura loved Sunday school. So, I started bringing her almost every Sunday. For the first few months we came, Laura would often get into trouble. I would sit in the back of the church and hope they didn't need me to go over. Sometimes, I had to leave. Eventually, she had no problems. We both looked forward to coming to church.

Three years ago, there was a shortage of teachers for the Sunday school class. I decided that this was something I could do. I had appreciated the work the teachers had done with my daughter and I felt it was time I helped. I have enjoyed working with the children. I have learned a great deal from them even as I hope they have learned from me.

Kathy Wetzell

My husband, Mark, and I have been members of First United Methodist Church for 23 years, ever since we moved here from southern California. We have three grown children that all attended church as children and youth. I teach first grade in Union City.

I first taught Sunday School when my children were young, alternating between their classrooms. I continue to teach it because I love children and want to be a part of their growing spiritual lives. In addition to teaching Sunday School, I serve on the Staff Parish Relations Committee and the Stewardship Committee.

Holy Week for Children

This year for Holy Week our Sunday School and Youth Group are going to be providing part of the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday services.

On Maundy Thursday, youth and adults will be offering the Lenten skit "Lord, Is It I?". This is a Living Last Supper play, with monologues by the twelve disciples. Good Friday and Easter will have a two part play offered by our Sunday School class. Each part will be about half an hour long.

Please come support our children and youth. They have worked long and hard to provide a unique and moving experience for all during Passion Week.

 

Your Story Line: A Life Scriptured

Originally published in Exploring Faith with Families.
by Jenni Duncan (print version)

Do you remember stories from your childhood? I loved The Ugly Duckling, probably because of its message that each of us is lovely
as created. Once on a trip to Memphis, my husband and I entertained our toddler daughter by reciting her storybooks. We didn't know we had them memorized, but it shouldn't have surprised us. She wanted them read again and again. Even today they're part of our family's memories.

How about the stories of faith? Could you, or your child, tell what happened at the beach-side breakfast? To the man lame from birth? Those are Scriptures from this quarter's lessons. These Scriptures are full of stories for remembering. Repetition secures the stories in memory so that they surface when we need them. Find some ways to tell the stories more than once.

  • Bind the leaflets as a book to read again.
  • Illustrate your own version of the story with your child.
  • Read aloud stories from a Bible storybook (The Beginner's Bible, Read to Me Bible for Kids, The Children's Everyday Bible, Children's New Revised Standard Version Bible, The Children's Illustrated Bible)
  • Give your children dress-up clothes to act out the stories.
  • Wonder about the characters. Faith is not just information but spiritual transformation. Ask, "How do you think Peter felt when Jesus washed his feet?" and, "What would you have thought if you had seen the man who was lame jump up and begin to walk?" Talk about which person is most like yourself or other family members or friends.

As you read stories and talk and think about them you're forming spiritual and emotional foundations. You tap verbal, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences. Even more important, resilience strengthens as we develop relationships with people who care about, believe in, and listen to us, and as we find purpose and meaning in life. As children see themselves as part of God's story, they are more able to weather adversity and challenge. Through Bible stories, children discover
a God who keeps promises, who saves and loves us, who is triumphant, and who wants good things for us-all building blocks not just of faith but of resilience.

My mother says that her hometown was so familiar with Bible stories that people would use them as shorthand: "He's a David" or, "She's a Job's comforter."

Television knows the value of stories. The series Friends, for instance, labels episodes "The one when ... " or "The one with .... " The experience, the story, the image--those are what we take with us for later support and insight. The power of a story comes as it is retold and gathers new meaning. When I found The Ugly Duckling, my first thought was "my special book." The story was instantly in my mind with new depth and insight: The swan truly found who he was in community, as we often do.

Our community is the gathered saints, those alive now and those witnesses recorded in Scripture. Make their story your story and your child's story. Tell the old, old story. It will become new and renew.

Rev Jenni Douglas Duncan serves at St. James United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas. She enjoys sharing Bible stories with the 3- and 4-year-olds during chapel and with children, youth, and adults in contemporary worship and Bible studies. Her favorite story time is with her granddaughter, Erin.

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