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Why We Study

Unit 2 / Lesson 1

Why We Study

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Traffic Yam

      • Get a bag of large marshmallows; enough for each child to have two (one to put on the floor, and one to eat as a prize).

    • Pictionary

    • Biathlon

  • Main Activity (Musical Instruments):

    • Xylophone:

      • Cups, a pitcher of water, and chopsticks. Each cup will have a different amount of water in it, which will result in a different sound when the cup is hit by a chopstick. Note, the ideal xylophone station has lots of extra cups so that children can try making their own xylophones.

    • Shaker:

      • A clear plastic cup, some rice, plastic wrap, and scotch tape. Place the rice in the cup, cover the top with plastic wrap, and secure with tape.

    • Panpipes:

    • Other instrument possibilities are on the web page above, if you want to modify this activity to have different instruments.

    • You will want to familiarize yourself with the construction of the instruments before class, and make them for yourself if possible. 


    Intro 

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro Activity: Traffic Yam

    • Instructions

      • Teacher: this game is based off of a Minute To Win It game called Traffic Yam. Normally, it is a relay race between two teams, where teams need to move a yam across the floor of the room using only their noses. Seeing that we have children and don't want to hurt anyone's nose, we will replace the yam with a marshmallow.

      • We'll start our time with a game! It's a relay race, so we will have two teams. Everyone on your team will take a turn moving a marshmallow across the floor of the room with just your nose! When it's your turn, you'll start touching the wall, and then you'll roll the marshmallow to the other side of the room. You'll touch the far wall while your nose is still on the marshmallow, then you'll roll the marshmallow back with your nose and touch the wall where you came from, while your nose is on the marshmallow. Then the next person on your team will go. If you finish, you get a fresh marshmallow to eat for all of your effort.

      • Teacher: demonstrate how to play, at least at key parts of the relay, e.g. how to begin, how to roll, how to touch the far wall while your nose is on the marshmallow, and how to end one's turn at the near wall.

    SLIDE 3

    • Debrief/Relevance

      • We played this game because it helps us to understand our lesson today. Today we are starting a new bunch of lessons. For the next few weeks, we will talk about becoming an awesome student.

      • Not everyone becomes an awesome student. Some students at school are just there because they have to be there, and they're bored the whole time and don't learn a lot. If you don’t know why you are at school, you won’t really want to do your best. BUT if you follow what the Bible says, you can look forward to school every day, and your time at school will make you super strong so you can do really awesome things, help lots of people, and do God's work.

      • Over the next few weeks, we'll find out what the Bible teaches about being an awesome student.

    SLIDE 4

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is, why do we go to school?

    SLIDE 5

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea is, we should go to school to get WISDOM.

    • The Bible teaches us that wisdom is awesome.

    • Proverbs 16:16 (CEV) tells us:

      • It's much better to be wise and sensible than to be rich.

    • Think of all the things you could buy if you had a lot of money. The Bible says wisdom is even better than that.

    • Today we will talk about two kinds of wisdom. We can get wisdom with THINGS, and we can get wisdom with PEOPLE.

    SLIDE 6

  • Bible Reference

    • We see these two kinds of wisdom in our Bible passage today:

    • Proverbs 24:3-6 (CEV)

      • 3 By wisdom a house is built,

        and through understanding it is established;

        4 through knowledge its rooms are filled

        with rare and beautiful treasures.

        5 The wise prevail through great power,

        and those who have knowledge muster their strength.

        6 Surely you need guidance to wage war,

        and victory is won through many advisers.


    Point 1

    SLIDE 7

  • Our first point is, we can get wisdom with THINGS.

  • Game: Pictionary

    • Instructions

      • We will start this point with a game of Pictionary!

      • We'll take turns drawing a word that I'll give you. We'll see how fast you can draw, and how fast we can guess. Today we'll all be on the same team, and you’ll all have a turn drawing.

      • Teacher: Use the lists of words as seen in the teacher’s prep section at the beginning of this lesson. Show one word to each child when it is their turn. If the class is stuck, you can tell them the answer after a minute of trying.

    SLIDE 8

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it uses our knowledge of THINGS. We need to be able to figure out what things are. When we are drawing, we need to know how to draw. If we are good at working with things, we can have a lot of fun, and we can help our team.

      • The Bible teaches us there's a kind of wisdom that helps us to be good at things.

      • Let's read the first part of our Bible passage again.

    SLIDE 9

  • Bible Reference

    • Proverbs 24:3-5 (CEV)

      3 By wisdom a house is built,

      and through understanding it is established;

      4 through knowledge its rooms are filled

      with rare and beautiful treasures.

      5 The wise prevail through great power,

      and those who have knowledge muster their strength.

  • Explanation

    • Wisdom is another word for skill. We need skill to build a house, and we need skill to fill rooms with beautiful treasures. A skilled person knows how to become very powerful, and if we have knowledge, we can be very strong.

