Lesson 4 Christmas Week

---

Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 1

Large Group

Countdown to Christmas Series at a Glance for Kid-O-Deo About this Series: Christmas is coming, and we’re ready to celebrate! The only thing left to do is count down the days. In this series, we’ll hear about how excited people were for Jesus to come, even hundreds of years before he was born! Then, we’ll count down to our own Christmas celebration, learning a lot about God on the way! Memory Verse: Luke 2:11- Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.

Weekly Overview: Lesson:

Topic:

Big Idea:

Lesson 1: December 1/2

Trusting Jesus Luke 2:4; John 1:46, 7:52; Micah 5:2.

I can trust God’s plan.

Lesson 2: December 8/9

Meeting Jesus Luke 2:8-20; Matthew 2:1-12

I can trust that God will always love me.

Lesson 3: December 15/16

Waiting for Jesus Isaiah 11, Micah 5:2

I can trust God while I wait.

Lesson 4: Christmas Week

Following Jesus Luke 2, John 18-21

I can trust Jesus to lead me.

Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 2

Countdown to Christmas Series at a Glance for Kid-O-Deo (continued) Lesson 1: Trusting Jesus Did you know that people weren’t always nice to Jesus? Some people teased Jesus, just like we sometimes get made fun of today. When you feel sad or hurt, God will always listen, and will always be with you.

Lesson 2: Meeting Jesus Christmas is still on the way, and we’re getting more and more excited! It can be tough to wait, but there’s one thing we can always remember while we wait: God loves us! This week, we’ll hear the story of some people who met Jesus after he was born, and see how they learned that God loves them.

Lesson 3: Waiting for Jesus It can be hard to wait, especially for Christmas! Did you know that God told people that Jesus was coming hundreds of years before he was born? That’s a long time to wait! We can make waiting a little easier by counting down to Christmas in a super fun way, and learning that we can trust God, even when we have to wait.

Lesson 4: Following Jesus Christmas is here! It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but have you ever wondered why we celebrate Christmas? The amazing thing is, Jesus came for a reason, to show us all that God loves us. Following Jesus is a wise choice, because he loves you so much, and you can always trust his plan.

Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 3

Countdown to Christmas

Lesson Outline for Kid-O-Deo Lesson 4: Following Jesus Lesson Segment

Total Running Time

Kid-O Playtime (10:00)

00:00-10:00

Transition Time (2:00) Opening Song (3:00) Introduction and Rules (2:00) Worship Song: It’s Christmastime (3:00) Bible Adventure (6:00) Memory Verse (3:00) Worship Song: Away in a Manger (3:00) Try it Out (5:00) Big Idea Video (2:00) Kid-O-Whampus (2:00) Prayer (2:00)

10:00-43:00

Transition Time (2:00) Group Time (15:00)

Video Cue

43:00-60:00

Slide Cue

Audio Cue

Tech Notes

Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 4

Transition Time

2:00

Do This: 10 minutes after the start of the adult service, walk into every Pre-K room and introduce yourself. Tell Kid-Os to follow the directions of their room leaders, clean up, line up, and that you will see them in a little bit in the large group room. Know This: You are these Kid-Os experience of church! Your tone, attitude, and actions are forming the way these kids think about God, church, and even people in general. You have the opportunity through what you do and say to create an environment where they feel welcome, included, and valuable!

Opening Song

3:00

(Roll when directed) Kid-O-Deo Theme Song Video (Auto advance) Kid-O-Deo Slide

Introduction and Rules

2:00

Welcome to Kid-O-Deo! Merry Christmas, everyone! My name is _______, and I’m super excited to be here with all of you. We’ve been counting down to Christmas, and we’re going to celebrate it in a big way! Today we’ll hear a great Christmas story, sing some fun songs, and dance when we go Kid-O-Whampus later. Before we start, though, there are three things we should all practice together. They’re our three KidO-Deo rules. Rule #1: When I’m talking you are listening! Everyone put on your listening ears, and on the count of three, let’s practice listening! Rule #2: Keep your hands and feet to yourself! Do a little clap and place your hands in your lap! Rule #3: Stay in your spot! Let’s take our special glue sticks and put some glue on our spot to help us stay in the right place! Wonderful! Those rules help us pay attention and keep us from distracting others, so we can all have fun. Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 5

Worship

3:00

Let’s stand up, because we get to start our Christmas celebration by singing about how wonderful God is! Christmas is when we celebrate God sending Jesus to show how much he loves us. That’s what this song is about. Song 1: Its Christmastime

(Auto advance) Series Title Slide: Countdown to Christmas

Bible Adventure

5:00

It’s so fun singing with you, Kid-O’s! You can sit down. As you can see, we have a big “Countdown to Christmas” going on. Every day this month, we’ve been putting an ornament on our tree. Now, it’s not quite Christmas yet, but today we’re celebrating Christmas, so we get to put up the last ornament, but first we have to find it! Know This: Make sure there are 24 ornaments on the tree, and that the star ornament is under box #4. Even though it’s not Christmas yet, our countdown wraps up today!

