Education

Faith Milestones and Goals
	Overall Goals For The Children: To share their faith and learning with their parents To grow in understanding of the Bible, prayer, and worship To seek out time for faith activities at church, home, and in the community To empower children to interact and engage with the Bible
	Class	Milestone/Goal	Worship Participation	Text Book
	2 year old	Story Hour: An organized group
		We will provide the children a familiar setting while being part of an organized group. There may be different people in the nursery leading the story hour, but the routine will be consistent and the leaders will all be someone the children would normally see as Nursery Attendants during worship services. Story Hour will consist of a 2-3 stories, a simple activity, and play time.

	3 year old	To learn who God is To learn who they are in God's eyes To learn what the Bible is To learn about the church To talk easily with God - the importance of prayer	Sunday School music	Classroom Children's Bible
		We will help the children celebrate their faith through creative stories, music, games, and activities. We will help them understand the importance of prayer - as individuals and in groups - and celebrate their life through the Bible.

	4 year old	The Keys of Forming Faith Caring Conversation, Devotions, Rituals, Service To become familiar with Old Testament Bible Stories	Sunday School music	Classroom Children's Bibles & Resource Bks
		We will enrich Faith Keys into the children's daily/weekly lives. This will more than likely be done by "being caught, not taught". Through creative story telling and activities, we will present stories in ways for children to identify with the Biblical characters.

	Kindergarten	Learn and understand the Lord's Prayer To become familiar with New Testament Bible Stories	Lead the Lord's prayer S. S. music	Classroom Children's Bibles & Resource Bks
		Our goal for the children is to understand and memorize the Lord's Prayer. By the end of the school year, the class will lead our Lord's Prayer during one or more of the church services. In an effort to begin to familiarize the children with the church service itself, we would like to teach them to stand during the church service when the Lord's Prayer is recited. Through creative story telling and activities, we will present stories in ways for children to identify with the Biblical characters.

	1st grade	Learn and understand The Ten Commandments To become familiar with Old Testament Characters	Recite Ten Commandments S. S. music	Classroom Children's Bibles & Resource Bks
		Our goal for the children is to understand and memorize The Ten Commandments. They will recite them during a worship service. Through creative story telling and activities, we will help the children identify with the specific Biblical characters of the Old Testament. Each week, we will discuss the commandment that might be comparable to the story and compare it to their daily lives.

	2nd grade	Understanding Emotions To become familiar with New Testament Characters	Sunday School music	Classroom Children's Bibles & Resource Bks
		Our goal is to help children understand their emotions, recognize values and manners. We will present ways for children to recognize the values, manners, and emotions as compared to New Testament Biblical characters.

	3rd grade	Opening the Bible Learning to follow the Lectionary	Weekend readings S. S. music	Child's own Bible
		The class will receive a Bible (a gift from the church) at the beginning of the school year. They will learn to navigate their way around "God's library" of stories and eventually read the weekly scripture readings during worship. Pre-K to 2nd grade, the students have reviewed stories and characters in both the New and Old Testament. This year, we will be able to "find" those stories and characters in OUR OWN Bibles.

	4th grade	Learn and understand The Apostles' Creed Understand the order of a worship service Follow the Life of Jesus	Lead the Apostles' Creed Youth Choir	Child's own Bible
		Our goal for the children is to learn and memorize the Apostles' Creed. They will then lead the congregation in the prayer at worship. We will present ways for the children to understand the order of a worship service (ex: the opening prayer, the sermon, the music, etc.). The past 5 years have primarily spent on stories and characters of the Old and New Testament. This year we will primarily focus on JESUS! We will follow the life of Jesus from birth to death, baptism to His teaching the parables, to looking at Jesus as a healer or miracle worker.

	5th grade	Martin Luther and other Faith Heroes Prepare for First Communion	First Communion Youth Choir	Child's own Bible
		This class will learn the history of Martin Luther, the Lutheran hero in faith, and learn to recognize who with faith hero might be. A review of all the people and stories the children have heard over the past 5 years will help them recognize who their faith hero might be. This class will prepare for their First Communion.

	6th grade	What is community service? Become more familiar with the Books of the Bible Learn the structure of the Bible Preparing/Familiarizing themselves with Confirmation	Report on Service Projects completed Youth Choir	Child's own Bible
		We will help the children understand what Community Service means to themselves, their church, their community, and their world. They will complete 3 community service projects together throughout the year - 1 for the church, 1 for the community, and 1 for the world. In preparation for confirmation, the students will take a closer look at the Books of the Bible as well as the structure.