Bible Lessons by Letter Unit

*NOTE: I will update this page as we move from letter to letter. You can find this post under the menu navigation under “Preschool”

“The Word of God is like fertile seed you drop into the soil. The child does not take in everything that is there. He thinks about some aspect of it. ‘And idea strikes him,’ or he ‘feels’ (knowledge touched with emotion). He thinks. He ‘chews on some part of it.’ And that is that. Charlotte Mason warns us against exhausting the child with endless nagging exhortations to ‘be good.’ … The reality of the life lived keeps coming in, as well as giving the child direct access to the Word.” (Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, “For the Children’s Sake“)

I knew before starting preschool at home I wanted to incorporate storytelling from the Bible & prayer into our daily rhythm. Since I’m already making weekly plans based on Letter Units, I decided to base weekly Bible themes to (sort of) fit in with each letter of the alphabet. I choose not to follow any specific Bible curriculum because at this point that seems overwhelming to me. I may incorporate something more official once we move in to kindergarten.

I usually pick one specific theme or story (sometimes this actually comes directly from The Peaceful Preschool curriculum) and (maybe) one planned activity. Mostly I just want to pray together and to read stories from The Jesus Storybook Bible and talk about it throughout our week. Lately I’ve found that reading a Bible story on a non-school day seems to work best for our daily rhythm.

We also do a hymn following the Ambleside Online hymn schedule.

I keep a “Bible Bin” with our school stuff of the following items for our weekly Bible focus:

• The Jesus Storybook Bible
• Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing
• The Ology
• The Bible In Pictures for Toddlers
• The Rhyme Bible
• A Child’s First Book of Prayers (I typed & printed out several of these that fit for a morning time prayer, laminated them, put them on binder ring, and we randomly select one of these prayers to begin our day)
• Olive wood palm-sized prayer cross (helps for fidgety hands during prayers; if you have multiple kids who can pray you can also use this to pass around and let the child holding the cross be the one who gets to pray)
• Bible character peg dolls for storytelling & play (I’m currently selling these on Etsy — all based on illustrations from The Jesus Storybook Bible)
• A-Z memory verses from The Peaceful Preschool curriculum — printouts from Simply Learning (I’m sorry but this site no longer exists)
• ABCs of the Attributes of God (from Tiny Theologians)

Okay, so here are our themes and corresponding stories from The Jesus Storybook Bible by letter:

Letter A Unit: Adam & Eve

The Jesus Storybook Bible: “The beginning: a perfect home” (26-27) and “The terrible lie” (28-37)

Themes: God created me, God created everything, and God takes care our needs.

TPP Memory Verse: “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.” (Proverbs 25:11)

Songs: “Doxology” and “The Lord is Good to Me”

Letter B Unit: John the Baptist

The Jesus Storybook Bible: “Heaven breaks through” (200-207)

Themes: Baptism, blessing, need for the Holy Spirit

TPP Memory Verse: “Be kind to one another.” (Ephesians 4:32)

Letter C Unit: Children

The Jesus Storybook Bible: “The friend of little children” (256-263)

Themes: God is our Father, Jesus’s love for children

TPP Memory Verse: “Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.” (Proverbs 4:1)

Letter D Unit: Do Unto Others… (The Golden Rule)

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Servant King (286-293)

Themes: The Golden Rule, our need for Jesus to help us be kind & love

Activity: This idea came directly out of The Peaceful Preschool with some additions of my own. I added the story A Hat for Mrs. Goldman because it beautifully illustrates The Golden Rule and we made golden pom poms (inspired by the story) and wrote out 10 good deeds on golden hearts.

TPP Memory Verse: “Do everything without complaining or arguing.” (Philippians 2:4)

Letter E Unit: Earth (7 Days of Creation)

The Jesus Storybook Bible: “The beginning: a perfect home” (18-27)

Themes: The earth is the Lord’s, God made everything

Activity: We made the seven days of creation out of play dough. The Creation Story Cards can be found for free here (I printed them on blue card stock)

TPP Memory Verse: “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice.” (Psalm 97:1)

Song: “All Creatures of Our God and King”

Letter F Unit: Fisherman Friends

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Let’s go! (208-213)

Stories from other Bibles: A Wish for Fish (The Rhyme Bible)

Themes: Friendship with Jesus, God gives us friends, how does God want us to treat friends

Activity: We went fishing!

TPP Memory Verse: “Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:10)

Letter G Unit: God’s Goodness

The Jesus Storybook Bible: God to the rescue! (84-91) / God makes a way (92-99) / Ten Ways to be perfect (100-107)

Stories from other Bibles: Baby in a Boat and God Helps Us (The Rhyme Bible), Got Makes a Road in the Water (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers)

Themes: God takes care of us, God took care of baby Moses, God took care of the Israelites

Activity: Make a little boat for baby Moses out of tin foil, place a toy baby in it and float it in water. My son also did some coloring book pages of Moses at church.

