This lesson plan can be used in connection with the previous lesson plan on Pond Life.

Do a lesson series on the Plagues of Egypt from Exodus chapters 5-11. For the plague of frogs, do a theme lesson on frogs and pond life.

Exodus 8:5 – Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Tell Aaron, Stretch out your hand with your staff over the streams and canals and ponds, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’

Draw and cut out a pond shape with big blue bulletin board paper. Cut out strips of green paper to be pond grass and glue on the blue pond. Cut out lily pad shapes as round green circles with a slit cut into one side. Glue a flower on the lily pad.

Glue some fish on the pond.

Place the pond on the floor in the block center. Line up wood blocks like a dock sticking out into the water.

Provide rubber ducks and stuffed frogs in the pond.

In the science sensory table, create a pond habitat. Fill the table with water. Throw some artificial grass in the water along with some play fish and frogs.

After the children have experienced play with the pond and the frogs, talk about how Pharaoh would not let the Egyptian people go free. Review the precious plagues and continue on with the next plague in Exodus. See the list of plagues below:

Plague of blood

Plague of frogs

Plague of gnats

Plague of wild beasts

Plague of pestilence

Plague of boils

Plague of hail

Plague of locusts

Plague of darkness

Plague of first born

If you like Alvin and the Chipmunks, then you will like EB in Hop.

EB is short for Easter Bunny. He is a talking teenage bunny who would rather do teenage boy music things, specifically play the drums, rather than take over the family business of delivering Easter baskets and candy every year.

He runs away from his home on Easter Island and lands in Hollywood, chasing his drumming dream. While in Hollywood, he meets up with a young man, Fred, who also is career-challenged and being strongly urged by his family to find a job and move out on his own.

Not wanting to give out too much information from the movie, but EB and Fred develop and friendship and end up helping one another achieve their dreams as well as re-establish healthy relationships with their families.

Good clean movie. No bad language or violence. A must see!

We are all encouraged and commanded to be homeschoolers. We can learn a lot from the Old Testament and the Exodus of the Jewish people. We are told in Exodus 13:8-9, On that day you should tell your son: ‘We are having this feast because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ This feast will help you remember…

The Jewish people participate in the Passover Seder meal every year to remember how God called Moses to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt. It is a family-based ritual conducted in the home in which guests are often invited. The meal is the primary way of sharing the faith from parent to child, from one generation to the next. What a great way for parents and children to interact with one another while experiencing Biblical history and Christian education. After all, parents are their children’s primary Christian educators.

During our Easter children’s worship service, we have participated in a simple Passover Seder meal. We set up a low table to eat on with pillows and cushions to sit on. We explained the symbolic meanings of each course of the meal.

The celery sticks dipped in salt water gives us a salty taste to remind us of the tears the people cried while they were slaves.

The matzo crackers (bread without yeast) remind us that there was no time for the Jews’ bread to rise.

The horseradish reminds us of the bitter herbs of the Jewish people that reminded them of how they suffered and lived difficult lives as slaves.

The haroseth looks like mushy cement and is served on matzo crackers to remind us of the mortar the Jewish people used when they worked to build brick buildings in Egypt.

The hard-boiled eggs are a symbol of new life. The Jewish people were given a new life just as we are given new life.

The lamb bone is a reminder that lambs’ blood was spread on the doorposts to keep the Jews safe in Egypt.

God saved his people and led them to the Promised Land and a promise of a Savior! Praise God we have that promise and that new life!

Happy Resurrection Day!

This is a good lesson plan for faith-based early childhood classrooms or church classes. This is a good way to blend preschool education with Christian education.

In my early childhood classroom we have been learning about seeds this week. We learned the seed parts, how to plant seeds, how seeds grow, what seeds need, what seeds grow into.

We read The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle. This story tells how seeds travel and what happens to them on their journeys.

The students colored faces on a styrofoam cup then we added dirt and planted grass seeds in the cup. We watered the seeds and placed the cups in a sunny window. We will care for the seed cups for the next few days/weeks, watching to see if the grass grows. With faces on the cups, the grass will grow up like hair. Funny!

While we were planting seeds cups, we planted some seeds in a cup marked with no water, one cup marked with no sun. We put the no water cup on the window ledge with each student’s cup where it can get sun but we won’t water. We put the no sun cup in the closet where we will water it but it can’t get sunlight. We will see what happens over the next few days/weeks.

We sorted seeds by size, shape, and color. There are many different varieties of seeds. The students sorted them into individual sorting cups.

We recalled our healthy nutrition theme about foods to discuss foods with seeds. We talked about which seeds we can eat and which ones are too big or hard to eat. We talked about which foods have seeds on the inside or outside.

Now to blend this seeds lesson for a faith-based early childhood center. Read the parable of Jesus in Matthew 13: 1-9. The Eric Carle book mentioned early in this post is a great accompaniment for blending with this story.

Begin in Matthew 13:3  A farmer went out to plant his seed. While he was planting, some seed fell by the road, and the birds came and ate it all up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, where there wasn’t much dirt. That seed grew very fast, because the ground was not deep. But when the sun rose, the plants dried up, because they did not have deep roots. Some other seed fell among thorny weeds, which grew and choked the good plants. Some other seed fell on good ground where it grew and produced a crop. Some plants made a hundred times more, some made sixty times more, and some made thirty times more.

It is very important to teach healthy eating to children at young ages. They get it. They understand the ways of healthy eating and good nutrition.

In my early childhood classroom, I have 2-3 weeks of lesson plans devoted to Nutrition. We learn the Food Pyramid. We learn in which food categories different foods go.

The students get it. After only one week, they are properly categorizing foods on the food pyramid.

After our classroom Nutrition theme, a student’s mom told me that she really appreciated us teaching things like healthy eating and the food groups to help them in their daily living activities. That is important to their family. One night at the dinner table, her son looked over the table and said: This looks like a very healthy meal you’ve made, mom. There’s only one problem: You have too many fruits. That told this mom that he understood the food groups. He was very helpful at the grocery store, too.

Send a food pyramid homework paper home for homework. Have the students and families keep track of foods the child eats for a day or a week. Encourage them to continue tracking their eating habits even after the weekly theme is over.

They also learn that eating healthy balanced meals leads them to have more and better energy for doing the things they love, like sports and bike riding and running.

After day one of the Nutrition theme, one 3-year-old boy looks over his family’s dinner table and gives his approval to mom: This meal is healthy. There are foods from each food group.

He gets it. Early childhood children get it. Teach children about Nutrition and healthy eating early. Establish a healthy habit early.

This is a great theme for any early childhood classroom in any center.