Students will study each verse by viewing clips from popular movies.
PREPARATION
Read Bible Back ground
Materials list
Bibles Marker
Movies [To do all nine verses, you will need these movies.] -- Aladdin – animated Disney version -- Dead Poets Society -- ET -- Beauty and the Beast – animated Disney version -- Toy Story 2 -- Honey, I Shrunk the Kids -- Secret Garden (1993) -- Free Willy -- Mary Poppins
Napkins Popcorn Poster board, 9
Advance Preparation Requirements
If it is appropriate or required, prepare and send home a notice telling parents what movie clips you will be showing in case there are any problems. The clips are all General Audience.
Write each verse of Psalm 8 on a separate poster, or use an overhead with one per sheet. Print the questions at the bottom to discuss briefly on each clip.
Collect all of the movies and cue up to the beginning of each clip.
Time saving tip: If you have a flat screen to play it on, video tape your screen as you play the clips in order, pausing between clips with a paper title break. This will be time consuming but will save the problem of constantly switching movies and with VHS you can have them cued but with DVD you can’t. Do have practiced finding the parts you want to show.
Pop popcorn.
PRESENTATION
Open - Introduction
Greet the students as they come in. Explain that today you are going to do a movie study of Psalm 8. Make sure everyone has some popcorn and then go through it verse by verse. Read and show the verse, use whatever version of the Bible you like, the one in the lesson plan is NRSV. Then introduce the clip.
Dig - Main Content
Read Psalm 8:1
"O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens."
Movie introduction: This is the movie Aladdin. I am going to show you the part where Aladdin and Jasmine take a magic carpet ride. In this clip, Jasmine sees the world from a different point of view and all of the majesty and splendor.
Cue: This is about 57 minutes in. It starts where Aladdin says “It’s a magic carpet” and he convinces Jasmine to take a ride.
It ends after they finish the song and fireworks burst.
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. How do you think it would feel to see the world from way up high on a magic carpet ride?
2. What things can you see in nature that remind you of God?
3. What is you favorite thing in nature that helps you remember God?
Read Psalm 8:2
"Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger."
Movie introduction: This is the movie Dead Poets Society. Most of you have probably not seen this movie. It is about an English teacher who shakes up a New England prep school for boys in the 1950 by encouraging them to think for themselves.
Cue: This is about 24:55 seconds in. It starts when the teacher invites his students to tear out the introductory chapter of their textbooks.
It ends about 1 ½ minutes later when he asks: “And what will your verse be?
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. Did you understand what happened in this clip? He is teaching them that nothing can be so thought through by a set of directions. He wants them to feel the poetry not rate it. Poetry is from our passion for the human race. The poem he read says that you are here, there is life that you are part of and you may contribute.
2. What will you contribute?
3. How will you silence the enemy and take up for God?
Read Psalm 8:3
"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;"
Movie introduction: This is the movie E.T. which stand for Extra Terrestial. In this movie, a little boy named Elliot befriends an alien and helps him return home.
Cue: I don’t have the exact timing of this one, but you want to show the bicycle ride near the end where they ride across the moon. Focusing on the moon and stars.
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. What of God did you see in that clip?
2. Have you ever just lain and watched the stars at night?
3. Do you know that God created all of that? Isn’t that amazing.
Read Psalm 8:4
"What are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?"
Movie introduction: This is the movie Beauty and the Beast. In this clip Belle leaves the castle and is attacked by wolves and the Beast comes and saves her.
Cue: This is about 46 minutes in. It begins with Belle saying “I can’t stay here another minute.”
It ends where the Beast looks at Belle and collapses after fighting off the wolves.
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. What do you think Belle was thinking when she was surrounded by the wolves?
2. How do you think she felt when she saw the Beast helping her?
3. How is God’s protection like the Beast protecting Belle? How is it different?
4. What are some things God protects you from?
Read Psalm 8:5
"Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor."
Movie introduction: This is the movie Toy Story 2 and in this clip Woody is taken to a toy barn to be sold and he discovers he is valuable property.
Cue: 26:20 and ends around 26:53 It begins where Woody views the video and sees his own image and ends when he is told he is valuable. You could show some more of this one if you wanted to give more background.
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. The Psalm says we are a little lower than God and crowned with glory and honor. How does Woody know he is valuable?
2. How do you know that you are crowned with glory and honor?
Read Psalm 8:6
"You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet."
Movie introduction: This clip is from Honey I Shrunk the Kids and it is about some children that are accidentally shrunk and thrown out with the trash and come to discover their world from a very different perspective.
Cue: This is about 18:15 in. It starts when they realize they have been shrunk. End it after they have seen some of their back yard.
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. What would it be like to be shrunk?
2. How did their view of God’s creation change?
3. What can we do to see God’s creation with new eyes?
Read Psalm 8:7
"All sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field."
Movie introduction: This is the movie Secret Garden This is about a young girl who discovers a hidden garden and finds the healing power of nature within its walls.
Cue: This is about 1 hour and 6 minutes in. It starts where Mary and Dickon wheel Colin to the secret garden and Colin asks, “Are these your animals.”
It ends when Colin is petting a baby deer and says, “I’m going to come here tomorrow.”
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. Focus on the animals in this clip. God gave us power over all animals. What would it be like to pet a wild animal?
Read Psalm 8:8
"The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas."
Movie introduction: This movie is Free Willy and it is about a troubled boy who befriends a whale in a water park and trains him.
Cue: This is about 33:37 in. It starts when Jesse is showing off Willy’s new skills to the manager of the park.
It ends after he finishes his performance.
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. What would it be like to be able to train an animal?
2. Do you think God was present in the interaction with the whale?
3. When have you felt God present in your life?
Read Psalm 8:9
"O LORD, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"
Movie introduction: This is the movie Mary Poppins. In this clip, the Banks children are getting a new nanny and they don’t like the looks of the ones waiting outside the door. A wind blows them all away and Mary Poppins floats in and lands.
Cue: This is about 22:45 in. It begins when Jane and Michael peek at the line of applicants.
It ends after Mary Poppins is hired.
Questions after the clip, this would be a good time to have the shepherd cue up the next clip.
1. In this movie, Mary Poppins is known and loved by many people just like God. What is important about her?
2. If Mary Poppins is an answer to a letter, how is that like God and prayers?
Reflect - Closure
Let’s read the Psalm one more time and I want to think about what you have learned while I read it.
Read the Psalm one more time.
Thank you for coming, please help clean up before you leave.
ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS
These of course are just 9 videos. There are many more that would fit the same themes so feel free to adapt to those. Others that are good are Wizard of Oz, AI, Contact, and Antz just to name a few.
Adaptations - Younger Children
With younger children you may need to explain more and depending on your children, they may not like the wolf attack in Beauty and the Beast.
SOURCES
Larson, Craig Brian and Andrew Zahn. Movie Based Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching: 101 Clips to Show or Tell. <> Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003.
Movie Clips for Kids. Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2001.
Movie Clips for Kids: The Sequel. Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2004.
Copyright. The content of the Exchange may not be commercially reproduced and remains the property of the individual authors. Send all content inquiries to coordinator@rotation.org. We could use your help maintaining and expanding this site! Learn more about us.
