BX NT1 Low Furness School

Today I began doing Bible Explorer New Testament with the children in year 5/6 at Low Furness School.  After a brief explanation as to what Bible Explorer is to the year 5 children (year 6 had it last year) I began to talk about what the bible is and how it is made up leading me to talk about why we have old and new testaments.  So then I went on to talk about Jesus and how he is the Messiah which means Christ and why he was sent to earth (recap OT Creation, Fall...) It seems somewhat strange to be telling the Christmas story in September but as I said to the children Tesco has the Christmas stock in already and I had my first mince pie for lunch! so why not?  To tell the story I have three short video clips one mentions the prophets which I link back to the Old Testament and the fact that prophets foretold of the birth of Jesus, I read from Micah 5:2 which tells us the place Bethlehem and again link it to Ruth, Boaz and King David.  I again recap when I tell the story of Jesus at 12 in the temple and use the example of parents finding a missing child to explain why Mary said what she did to Jesus as well as explaining his answer to her about His fathers house.  Next we have the start of his ministry and Jesus coming to John for baptism - I explain who John is and what happen in the temple with when his father Zechariah was visited by an angel while he ministered in the most holy place.  After the baptism and the conversation between John and Jesus I talked about the 40 days and nights in the wilderness before being tempted by Satan.  At each stage I paused and taught the children the hand signs to use that will help them remember the stories.