One Man Thanks Jesus (Lesson 3)
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Teachers: Margaret/David
Students: Isabella, Jacob, Jaymee, Joshua, Logen, Martin, Miles
Give Me 5: I asked students to all call out each rule when I pointed to the body part/made the gesture.
Bible verse: “I will give thanks to the Lord” Psalm 7:17
I briefly explained that Psalms was found in the Old Testament. We learned the Bible verse to the tune “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and would sing it twice in a row during transition times or when I needed to bring the children back to focus. I believe the children would still be able to sing it now.
Bible Lesson: One Man Thanks Jesus
I wrote where we find the Bible story on the board: Luke 17: 11-19. I told the children that the Bible is divided into two different parts, the Old Testament and the New Testament. I told them that Luke is in the New Testament and I pointed it out to them on the tall Bible chart in the room. I opened my Bible up and showed them Luke, they helped me to look for the big chapter number 17, and then we found the tiny verse number 11. I bring a small Bible for ease of use and because it isn’t heavy, but I will bring a larger Bible next time because it was hard for the children to gather around and see, and they all wanted to see.
I read the story from Luke and added some explanations about leprosy and why the 10 men called out to Jesus from a distance. I had made a visual for the story and we counted the 10 men. It was important to me that they could visually see what 10 people looked like – it’s a little crowd! When we got to the part where the men were obeying Jesus and were on their way to the high priest, I removed the big crowd off of the visual and put a small group of them on the path in the distance, going toward the city.Then I took one of the men from the big group and put him back in front of Jesus – he was the one who returned to thank Jesus.
Game 1: Thank You God for ______________
I’ve seen that some of the children really like to play games, they like pulling cards and finding out what they say. So for this game I made two piles of cards: one with each child’s name, and another pile with a question, such as, “Where do you like to visit?” and “What is one thing that you like about yourself?” I pulled a name and a question from each pile. As each child answered, I tried to ask them another question so that they could elaborate/think about it more. Then I asked them to thank God for what it was that they were thankful for. It was a nice practice time to thank God out loud, and also to see how many things there really are to be thankful for. The answer I got the biggest kick out of was Martin’s. One thing he likes about himself is his “big brain”. To hear him say, “Thank You God for my big brain” just tickled me J
Game 2: Bible story comprehension
This was another game that I tried, but instead of pulling the names with cards, I had the children toss a ball to each other. The first round, they had to throw the ball to someone who hadn’t had the ball yet. To keep things going, I told them that they had to toss the ball before I counted to three. That worked pretty well. When each child got the ball, I asked them a question from the cards, such as, “What was your favorite part of the story?” and “Who were the characters in the story?”. The answers weren’t as forthcoming as I had hoped; older/more vocal children helped the younger/less vocal ones. It was during this time that I emphasized to the children the importance of verbally thanking God. I told them that the 10 men in the story were not “bad” people, and that the story reminds us that we must make an effort (be intentional)/we must practice saying thank you. I didn’t use this expression, but we need to cultivate an attitude of gratitude.
Snack time:
I wanted to provide a healthy/healthier snack for the kids for Valentine’s. David put cheese spread on heart-shaped crackers for them, but most of them opted to eat their regular fruit chew snacks. David and I ate most of the cheese and crackers! Some of the kids became a little rowdier – I think because they were very comfortable with David as an adult “playmate” (even though he wasn’t playing with them) and they shouted, “No!” when he asked if they wanted cheese and crackers. I had to tell them twice to say, “No thank you.” David helped to keep the conversation in line during snack time.
Craft: Saying “thank you” in our Valentine’s Day card to parents, and saying “thank you” in a card to each other via the Love Tanks
As the children who ate more slowly finished up their snacks, I had the rest of the children come to the mat. I explained to them that we were going to make two cards: one for their parents, and one for somebody in the room. I gave instructions that one sentence in each card had to be a thank you sentence. I asked them to think of words they could use in their thank you cards, and I wrote the words on the white board. It was nice practice as the older children would spell out the word for me as I wrote it.
The craft time went alright. I knew it would be a little difficult to make two different cards, but it turned out fine. Some children needed more help than others.
We did not have time for free play and I think that was fine.
Thank you David for all of your help! It’s wonderful to see how much the kids love you Uncle Dave :^)
I’m sorry, but I don’t have any photos to post. However, the visual I made for the Bible story is up on the bulletin board.
Next time I teach, I want to begin by reviewing the lesson from the previous week, and then segue into the current day’s lesson. I also want to review the Bible memory verse song and ask why they think it’s important to memorize God’s word.