Valley Bible Sunday School

4th Grade – Sept 18th

Brian — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:42:48 +0000

We would like to welcome your family to the 4th Grade class. Jim and I are co-teaching your children this year. We had the pleasure of meeting many of them last week and look forward to seeing everyone this Sunday.

We would like to ask parents to please share with us ASAP any food allergies your children might have and also any academic challenges they may have. This will help us both teach and feed them this year.

We will be challenging the students to memorize one scripture verse per month and hope that you would encourage and help them with this task. We are emphasizing that these verses are to be worked into their hearts, not just a short term memory exercise. So we will come back and check verses later in the year and ask that you keep reviewing them with your children. These verses support the curriculum (“To Be Like Jesus”) we are using. The first verse is 1 Corinthians 10:31

It is also our goal that each child would own their own Bible (class is using ESV, but other translations are fine). If your child doesn’t own a Bible and it would be a hardship for you to purchase one for them, please let us know and we will provide them with one. The children are asked to bring their Bible with them each week. Please help them to remember.

Last week our theme was “Created in God’s image for His glory”. We discussed what it means to reflect God’s image. We discussed the meaning of holiness and righteousness and glory.

We hope to update you weekly through emails and the Church Blog as to what is happening in class so you can support us and continue to discuss with your child the ideas we introduce each week.

Thank you for sharing your children with us.

Gloria & Jim Heidenreich

3-year-olds – Sept 18th

Brian — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:40:30 +0000

Dear parents of our 3-yr-olds Sunday school class:
We look forward to getting to know your children! This year we will be studying the Old Testament. Each week we will try to send home a coloring page with the story and memory verse on the back. If they hear the story and themes from you and look at the picture at home they are much more apt to remember the lesson. We hope to make some kind of project to also remind them of the story or help them to retell it to you.

Our expected schedule, Lord willing, is as follows for the next few weeks (memory verses to the right):

9/11 Genesis 1: God creates the world Genesis 1:1
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

9/18 Genesis 3: Man disobeys Romans 3:23
“All have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God.”

9/25 Genesis 4: God accepts Abel but rejects Cain Genesis 4:7
“If you do what is right, will you not be accepted?”

10/2 Genesis 6-9: God judges the world and sends a flood Gen. 6:22
“Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”

10/9 Genesis 12-13 God calls Abram/ makes a covenant Gen. 12:3
“…all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

10/16 Gen. 18,21 The Lord appears to Abraham, sends Isaac Gen. 21:1
“…the Lord did for Sarah what He had promised.”

Joyfully yours,
Wendy Yohe and Jennifer Kravitz

P.S. There are at least four reasons to encourage children to memorize scripture: 1) Children have amazing memories, 2) What is learned in childhood is often retained for a lifetime, 3) Memorizing scripture provides children with an ever-present counselor and protector, and 4) Memorizing scripture makes application and response to the Word more likely. May God bless your efforts in this!!

5th grade – Sept 18th

Brian — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 20:39:12 +0000

Parents,

We are off and running in the 5th grade Sunday school class at VBC. I will be doing most of the teaching, and Katey will be teaching about once each month. Katey will also be creating our SS missions moments. Because it has never seemed fair to me that the 4th and 5th graders don’t get a snack, when nearly everyone else in the church does, I will be providing a simple snack for them each week. We certainly wouldn’t refuse any snack contributions! If you do send something in, please bear in mind that we have one student with nut allergies, and another with gluten intolerance. Thanks!

This year’s study is called “How Majestic is Your Name”. It is a study on the character of God, as revealed through His many names.

In our first lesson, we talked about why names are useful. They identify us, for one thing. In the Bible, names also told about a person’s character or reputation. For example, Eve means “the mother of all living things”. Moses means “to draw out of”, and Abram means “exalted father”. God later changed Abram’s name to Abraham, which means “father of a multitude of nations”. Jesus changed Simon Peter’s name to Peter, which means “the rock”. We looked at some passages in Matthew and in Acts, to see how Peter’s character changed and became more rock-like as his relationship with Jesus deepened.

Amazingly, there are 211 names of God in the Bible. If you add all the names for the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, there are 489 more. That adds up to 700 names of God in the Bible. We will study approximately 30 of them. The Bible is God’s progressive revelation about Himself. As we study some of His names, our understanding about who He is will deepen.

The memory verse for our first lesson is Psalm 8:1—O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

Please do not hesitate to contact me or Katey if you have any questions or concerns about the 5th grade class this year.

MaryEllen

p.s. I’m sorry this note is coming at the end of the week. Right now, my life is a little crazy. Frank, my husband, is an RN, and likes to do specialized medical fostering. So this month, in addition to it being my first year teaching kindergarten at Mt. Lebanon School, a baby (1-yr-old) who is medically fragile, with severe respiratory and cardiac issues, and his 18-yr-old mother have moved in with us. We covet your prayers for all of our transitions!

MaryEllen Buffo

Katey Walker