Pause for a moment and reflect on the busy month that was March. Were you able to make time for reading the Bible with your child? Were you able to talk about Bible truths on a consistent basis? Raising preschoolers often revolves around developing habits at a young age—washing hands, saying please and thank you, and reading the Bible and talking with Mom and Dad about spiritual things. The monthly Bible activities provided as part of NEBC’s POPs ministry aren’t the only way you can read the Bible and develop the practice of reading the Bible each and every day. It’s about developing the habit. The habit of reading God’s word and the habit of talking to God like they would talk to their best friend.
This month’s Bible activities focus on the lessons associated with Elijah. It will be a fun month as you and your child participate in Bible-related activities. I encourage you to study the Bible passages from an adult perspective prior to interacting with your child about the passages. Sometimes teaching best happens from the overflow of our own learning as we study. Click her for this month's Bible study.
April Bible Study
Week 1 & 2 - God is Powerful
Parent Passages: 1 Kings 17:1-24
Day 1: Leaping Ahead. Work with your child to mark a distance to which they think they can jump to. Have the child jump to try to reach the mark they said they could jump to. Have them keep jumping to try to reach it. Ask them how they could get more power to jump to reach the line. The actions may include moving the line closer so they can reach it or, if the size of your child allows, you picking up the child and carrying him/her forward to the line. It won’t be long before your child (and you) becomes tired. Talk to your child about God being powerful. God is so powerful that He will never tire as He helps us do what we need to do each and every day.
Day 2: How and Where Will We Go? Throughout today, as you ask your child to go to different places (take his/her plate to the sink, go to the bathroom, take shoes to his/her room), ask your child to choose how he/she goes to that location. Will he/she hop like a bunny, slither like a snake, crawl like a baby, walk in baby steps, etc? Do this for several tasks throughout the day. At the time you’ve set aside for Bible study today, help the child reflect on all the ways they traveled today. Ask him/her which way was the favorite. Introduce Elijah to the children as a special friend of God’s. God had special jobs for Elijah and He was sent to several places. Elijah did what God wanted him to do because he knew God was powerful.
Day 3: God is Powerful! Gather a few items from around your house that your child can lift and one or two that he/she can’t lift as of yet. Ask your child to pick up the items. Talk about how strong they are! Help them him/her see that he/she is growing he/she is getting stronger. As the child attempts to pick up an item that is too heavy to be picked up, talk to him/her about how the strength isn’t there just yet to be able to pick up the item. Ask your child to name ways people grow stronger. Add lifting weights to the list. Give your child two cans of vegetables from your cabinet. Show them how to use the cans to “lift weights”. Show them how to raise the can over head or bend the arm at the elbow and raise the can to the shoulder as in a curl. (A younger child may have to use both hands on one can as opposed to using one can per hand.) Tell the child that God is more powerful than anyone. God is more powerful than you, your mom or dad. God is the most powerful of all!
Day 4: Meet Elijah. Remind your child that we’ve been talking about powerful people and the fact that God is powerful and there isn’t anyone more powerful than God. Well a long time ago, there was a man who lived named Elijah. Elijah was a prophet. A prophet is a special friend of God that God gives special messages to tell others.
A long time ago, there was a mean king named Ahab. King Ahab and a mean wife named Jezebel. A king’s wife is known as a Queen so people called Jezebel Queen Jezebel. The king and queen did not love God. They worshiped statues made of wood and stone. Because the king and queen worshiped things made of wood and stone, so did the people in Israel. This made God very sad. God decided to punish them.
God sent Elijah to Israel. Elijah shared the news God gave him. Elijah told the people of Israel that there will be no more rain in Israel for many years. Elijah said that this was God’s punishment. Just as Elijah said, there was no more rain. Not one drop. The grass and plants dried up and the water in the lakes and rivers went away. God showed the He is powerful!
Say a prayer thanking God that He is powerful.
Day 5: No Water. Ask your child to imagine life without water. Brainstorm all the ways we use water (bathe, wash clothes, dishes, cook, drink, make lemonade, ice cubes, water plants, animals, etc). Ask your child how it must have been for the Israelites to not have water. Retell the story and asking the child to fill in parts that he/she remembers.
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were mean people. They did not love God. They did not worship God. They worshipped statues of stone and wood. This made God very sad. He decided to punish them. Elijah was a special friend of God. God gave Elijah the job of telling King Ahab and Queen Jezebel their punishment. Elijah told them that there would not be any rain for many years. There was not any rain for many years and the grass and trees dried up and the rivers and lakes were empty.
Day 6: Make Play Doh Statues. Give your child some play doh and ask him/her to make some statues. Ask him/her to ask the statues that were made to complete some tasks. Ask him/her to tell the statues to pick up a pencil, pick up his/her room, etc. Talk about how the statues can’t do any of those things. Ask your child why the statues can’t do the things he/she asked. (They aren’t real.) The statues that King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were worshiping weren’t real either! God is real. God is powerful. God stopped the rain. He kept it from raining for years! Pray thanking God that He is powerful.