We’ve also been opening a big gift every week in this series. Each one has a different number on it! Since today is our Christmas celebration, we’re opening four big gifts! This first one has something big inside it. Let’s open gift number one! Do This: Lift up gift #1 to reveal the manger. Know This: Make sure the objects you need are inside the boxes before the hour begins. Trumpet sound

This first gift has a manger in it! This is something that they used for animals to eat out of a long time ago. I wonder if that has something to do with our Bible Adventure? Let’s find out! Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 6

Bible Adventure Jingle Do This: Show kids the Bible.

Kid-Os, the Bible is a book all about God. Since our world began, people have been learning about God, and when they saw God do something amazing, or learned something new about him, they wrote it and put it in this book! Today, we’re going to hear about God’s son, Jesus. Do This: Get the Bible storybook out and sit down in the chair.

This story you are going to hear comes from the Bible, but we use this storybook because the pictures help us imagine what it might have looked like back when the Bible was written. The pictures you see in here are the same as the ones on the screen. Let’s get started!

Do This: Have kids help you “turn” the pages on the screen with an exaggerated arm wave. Know This: The pictures this week are animated, so don’t be surprised when they move slightly.

Picture 1: Mary, Joseph, Jesus, and shepherds.

Jesus, God’s Son, was born in a town called Bethlehem. He was born in a stable, a place where animals were kept, because his family didn’t have a place to stay. They laid him in a manger that animals ate out of. Many people heard about him, but they didn’t know he was God’s Son yet. Picture 2: Jesus teaching

When Jesus grew up, he started telling people about who God is. He showed them that everyone is important to God, and showed that He is God’s son. He did amazing things, like calm storms, heal sick people, and forgive the wrong things people had done. Picture 3: Mean people talk to Jesus

Some people followed Jesus, but some were mean to him. One day, those unkind people captured Jesus, and tried to get him in trouble. They made up lies about him, and hurt him. Jesus didn’t try to fight them, because He knew this was part of God’s plan. Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 7

Picture 4: Jesus on the cross

They put Jesus on something called a cross. They hurt Jesus so badly that he died. Jesus’ friends put Jesus’ body in a cave, and left him there. They thought Jesus’ story was over, but He was about to do something amazing. Picture 5: Jesus comes back to life.

Three days after He had died, Jesus came back to life! Jesus proved that He was God’s Son, and that he is more powerful than anything in the whole world, even dying. After Jesus came back to life, His friends understood that Jesus had died to take the punishment for the wrong things we had done. He gave His life to save us! Series Title Slide: Countdown to Christmas

Great job listening, Kid-O’s! That’s so worth celebrating. Even before Jesus came to earth, God had planned for him to save us. That’s why Christmas is so great, because it reminds us of what Jesus did for us. That’s such a great gift, which reminds me, it’s time to open our second gift! Do This: Lift up the second gift. Take out the live preserver. Trumpet sound

This is a life preserver I wonder why this is here? We’ll have to learn our memory verse to find out! Let’s practice it together.

Memory Verse

3:00

Memory Verse Jingle (Auto advance) – Memory Verse: Luke 2:11- Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you.

This memory verse tells us a lot about why Jesus came to earth. Do This: Read the verse from the screen.

Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 8

That day is what we celebrate on Christmas, God sending His Son to show how much He loves us. One word in there is super important. It’s the word “Savior.” A savior is someone who rescues and saves others who are in trouble. If you wanted to save someone who couldn’t swim, you would use a life preserver like this one! They could grab onto this in the water, and it would float. Jesus lived His whole life to save us from something called sin. Sin is a word for the things we do that we know are wrong. Jesus took the punishment for all of those wrong things. That’s how much He loves you and me. Let’s practice saying that verse together!

Do This: Practice the verse with the Kid-Os 2-3 times. Begin with your “quiet voices,” then do it in your normal voices, and finish with your super-duper loud voices! Know This: The verse with actions goes like this: (Open your Bibles) Luke 2:11- Today in the town of David (Put arms on top of one another, and lift top hand in “morning” motion) a Savior (arms across chest) has been born to you (rocking baby motion). He is the Messiah (Point up), the Lord (hands on head in “crown” motion).

