1. A Free People
Grade 6
Chapter 9

2. Date of Class: Teacher Names:
Transfiguration PREP Lesson Plan
Date of Class: Teacher Names:
Grade: Chapter 9: A Free People
Objectives:
Identify Moses, the Ten Commandments, The Ark of the Covenant, and Canaan as the Promised Land.
Visit, via Google Earth, Mt. Sinai and Canaan
View a video clip of the movie Prince of Egypt relating to the Ten Commandments
Connect the Exodus of Moses to their own personal faith journey.
Review their learning by completing an interactive crossword puzzle.
Word of Week: Show video clip if available, or teach with resources provided.
Gathering/Opening Prayer:
Laptop open to Children can work together while waiting for class to arrive.
Gather students around prayer table. Project prayer (p 107)on board/white space. Pray together.
Opening/Experience:
Discuss journeys/trips: What did you bring? How long? Did you want to go? “Today we are going to hear about a 40 year journey. The Israelites left Egypt (review why from previous chapter) and wandered for 40 years through the desert before they arrived in the Promised land.
Show video clip from Prince of Egypt. Discuss: How would you have felt if you were on that journey?
Listen for these key words as we learn more about their journey: Moses, Mount Sinai, Ten Commandments, Manna, Miracles and Ark of the Covenant

3. Development/Presenting:
Using google earth; visit Mt. Sinai, Canaan.
Show ppt. of desert, Mt. Sinai, Moses, Ten commandments, Ark of Covenant, Canaan, narrate using pp (include scripture reference: Ex 19:6; 34:27-28)
Discovery Activity:
Students will work in groups respond to scenarios on ppt. (Tim)
Summary/Response:
Students will work on crossword puzzle together.
Share one new thing you learned today… no repeats!
If extra time, have students work in groups to create a pop-up banner ad about God’s faithfulness or the Ten Commandments that will be placed on selected web sites.
Closing Prayer/Announcements:
God we praise you and thank you for being ever faithful. You always guide and protect us. Give us strength when life seems challenging to trust in your ways. Help us to follow the Ten Commandments. Offer prayers for intentions. Close with grade level prayer; projected on wall.
Have students tear out Sharing Faith with my Family Pages, complete with their family and return to class next week. 5 returns = prize!
Resources/Supplies Needed: internet, laptop, tv or lcd connections, movie clip, power point, family page

4. Word of the Week
Ark of the Covenant

5. Take a faith walk and show what you know.
Click on “faith walk” to open a link to the online game. After clicking on “PLAY”, use your arrow keys to move the figure on his journey. Use your mouse to select the answers. Minimize you’re the web browser to go back to this presentation.

6. Opening Prayer Adapted from We Believe, Grade 6, page 107
We begin our prayer: In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Leader: Like the Israelites, we are on a journey with God. Along the way, there are difficulties, challenges, obstacles and hardships that test our faith and courage. But we follow Jesus, who tells us, “Do not be afraid” (Matthew 14:27).
Side 1: “Send your light and trustworthiness, that they may be my guide
The prayer will begin to appear upon clicking, then run automatically. Before you click, assign half the room as side 1 and half as side 2. Students should read their parts as the words appear. At the end of the slide click to advance and the prayer will continue automatically.

7. Opening Prayer Adapted from We Believe, Grade 6, page 107
Side 2: And bring me to your holy mountain, to the place of your dwelling,
Side 1: That I may come to the altar of God, to God, my joy, my delight.” (Psalm 43:3-4)
Side 2: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
All: As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever. Amen.
Prayer continues. When ready, click to advance to the Prince of Egypt movie.

8. Prince of Egypt
Click once in the center of the movie to begin playing. Click outside of the movie frame to advance to the next slide.

9. A Free People Moses Mount Sinai Ten Commandments Manna Miracles
Ark of the Covenant
Click once on the word “Moses” to start the animation. The important words and concepts of the chapter will appear and be read. At the end, click twice outside of the frame of the animation and a listing of the words will appear. Click on “Ten Commandments” and you will be taken to a slide that displays and reads the Ten Commandments automatically. At the end, click outside the animation frame and an arrow will appear. Click upon the arrow to be taken to the Google Earth animation of travel from Transfiguration to Mt. Sinai and the desert. The movie will play automatically. The script for the movie is found in the next slides notes.

