Lesson 1: The birth of Moses.
Passage: Exodus 1:1-2:10 - When the Israelites had lived in Egypt for many years, they prospered and grew in number. The Egyptian Pharaoh was afraid of them, and so he turned them into slaves and oppressed them terribly. Yet the Israelites continued to grow in number, so Pharaoh ordered that all of the Israelite baby boys were to be killed. One Israelite woman, however, took her baby boy and placed him in a basket among the reeds in the Nile River. He was found by the Pharaoh’s daughter, who took pity on him. Meanwhile, the baby’s sister, Miriam, approached Pharaoh’s daughter to ask if she should find a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. She agreed and the baby was given back to his mother to be nursed. When the baby grew up, he was brought to the Pharaoh’s daughter and became her son, and she named him Moses.
Big Idea: God watches over us.
For Teachers:
Lesson plan.
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Welcome Activity: (10 minutes) - All leaders
Have one leader greet the children with the iPad roster outside the classroom door. Check-in the children in your classroom as they arrive.
Have another leader invite the children in to sit in a circle on the circle time rug. Introduce yourselves.
Activity: Basket of Bible Story Clues
Leader: Hi kids it’s good to see you this morning! Is it a special day today? Mother’s Day . That’s right and we have a special craft later to give to parents or grandparents. But first I have some things in this basket here that have to do with today’s bible story. I will pass the basket around and you can pull out one thing and say what you think it is.
Items: Baby, crown, blanket, reeds, blanket, plant, bottle
Leader: Any guesses to what our story is about today? (Baby Moses)
Leader: We’re going to be learning about a character in the Bible whose name is Moses, this is at the start of his story. Can you find a seat so you can see the pictures? Can you give me a thumbs up when you are ready? Okay Let’s begin..
Read: The Big Bible Storybook ‘Baby Moses’
Follow Up Discussion: Bible Story Leader
What did Moses’ mom do to try to save Moses from the Pharaoh? She hid him in a basket
And who found Moses in the end? (Pharaoh’s daughter, the princess)
How did Moses big sister Miriam help? (She talked to the princess and was brave.)
Prayer: Dear God, thank you for the story of Moses, and how we learn that even when the people of Israel were going through a hard time in Egypt, you were still watching over them and had plans to save them. Thank you for how you saved baby Moses so that he could grow up and help the people escape from Egypt. Thank you that we know that you also love and watch over us. You know about everything that happens to us and you care about us. Thank you that we can talk to you and pray to you about anything - good or bad - because we know you love us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Music and Play Time
Leader: Alright friends I think we should get up and do a little dancing before our craft can everybody stand up?
Body Break Activity: — Action Song Play action song video ‘I might be Little but my God is big’ song from Worship Songs Playlist
Sing and follow the actions from the video
After the body break activity move to the tables for craft time.
Craft Activity: Colouring Page folded flowers craft for Parent/Care-givers day
Children will use crayons, stickers and glue to create a special card for a parent/grandparent or care-giver.
If a child is uninterested in the activity, allow them to move to free play.
Dismissal: Dismiss children manually with Roster iPad and make sure each child leaves with their caregiver.
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Welcome — All Leaders
Welcome the children to the front of the classroom.
Manually Check-in each child using the iPad Roster. Introduce yourselves.
Warm Up Activity: Stand up if Game
Kids will listen to a series of statements (provided to the leader) and will stand up if it applies to them. Example: Stand up if you like broccoli etc.
Preliminary Discussion — Bible Story Leader
Today we’re starting a new series. So far we’ve been learning a lot about the story of Jesus which is found in the second half of the Bible called the New Testament. But there’s actually a lot more of the Bible than just the New Testament. There’s also something called the Old Testament, which is the first half of the Bible! In the Old Testament there are a lot of interesting stories about lots of different characters. The character who’s story we’re going to be learning about is a man named Moses.
Has anyone ever heard of Moses before? What do you know about Moses and his story?
Let’s watch a video that will tell us a little bit about the beginning of Moses’ story. And then afterwards, we’ll watch our own Commons Kids video to see if we can answer some trivia questions…
Play Saddleback Kids ‘Baby Moses’ Video
Then Play Exodus Trivia: Episode 1
Follow Up Discussion — Bible Story Leader
What was the name of the country where the Israelites were living?