TPP Memory Verse: “Good and upright is the Lord.” (Psalm 25:8)

Letter H Unit: Healing & Help

The Jesus Storybook Bible: A little girl and a poor frail lady (214-221)

Other stories: Jesus Makes a Sick Man Well (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers), The Happy Dad (The Rhyme Bible)

Themes: Our help comes from God; he is our rest and our rescue

Activity: Act out the stories with peg dolls (build a house for the story where the paralytic man’s friends lower him down through a roof. I also LOVE the Bible for Kids app for these stories.

TPP Memory Verse: “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain that build it.” (Psalm 127:1)

Letter I Unit: Noah (“…INTO the ark…”)

The Jesus Storybook Bible: A new beginning (38-47)

Other stories: “God Takes Care of Noah” and “God Does What He Says He Will Do” (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers), The Floating Zoo (The Rhyme Bible)

Themes: God’s promises, hope in God who takes care of us

Activities:

1. Act out the story with peg dolls and animals
2. Make a shaving cream rain cloud (jar of water topped with some shaving cream & then drop blue food coloring drops and wait for them to saturate the “cloud” and fall)
3. Draw rainbows (we used Kwik Stix) — for reference we used the rainbows page from Nature Anatomy
4. Work on our Hape George Luck Noah’s Ark puzzle.

TPP Memory Verse: “The Lord said to Noah, ‘Come thou and all thy house into the ark.'” (Genesis 7:1)

Letter J Unit: Joy (Fruit of the Spirit)

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Running away (272-279)

Other stories: “Jesus Tells People How to Please God” and “A Man Hunts for His Lost Sheep” (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers), The Lost Lamb (The Rhyme Bible)

Themes: What makes God joyful? Where does our joy come from? Comparison of sweetness of fruit to sweetness of love, joy, peace.

Activity: Make jars of Fruit of the Spirit Jam. The kids first painted some “jam” into jars (a free printable linked below). Later, we talked about the 9 fruit of the spirit and they colored individual cards for each fruit. We compared joy and love and patience, etc. to sweetness since fruit is sweet. The kids then each glued the little Fruit of the Spirit cards on to jars of jam. I laminated them, punched a hole in the corner, then added them to a book ring. For awhile I have kept the cards on the kitchen table and we reviewed the Fruit of the Spirit every day at lunch time since making the cards.

• Jar printable (I put 4 of these per page to get them smaller)
• Fruit of the Spirit printable cards
• Memory verse printout via Simply Learning (I’m sorry but this site no longer exists)
• Book ring
• Fruit cards (I created simple fruit & vegetable cards for our F is Farm Unit, available here)

TPP Memory Verse: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” (Galatians 5:22)

Letter K Unit: King & Kingdom

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The King of all Kings (192-199), The Servant King (286-293), plus the Lord’s Prayer version on pages 226-227

Other stories: “Wise Men Look for Baby Jesus”, “Wise Men Take Presents to Jesus” (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers), “Who Saw Jesus?” (The Rhyme Bible)

Themes: Jesus is King. The Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come.

Activities:

• Reenact the Nativity story.
• Read fairytales and play pretend to be Kings and Queens
• Work on memorizing The Lord’s Prayer with these printable prayer cue cards I made, laminated, then added to a book ring.

TPP Memory Verse: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done.” (Matthew 6:10)

Letter L Unit: Light & Love

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Light of the Whole World (184-191)

Other stories: “Wise Men Look for Baby Jesus” (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers), 1 Corinthians 13

Themes: Light. Jesus as the Light of the World. Love. Loving our Neighbors.

Activities:

• We learned some simple hand motions to the song Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• Reenacted the Nativity story
• Reviewed The Golden Rule and good deeds for neighbors
• Leaf rubbing hearts

TPP Memory Verse: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39

Letter M Unit: Mary (Mother), Manger, Magi

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Light of the Whole World (184-191) and The King of all Kings (192-199)

Other stories: Are You My Mother? and the page about mother hens from Thoughts To Make Your Heart Sing

Themes: Mary & Mothers — Mangers and care of babies. Magi & Money (gift-giving and the value of gifts).

Activities:

• We made a manger M out of pine needles and paired mothers and babies.
• Learned the song & motions for Away in a Manger
• We counted out money and talked about the value of money. We also made a donation for Christmas and talked about the value of that gift.

TPP Memory Verse: “The lips of the righteous feed many.” (Proverbs 10:21)

 Letter N Unit: Night and Nativity

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Light of the Whole World (184-191) and The King of all Kings (192-199)

Other stories: A Baby Born in Bethlehem

Themes: Night (star of Bethlehem), Nativity

Activities:

• We made a Letter N with stars in the sky
• We sang O Holy Night, Away in a Manger, and The First Noel
• We wrapped the Star of Bethlehem in yarn (fine motor skills)
• We paired our Nativity peg doll set with cards I made from The Jesus Storybook bible

TPP Memory Verse: “Behold, I make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

Letter O Unit: Open Eyes

The Jesus Storybook Bible: A New Way to See (334-341)

Themes: Open eyes, faith as seeing

Activities:

• No specific craft or activity other than a simple story interaction: I blindfolded the kids and we tested what that felt like, played around with giving and receiving instructions while not being able to see.

