Theophany

THEOPHANY

Objectives:

  1. Children should be able to tell the story of Jesus’s baptism by John.
  2. Children should name the River Jordan as the site of Jesus’s baptism.
  3. Children should be able to identify Jesus, John, and the dove in the icon.

 

Possible Lesson Plan:

  1. Open with prayer.
  2. Read the story of Jesus’s baptism in the Beginner’s Bible, pages 303-307, the Children’s Bible Reader, pages 177-179, or the Read with Me Bible, pages 286-289. Supplement with the Golden Children’s Bible, pages 360-361.  Review the story with the icon, identifying the characters and their roles. Remind the children that John was Jesus’s cousin. Review briefly the story of John’s birth; do the children remember it? Review the importance of the crossing of the Jordan River in the Exodus from Egypt in the days of Joshua.

 

  1. Feed the Elephant True/False Questions:

True                                                     False

            Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River.         Jesus was baptized in the Temple.

            Jesus was baptized by John.                           Jesus was baptized by Joseph.

            John was Jesus’s cousin.                                 John was Jesus’s father.

            The Holy Spirit appeared as a dove.               The Holy Spirit appeared as a spider.

 

  1. Review the custom of House Blessing. Does any of the children remember their house being blessed? When do we bless houses? Who blesses them? What do we use? Where do we get the Holy Water? Let them know that we will be able to decorate jars for Holy Water today after Church School that they can use for their House Blessing later this year. What do we sing? Practice the Troparion of Theophany with the children.

 

  1. Ask the children if they have ever seen a baptism? What’s it like? Why are we baptized? (to become part of God’s family, the Church) Sing together “As many as have been baptized…”  How was Jesus’s baptism like our baptisms? Different?
  2. Make the Flying Doves mobile: Cut four doves for each child from white construction paper using the pattern. Cut a slit in the body of each dove. Slide the wings into the body and tape to hold. Decorate wings with white feathers if desired. Tie a string through a small hole on the top of the dove’s body and the other end of the string along the edge of a large paper plate. Attach an unsharpened pencil to the center of the plate with a thumbtack into the eraser end. Spin the plate to make the doves “fly.”
  3. Close with the Troparion and prayer.