10. Movie begins automatically after the click on the arrow following the Ten Commandments slide. Read the script on the next four slides to narrate the movie. The script slides are hidden and will not appear when you advance to the next slide. Click outside of the movie frame to advance to the next slide.

11. Narration for Google Earth Journey from Marietta, to Egypt, through the desert to Mount Sinai, to Canaan.
Have students stand and stretch for the journey through the desert. They should begin walking in place. Tell the story and see if the children can fill in the blanks. Use the words that are underlined/RED as the fill in the blank.

12. Narration for Google Earth Journey from Marietta, to Egypt, through the desert to Mount Sinai, to Canaan. Have students stand and stretch for the journey through the desert. They should begin walking in place. Tell the story and see if the children can fill in the blanks. Use the words that are underlined/RED as the fill in the blank.
We begin our journey at Transfiguration Church, Marietta, GA. We travel to Egypt where the Israelites escaped from slavery and began their journey through the desert to the Promised Land, Canaan to live in freedom. It was a long and hard journey. The Israelites spent 40 years in the wilderness. God was with his people during their journey through the desert. With God’s help, Moses led the Israelites toward Mount Sinai, a mountain peak in the southern part of the Sinai Peninsula.
The Israelites did not always follow God’s will for them. They grumbled and complained to Moses for the hardships of the journey and sometimes even doubted God. God remained faithful and worked many miracles. A miracle is an extraordinary event that is beyond human power and brought about by God.
When the people complained that they had no food, God sent small birds called quail. All through the journey God provided a grain like substance called manna. The manna was a sweet food that tasted like honey and fell from the desert shrubs. When the Israelites complained about having no water, God told Moses to strike a certain rock and water miraculously gushed out. God always made sure his people had what they needed to live and to follow his plan for them. Throughout history, God has continued to care for the needs of his people. (Keep walking, we’re still in the desert!)
We are also called by God to follow his plan. We may not have to cross seas and deserts but we do need God’s love and guidance on our journey through this life. Just like the Israelites in the desert, we, need to trust God and to believe in his love for us.
When the Israelites finally arrived at Mount Sinai, Moses went up the mountain to pray to God. God reminded Moses that they were his chosen people. On the third day of their stay at Mount Sinai, God made his presence known through thunder, lightning and the sound of trumpets. God called Moses back to the mountain top and gave him the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are the laws of God’s covenant or promise. The Ten Commandments are in Exodus, Chapter 20. God gave Moses other laws that are recorded in the Book of Leviticus. The Commandments and laws were meant to help the people know how to live in God’s love.

13. Growing up in a Jewish family, Jesus learned the commandments
Growing up in a Jewish family, Jesus learned the commandments. He lived by God’s laws, and as disciples of Jesus, we live the Ten Commandments too.
Moses shared with the people all the laws that God had given him. The Israelites agreed to follow these laws. So Moses wrote the laws down. He set up a stone altar with twelve pillars to represent the twelve tribes of Israel, the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob. Moses sealed the covenant by sacrificing a young bull as a peace offering to God. Moses sprinkled some of the blood saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words of his.”
According to Christian interpretation the twelve pillars also represent the twelve apostles. Jesus sent them out to spread the good news that he was the Son of God. Before his death, Jesus was with his apostles celebrating the Passover meal. We call this meal, The Last Supper. Jesus said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which will be shed for you.” Jesus offered his own life to save us and free us from sin. The NEW covenant between God and his people has been sealed with Jesus’ blood. Through this new covenant we share in God’s life and friendship. We remember and celebrate this new covenant at every Eucharist celebration. (Keep walking, we’re at Mount Sinai!)
While Moses was on Mount Sinai, God gave him two tablets with the Ten Commandments inscribed. God reminded Moses that the Israelites were not to worship false gods. There were instructions on the ways the people should worship the one, true God. Since Moses had been on the mountain for a long time, the Israelites became restless. They went to Aaron and said, make us a god who will be our leader. Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, has been gone too long, we don’t know what happened to him. So they constructed a statue of a calf out of their gold jewelry. When it was finished, they began to worship it as if it were a god. When Moses came down and saw the people celebrating around the calf, he was MAD! He threw down the tablets and they broke. The people had gone against God’s commandment by building an idol. Moses punished those who were unfaithful and begged God to forgive the people.
God called Moses to the mountain one last time. When Moses returned from the mountain, he had two new tablets of the commandments.

