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Elementary Bible

The BJU Press elementary Bible program helps to bridge the gap between head knowledge and heart knowledge by guiding students as they study, interpret, and apply a biblical worldview. Elementary Bible builds on 147 foundational Bible truths that present the Bible as a complex yet coherent story that is relevant to all people for all time. Our sequential approach to Scripture’s story and fundamental doctrines gives students a foundational understanding of God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation and offers opportunities to practice comparing worldviews. When students know God’s Word, their hearts can change to love and worship God and, in turn, love others as themselves. When the Word of God changes students’ minds, hearts, and actions, they can live like Christ and share the truth of the gospel with others.

Program Approach for Elementary Bible

Knowing God’s Word

The Bible, the source of all knowledge and wisdom, is the heart of this course. Each lesson assigns Bible reading and recommends memory verses. By personally interacting with their Bibles in class, students will understand how biblical truths apply to daily life. Instead of emphasizing simple fact memorization, critical-thinking questions encourage students to internalize Scripture. The teacher editions have additional information to help teachers guide students to understanding. This additional information gives clarity about cultural context, church history, and intertextual relationships.

Creation

The Creation, Fall, Redemption Model

Our Bible products consistently model the Creation, Fall, Redemption metanarrative of Scripture. The worktexts trace the metanarrative from Genesis to Revelation in the Scriptures and explain the profound implications it has for all of life. They also trace how individual accounts fit into Scripture’s metanarrative. Bible 4, The Pathway of Promise, follows this model through the whole Old Testament, pointing toward Jesus as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And Bible 5, The Fullness of Time, shows how Jesus redeems His people and ultimately the whole of creation. This model can answer all major worldview questions and is the distinction between the Christian worldview and other worldviews.

A chronological approach to the Bible helps students grasp the depth of mankind’s failure to fulfill God’s design and the wonder of God’s redemption. Beautiful expandable timelines, available in the back of Bible 4 and 5, help students visualize the arc of Scripture.

the Fall

Bible Study Skills

Students learn Bible study skills effectively through modeling, which makes Bible study more manageable for students to incorporate in their own lives. In our student worktexts, the first activity page is teacher guided, and then students work independently on the second page. We use a study, interpret, apply approach to guide students in Bible study. This approach equips them for inductive Bible study. Students will practice observing biblical texts, interpreting their meaning, and applying the text to their context. Bible Tools Lessons introduce students to different approaches, techniques, and tools to help them understand God’s Word at a deeper and more contextual level.

The student worktext encourages reading and interpretive skills through assessment questions about the students’ Bible reading. Students practice to understand the physical context of events in the Bible. Students learn how journaling, digital Bibles, glossaries, dictionaries, and concordances enhance Bible study. The H.A.B.I.T. sections have Bible reading schedules that help students make Scripture reading and application a habit.

Redemption

Teaching Bible Doctrines

Our elementary Bible program teaches fundamental Bible doctrines to create a strong foundation for more complex doctrines to build on. Grades 1–3 offer students 147 foundational truths derived from biblical principles. Students will learn to connect Scripture passages to each of the Bible truths and apply truths to their own lives. In addition, students will gain a basic understanding of how to defend the Bible by connecting truths to corresponding stories.

In Grades 4 and 5, students will learn doctrines within the context of the entire Bible through chronological study. Socratic questioning, teacher modeling, guided formative assessments, and independent study expand and reinforce students’ understanding of each doctrine.

Authority of God’s Word

Students learn that the Bible is the inspired and authoritative Word of God. We desire that students develop confidence in the authority of God’s Word. In our Bible program, students learn that because God authored the Bible, it is the source of wisdom and truth. God’s inspiration of Scripture is a miracle. The structure of our program emphasizes the unity and cohesion of God’s Word in order to encourage faith in its truthfulness. Our presentation of God’s Word as the ultimate authority is not reliant on historical facts or logical arguments. It is based on faith and commitment to God and His Word as the standard.

Emphasis on the Gospel

It is essential for students to understand the gospel before they can develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Students must acknowledge their personal sin and recognize their need of the Savior. We emphasize God’s dealings with His people through both the Old and New Testaments, showing God’s faithfulness and mercy to offer salvation to His sinful people. Our student texts provide daily journaling opportunities for students to evaluate their personal relationship with God. Students will also develop the skills to share the gospel with others. Students practice sharing Bible truths with others while developing 21st century skills such as collaboration and communication. The teacher editions include activities that encourage students to work together and solve problems related to spreading the message of the gospel so students can be better witnesses for Christ

Biblical Worldview

Our elementary program is designed to change the way students interpret the world, and not to simply give them a list of facts about God or the Bible. We focus biblical worldview development around the themes of glory, kingdom, covenants, divine presence, law and wisdom, and the atonement in the biblical meta-narrative. We shape a biblical worldview by laying a foundational understanding of the whole story of the Bible, and then in that context we encourage students to think deeply about how that applies to their life. That’s why we follow a comprehensive study of the arc of Scripture with a comparative, age-appropriate study of a biblical worldview and other worldviews. These questions help students understand their own actions from a biblical perspective. Each teacher edition contains questions to help shape worldview. Case studies, world-view dilemmas, webquests, and collaborative activities enforce the student’s understanding of the biblical worldview.

Vision

To equip students to begin a relationship with Christ by laying a foundational knowledge of biblical truths and the storyline of Scripture and by providing opportunities for students to understand, analyze, and apply Scripture to their lives.

Goals

  • To equip students to read, interpret, and apply the Word of God to their lives
  • To teach Bible study skills through modeling and guidance
  • To teach basic Bible doctrines
  • To build the students’ belief and confidence in the authority of God’s Word
  • To teach students the gospel so they can know and proclaim Christ as their Savior
  • To help students trace the Creation, Fall, Redemption storyline of the Bible
  • To equip students with the basics of a biblical worldview for obedient living in God’s world

Materials

Student Worktext

Each worktext engages the students with biblical connections throughout the big story of God’s Word. Grade-appropriate exercises increase the students’ understanding and their desire to love and serve God. The worktexts identify and follow Bible themes that weave throughout God’s redemption story—including glory, kingdom, covenants, divine presence, law and wisdom, and atonement and priesthood. Throughout the overarching metanarrative of Creation, Fall, Redemption, each worktext traces these themes so students can better understand the structure of the Bible. They also equip students to compare a biblical worldview with false worldviews. These worktexts help students grasp concepts and include important formative assessments. They also include regular reviews that can be used as assessments.

Teacher’s Edition

The teacher editions provide clear plans for student engagement and learning. Lessons feature a variety of teaching strategies including lecture, classroom discussion, role-playing, Socratic questioning, and cooperative learning. Each teacher edition provides strategies to engage students in important conversations. The goal of the instruction is to lead students to internalize and be able to articulate biblical truth. All notes, activities, and teaching strategies within the teacher editions align with educational objectives for the respective course. They also include overprint answers to worktext questions on reduced student pages. For easy grading, they include page-reference numbers to chapter review questions.

Assessments

The summative assessment packets provided in each course align with the educational objectives. They are developed from the student text review lessons for a focused assessment on main points covered in the lessons. They assess a variety of cognitive processes including recall, application, analysis, and evaluation. The assessments allow students to demonstrate their growth in critical thinking.

Scope & Sequence

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Bible K5

Bible Content

Chronological study of the Old and New Testaments; Bible characters include Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Samuel, David, Elijah, Jonah, Jesus, Peter, and Paul; Topics include learning about the Bible; Creation, the Fall, and Redemption; God’s promises to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and David; judges, priests, kings, and prophets; the captivity and return of Israel; the life of Christ; the early church; the new creation; prayer; and missions; Students will examine God’s Word from Genesis to Revelation and discover what God is doing to redeem His fallen creation; Biblical content is related to the biblical worldview shaping themes of glory, law, kingdom, and forgiveness, and students apply these principles through various biblical worldview shaping discussions and active learning strategies.

Memory Verses

32 verses

Songs

32 songs that correspond to the biblical content of each week’s content focus

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Bible 1

Bible Content

Bible Stories from both the Old and New Testaments that demonstrate each Bible Truth; Historical figures including Adam, Moses, David, Jesus, Peter, and Paul; Doctrines including God, God’s Works, The Fall, Christ, Salvation, Christian Living, and the End Times.