Day 7: Draw Pictures. Provide your child with two pages of paper and crayons or markers. Give your child a green crayon or marker and ask him/her to draw a picture of the land when it gets rain. Talk about how God gives us rain to help our grass and trees turn green. Once the first picture is completed, give your child a brown crayon or marker and ask him/her to draw a picture of the land where King Ahab and Queen Jezebel lived after it had no rain. Talk about how God took the rain away from the land because the people were worshipping statues and not God.
Day 8: Obey. Encourage your child to help you recall the story of Queen Jezebel and King Ahab. Remind the child that King Ahab and Queen Jezebel did not do what God told them to do. God told people to worship only Him. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel did not obey God. God punished them because they did not obey Him. God wants us to do what He tells us to do. God also wants us to obey our parents just like He wants us obey Him. Just like King Ahab and Queen Jezebel when we don’t obey, we must be punished to learn what is right and wrong. God tells Mom and Dad to help us learn right from wrong. Pray thanking God that He is powerful and thank him for telling Mom and Dad to help us learn right and wrong.
Day 9. Mother May I? Lead your child to play Mother May I. Remind your child how to play Mother May I. It’s important to do what “Mother says” in the game. It’s important to obey what the person says to do to stay in the game. God wants us to obey what He wants us to do. King Ahab and Queen Jezebel and the Israelites did not do what God wanted them to do and God was very sad.
Day 10. Learn the Memory Verse. Ask your child who is the strongest person he/she knows. Make a list of the people your child lists. Ask him or her to think of who IS the absolute strongest person your child knows. Ask him/her who is the most powerful. (God.) Begin teaching your child the memory verse. “O Lord, you are powerful.” 2 Chronicles 20:6. Get your child’s Bible and open it to the passage. Use a highlighter or yellow marker to highlight the verse. If you don’t feel comfortable marking in the Bible, use a sticky note on the edge of the page in the Bible to allow the child to locate the verse.
Work with your child to write the Bible verse on a piece of paper and decide where to hang it in your house to remind your child of the verse. If appropriate, ask your child to draw a picture below the verse to help the child remember what the verse says.
Day 11: Phony Food. In advance of one of the meals for the day, gather pictures that you print and cut out of same types of food. (If serving a hamburger, cut out a picture of hamburger, etc. A good source for these pictures is pixabay.com.) As you call your child to the table for the meal, serve your child the pictures of the food instead of the real food. Ask the child if they want to eat what you served them. When they say no - ask them why not. (it’s not real, it’s yucky, it won’t taste good.) Show them a plate with the real food on it. Ask them if they think this would be better food for them. Explain to them that God is the only real God. The statues that the Israelites were worshipping was fake just like the pictures of the food are fake. God is the only real God! There is only ONE real God!
Day 13: God Provides Food. Recall the story of Elijah and King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. Help your child retell the story of how God stopped the rain for a very long time because the people were worshipping fake gods made of wood and stone. Even though God stopped the rain, God told Elijah to stay there where there was no rain. God brought Elijah to a river and God took care of him there. Every morning and every evening God brought birds to Elijah carrying bread and meat for him to eat. After months of no rain, the river where Elijah was began to dry up. God told Elijah to go to a town where a woman would give him food and water and a place to stay. Elijah went to the city and found the woman.
Pray with your child thanking God for providing food, water, and a house for him/her.
Day 14: Carrying Bread and Meat. Make a lunch with your child that includes meat and bread. Place the lunch in a sack. Ask the child to fly around like a bird and then come and pick up the sack with one hand and flap his/her arms to take the lunch sack to the table to sit down and eat lunch. Talk about how God sent the birds to bring Elijah meat and bread for him to eat.
Day 15: The Birds. Look outside together with your child. Talk about the different colors of birds you see. If you see a black colored bird, talk about how God gave Elijah a black colored bird to help him. The birds brought Elijah bread and meat. Thank God for being powerful and providing food for us and for Elijah. Thank God for making the birds.
Day 16: God is Powerful. It’s time to revisit the memory verse. Go back and get the memory verse picture that you made last week. Bring it back to the focus of the conversation for today. Recite the memory verse together. Get the child’s Bible and locate the verse in the Bible. Help the child recite the verse.
Day 17: A Woman Gives Elijah Bread. Elijah found a woman in the city where God sent him. Elijah found this woman at the city gate gathering sticks. Elijah asked this woman to give him a drink of water and a piece of bread.
The woman said, “I only have a little flour and oil to make bread.”
Elijah said, “Don’t worry. God won’t let you run out of flour and oil.”
So the widow made bread and shared with Elijah and guess what - she never ran out of oil and flour! Whenever she poured flour and oil from her jars, God filled them up again! It was a miracle! God is powerful enough to keep refilling the oil and flour containers after she made bread for Elijah.
Weeks 3 & 4 - It’s Time for a Showdown!
