Church School News: In the Deep Blue

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Our Church School is now utilizing a curriculum published by Cokesbury. In the Deep Blue is flexible in the units that are purchased, making it possible for us to support the current year’s theme of Bible Heroes and to fully return to the rotation model of teaching and exploring the     Bible, which has worked for our congregation for many years now. 

Rotation church school programs base weekly lessons on a different learning and engagement style (cooking, story-telling, science, art, missions, spiritual practices, and games) with each  Sunday. Our children and youth will be approaching the stories of Esther, Elijah, Abraham, Moses and Miriam between now and Children and Graduate Sunday (June 11th) in that order. Two added benefits are offered to us through this curriculum.

The first is a family page to be printed and shared with families who attend each Sunday so that learning from Church School can be enhanced at home. The second is the ability for us to share questions each Sunday in the bulletin so that our faith community can talk with our children and youth, too, about their learnings. 

This curriculum is focused on ensuring the children know the story through a variety of lenses. While the core story stays the same each week, the details learned expand. For instance, in the unit on Esther children learn through cooking about the Jewish Holiday of Purim. They cook traditional foods together and they learn how these foods tell the story of Esther Through “Telling the Story†the children learn about different truths of what it was like for the Jewish people to live under Persian rule. They explore what a diaspora is and what exile means.

Fasting is explored as a spiritual practice and the curriculum invites the children and youth to explore fasting as a way of praying to God as well as a tool for making a stand in the public realm. The core perspective on this curriculum is aligning our choices in life with our faith—a faith that tells us with God, all things are possible. 

Have you considered teaching Church School?

Christian Education is looking for teachers. We will be running a “training†for those interested in how to use the curriculum and engage children and youth in a one-room classroom model at their age levels. Ideally, three or four members of the congregation would say yes to this, allowing us to create a rotation of teachers who approach lessons according to their passions as they fit the above engagement styles. This would also allow us to ensure that we have the ability to break out into age groups for more appropriate activities. If you are open to considering this, please reach out to Pastor Stacey or Beth Heckman.