Product Updates

Sample Lesson from An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation

We are excited to be able to share with you a sample lesson from our curriculum, An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation. In the lesson, you’ll find some introductory comments, the lesson, our Illustrated Story Cards for the lesson, as well as the two 8.5×11 versions of the coloring posters that will be included with each lesson. You can download the sample lesson here.

This is a curriculum that we hope will require little to no effort on the part of the person planning it (other than making some photocopies and getting crayons/markers out), and can be led by anyone without any necessary time for preparation. Whether you’re looking to give your regular Sunday School teachers the summer off, or just want something that won’t require any planning on their part, An Illustrated Earth is going to be a great product for you.

Each of the twelve lessons is broken up into five main components: Gathering, Story Time, Imagining Together, Coloring and Closing.

Gathering

Since much of the lesson is focused on listening, discussing and coloring, this gathering time gives you a chance to lead an activity that might be more active. We provide you with a sample gathering activity, but you are welcome to come up with your own that suits the children’s needs and temperaments in your ministry. Though this doesn’t need to be overly involved, it’s a good opportunity for movement and for the children to introduce themselves if that is necessary in your context.

Story Time

Story-Time This is the time set aside for becoming familiar with the biblical story for that week. There are a variety of ways you can introduce the kids to the story. First, we have provided you with a paraphrase of the passage that has been written specifically for children.

Second, we provide you with that same paraphrase broken up into a script. If you have some older children in your group, this would be a great opportunity to allow them to stand up and act out the story. Depending on the story, you may choose to have some of the younger children act out the story while it’s narrated and directed by the older children or teachers.

Finally, we have created Illustrated Story Cards for each lesson. These story cards each have a very simple line drawing that depicts one part of the story. The goal is to offer children the opportunity to put their cards in the proper sequence, matching the illustrations with the story in scripture they’ve just heard.

Imagining Together

This is not so much a time to make sure they got the information or facts of the story, but rather, an opportunity for the children to share what stood out to them and what they imagined when they listened to the story. Depending on the time you have set aside for this lesson time, you may choose to do this portion while coloring the poster or sheets, or you may want to spend a little time imagining with the children first, and then move over to the poster.

Coloring

If you purchased our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters, you will have a poster that corresponds with each lesson. Each poster has a word, phrase or portion of the biblical passage incorporated into the design.

Coloring is an opportunity to continue talking about the story, while asking questions and seeing where the conversation takes you. Because many of the story’s elements are integrated into the coloring design, it may be fun to encourage the children to search out as many symbols as they can that communicate an aspect of the story.

If you didn’t purchase the large coloring posters, you can use this as time for individual coloring with the included coloring sheets. We have provided you with both the design of the poster, and a simplified coloring sheet for your younger children.

Closing Prayer

Whether you simply read the prayer, or have the children repeat after you – use this as a chance to “close” your time together as you wait for parents to come pick up their children. As you approach the end of your time together, this is a great short ritual to do with the children; it creates a sense of community and preparation as they enter back into the world.

Sample Lesson Available

We hope you’ll take some time to look through our Sample Lesson and share it with your friends. The curriculum is available for immediate purchase and download on our store here.

You can download the sample lesson here.

Use Illustrated Earth Posters with Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS

Adam Walker Cleaveland Leave a Comment

Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS is most likely one of the most popular VBS curriculums available for the summer of 2016. Cokesbury's Surf Shack VBS In addition to Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS, Group’s VBS options are also viewed as the a standard VBS curriculum that churches across the theological spectrum use.

I’ve worked at churches that have used these types of VBS curriculums before, and I am aware of what the appeal can be about programs like Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS. You get everything you need to run the program for the week. They often come with videos, shirts, all the appropriate marketing materials you’ll need, original music (often including videos of kids dancing and teaching the music)…they can be quite appealing.

Depending on the size of your church and the number of children you’re used to having come to your summer VBS program, Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS might be more than you need. But if you are planning on using Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS, we have made a very interesting discovery here at Illustrated Ministry. Actually, someone told us about it at a conference we were at last week, and I’m excited to share that with you.

As you know, An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation, is our summer product that we created primarily for summer Sunday School classes, but as I’ve said before, I think An Illustrated Earth could also be adapted to fit into a VBS program your church may be trying to develop. You won’t get a box with everything you need to run a VBS program, like you might with a Group VBS or Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS. But it will provide you with some themes, stories, a lesson and a giant coloring poster.

An Illustrated Earth is broken up into three modules, and Module 1 is Water Stories. Last week someone told us that Cokesbury’s theme for this summer was Surf Shack: Catch the Wave of God’s Amazing Love. I thought it sounded like a fun theme – and then I looked at the five Bible stories they’ll be using that week for Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS.