Parent Passages: 1 Kings 18:22-38
Day 18: Make Homemade Playdough. Have your child help you make homemade playdough. The recipe found at this link contains oil and flour. https://theimaginationtree.com/best-ever-no-cook-play-dough-recipe/ Show your child the amount of flour in your container before measuring out the flour to be used in this recipe. Help the child measure out the oil to put into the playdough. Show the child that the flour container and oil container have less in it than it did before you took the flour and oil out to make the playdough. Talk about how God refilled the woman’s oil and flour even after she made bread for Elijah.
Playdough hint: For vibrant color and aroma use kool-aid in place of the food coloring as you mix the playdough. Let the child choose the color and scent of the playdough.
Day 19: Build a Tower with Blocks. Ask your child to get blocks or legos and build a tower. 1Talk about people worshipped God by building special towers called altars. The altars were special places that people in Bible times came to worship God. They prayed to God and thanked Him for answering their prayers.
Day 20: Fire. Give your child red, yellow, and orange crayons and ask them to draw fire on the piece of paper. Then access a fireplace scene on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LssTi4X8jY Talk about the sounds of the fire and what is making the popping sounds. Tell your child that in this weeks’ Bible story you are going to learn about how God used fire to answer Elijah’s prayer.
Elijah built a special altar just like we played we did yesterday. He built it and told King Ahab to build one too. Elijah told the servants to get two helpings of meat. Put one piece of meat on top of the wood on Elijah’s altar and the other piece of meat on the pile of wood on top of King Ahab’s. Elijah told them to not light the meat or wood on fire. Elijah told King Ahab to tell his gods to light the wood and meat on fire. They waited all morning until noon for the fire to start. There was no fire. King Ahab’s god did not start the fire. Elijah told King Ahab and his people to shout louder that maybe their god was sleeping or traveling. They shouted even louder and longer. Still there was no fire. King Ahab’s god did not start the fire.
Elijah took the altar that he built and dug a hole around it and covered it with twelve jars of water. So the wood was nice and wet. The hole Elijah had dug was full of water. Elijah looked up to heaven and asked God to set the altar on fire. As soon as Elijah asked, fire fell from Heaven, burned up the wood, the meat, and all of the water in the hole was gone!
Day 21: How to Put Out a Fire. Show your child the picture of the fire at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LssTi4X8jY . Ask your child how the fire was probably started (matches). Ask your child how to put the fire out (water). Remind the child of the story with Elijah and the fire. Retell the story. Talk about how God used the fire and it even drank up all the water in the hole that Elijah built.
Day 22: Recall Bible Story. Give the child materials to build a tower. It can be legos, blocks, or the playdough made earlier this month. As the child builds the tower, have them tell you the Bible story about Elijah building a tower. Remind him/her that God is powerful.
Day 23: God Answered Elijah’s Prayer. Ask your child questions about Elijah and the altars that he built. Talk about how God answered Elijah’s prayer to start the fire for the sacrifice for the meat on the altar. Talk about how Elijah asked God to do a GREAT BIG JOB! It was a job that the people considered impossible! Elijah asked God to start a fire on wet wood without a match! God is a very powerful God!
Day 24: Thank God for Answering Prayers. Help your child make a thank you card for God. Help them make a card telling God thank you for answering prayers. Have the child color and decorate it. Assist your child as he/she requests help. Lead your child in a prayer telling God thank you for always listening to our prayers and answering them.
Day 25: What Would You Do? Imagine with your child that they see something that surprised him/her. What would you do? What would you say? Help them recall a time when they were surprised or shocked by something. (They might say Whoa! or Oh my goodness!) Remind them of the Bible story and the amazing thing that God did when Elijah asked Him to start the fire on the altar. The people were all watching because they wanted to know if God REALLY could do what Elijah said that he would do. The fell down to the ground and said “The Lord is God”.
Day 26: Memory Verse. The Israelites learned that God is powerful! He showed the people with the fire that He is powerful and He is the real God. Let’s say our memory verse together. (You can use the picture the child drew earlier in the month to help recall the verse. “O LORD YOU ARE POWERFUL AND MIGHTY” 2 Chronicles 20:6
Day 27: Real or Fake. Show your child something fake and real. It could be a toy car and then compare it to your real care. It could be fake flowers and real flowers. Ask them the differences between real and fake. Help the child to see that the fake is not the same as the real thing. King Ahab and the people worshipped fake gods. God is the real god. He is the powerful God that started the fire on the altar and made you and me.
Day 29: Power of Prayer. Elijah prayed to God. Praying is talking to God. Each of us can talk to God anytime we want. All we have to do is talk to Him. God wants to be our friend. Just like (fill in names of your child’s friends) are your friends, God wants to be your friend. Lead your child in saying a prayer thanking God for being a powerful God.
Day 30: Prayer List. As you being your study time today, ask your child if he/she has prayed to God today. If so, ask when and what he/she prayed about. Talk about times when you pray and mention some things that you pray about so the child can learn from your example. Help your child to make a prayer list of things he/she can pray for. Write the list down for your child. Ask your child to draw a picture next to each of the items on the prayer list. Limit the list to 3 items so the child can remember them as he/she prays. Put a date on the prayer list.