Why did the King of Egypt treat the Israelites so badly?
What did Moses’ mom do to try to save Moses from the Pharaoh?
And who found Moses in the end?
Why do you think God saved Moses?
Prayer — Bible Story Leader
“Dear God, thank you for the story of Moses, and how we learn that even when the people of Israel were going through a hard time in Egypt, you were still watching over them and had plans to save them. Thank you for how you saved baby Moses so that he could grow up and help the people escape from Egypt. Thank you that we know that you also love and watch over us. You know about everything that happens to us and you care about us. Thank you that we can talk to you and pray to you about anything - good or bad - because we know you love us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Activity: Mothers/Parents Day cards
Kids will use markers, scissors, and glue sticks to create a bouquet card.
Dismissal: Use Ipad Roster to dismiss children making sure each child leaves with their care-givers.
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Welcome — All Leaders
Welcome the kids to class, ask how their week was and one interesting thing that happened. Check-in each child using the iPad roster.
Warm Up Activity: — Stand Up If
The leader will have a series of statements and kids will stand up if it applies to them. Example: “Stand Up if You’ve ever gotten a hair cut you hated” or “Stand up if you’ve seen a movie in a theatre this past month”
Preliminary Discussion — Bible Story Leader
Today we’ll be starting a new series. So far we’ve been learning a lot about the story of Jesus - his birth, life, public ministry, death, and resurrection. But now we’re going to be switching gears a little bit and going back to look at one of the most important stories in the Old Testament, which is the first half of the Bible. We’ll be learning about the story of a man named Moses.
Has anyone heard about Moses before? What do you know about him and his story?
Well let’s watch a video to find out about the first part of Moses’ story, and then afterwards we’ll watch our own Commons Kids video lesson…
Play Saddleback Kids ‘Baby Moses’ video.
Video Lesson — Bible Story Leader
Follow Up Discussion — Bible Story Leader
Why do you think Pharaoh so afraid of the Israelites that he decided to oppress them?
Do you think it would have been hard for the Israelites to believe that God was with them when they were going through so much oppression and they hadn’t even done anything wrong?
Have you ever had a time in your life when it felt like God didn’t care or wasn’t listening? What did you do then?
What do you think Moses’ mom must have been thinking when she decided to put Moses in a basket and float him down the Nile river?
What do you think of the fact that Moses ended up being adopted by Pharaoh’s own daughter and grew up in the Pharaoh’s palace?
Prayer — Bible Story Leader
“Dear God, thank you for the story of the Exodus that we’ve started today, and how we can learn from it that you are a God who cares about your people. Even though we may go through difficult times where we feel like you’re far away, the truth is that you’re always there watching over us, and that you have plans in store for us that we may have no idea about. Thank you for the ironic way that you can turn situations around for our good. Please help us to put our trust in you even when it’s difficult, to know that you are a God who loves and cares for us, who we can always turn to. In Jesus’ name, Amen.”
Activity: Parents Day card
Kids will use markers, stickers, glue, scissors to create a card.
Dismissal: Dismiss each child using the iPad roster and make sure each child leaves with their caregiver.
For Parents:
Follow-up questions.
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What was the story you learned about in class today?
Do you remember the name of the baby that God saved from the Pharaoh? How was he saved?
Do you remember what God’s special plan was for Moses when he grew up?
Do you think God was watching over the Israelites the whole time? Do you think God watches over you too?
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What was the story you learned about in class today?
What was the name of the baby boy that God saved from Pharaoh? How did he end up being saved?
Do you remember what God’s special plan was for Moses’ life?
So do you think God had really forgotten about the Israelites in the end? Do you think that God is always watching over you too?
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What was the story you learned about in class today?
What part of the story stood out to you the most? Why?
Do you think it would have been easy for the Israelites to feel like God was with them when they were still living a good life in Egypt? What about when they started being oppressed?
Do you think that God is still with us even when we feel like everything is going wrong and life is hard? How do you think we can remind ourselves of that?