TPP Memory Verse: “O taste and see that the Lord is good.” (Psalm 34:8)

Letter P Unit: Prayer

This letter unit fell close to Christmas for us so I chose not to do a separate lesson. Originally I had planned to do P is for Prayer here, and use the story “How to Pray” from The Jesus Storybook Bible.

Letter Q Unit: Quiet

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Captain of the Storm (236-243)

Themes: Jesus has power to quiet storms, Jesus comforts us, trusting Jesus

Activities:

• We built little cork boats with wine corks + rubber bands + Qtips & felt sails. The kids brought their boats in to the bath tub and we made a storm by turning of the lights and banging the tub for thunder and I turned a flashlight on and off for lightning. We’d take turns saying “QUIET” and calmed the storm.

TPP Memory Verse: “In quietness and trust will be your strength.” (Isaiah 30:15)

Letter R Unit: Resurrection

The Jesus Storybook Bible: God’s Wonderful Surprise (310-317)

Themes: Resurrection, new life, defeating death, heaven

Activities:

• We used our Jesus Storybook Bible peg dolls to reenact the story. The kids selected this train track tunnel we have to be the tomb and we used a rock to cover it.

TPP Memory Verse: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.” (Colossians 3:1)

 Letter S Unit: Shepherds

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Good Shepherd (130-135)

Other Stories Used: Psalm 23 by Barry Moser, “A Man Hunts for His Lost Sheep” (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers), “The Lost Lamb” (The Rhyme Bible)

Themes: Shepherd loving the lost sheep, The Lord is Our Shepherd

Activities:

• We used our 100 Number Chart to count out 100 sheep with mini marshmallows, re-reading the story and talking about how God cares about one single lost sheep in the midst of so many, just like He loves us.

TPP Memory Verse: “For by grace ye have been saved.” (Ephesians 2:8)

Letter T Unit: Treasure

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Treasure Hunt! (250-255)

Themes: Treasure (things of great value)

Activities:

• We used a little treasure box filled with rocks and took turns hiding it around the house to give the others a turn for a treasure hunt.

TPP Memory Verse: “Teach me to do your will.” (Psalm 143:8)

Letter U Unit: Unity

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Forgiving Prince (76-83)

Other Stories Used: “Joseph Forgives His Brothers”  (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers)

Themes: Unity, forgiveness, loving our siblings

Activities:

• No activities — we just read the story & discussed it.

TPP Memory Verse: “How good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell together in unity.” (Psalm 133:1)

Letter V Unit: Victory

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Young Hero and the Horrible Giant (122-129)

Other Stories Used: “David Isn’t Afraid”  (The Bible in Pictures for Toddlers)

Themes: God is our victory & we do not have to be afraid when we are connected to him (see also memory verse: vine & branches); The battle is God’s and God always wins His battles

Activities:

• No activities — we just read the story & discussed it.

TPP Memory Verse: “I am the vine, you are the branches.” (John 15:5)

Letter W Unit: Waiting

The Jesus Storybook Bible: God Sends Help (326-332)

Other Stories Used: “The Spirit Arrives on Pentecost” (134) and “The Holy Spirit: God’s Best Gift” (137-138) from (The Ology)

Themes: Waiting on the Holy Spirit to come (at Pentecost) after Jesus went to heaven. The Holy Spirit lives in us now as we wait for Jesus’s return. The Holy Spirit is like a fire in us.

Activities:

• Fire art piece. The kids cut up tiny pieces of red, orange, and yellow construction paper and then individually glued these pieces on to a pre-cut fire shape. We then glue that on to a black page for the background.

TPP Memory Verse: “They that wait on the Lord, renew their strength.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Letter X Unit: The Cross

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Sun Stops Shining (302-309)

Other Stories Used: The Garden, The Curtain, and The Cross

Themes: What did Jesus accomplish on the Cross? and we also talked about the emotions of Jesus dying on the cross (for God, Jesus, Jesus’ followers, and us)

Activities: Watercolor and popsicle stick art piece of the cross. We used the page from The Jesus Storybook Bible as inspiration.

TPP Memory Verse: “Herein do I exercise myself, to always have a conscience void of offense.” (Acts 24:16)

Letter Y Unit: Yeast 

The Jesus Storybook Bible: Filled full! (244-249)

Other Stories Used: Food Anatomy (to talk about bread and fermentation)

Themes: Yeast turns to bread; we talked about God making something out of nothing (the Fishes & Loaves story)

Activities: Make bread together. We also did this yeast experiment.

TPP Memory Verse: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:30)

Letter Z Unit: Zacchaeus’ Zeal 

The Jesus Storybook Bible: The Man Who Didn’t Have Any Friends (None) (264-271)

Other Resources: Z is for Zeal from Tiny Theologians (ABCs Attributes of God)

Themes: Zacchaeus’ story of transformation, and what Zeal means

Activities: None. Just read the story and discussed! We talked about climbing trees as well 🙂

TPP Memory Verse: “It is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing.” (Galatians 4:18)

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