Joy Unit Teacher Guide

This unit is all about joy. Singing, dancing, clapping for joy in good times and bad, that’s what we are all about.

Week 1

Jesus Session: Week 1 is Sing for Joy. Singing is such a great way to express joy. We’re specifying that happiness is from circumstances and joy is from God.

Art Session: We’ll be making happy springtime crafts in this session. Instructions for all of the crafts are found here. We’ll begin with a butterfly. Template found here.

TIP: There are two different ways to do the gluing on this craft. You can either have a little plate of glue and dip the scrunched tissue in it or you can put glue on the butterfly cut-out.

Music Session: Introduce Joy, our choir song.

Week 2

Jesus Session: Hopeful joy is powerful. it’s really about trusting God’s plan.

Art Session: Color wheel. make certain the paints are wet enough to bleed over to blend colors.

Music Session: learn the words. Learn the notes. Then put them together.

Week 3

Jesus Session: Not everybody has a pretty singing voice. That. Is. Okay. We can clap for joy too! Or dance or shout or spin in circles. Joy is not limited to the musically talented.

Art Session: Paper bag puppets are just plain fun. Once I had a student make an “evil monster” when we did this craft and we got to have a good chat. He was NOT feeling joyful and he certainly had a lot of heavy stuff going on at home so it was good for him to express those feelings. Sometimes lessons go like that.

Music Session: Work on memorization.

Week 4

Jesus Session: Once you understand that you can hopeful joy, it’s easier to understand how to have joy in the hard times. It doesn’t mean hiding or repressing feelings. Joy is really outside of your feelings. You can be sad or disappointed or even angry and still have joy.

Art Session: These flowers look really cool.

Music Session: Introduce the kiddos to the idea of singing in front of other people.

Week 5

Jesus Session: A joyful heart can be good like medicine. Crazy, but studies show this to be true. This does not, however, mean you shouldn’t take prescribed medications, as God has given humans the abilities to think and learn and do scientific testing and so forth and come up with some amazing medication that helps people with their physical and mental health.

Art Session: More pretty flowers!

Music Session: Let parents know all the whens and wheres of next week with this reminder.

TIP: This is a good time to remind the kiddos that we read music left to right just like we read words.

Week 6

Jesus Session: Sharing joy is the best and that’s what you will do singing in church today!

Art Session: This is a fun craft but if you are singing in church today and concerned about paint issues on outfits, just make some cards to give to someone to share your joy.

Music Session: Have fun singing!