Children’s Bible SignsContents

About This Book ...............................................................................................1

Teaching Tips ....................................................................................................2

Lesson 1: Creation ........................................................................................ 4-5

Lesson 2: The Fall ......................................................................................... 6-7

Lesson 3: Noah and the Great Flood ............................................................ 8-9

Lesson 4: The Tower of Babel .................................................................. 10-11

Lesson 5: The Call of Abraham ................................................................. 12-13

Lesson 6: The Birth of Isaac, and Abraham’s Test .................................... 14-15

Lesson 7: Isaac Marries Rebekah ............................................................. 16-17

Lesson 8: Jacob, Esau, and the Stolen Blessing ........................................ 18-19

Lesson 9: Jacob’s Wives and Children ...................................................... 20-21

Lesson 10: Joseph Sold into Slavery ......................................................... 22-23

Lesson 11: Joseph in Egypt ...................................................................... 24-25

Lesson 12: Joseph’s Brothers and Father ................................................. 26-27

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Children’s Bible SignsAbout This Book

What does this book teach?Theologically, Children’s Bible Signs is biblically based and educationally sound. The messages are basic, positive and acceptable to Christian churches of all persuasions. The teaching is clear, simple and faithful to the Scriptures. This volume focuses on the main scriptural events in Genesis, from Creation to Israel’s move to Egypt.

Who is it for?Children’s Bible Signs is aimed at meeting the needs of children within the preschool and early elementary range — around ages 3-6. These students are non-readers/writers who may be talking or may be just begin-ning to use language. In addition, this book is aimed at students with special learning needs who may not fall in the 3-6 age range. Some examples would be autistic, non-verbal, or non-English- speaking students.

Why use signs?Children learn best when they are actively engaged during lessons. Each Children’s Bible Signs lesson in-corporates elements of American Sign Language (ASL) and “Baby Sign” to help teach using touch, sight and sound. Sign language is a powerful tool — not only for young children who are just learning to talk — but also for any child who has an expressive delay or may be unable to communicate verbally. Studies show that it improves cognitive and emotional development and that young children are able to pick up and re-tain information much more quickly using signs than they can with verbal communication alone. When you incorporate these signs along with verbal repetition as you teach Bible stories, your child(ren) will engage actively with Scripture in a brand new way.

How are the lessons structured?The lessons in this book are broken into six main sections. Each lesson lists new signs and everyday signs used in the text. It’s always up to you to choose the amount and frequency of signs to incorporate into your lesson. The “Hands-On Hook” is a fun way to begin your lesson and get the students practicing the signs that will be used. The lesson text is geared toward giving a true summary of the Scripture passage and can be used as a foundation for your storytelling or can be read word-for-word. Each lesson text is broken into three main ideas. After you tell the story, use the questions provided to assess students’ understanding and determine areas that need review. Use the “For the Teacher” section to deepen your own study and connect to larger themes of Scripture. Finally, the memory verse section references appropriate verses for students to commit to memory.

What Bible versions were used?Children’s Bible Signs uses English Standard Version and New International Version in its text and memory verses.

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Children’s Bible SignsTeaching Tips

Teaching little ones can be challenging! But it can also be really fun. Here are a few pointers to help you get started. Following these tips will help you get the most out of this book; they will serve as a guidepost as you navigate each lesson. Check them out!

Practice makes perfect: Take time to get familiar with the lesson ahead of time. That means, first of all, reading directly from the text in the Bible yourself. Take a look at the “For the Teacher” section to help in your own personal study. Then run through the written lesson a few times so you are confident summariz-ing it for little listeners. Of course, take time to practice the signs so you are comfortable showing them to the kids.

Pick and choose: You will notice that as the lessons progress, there is a natural increase in sign vocabulary. To help you, we’ve included the signs in two categories: “New” and “Everyday.” It’s up to you to decide how many of the signs to include in the lessons. Also, remember that although the signs are highlighted every time they come up in the teacher’s text, it may not be necessary to repeat that sign in every in-stance.

Easy does it: Little listeners need you to talk slowly. Make sure you plan 30 or more minutes to tell the story element of the lesson. You will see that as you add motions to your storytelling, the verbal part of the lesson will need to slow down. If you tell the lesson and incorporate the signs too quickly, it could con-fuse the students. The key is to develop a pace that allows you to tell the Bible story and add in purposeful motions that will aid in understanding. If you wonder how you can possibly fill a half hour or more with one Bible story, see the next two Teaching Tips.

Repeat, repeat, repeat: Repetition is a powerful tool in aiding understanding. When you tell a part of the Bible story with added motions, the students will want to mimic you. Great! Their brains have been focus-ing on key words and have been associating those words with motions. Now, tell that same part again! This time, they will be less focused on the motions and more focused on how they fit into the larger pic-ture of the lesson.

Get moving: You may find that you have a group of wiggle-bugs on your hands. Hooray! That’s what this curriculum is meant for. Encourage the kids to get moving and practice the signs as you do them through-out the lesson. Make it fun and engaging.

Those little shining faces: Take your cue from the kids. If you’re getting blank stares, or having to force a lot of the responses in the “Check for Understanding” section, you may need to go back over the text again. Remember, your purpose is for them to understand and retain. So, look to them to assess whether they have met those goals.