    • The Bible tells us to get this kind of wisdom, and going to school is a great start to getting knowledge which leads to skills and wisdom.

    SLIDE 10

  • Application

    • We can practice using our hands to make things. We can learn all kinds of things so that our minds can be full of big ideas. If we learn, we can be very wise and very powerful, and we will be able to do lots of things. Let’s make a point to learn about things.

    • Not everyone goes to school to learn. Some people only try to get good grades, so they only learn what they absolutely need to learn in order to score well on a test. When you get older, sometimes it's really important to get good grades. Sometimes, you need to do really well on a test in order to get into a certain school or a particular program. If you are young, it's much more important to actually learn and understand things. So, don't be discouraged if you get a bad mark. It's much more important to have a good attitude, and try to keep learning.

    SLIDE 11

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's stop for a discussion question

    • What is your favorite subject at school? (Is there a reason why?)


    Point 2

    SLIDE 12

  • Our second point is, we can get wisdom with PEOPLE.

  • Game: Biathlon

    • Instructions

      • We'll start this point with a game! We'll call it the biathlon.

      • In the Olympic Games, they have an event called the biathlon, where people go skiing and every so often, they stop skiing and shoot a gun at some targets. They get points for how fast they are, and for how many targets they hit.

      • Today we won't be skiing, we will be running.

      • We will also be using Nerf guns to shoot at our targets.

      • Here are the rules. We will have a relay race with two teams. When it’s your turn to race, you need to stand behind the line and shoot the target.

      • You can't just stand there and shoot. Every time you want to shoot a bullet, you need to run to the far wall and back, then you can shoot one time. 

        • Teacher: give them a reasonably large target like a whiteboard, and demonstrate how to shoot the target from behind the line, and where to run between shots.

      • If you miss, run to the far wall and back again, and try again. You're done after you shoot the target twice, OR you try five times. After five tries, you're automatically done and it's the next person's turn on your team. When everyone has had their turn, your team is done.

      • Teacher: you may want to play this game more than once depending on time and interest.

    SLIDE 13

  • Debrief

    • We played this game because it's about doing TWO things. If you want to be good at the biathlon, you need to be fast on your feet AND be good at hitting your target.

    • With school, there are two things to work on, if you want to be the best student you can be.

    • We want to become wise with THINGS, but we also want to be wise with PEOPLE.

  • SLIDE 14

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's read the last verse of our Bible passage again.

    • Proverbs 24:6 (CEV)

      • Surely you need guidance to wage war, and victory is won through many advisers.

  • Explanation

    • This verse is about a different kind of wisdom. It's about fighting a war with other people, and getting advice from other people who are wise.

    • The wisest people aren't just wise with things, they're also wise with other people. People who are very wise know how to work with others, and they know how to win against opponents.

    SLIDE 15

  • Application

    • One of the greatest things about school is that we get to see a lot of people. We can learn how to be a good friend, how to work with others, how to listen, how to help people, and how to communicate our ideas. We can also learn how to win against other people. Sometimes we need to know how to win against other people if we are fighting for what is right.

    • A lot of these skills won't get you good marks at school. But, if you get these skills and this wisdom, you'll have better friendships, and you'll be able to help a lot of people.

    SLIDE 16

  • Discussion Question (optional)

    • Do you have any tips on how to be a good friend?


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 17

  • Let's wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.

  • Our big question today was: why do we go to school?

  • Our big idea is, we should go to school to get WISDOM.

  • There are two kinds of wisdom we should look out for.

    • 1. First, we should get wisdom with THINGS. We can learn skills with our hands, and we can get knowledge that will help us to do all kinds of useful stuff. 

    • 2. Second, we should get wisdom with PEOPLE. We can learn to make friends, communicate, get help, help others, and even fight for what is right. All of this takes practice, but it's worth the effort.

  • The Bible tells us wisdom is better than great riches. If we become wise, we can succeed in every part of life, we can help lots of people, and we can do God's work.

  • With that in mind, let's always try to get wisdom. Don't just go to school because you have to go, and don't just try to get marks. Rather, keep getting wisdom with THINGS and keep getting wisdom with PEOPLE. Then, you can look forward to going to school every day.


    Main Activity: Musical Instrument Crafts

SLIDE 18

  • For our activity today we are going to make musical instruments!

  • We have materials to make some shakers, a xylophone, and panpipes.

  • Musical instruments help us appreciate the two kinds of wisdom we talked about today. It takes wisdom with THINGS to make an instrument and to play it well. But, if you want to be the best musician you can be, you also need to work with other people. It's better if you know how to take advice, and how to help others and play with others.

  • Teacher: see the preparation notes at the beginning of this lesson for how to make the instruments. If you have helpers, you may want to have different stations for different instruments, and the children can visit stations when they like.


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