14. Then as God had instructed, the Israelites began making the “dwelling place” for God. They made a meeting tent which they could move to wherever they were worshipping. They made a wooden box in which they kept the tablets of the Ten Commandments called, the ARK of The COVENANT, several altars, various pieces of furniture for worship and vestments for the priests.
On the first day of the first month, almost a year after the Israelites had left Egypt, God entered this “dwelling place.” The biblical writer symbolized the presence of God by thunder and lightning that appeared over the tent. The Israelites realized that God was always with them, and they were comforted by the visible reminder of God’s presence.
The story of this journey is mainly told in the Book of Numbers. The Hebrew name for this book means “in the desert.” The English meaning refers to two censuses, or head counts of all the people, that took place during the journey. On their journey God made his presence known by the huge cloud that hung over the meeting tent during the day. At night, the cloud became fiery, so that the Israelites could see it. When the cloud moved, they followed it. When it didn’t move, they remained where they were. The guiding cloud symbolized that God himself was directing their journey.
God used the experience in the desert to help his people grow to be more loving and faithful. They faced many difficult situations and they learned more about God and more about themselves.
Finally the Israelites arrived on the plains of Moab, east of Canaan. Though they had not yet entered Canaan, the time was coming for Moses, who was very old, to die. Moses asked God to appoint someone to take his place. God told Moses to lay his hand on Joshua who would lead God’s people into Canaan. God’s promise would be fulfilled.

15. Exodus 19:6; 34:27-28
6: “You shall be to me a kingdom of priests, a holy nation. That is what you must tell the Israelites.”
27: Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." .
Click to read the bible verses. Passages from Exodus will appear automatically. Click to go to next slide after chapter 28 has been read.
28: So Moses stayed there with the LORD for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.

16. What would YOU do?
We are called by God to follow his plan for us. There may be challenges and obstacles, but God always provides love and guidance on our journey. Discuss a time that you felt like the Israelites, lost in the desert. How did God show his faithfulness?
God demonstrated his love and faithfulness to the Israelites and worked many miracles. What is a miracle? What miracles have you experienced?
Why did God give the Israelites the Ten Commandments? What do the Ten Commandments mean to you today?
Click to reveal each bullet point. Discuss between questions.

17. What would YOU do?
Why was Moses angry with the Israelites? Do you think you would have been part of the group building the golden calf? What are some of the false gods in today’s world?
The guiding cloud symbolized that God was directing the Israelites journey to Canaan. When or where is a time that you felt God’s presence in your life?
Click to reveal each bullet point. Discuss between questions.

18. We Believe crossword puzzle
Click on the words to link to the crossword puzzle on the Sadlier website. Work the online puzzle with input from the students. Minimize you’re the web browser to go back to this presentation.

19. Create a pop-up banner ad about God’s faithfulness or the Ten Commandments that will be placed on selected web sites.

20. Closing Prayer
God, we praise you and thank you for being ever faithful.
You always guide and protect us.
Give us strength when life seems challenging to trust in your ways.
Help us to follow the Ten Commandments.
The closing prayer will begin to appear automatically

21. Memorare Remember, most loving Virgin Mary,
never was it heard that anyone who turned to you for help was left unaided.
Inspired by this confidence, though burdened by my sins,
I run to your protection for you are my mother.
Mother of the Word of God,
do not despise my words of pleading,
but be merciful and hear my prayer.
Amen
The Memorare will begin to appear automatically

22. Remember: Take home and COMPLETE Sharing Faith with My Family page, bring it back next week!

23. This slide is hidden, and will not appear when you click after the “Remember” slide.