Date: June 7, 2026
Elementary Essential: God is relational: We are made to be in relationship with him and with each other.
Unit Overview:
Not only are books a way to connect and build community, but they can also teach us, help us understand emotion, and give us perspectives that may be different than our own. Echoes of Eden is a curriculum written by Crossing Kids that uses popular children’s picture books and helps pull in concepts of the Gospel, or “Echoes of Eden.”
In this unit, kids will examine how the Gospel helps us to make sense of all of life—including art in the words and illustrations of great books. Together we will search for places where the beauty of the Gospel intersects and points to the greatest story of all and discover how to engage with our culture in winsome ways. Each week kids will read a book and hunt for Gospel truths within while focusing on one key verse connected to the literature. They’ll do an activity (ex. craft, game, science experiment) to help them have a tangible reminder of what they just learned.
Lesson Title: Cinderella
Lesson Overview:
The story of Cinderella is well known. A young girl is a servant for her cruel stepmother and two stepsisters, but with the help of a fairy godmother, she turns into a beautiful princess for one night where she goes to the prince’s party and falls in love with him. Then when the clock turns midnight, she must go, and she loses her glass slipper. The prince then goes to find the owner of the slipper and finds her, and they live happily ever after. Kids will write/draw sins on post-it notes and place them on a cross to understand they are forgiven and are heirs with Christ in his kingdom. They will draw pictures of what it will be like to live with Jesus in his kingdom one day.
Lesson Scripture: Acts 26:17b-18
Lesson Objective: Identify why we need forgiveness.
Lesson Application: Like the stepsisters in the book, I also sin and need a rescuer.
Date: June 7, 2026
Unit: The Lord’s Prayer: Teach Us to Pray
Elementary Essential: God is relational: He invites us to talk to him through prayer.
Unit Overview:
Jesus’s friends and followers asked Jesus how to pray. He gave them the Lord’s Prayer as a model. Jesus gave this prayer for his followers then, but also for his followers today. Throughout the summer, children will learn that prayer is talking with and listening to God. They will explore what prayer is, how to pray, and work to memorize The Lord’s Prayer. Each week will unpack a phrase of this famous prayer in hopes that children will understand why Jesus uses this as a model prayer to teach us how to pray to God.
Lesson Title: Jesus Teaches His Disciples How to Pray
Lesson Overview:
Children will read and discuss the story of Jesus’s disciples asking him how to pray and Jesus responding by sharing the Lord’s Prayer. They will practice memorizing it together in small groups as a model that helps us to know how to pray. Children will also decorate a frame and insert a copy of the Lord’s Prayer, which can be hung at home as a reminder that God is relational and invites us to talk to him through prayer.
Lesson Scripture: Matthew 6:9-13
Lesson Objective: Children will understand that God wants to hear from us because he loves us.
Lesson Application: When I feel stuck or unsure what to say to God, I can use The Lord’s Prayer.
Date: June 7, 2026
Unit: Questions Jesus Asked
Elementary Essential: God is relational: He is compassionate and sees, hears, cares, and responds when his children are in need.
Unit Overview:
In this 13-week unit, 4th and 5th graders will spend their time looking at some of the questions Jesus asked real people in the New Testament. Each week, students will explore a question and the context surrounding it. They will discover that Jesus did not ask questions to learn the answer but rather to help us learn more about him.
Students will explore the life and ministry of Jesus, and most importantly, they will learn about Jesus who sees us, hears us, and loves us. Students will discover that far more than our outward actions, Jesus cares about the desires of our hearts and invites us into a relationship with him.
Each lesson will be rooted in building a greater understanding of how the entire Bible points to Jesus’ work on the cross. All of Jesus’ encounters with people were built around pointing them toward the good news of his death and resurrection and how that brought us into a reconciled relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Lesson Title: What Is True Love?
Lesson Overview:
Students will explore what Jesus teaches us about true love in the Bible and how he perfectly displayed true love toward us. Students will also play “Guess Who,” using themselves as the character to be identified while the other students try to guess who they are using only yes or no questions.
Lesson Scripture: Luke 6:32-36
Lesson Objective: Students will learn how to love others in the same way God loves us.
Lesson Application: Because Jesus demonstrated true love by giving us what we don’t deserve, I can look for ways to encourage others with loving acts of service or sacrifice so they can see what Jesus’ love looks like.