Bible Stories from Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS

These are the stories they are covering during the week:

Session 1: Genesis 1: Creation Story
Session 2: Exodus 2: Miriam Cares for Moses
Session 3: Matthew 3: Baptism of Jesus
Session 4: Luke 8: Jesus Calms the Storm
Session 5: John 21: Breakfast on the Beach

Now, take a look at the stories that we had chosen for Module 1: Water Stories, before we had heard anything at all about Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS:

Week 1: Genesis 1: Creation Story
Week 2: Exodus 14: Parting of the Red Sea (not the same story, but still a Moses story)
Week 3: Matthew 3: Baptism of Jesus
Week 4: Mark 4: Jesus Calms the Storm

As you can see, 3 out of the 5 stories from Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS are the same stories we are covering in our water module. So if you are doing Surf Shack this summer, and are looking for an additional activity to have as part of your program for the week, our large coloring posters would be a great option.

Below you can see the poster designs for the three stories that Surf Shack is also covering in their curriculum:

Order Your Posters Today

If you think these posters would work with how you’re using Cokesbury’s Surf Shack VBS, you can get the posters for Module 1: Water Stories in two different formats here.

Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters Available to Order

Adam Walker Cleaveland 7 Comments

Below you can learn more about our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters, but you can also find out more information, see more photos and purchase the posters by clicking here.

We are excited for you to see our new Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters. For this series of posters, each of the posters illustrates a story from the Bible, coming from both the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. Below is a list of the stories that these posters cover:

Module 1: Water Stories

Week 1: Genesis 1:6-10: Separation of the Water (download a sample lesson from the accompanying curriculum, An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God’s Creation)
Week 2: Exodus 14:15-31: Parting of the Red Sea
Week 3: Matthew 3:13-17: Baptism of Jesus
Week 4: Mark 4:35-41: Calming of the Storm

Module 2: Food & Plant Stories

Week 1: Exodus 16: Manna & Quail
Week 2: Mark 6:31-44: Feeding of the 5,000
Week 3: Leviticus 25:1-7: Rest for the Land
Week 4: Mark 4:1-9: Parable of the Sower

Module 3: Animal Stories

Week 1: Genesis 1:20-25: Creation of Animals
Week 2: Numbers 22:22-35: Balaam and the Lord’s Messenger
Week 3: Jonah 1-4: Jonah and the Big Fish
Week 4: Luke 15:1-7: Parable of the Lost Sheep

Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters — Some children coloring the Module 1: Week 2 poster of the Parting of the Red Sea.

While these posters will continue to have our signature style and design that people have come to love and appreciate from our Advent & Lenten Coloring Posters, you will also be able to find more specific elements of the story within each of the designs. We are excited about illustrating Bible stories in these creative coloring poster designs.

You can see the twelve poster illustrations below:

Creation - Separating the Waters — Creation: Separation of the Water

With so many elements of the story found in each large 3′ x 2′ coloring poster, children will be able to sit around a table, color the poster, talk about the story and discuss what they wonder about it. And these are certainly not only for children. These coloring posters work great for intergenerational events and programs that churches might schedule as they seek to find more ways to bring generations together.

Poster Details

Here are important details about the Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters.

There are 12 posters in the complete set, although you can purchase Modules 1, 2 or 3 separately if you wish (as long as supplies last).
The posters are 3′ x 2′ (36″ x 24″) and are printed out on 32lb bright white paper. If you have used our posters in the past, watch this video (which includes a cameo appearance by our founder’s 4-yr old son) to learn more about this new paper we’re using.
You can order just the physical posters, the digital files or both the digital files and physical posters.
We use UPS to ship the posters, and they are shipped in a strong cardboard poster tube. Note: UPS does NOT ship to PO Boxes – they need a physical address).

Ideas for Using Our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters

There are many ways to use our Illustrated Earth Coloring Posters – and you all probably have even more creative ideas than these – but here are a few that come to mind:

Sunday School: Use the posters along with our Illustrated Earth curriculum. Along with the curriculum, these large coloring posters as a no prep to low prep Sunday School option, and your kids will love getting to color the large posters!
As an activity for children during worship: This works especially well during the summer, if you don’t have Sunday School, having these posters on a table or on the floor for children during the service, would be a fun way to keep them engaged in the service.
As an activity during VBS: Maybe you’ve already planned your summer VBS program – but you’re looking for another activity to fill some of the time and add some variety to your curriculum? The posters would be a great option for that.
Intergenerational Family Nights: Get families and other church members together for a fun evening. Start with coloring the posters around tables and talking about the stories, enjoy a meal together, and then end the evening by roasting marshmallows outside for some S’mores!