Videos

Our church has really enjoyed "What's in the Bible?" with a group of 3rd, 4th & 5th graders. It's from the creator, Phil Vischer, of the VeggieTales. Currently it consists of 9 DVD's that cover the complete Old Testament. Our kids think it's a hoot and it's VERY multidimensional -- music, cartoon art, puppets, charts and lots of silliness. But it manages to convey very serious messages in memorable, teachable (the episodes have natural break points for discussion) and theologically sound ways.

The web site says they plan to complete the project for the New Testament in 2013, but I can't see their exact timeline so they may not finish soon enough for you!

They're available from a number of vendors. Check them out at What's in the Bible?

Anne

Moderator notes:  the series is now complete with 13 DVDs covering all books of the bible, plus a Christmas DVD on Christmas traditions. Neil MacQueen has also created detailed guides for each of the 13 DVDs for our supporting members and can they can be found here https://www.rotation.org/forum/Bible-Video-Guides.

What's in the Bible

Anne's suggestion of the What's in the Bible DVDs is right on.
There are 13 in the series.
They are a bit breathless as you might imagine, but Phil Vischer does a good job of hitting the high stories, and teaching the golden thread that runs through each... i.e. God's Plan for Redemption.

That said, plowing through the Bible in a year is a huge task that will leave much behind. Rotation Modelers like myself, have a knee-jerk reaction to that along the lines of "more ends up being less". Practically speaking, half your kids probably won't be there for half your lessons. And the other half will need a minimum of two or three lessons per story just to really REMEMBER them. It's the conundrum the gave birth to the Rotation Model.

So here would be my challenge:
Find and primarily focus on teaching "the golden cord" running through every story you propose to teach in one year. If you focus on story details -changing the story every week, instead of the focusing on the golden cord, half your kids will never hear or remember these details anyway.

Re: The golden cord.... Here's how I would put it: "What has God done for us, and what can we expect from God? And what are we like, and what does God expect from us?"

Jesus was once asked a similar question and he said "Love God, Love your neighbor". For our teaching purposes, to each of his phrases I would simply add, "why" and "how".

Please let us know how you do with this!

<>< Neil

My suggestion is use the videos above, along with this book:

"Route 66: A Trip Through 66 Books of the Bible", by Christin Ditchfield, Carson-Dellosa Publisher, (192 pages), 2008, 9781600225222. Reproducible. For grades 2 - 5.

Work your way right through all 66 books of the bible. Has a neat road map, you can enlarge, and you mark along the road each week (which book/s) you are currently at. Has some small-group activities, arts and crafts, puzzle worksheets, etc. Broken down by bible book.

It also suggest you do a scrapbook I(binder/duotang) with the kids and they have a copy of the map, each week they can add that weeks book(s) worksheets, and I think it gives suggestions of things to add to the scrapbook, besides just the activity sheet for each story. Which would help with those kids who don't come ever week as they can collect worksheets they missed.

Also, recommend you allow anyone who misses a week can later sign out the video and see what they missed.

Great book! I bought this to use with the above DVDs (thinking a summer program) but have not used them yet.

Another Idea for older children:

"My Bible Journal", By: Mary J. Davis (Journals Just for Kids Series), Legacy Press, 1999, 9781885358707. Ages 9-12.

Nice journal - that works it's way through the major stories in the bible in order through Old Testament, then New Testament. Starts with" What is the Bible?"