In November, our parish has a “Youth Sunday” where our Sunday School students have an opportunity to do tasks around the church just like everyone else. Each class is assigned something to do for that Sunday. This year, the 3rd/4th grade class was asked to share a project in our Sunday School hallway.
I thought about it and decided to incorporate our current study of the Bible with learning about the four, large Old Testament icons in our narthex. After all, contextual learning is powerful and I simply cannot pass up this opportunity.
The goal for this week’s lesson was to learn about the icon behind the candle stand in the narthex and complete one-fourth of our Youth Sunday project. Are there large icons in your parish that you could explain to your students? Could you have your class give a church tour at the end of the year for their parents?
Week 7:
In addition to the teacher outline, you will also need the following for this lesson:
- Two pieces of 12×18 construction paper, per student
- Print out of icon, one per student
- Print out of “Jerusalem in Old Testament Times” in the back of the Orthodox Children’s Bible Reader (reduce the size when copying), one per student
- Black markers
- Bible
- Scissors
- Glue sticks
- Our class is learning about the four, large Old Testament icons in our narthex over the next 4 weeks. Do you have icons in your church that you would like to explain to your students? Could you prepare your students to give a church tour of your parish at the end of the year for their parents?
2. Fold one piece of your 12×18 construction paper in half. The top half is for this week’s icon.
3. Learn about the icon using the teacher outline and teach the children about the story
4. Label the top of the paper in accordance with your lesson – for example: “Learning About the Old Testament Through Icons”
5. Write the questions from the teacher outline on your construction paper and then write the answers
5. This is an ongoing project. We are going to attach our work over the next four weeks using two sheets of 12×18 construction paper and then hang it in our Sunday School hallway for the parents to see.
The goal of this project is to learn more about the Old Testament and also learn about the Old Testament icons in our narthex.
