Home > Teaching > Themed Series > Cool to be Wise Intro.

It’s Cool to be Wise Intro
(6-week series)

Bible Focus - Wise sayings from the Bible             

Introduction

The emphasis with this series is to bring the message to the children that it really is ‘COOL TO BE WISE.’

A set of PowerPoint slides downloadable from the bottom of the weekly webpage accompanies the material.

Following the Bible’s wise instructions may mean going against the flow, but Jesus doesn’t leave us to do this alone because He’s always there to help us.

This series features a ‘travelling machine’. Use your imagination and resource as to what your travelling machine will be. The travelling machine showcased here is a light weight bolt together wardrobe.

The black sheets pictured slung over the backdrops are to create the effect of a cave, which features in one of the week’s series. See the comments in week 1 for thoughts and ideas regarding the travelling machine.

This page gives an overview of the series, introducing the key words and phrases together with scriptures on which they are based. You will find the links to material for each of the weekly titles at the bottom of the page.

Teaching Material
There are 3 parts to the teaching material. Part 1 - Lead-in session, Part 2 - Bible Chat and Part 3 - Response Time. The Lead-in sessions take the form of a short drama, which is arranged to be both entertaining and informative. The drama introduces the subject of the session, in a contemporary manner and sets the scene for the theme to be developed later in the Bible Chat.

The response time, is intended to be very interactive. It works well if response time is in small groups, ideally of no more than 6-8 children. Here the children get a chance to discuss what has been said in an informal environment. Response time material is usually a set of questions aimed at encouraging discussion. It not only gives the children opportunity to discuss the topic but facilitates the building of relationships. Conclude the shared time with a prayer, you may like to ask the children if they have any requests at this point.

The series is based on six wise statements from the Bible, that reflect on important aspects of how followers of Jesus conduct their lives. Five of the statements are taken from the book of Proverbs and one from 1 Corinthians.

Lead-in Sessions
The theme word for the weekly titles will be introduced by a fictional character Ed, who ends up travelling in a wardrobe that takes him to places in order to work out a mystery code.

The travelling machine showcased and referred to throughout this material is a wardrobe, but the series could run with any one of a whole variety of travelling machine types, depending on what resources are available to you. Use your imagination with regard to your travelling machine. It may be something proprietary or something you make. As with all props it must be suitable and safe for purpose and not create a hazard for its users or anyone else.

The adventure starts when Ed buys an old wardrobe and quickly discovers that it is more than just a place for keeping clothes! Hidden in the wardrobe, Ed finds a chart with blank spaces, into which are to be inserted pieces of a secret code. There are also instructions on how to use the wardrobe to travel to various places, collect the missing code pieces and ultimately crack the code. Along the way Ed will also pick up clues and key words, which help him to become wise.

Ed’s journeys get underway when the wardrobe first takes him to a street in a city called Trustington in New Zealand. Here Ed meets a workman who helps him find the first piece of code and key word. From Trustington Ed goes on to visit another five places collecting all six pieces of the missing code.

Ed meets a variety of people along the way and lands in some interesting places. These include the deck of a ship, a cave, planning office and the middle of a storm. People he meets are obviously shocked at the completely unexpected appearance of a wardrobe!

Each week Ed picks up a key word and piece of code. At the end of six weeks Ed is able to pull all of the code pieces together and translate them into letters, which spell the word WISDOM. On the concluding week it is again emphasised that being wise is COOL and that we can ask God for WISDOM to help us in our daily lives.
The key words picked up by Ed along the way are the focus of the ‘IT’S COOL TO BE WISE’ theme phrase for the session.

Bible Chats

Each week the Bible focus time will highlight the key phrase and be based on one of the six wise Biblical statements, which will include the key word discovered by Ed earlier in the drama. 

Key words, phrases and links to the weekly material:

1.  TRUST IN THE LORD [ Trust ]
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t rely on your own intelligence. Proverbs 3 v 5 (CEB)

2.  CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS WISELY [ Friends ]
Don’t be fooled , bad companions ruin good character. - 1 Corinthians 15 v 33 (GNT)

3.   A SOFT ANSWER [ Soft ]
 A soft answer turns away anger, but a harsh word stirs it up. - Proverbs 15 v 1 (ESV)

4.   YOUR PLANS [ Plans ]
Bring to the Lord whatever you do and He will help you to get your plans right. Proverbs 16:3 (Paraphrase)

5.   A STRONG TOWER [ Strong ]
The Lord is a Strong Tower where His people can run to safety. - Proverbs 18 v 10  (CEV)

6.  GUARD YOUR HEART [ Heart ]
Above all else guard your heart for everything you do flows from it. - Proverbs 4 v 23. (NIV)

(Fig 1) Ed’s adventure chart, which has an image for each place that Ed visits and a corresponding green box into which the key word of the week may be inserted.
The code collection chart (Fig 2 below) may be printed onto the back of the adventure chart so that the children can fill it in and use the details to crack the code at the end of the series.
Front side of Ed’s adventure chart is downloadable from the bottom of this page.

(Fig 2) Code collection chart, which may be printed onto the back of Ed’s adventure chart.
Back of Ed’s adventure chart downloadable from bottom of this page.

THE CODE and Ed’s Chart

(Fig 3) Code breaker sheet

To go with this series there is an adventure chart the one that Ed finds in the wardrobe. (see Fig 1. right) The chart features the six places that Ed will travel to on his adventure. There is a box on the chart for each key word and another box against some (not all) of the pictures for the place name where Ed lands. This chart is updated on PowerPoint each week with key words and code pieces showing Ed’s journeying progress.

The adventure chart shows a wardrobe travelling machine, but as already mentioned, the travelling machine you go with may be of a different type and there are adventure charts included, with a blank centre section so that you can insert an appropriate image of your machine.
There is also a black and White adventure chart download which may be coloured in by the children.
A second chart (Fig 2 right) may be printed onto the back of the adventure chart creating a double sided take-away sheet for the series.
On the final week (week 6), the key code word ‘WISDOM’, fits into a central box on the chart.
The code pieces are a mixture of Roman numerals and Morse code, which either translate to a number corresponding to one of the 26 letters of the alphabet or in some instances the Morse code item directly relates to a letter.

There is a special code breaker sheet (Fig 3 right), which may be given out on week 5 or 6 of the series, to see if any of the children can break the code themselves and come up with the all important key word ‘WISDOM’.

Alternatively, you may wish to not hand out charts to the children and simply let Ed crack the code on stage, but the option is there.

DOWNLOADS

LEADERS’ NOTES FOR THIS PAGE (above) - ‘IT’S COOL TO BE WISE’ SERIES INTRODUCTION

PowerPoint slides - ‘It’s Cool to be Wise’ series key theme slide and Ed’s adventure chart

Printable colour version Ed’s adventure chart (Fig 1 above with spaces for key words)

Ed’s code collection chart (Fig 2 above with spaces for code pieces to be inserted)

Blank black & white adventure chart for children to colour

Ed’s chart with blank centre space for you to include image of your travelling machine. (The yellow oval with red border at the bottom of the centre circle is for the final code word to be inserted at the end of the series.)