4-Week Advent Lesson Plan
For many moms, the most wonderful time of the year brings an extra dose of busyness and stress. The idea of adding another thing to your regular homeschool activities feels overwhelming. This scripture-focused advent lesson plan is intended to be used with your kids as part of your daily homeschooling in December. Take a few minutes at the beginning of your school day to focus on the reason for the season. I believe the result will be less tension and frustration and more hope, peace, joy, and love.
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What is Advent?
Advent is the season leading up to Christmas Day, beginning with the 4th Sunday before Christmas. The word advent comes from a Latin term “adventus” meaning “coming” or “arrival.” This refers to the time of expectant waiting and preparation for the birth of Christ.
You’re probably used to seeing advent calendars that run from December 1st through December 24th. Those are a fun way to add a little magic to the Christmas season for your kids, with a little door or drawer to open each day.
Read 12 Meaningful Advent Activity Ideas
This advent activity is not that kind of 24 day calendar. This is a devotional advent lesson plan to begin the first week of advent. In 2022, advent begins on Sunday, November 27th. You can show your students this video for a brief explanation of advent: Advent in 2 Minutes.
Advent Themes
Depending on your church tradition, you may read certain scriptures, light candles, and read specific prayers. Some advent theme variations are listed below:
- Hope/Peace/Joy/Love
- Faith/Prepare/Joy/Love
- Prophets/Angels/Shepherds/Magi
- Prophecy/Promise/Fulfillment/Faith
This 4-week advent lesson plan covers the themes of hope, peace, joy, and love.
Weekly Advent Lesson Plans
We explore one theme each week while focusing on memorization of a specific scripture. Each weekly lesson has five days of suggested material to correspond to a Monday thru Friday school week. You can follow along below, where I outline the lessons. The complete printable PDF is available from my Etsy shop and contains the following lesson plans and all activity pages.
Included Weekly Pages
- short devotional with a question for discussion or reflection
- suggested daily scripture readings
- daily video links related to the theme
- copywork page to assist in scripture memorization
- scripture coloring page to assist in memorization
- fill-in-the-blank page to assist in scripture memorization
- decorative page for student to write scripture from memory (use creative lettering!)
- personal prayer or reflection journal page
- additional links for video and music options
- extra themed scripture coloring page
There is a link to a YouTube music video on each weekly lesson, with additional music suggestions you can add or substitute. You can have your students watch the video, or use the music as background while they work on their activity of the day.
Daily readings, videos, and activities can be assigned individually to your students or done together with you. The Day 5 activity prompts may be journaled, discussed, or used for private reflection.
Important Note about Using Links with Younger Students
Although intended for middle grades, you could certainly use this for younger and older students. However, if you plan on using the video links with elementary ages, please preview the videos yourself. There are a few references to the virgin birth and images of Jesus on the cross that may require additional conversation or explanation for younger students. Many of these are YouTube videos that have ads and suggested videos as well. Using an ad blocker or adding the videos to your Google classroom will eliminate this issue.
Advent Wreath
Your kids may enjoy the tradition of lighting candles in an advent wreath each week as you prepare for Christmas. It usually has four candles, three purple and one pink, and sometimes a fifth candle, called the Christ candle. Typically, the first purple candle is lit on the first Sunday of advent. On the second Sunday of advent the first two purple candles are lit. The third Sunday adds the lighting of the pink candle to the two purple candles. And on the final Sunday, all four candles are lit.
Some people light the candles each evening, not just on Sundays. That may not work with your family schedule; you should feel free to do what you can most likely do consistently. Additionally, you may want to pray, read Scripture, or sing while lighting the candles. The Scriptures and songs included in each week of the lesson plan are appropriate for reading during this time. If you’d like to read specific prayers, you’ll find a helpful selection of advent prayers on the Christianity.com website.
There is a huge selection of advent wreaths and candles available. I’ve linked a few options below (clicking on the image will take you to the product on Amazon’s website through my affiliate link). You can also create your own using a wreath you already have and four candle holders placed inside the wreath.
Advent Week: Hope
This week we focus on hope. The Israelites endured many generations of suffering—exiled and enslaved, discouraged and disheartened. But God promised a Messiah would come to rescue his people and restore humanity to its intended state.
This message of hope must have been hard to hold on to through hundreds of years of darkness and oppression. And yet, that hope was all they had to cling to.
Discouragement may be a regular visitor in our lives, but ultimately, we can thank God for the hope we have in him. We know the Messiah did come, and we live in expectant anticipation of his return and rescue of our broken world.
What gives you hope today?
Music: O Come, O Come Emmanuel
Memorization Verse:
I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.
Psalm 130:5
Day 1
Reading: John 1:1-5
Video: Hope (Bible Project)
Activity: Psalm 130:5 copywork page
Day 2
Reading: Lamentations 3:21-24
Video: Hope (Rockpointe Church)
Activity: Psalm 130:5 scripture coloring page
Day 3
Reading: Isaiah 9:2
Video: A Prayer for Hope
Activity: Psalm 130:5 fill-in-the-blank memorization page
Day 4
Reading: Mark 1:1-3
Video: Advent Painting: Hope
Activity: write Psalm 130:5 from memory (use creative lettering if you like!)
Day 5
Reading: Romans 15:13
Video: Hope (Skit Guys)
Activity: Offer a prayer of thanks for our eternal hope
Hope: Additional Video and Music Options
Vertical Worship: Advent – Hope
Advent – Hope (Right Now Media)
The Thrill of Hope (Christy Nockels)
The Hope of Christmas (Matthew West)
Hope Was Born This Night (Sidewalk Prophets)
Advent Week: Peace
This week we focus on peace. Our world appears anything but peaceful. We can’t seem to get along with each other at any level, from nations to neighborhoods to family units. Life often feels chaotic and confusing—the exact opposite of peaceful.