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A letter from our CEO, a mother of two.The idea for this product came about because of a real, personal need in my family. When my daughter was 2, we realized that she wasn’t speaking as much as we (or the pediatrician) thought she should be. I remember nervously driving to a therapy center on a cold November morning to see what the therapist recommended, which ended up being intensive speech therapy.

As the months passed, we found communication with our daughter very difficult. She could understand what we were saying, but verbalizing came very slowly for her. We needed to share God’s Word with our daughter, but it seemed impossible. We were reading her the stories, but struggling to engage with her. My dreams of her saying a bedtime prayer were shattered – at least temporarily.

My sister had taken American Sign Language classes and suggested we start by learning some memory verses in sign form. We were already using signs for basic needs like “help” and “milk,” so we figured, why not?

Our daughter took to it immediately – so we started expanding. We wanted to do whole lessons in sign! But we quickly found out that preparing for each story took forever. Choosing the signs, finding the signs, learn-ing the signs, putting the signs together into a cohesive lesson – it was a lot of work. And we all know time is so limited with our busy families and lives. So we thought, if WE wanted this, perhaps other families and teachers out there could benefit from our work as well.

The Children’s Bible Signs series is meant as a supplemental guide for including Baby Sign in your Sunday school, daily devotions at home or the preschool setting. We’ll cover the most popular lessons in the Bible and help you, the teacher or parent, learn Baby Sign and teach it to your little learners.

In many cases, children who are verbally delayed understand much of what we are saying and asking; they simply struggle to communicate back. Baby Sign helps bridge that gap – and while we didn’t invent these signs (many are from American Sign Language), we’ve put them in an easy-to-use format so you can use them while teaching God’s Word to your kids.

After telling the Bible story, you can introduce the flash cards and signs for people, things and concepts the children heard in the lesson, such as the character Moses and how his mother hid him in a basket in the river. In the Teacher/Parent Lesson Guidebook, we’ve highlighted in bold the words that have accompany-ing flash cards.

And the great thing about using Baby Sign is that it doesn’t have to be perfect! It’s about communicat-ing, and if the sign for “Moses” looks a bit differ-ent from our cards, that’s OK! If it means “Moses” to your kids and to you, then the purpose has been achieved – they can communicate the name “Moses” to you!

We hope you find using Children’s Bible Signs to teach and engage with your kids at home or church as powerful and rewarding as we have.

Best,

Katie Barratt

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CreationGenesis 1

New Signs: light , good, separate, land, rest (starting on p. 28)

Everyday Signs: water (p. 30), animal (p. 30), God (p. 28)

Hands-On Hook:Provide the students with a bucket of small plastic animals. Direct them to separate the animals into two groups — ones that live in the water and ones that live on land. Use this opportunity to introduce and practice the signs you will be using in the lesson.

Lesson:God creates and separates light, darkness, water and land

This is the story of God’s creation of the earth. When God began, the earth was “formless and empty.” Then he spoke, and created light and saw that it was good. God separated the light from the darkness. He named the light “day” and the darkness “night.” This was the first day of creation.

On the second day, God created the atmosphere. He called this “sky.” He divided the waters above (the cloud layer) from the waters below (the seas). God saw that it was good.

On the third day, at God’s word, dry land arose from the waters that had covered the earth. Then he called for the land to sprout grasses, plants and trees, each able to grow and reproduce. God saw that it was good.

On the fourth day, God said, “Let there be lights in the heavens.” He created the sun, moon and stars to give light upon the earth. They were also created to be used as signs to mark the earth’s times and seasons. God saw that it was good.

God creates animals and people and tells them to growOn the fifth day, God said that the water in the oceans was to be filled with animals. He created sea animals and birds made to fly in the sky. God told them, “Be fruitful and increase in number.” God saw that it was good.

On the sixth day, God created livestock, reptiles and wild animals out of the ground (see Genesis 2:19). Next, humankind was created in the image of God. They were created man and woman (male and female). God di-rected them to be fruitful and increase in number, and to fill the earth and subdue it. To everything that had life, God gave green plants for food. At the end of the sixth day, God pronounced everything that he had made “very good.”

God rests from his workThe heavens and the earth were finished. On the seventh day, God rested from all the work that he had done. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy (which means “set apart”), because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.

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Check for Understanding:What did God create on Day 1? Separated light from darkness

Follow-up question (to be asked after every question but the last): And what did God think when he was done? “It is good.”

What did God create on Day 2? Separated the waters

What did God create on Day 3? Separated land from sea (water)

What did God create on Day 4? Sun, moon and stars

What did God create on Day 5? Animals in the sea (water) and birds in the sky

What did God create on Day 6? Animals on the land, Adam and Eve!

What did God do on Day 7? God rested

For the Teacher:Jesus referred to the creation of humankind in Mark 10:6-8 and to God as the creator of the world in Mark 13:19.

God’s resting on the seventh day became the basis for the observance of the Sabbath. See Exodus 31:12-17.

In Genesis 2:19, the formation of the animals from the ground is recorded and the man gives names to the creatures.

Suggested Memory Verses:“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” —Genesis 1:1 NIV

“God saw all that he had made, and it was very good.” —Genesis 1:31a NIV

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33Copyright ©20�7 • www.ChildrensBibleSigns.com • P.O. Box 6270 • Beaufort, SC 29903

ark (boat)

covenant (promise)

rainbow

3�

Noah

altar

tower

Hand makes the ASL letter N

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Notes: