Ladders of Learning Building Our Children's Faith Foundations

Ladders of Learning Memory verses
Children in Kindergarten through Grade 6 will be exposed to four very important elements of faith-formation each year as they participate in the Bible Study Ministry of the church. The elements of Prayer, Scripture Memorization, Bible Skills, and Baptist Principles will be taught in conjunction with the Bible Study materials to which the children are already introduced. On the enclosed chart, you will see that these elements are introduced on age-appropriate levels throughout the development of our children. Memory verse bookmarks will be given to the children in Sunday School each month.  Parents, we want you to know what the children are learning so that you may reinforce the memorization of scripture as well as important concepts to which our children are introduced. It is our prayer that these Ladders of Learning will indeed help to prepare our children for the living of their lives on a deeper spiritual level!

Our Children's Faith Formation

As our children grow, they will have many school experiences intended to finally help them become adults capable of successfully navigating the world of work in which they will find themselves. Some will go onto higher learning out of high school, and others will be ready to begin a career as soon as they graduate. Each will have participated in a planned and orderly sequence of teachings and, hopefully, learning which will help them attain readiness for the world. We at FBC have been considering what that readiness for the world means in terms of our children's spiritual lives. We've asked ourselves the following questions:

What foundations of faith are essential?

What skills help our faith grow stronger?

How can we help our children's faith lives grow along with physical and mental lives?

In an effort to answer these questions, an impassioned group of teachers and parents have worked to create "Ladders of Learning."

Ladders of Learning for Children's Sunday School Ministry

	Kindergarten	1st Grade	2nd Grade	3rd Grade	4th Grade	5th Grade	6th Grade
Prayer	Simple/ Personal Memorize: Bedtime Prayer or Prayer before Mealtime	Use the children's prayer model to practice prayer	Introduce the Lord's Prayer	Learn the components and meaning of the Lord's Prayer	Construct Personal prayers with a model	Explore reasons for prayer and learn of other forms of prayer	-Review the Lord's Prayer and recite it during class -Practice prayer daily
Scripture	Memorize one scripture verse each month	Memorize and review scripture -------- One verse each month	Memorize and review scripture -------- One verse each month	Memorize and review scripture -------- One verse each month	Memorize and review scripture -------- Two verses each month	Memorize and review scripture -------- Two verses each month	Memorize and review scripture -------- Two verses each month
Bible Skills	-Learn the divisions of the Bible (Old & New Testaments) -Learn Gospels	Learn the number of books in the Bible	Learn to use the Table of Contents to locate the Books of the Bible	Learn the divisions of Books and what they mean	Encourage the use of Bible Reference Materials	Continue to use reference materials such as Concordance and Bible Dictionary	Continue to use reference materials ------- Practice locating books of the Bible
Baptist Principles ------- Judson Press Curriculum We Are Baptists	"Soul Freedom" I Can Pray to God Myself	"Believer's Baptism" Following Jesus	"The Bible" A Gift that Never Wears Out Lord's Supper preparation 1 Cor. 11:27	"Priesthood of All Believers" We're All Priests!	"Religious Liberty" Free to Be Baptists!	"Autonomy of the Local Church" It's What Churches Do!	"Discipleship" Growing Up  to Jesus