In our reading, we’ll see a name used for Jesus this week: The Prince of Peace. While here on earth teaching his disciples, Jesus said, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)
Jesus knows the confusion and chaos we face, but he offers peace. A peace that “surpasses understanding” (Philippians 4:7). We can know that peace by giving up our desire to rule our own lives and acknowledging our need of a Savior. In the previous verse, we are told to not be anxious about anything. How is that possible?
The verse goes on to say that we should make our requests known to God. Prayer is key to experiencing the peace of God. Prayer and praise keep our hearts and minds focused on Jesus.
How can you be a peacemaker in your world today?
Music: Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
Memorization verse:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:27
Day 1
Reading: Isaiah 9:6-7
Video: Peace (Bible Project)
Activity: John 14:27 copywork page
Day 2
Reading: Luke 2:13-14
Video: Peace (Rockpointe Church)
Activity: John 14:27 scripture coloring page
Day 3
Reading: Numbers 6:24-26
Video: Advent: Peace
Activity: John 14:27 fill-in-the-blank memorization page
Day 4
Reading: Isaiah 26:3
Video: Advent Painting: Peace
Activity: write John 14:27 from memory (use creative lettering if you like!)
Day 5
Reading: Romans 15:13
Video: Peace (Skit Guys)
Activity: think about what makes you feel most peaceful
Peace: Additional Video and Music Options
Vertical Worship: Advent – Peace
Glory – Let There Be Peace (Matt Maher)
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (Casting Crowns)
Advent Week: Joy
This week we focus on joy. True joy requires hope, peace, and love. Joy without eternal hope is passing pleasure. Joy without perfect peace is momentary elation. Joy without love is empty self-satisfaction.
How do we experience joy that persists through life’s disappointments? Joy that carries us through conflict? Joy that rejects envy, instead rejoicing in the success of others?
By cultivating a relationship with God, spending time studying his Word and talking to Him through prayer. Psalm 16:11 says, “…you fill me with joy in your presence.”
Through Jesus, we have hope for today and the future. We have peace that provides rest for our weary souls. Through Jesus, we receive love that casts out fear. And this Christmas, we take joy in the God of our salvation!
How can you exhibit joy in your life today?
Music: Joy to the World
Memorization verse:
Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.
Luke 2:10
Day 1
Reading: Luke 2:13-14
Video: Joy (Bible Project)
Activity: Luke 2:10 copywork page
Day 2
Reading: Psalm 16:11
Video: Joy (Rockpointe Church)
Activity: Luke 2:10 scripture coloring page
Day 3
Reading: Matthew 2:10-11
Video: Advent: Joy
Activity: Luke 2:10 fill-in-the-blank memorization page
Day 4
Reading: Psalm 71:23
Video: Advent Painting – Joy
Activity: write Luke 2:10 from memory (use creative lettering if you like!)
Day 5
Reading: Romans 15:13
Video: Joy (Skit Guys)
Activity: think about what brings joy to God
Joy: Additional Video and Music Options
Vertical Worship: Advent – Joy
Christmas is Here (Stars Go Dim)
Joy to the World/Joyful, Joyful (Phil Wickham)
Advent Week: Love
This week we focus on love. How deep the Father’s love for us. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus. Sacrificial. Unconditional. Immeasurable.
We throw the word love around about ice-cream or a favorite tee shirt. Can we possibly comprehend a love so vast it reaches from eternity to eternity? A love so free it offers forgiveness to its enemies and attackers?
That’s the love we can experience through Jesus. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10)
As we await the arrival of Christmas, remember that Jesus came to offer a gift of love to us, his image bearers—the opportunity to become children of God—made part of a family that extends to every tribe and tongue.
How do you respond to the great gift of love that Jesus offers?
Music: O Holy Night
Memorization verse:
We love because he first loved us.
1 John 4:19
Day 1
Reading: John 3:16-17
Video: Love (Bible Project)
Activity: 1 John 4:19 copywork page
Day 2
Reading: John 13:34
Video: Love (Rockpointe Church)
Activity: 1 John 4:19 scripture coloring page
Day 3
Reading: Deuteronomy 6:4-7
Video: Advent: Love
Activity: 1 John 4:19 fill-in-the-blank memorization page
Day 4
Reading: Romans 5:8
Video: Love (Skit Guys)
Activity: write 1 John 4:19 from memory (use creative lettering if you like!)
Day 5
Reading: Romans 15:13
Video: The Birth of Jesus (Bible Project)
Activity: reflect on a time you felt loved
Love: Additional Video and Music Options
Vertical Worship: Advent – Love
Somewhere in Your Silent Night (Casting Crowns)
Advent Lesson Ideas for Homeschoolers
Without making an effort to slow down and focus on the hope, peace, joy, and love of the Christmas season, it is all too easy for December to leave us feeling anything but those emotions. Our kids benefit from an intentional directing of their thoughts to the reason we celebrate Christmas in the first place. I hope you can use some of these advent resources as a source of reflection and contemplation in your homeschool this year.
Bonus: Free Thanksgiving Lesson Plan
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You can also preview the material included in the printable Thanksgiving Scripture lesson plan by reading the post. Click on the link below to read the full article.
Read: Free Scripture-Focused Thanksgiving Lesson Plan
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Advent Scripture Readings and Video for Middle Grades
Such an easy lesson plan to follow. Love that the Bible verses are clearly marked. Saving this for next year! Thanks!
Thanks! It’s been a great way for my kids to memorize scripture in December.