Exploring Hearts Alive – Part 2 – The Closing Elements

June 28, 2022

Hearts Alive Children's Curriculum

Exploring Hearts Alive – Part 2 – The Closing Elements

By Christine O'Brien

Last week, in part one of this four-part series, looking inside our Hearts Alive Children’s curriculum, we explored the opening pages of every Hearts Alive lesson. This week, we’re going to look at the closing pages of a lesson.

Hearts Alive Training - Part 2 from Bible Study Media on Vimeo.

Just as the opening pages of every Hearts Alive lesson contain the same elements, so do the closing pages, no matter the age group!

Every lesson, whether a Sunday School lesson or a Children’s Church lesson, has just two sections at the end: the lesson printables—those are things you will print for your lesson—and a take home page.

Let’s talk about the lesson printables first. Some examples are charts found at the opening of the lesson, which tell you if a printable will be used for each section and, if so, the name of it. You simply go to the end of the lesson to find those printables. Printables may include activity pages, large words to cut out and place around the room, cards to cut out for games, or maybe a script for a skit. Whatever needs printing for the lesson is all found in the printables sections!

Some churches prefer to print in color while others print in gray scale or black and white. It doesn’t matter. Do what works best for you.

Next is the take home page, which is just that—a page children will take home to help them live the lesson you taught all week long.

For Sunday School, the take home page is called Live It All Week. It shares with parents what their child learned in class, provides engaging home activities to reinforce the lesson, and even offers prompts for parent-child conversation at the table called Table Talk.

The Live It All Week page encourage families to talk about God’s Word when they share a meal, are in the car together, or enjoying the outdoors on a beautiful day!

Children's Church offers its own take home page. It differs slightly, in case children attend both Sunday School and Children’s Church on the same day.

Called Walk it All Week, the Children’s Church take home page is geared toward the children, reminding them of what they’ve learned, providing activities to put the lesson into action, and offering questions for the children to help start great conversations at home.

Now you’re familiar with the opening and closing elements of every Hearts Alive lesson! In the final two blogs in this series, next week we’ll look at what’s in the middle—both for a Sunday School lesson and a Children’s Church lesson.

Related Resource:

Hearts Alive Sunday School and Children's Church provide liturgical congregations a highly-anticipated children’s curriculum that combines captivating content, lectionary alignment, and Gospel focus for children ages 3-12. For those seeking to engage children in a fun, age-appropriate application to the Revised Common Lectionary, Hearts Alive is a three-year course of study to give children a strong overview of the story of salvation and how it ties to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Hearts Alive supports and elevates liturgical traditions and the church calendar while using clear, contemporary learning techniques to present the Word of God. Learn more in our online community.