An Illustrated Earth for Families
An Illustrated Earth for Families is a digital product. No physical product will be shipped. Your purchase includes one Single-Entity license. Learn about Multi-Entity licenses here.
If you would like to see a sample lesson from Module 1, Week 1, you can download it here.
An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God's Creation is a 12-week, no-prep curriculum that focuses on Bible stories that celebrate water, plants, food, and animals. It is designed to draw children ages preschool to fifth grade into conversation with biblical stories that relate to these elements of God's creation.
Each lesson highlights a particular biblical story and provides opportunities to focus on hearing and reflecting on the story with open-ended questions, creating meaningful art, sharing in an interactive activity based on the story, and providing an opportunity to share God’s love. It is divided into these three modules (which can be purchased separately):
Module 1: Water Stories
- Week 1: Separation of the Water (Genesis 1:6-10)
- Week 2: Parting of the Sea (Exodus 14:15-31)
- Week 3: Baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17)
- Week 4: Calming of the Storm (Mark 4:35-41)
Module 2: Plant & Food Stories
- Week 1: Manna & Quail (Exodus 16)
- Week 2: Feeding of the 5,000 (Mark 6:31-44)
- Week 3: Rest for the Land (Leviticus 25:1-7)
- Week 4: Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-9)
Module 3: Animal Stories
- Week 1: Creation of Animals (Genesis 1:20-25)
- Week 2: Balaam and the Lord's Messenger (Numbers 22:22-35)
- Week 3: Jonah and the Big Fish (Jonah 1-4)
- Week 4: Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7)
What you will receive when you purchase the entire bundle:
Twelve no-prep lessons covering stories from the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.
Each lesson includes the following:
- Introductory comments for the teacher
- An opening gathering activity that connects to the biblical story
- A child-friendly paraphrase of the scripture - also provided as a script if you want kids to act it out
- Illustrated Story Cards, consisting of simple line drawings that depict major elements of the biblical story, allow children the opportunity to tell the story back to you by placing the cards in the right order
- Suggested questions for discussing and imagining together about the story
- Two coloring pages that connect to the biblical story: a simple coloring design, and a more complex one for older children
- A closing prayer you can do with the children
- Illustrated Earth Sign that you can print out (preferably on card stock or a thicker paper) and give to the children in your class on the first Sunday that you teach An Illustrated Earth. These signs are for the children and their families to take with them wherever they will be celebrating God’s creation. The sign can be personalized, and we encourage children and their families to have fun with this. They can write their own names on the sign, or your church’s name (if you want to begin a church-wide campaign).
Delivery of Files
When you make your purchase, you will be taken to a page to download your product, and you'll also receive an email with a link to download An Illustrated Earth. You will download a ZIP file where you can access all of the curriculum files. If you aren't familiar with ZIP files, a quick YouTube/Google search will help you figure out what to do with them.
Listen to what some of our customers have said about An Illustrated Earth
Simplicity is refreshing!
"Thank you so much for your curriculum, An Illustrated Earth! The simplicity of the curriculum is refreshing. It also allows us to spend less money on Sunday School supplies, since all you need is a printer, not a large trip to the craft store for pipe cleaners, google eyes and glue. An Illustrated Earth has worked great for our younger elementary classrooms, and we just tweak some of the questions for our older classrooms so they have a practical application for them as well.
"I truly hope your style and philosophy helps to calm the other curriculum makers, who seem to be all about entertaining children and pushing products. The theology of Illustrated Ministry is solid, the openness to wonder about the mystery of God is there, and what better way to work out your wrestling with who God is in your life than through coloring and conversation with children. Thank you again so much for the way you’ve helped us reach our children in new ways."
Becca Bateman
Associate Pastor of Family Ministries at San Marino Community Church (San Marino, CA)
Ready to Dive into Creation Care?
"I wanted to take a moment to thank you for your Illustrated Earth curriculum. I work for an interfaith earth care non-profit (Faith in Place). I reach out to houses of worship in Illinois to help them green up their facilities and educate their members about energy and climate change, sustainable food and land use, water preservation and advocacy.
"I'm also a former elementary school teacher, pastor's wife, and children's ministry volunteer. Your curriculum helps build the basic understanding in our young people that we should be stewards of creation and that this is a simple way to show love of God and neighbor.
Thank you for creating a curriculum that I can suggest to churches interested in diving into creation care. It becomes a whole-church goal when children and youth are included, not just something the adults study and then set on a shelf. So thank you for the work your team did in creating An Illustrated Earth: Celebrating God's Creation."
Christina Krost
Outreach Support for Faith in Place, the Illinois Affiliate of Interfaith Power & Light
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