Bible Living

Instruction for the students on how to make the Bible Truth a part of their lives

Biblical Worldview

Instruction on how the Bible Truths help students understand God’s creation biblically; Explanations on how nonbiblical worldviews are not true

Bible Truths

43 of the complete set of 147 questions arranged under 7 biblical doctrines

Bible Memory

43 Bible Truth responses to be memorized for knowing Bible truth; 7 memory verses to support the seven doctrinal themes

Bible Truth Songs

43 songs that help students learn the 43 Bible Truths

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Bible 2

Bible Content

Integrates doctrine into thematic studies of the Old and New Testaments; Historical figures include Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Joshua, David and Jonathan, Solomon, Daniel, Satan, Jesus, and Saul; Biblical content is related to the Biblical Worldview Shaping themes reality, identity, purpose, evil, redemption, and morality.

Biblical Worldview Skills

Students apply BWS themes through various biblical worldview shaping discussions and active learning strategies.

Character Emphasis

Character traits used in application stories show students their need of Christ as Savior and demonstrate ways to apply biblical principles to personal-life situations.

Christian Living Application

Discussion questions are used throughout to clarify understanding and aid in thoughtful application of biblical virtues; this highlights God’s promises, Justification, Sanctification, the Lord’s Supper, and Baptism.

Bible Truths for Christian Growth

51 of the complete set of 147 Bible Truths correlated with appropriate biblical themes; Review of the 43 Bible 1 Truths

Bible Memory

8 verses or passages, in addition to memorizing 51 new Bible Truths

Bible Truth Songs

51 songs correlated with the appropriate Bible Truth

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Bible 3

Bible Content

Integrates doctrine into thematic studies of the Old and New Testaments; Historical figures include Adam and Eve, Jacob, Samuel, David, Solomon, Elijah, Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar, John, Jesus, Peter, Paul; Biblical content is related to the Biblical Worldview Shaping themes reality, identity, purpose, evil, redemption, and morality.

Biblical Worldview Skills

Students apply BWS themes through various biblical worldview shaping discussions and active learning strategies.

Character Emphasis

Discussion questions throughout and application stories show students their need of Christ as Savior and ways to apply Bible Truths to real-life situations.

Christian Living Application

Discussion questions used throughout to clarify understanding and aid in thoughtful application of biblical virtues; this highlights the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and End Times.

Bible Truths for Christian Growth

53 of the complete set of 147 Bible Truths correlated with appropriate biblical themes; Review of the 94 Bible 1 and Bible 2 Truths

Bible Memory

7 verses or passages, in addition to memorizing 53 new Bible Truths

Bible Truth Songs

53 songs correlated with the appropriate Bible Truth

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Bible 4

Bible Content

A chronological study of the Old Testament; emphasizes understanding the Bible as one story with three progressive parts: Creation, Fall, and Redemption; tracks the progression of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, and New Covenants, anticipates the fulfillment through the life of Christ; introduces Christ as the perfect Prophet, Priest, and King

Bible Study Skills

Promotes personal interaction with the Bible; emphasizes skill in reading Scripture and letting the Bible answer important questions; makes the Bible a personal companion for growing in Christ through observing, interpreting, and applying Scripture

Bible Truths

147 questions and answers that help to understand the progression of God’s revelation of Himself and major biblical events and truths for growth in Christ

Memory Verses

Accompanying memory verses for each week

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Bible 5

Bible Content

A chronological study of the New Testament; emphasizes understanding the Bible as one story with the New Testament being the culmination of Creation, Fall, and Redemption; tracks the major themes of glory, kingdom, covenants, law/wisdom, atonement/priesthood, and divine presence throughout the life of Christ and the New Testament; demonstrates Christ as the culmination of the major themes of the Bible

Bible Study Skills

Promotes thoughtful interaction with the Bible text through questions and answers; encourages students to read and memorize Scripture on their own; introduces the students to Bible study tools such as outline headings, cross-references, concordances, dictionaries, digital Bibles, and Bible marking strategies; trains the students to observe the biblical themes throughout the story of Scripture

Bible Truths

147 questions and answers to help understand the progression of God’s revelation of Himself and major biblical events and truths for growth in Christ

Memory Verses

Accompanying memory verses for understanding and remembering major Bible principles from the lessons