Great job practicing your Memory Verse, Kid-Os! Let’s stay on our feet and get ready to sing and worship God!

Worship

3:00

Jesus came to be our Savior, and it’s amazing that he came as a tiny baby. That’s what this song is about, let’s stand and sing it together. Song 2: Away in a Manger

(Auto advance) Series Title Slide: Countdown to Christmas

Try it Out

5:00

Jesus would do anything to save you, that’s why He was born and lived. We have two more gifts to open, let’s find out what this one is, as we get ready to “Try it Out!” Do This: During the jingle, lift up gift #3, and take out the cross. Trumpet sound Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 9

This is a cross! To find out why it’s in here, we’ll have to try out what we’ve learned. Let’s go! Try it Out Jingle (Auto advance) Series Title Slide: Countdown to Christmas

This cross reminds me of the one we saw in our Bible Adventure, the one they put Jesus on. Jesus went through so much, He was hurt, made fun of, and died, and He didn’t deserve any of it. Jesus chose to do all of that to show how much He loves you. Kids fighting picture. Do This: Set two gift boxes on the table. Place the small person on one of them, and the card that says “God” on the other.

Earlier, I said that all of us have done things we know are wrong, which are sometimes called sin. Whenever we hurt others, say mean things, or disobey our parents, those things can hurt others, but worst of all, they separate us from God. It’s like there’s a big space between us and God, like how this person is separated from God. Do This: Pull the two gifts apart, leaving space between them.

We can’t fix this problem on our own, we’ve done things we know are wrong, and God could punish us for that, but He made a different choice. Do This: Take the cross, place it across the two gifts, bridging them.

Instead of just punishing us, God sent His Son Jesus to show us how much He loves us. To do that, Jesus chose to take all of the punishment, for all of the wrong things we’ve ever done. When we are really sorry for the things we’ve done that we know are wrong, we can ask God to forgive us, and decide to follow Him. Then, He promises that we are completely forgiven! That means we aren’t far from God anymore, and we can live our life following Jesus! Jesus with Kid-Os picture.

Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 10

Like this cross makes a bridge between the two gifts, what Jesus did made a way for us to be friends with God again! Following Jesus doesn’t mean we’ll never do wrong things again, but it does mean Jesus will always be with us, forgive us, and help us to make right choices. It means you’ll follow Jesus here on earth, and live with Him in heaven one day, too! I made that choice when I was ____, and it changed my life. If you’ve never made the choice to make Jesus your leader, all you have to do is believe that Jesus died and came back to life and tell God that you want to decide to follow Him. If you have questions, you can ask any one of the grown-ups in here, or your grown-ups at home to help you, we would love to talk with you more about that. Series Title Slide: Countdown to Christmas

You did really well listening, Kid-Os. Now, it’s time for us to find out what is in our last gift box. Do This: Lift up the gift, and take out the star. Trumpet sound

It’s the last ornament to put on our big tree, the star! Before we can put it up, though, we have to learn our Big Idea with Ranger Ron.

Big Idea

2:00

Big Idea Jingle

Let’s say “Hi Ranger Ron!”

Know This: The Big Idea is, “I can trust Jesus to lead me.” Big Idea Video

Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 11

(Auto advance) Series Title Slide: Countdown to Christmas

Thanks Ranger Ron. We really can trust Jesus to lead us, all the time. We’ve learned our Big Idea, that means it’s time to put up the star on top of the tree! Do This: Add the felt star to the tree.

Kid-O-Whampus

2:00

Let’s celebrate Christmas by dancing, singing, and playing a Kid-O-Whampus game! Kid-O-Whampus: Wiggle It (Winter) (Auto-Advance) “Let’s Pray.”

Prayer

2:00

We know God loves us because of what Jesus did for us. God loves you right here, and right now. Wherever you go, and whatever you do, God will always listen when you talk to him, because your words, stories, and feelings are so important to Him. Let’s talk to God for a moment right now! We’ll put our hands in our laps and close our eyes to help us focus on what we’re saying to God. If you want to, you can repeat this prayer after me. Dear God, we love you. Thank you for loving us. Help us follow Jesus every day. Amen. Kid-O-Deo Slide

I have loved spending time with you, Kid-Os. Now it’s time for you to go back to your rooms where you will get into groups with your leader and other Kid-Os, have a snack, and do a fun activity. Merry Christmas! Countdown to Christmas Lesson 4 Christmas Week 12