PRESCHOOL

LESSON FOR: NOVEMBER 24-25, 2018 - Week 4

SUPERBOOK: Jonah

POWER TRUTH: The Bible helps me to love and obey God.

POWER VERSE: I treasure your word above all else. Ps. 119:11a (CEV)

SERIES OBJECTIVE: At the end of the series the kids will understand that the different Bible
stories make up one BIG story about the love of God (Point to Jesus) so that they can live a
life of faith and obedience.

Note to teacher: The series objective is just a guide for you. You do not need to mention it.
Also, please note that there will be one Power Truth and Power Verse for the entire Superbook
series, to make it easier for the kids to memorize and apply. As such, these may not apply for
this particular lesson but applies for the whole series.

SAMPLE SCHEDULE

BEFORE THE SERVICE:

09:00 – 09:20 (20m) Teachers’ Devotion
09:20 – 09:30 (10m) Lesson review and practice
09:30 – 10:00 (30m) Reg/Coloring Page (interact with the kids as much as you can and offer to pray for
them)

DURING THE SERVICE:

10:00 – 10:10 (10m) Welcome and Rules
10:10 – 10:20 (10m) Game/s
10:20 – 10:30 (10m) Praise and Worship
10:30 – 10:45 (15m) Bible Story Time
10:45 – 10:55 (10m) Object Lesson
10:55 – 11:15 (20m) Huddle Time and Craft
11:15 – 11:25 (10m) Snacks
11:25 – 11:30 (5m) Closing and Prayer

GAMES Sea Creatures Charades

Instructions: Depending on the ages of the kids, you can divide them into two teams and
have one representative per team to act or the teacher can do the acting while the children
guess the sea creature. (words; seal, penguin, shark, fish, jellyfish, crab, dolphin, turtle, whale)

Spiel: Great job! You sure do know your sea creatures! Our lesson today is about a prophet
who was eaten by one big sea creature! But he lived to tell us about it.
 INTRODUCTION TO BIBLE LESSON

We are now on the third month of our Superbook series and our lesson today is an exciting
one. We will learn about a prophet named Jonah who tried to run away from what God had
called him to do.

Jonah 1-3
BIBLE STORY
http://en.superbook.tv/video/jonah-prays-inside-great-fish

After showing the video, do Bible storytelling with stick puppets or you may download images online.

A long time ago, there lived a prophet named Jonah. A prophet is God’s messenger. God told
Jonah to go to the city of Nineveh, bringing a message that the people there were breaking the
Lord’s heart because of their evil ways. But Jonah didn’t want to bring this special message. So
he rode a boat going to Tarshish, which was very very far from Nineveh.

While Jonah was in the boat, a powerful storm came. The storm was so bad that their boat was
in danger of sinking! The sailors began throwing stuff into the ocean to make the boat lighter,
but it looked like they were all going to die. Finally, Jonah told the sailors to throw him into the
water. When they did, the storm died down.

But God had big plans for Jonah and the people of Nineveh. So He sent a big fish to swallow
the prophet. It must have been quite scary! Jonah was inside the fish for three days where he
prayed and prayed to God. After three days inside the fish, God told the fish to spit Jonah out.

God still wanted Jonah to tell the Ninevites about the Lord. This time, Jonah obeyed God. He
told the people of Nineveh that God was going to punish them because they had done many evil
things. You know what happened? The people became sorry for what they did and asked God
to forgive them! God loves people so much and He forgave the Ninevites, He also did not want
to punish them anymore.

What a beautiful story! Even when we run away from God, He still runs after us and helps us to
obey Him once again. How do we know what to obey in the first place? God has already given
us instructions in the Bible. This reminds us of our Power Truth…

POWER TRUTH: The Bible helps me to love and obey God.

OBJECT LESSON Try Again

Materials: Image of Try Again (sample image grabbed from the internet)

Spiel: Can someone read this or tell me what it means? Yes, it says, “Try Again”. It mostly
appears when the game you are playing on your gadget is over. You can choose to either not
play the game anymore or to try again and hopefully win. You know, it is also the same when
we do wrong things; we can either continue doing wrong or to try again and do better. It is just
like what happened to Jonah. God gave him another chance to do better and obey, and he did!
 POINT TO JESUS

Because of Jonah’s obedience to God, the Ninevites came to believe in the Lord and became
sorry for breaking God’s heart with their evil ways. God forgave them and decided not to
punish them anymore. We too have been doing wrong things and breaking God’s heart. We
also deserve to be punished. But two thousand years ago, Jesus also obeyed God and came
from heaven to earth to save us. When we love and believe in Jesus and also obey Him, we
will get to live with Him in heaven someday and avoid punishment in hell.

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION DONE DURING CRAFT TIME

(Teachers, sit with the children so you can easily pray with and for them as you do your huddle.)

1. Who was the prophet who God assigned a special job of going to Nineveh to tell the people
there about the Lord? (Answer: Jonah)
2. Did Jonah obey God at first? What did he do? (Answer: No. He ran away.)
3. Jonah got on a boat going far away from Nineveh. What did God send to shake the boat?
(Answer: A storm.)
4. What did the sailors do to Jonah? (Answer: Threw him overboard.)
5. What came and swallowed Jonah? (Answer: A big fish.)
6. How long did Jonah stay inside the fish’s belly? (Answer: Three days)
7. Why did God not destroy Nineveh? (Answer: Because the Ninevites became sorry for
hurting God.)
8. Your friend invites you to play but your mom tells you to clean your room, what will you do?
(Lead the kids to understand that when they obey their parents, they are obeying God. So
when they choose to play with their friend rather than obey their mom, they are like Jonah
who ran away from obeying God. So the best thing to do is to obey their parents.)

CRAFT Jonah and the Big Fish Coloring Page

https://youtu.be/ofS7EdHdRGc

Materials: Precut pop-up coloring page, crayons

Instructions: Before the service, cut the pop up portion of the coloring page. During the
service, distribute the materials and ask the kids to color the activity page.

Spiel: Are you done coloring your craft? Let me show you something cool about it. When you
open and close the card, it looks like the fish is going to eat Jonah! Let this craft remind us of
our lesson today that even when we don’t obey God, He still continues to love us and helps us
back to the right path of obedience.

PRAYER

Dear God, thank You for loving us even when we do wrong things. Please help us to obey You
always. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!
 TEACHERS DEVO Jonah 1-3

God called Jonah to a big mission: preach to the city of Nineveh and warn them of impending
disaster. It was a daunting task. These people were evil and cruel to the Israelites. Why would
they listen to their enemy’s prophet? Could they ever change their ways? Being laughed at
was probably the least scary response Jonah was expecting; pain and torture being the most
likely scenario. Plus, the Ninevites were a hated enemy, and Jonah was a good nationalistic
prophet. It was no wonder that he ran away.

But Jonah had underestimated God’s love for him and the Ninevites. God loved Jonah too
much to let him die in his disobedience. The Lord also loved the evil Ninevites too much to let
them perish without the chance of repenting. So God arranged a situation where His will would
still be done. A big fish swallowed Jonah and brought him to Nineveh!

Even in our disobedience, God does not leave us. He is patient with us, giving us many
chances to repent and walk the path of obedience towards His great plan and destiny for our
lives.

Is there something you feel the Lord is asking you to do but you are postponing or running
away from? Find a partner, share, and pray for each other.