3 Ingredients for Working with God (Classroom Activity for Grades 2-5)
Small Group Study / Produced by partner of TOW
This lesson is part of God's Story of Work for Kids, a 12-week curriculum that teaches children to see work through God's perspective.
PROPS
- construction paper
- scissors (1 per child)
- gluesticks
- markers/crayons
- decorative elements like stickers (optional)
- God-sees-you-heart-printout.pdf
OPENING ACTIVITY: Red light, green light, faith-love-hope (5 MINUTES)
Teach students 3 moves for the game:
- Faith - forearms crossed in a cross shape
- Hope - hands folded in prayer
- Love - arms crossed across the heart, hugging oneself
How to play "Red Light, Green Light, Faith-Love-Hope"
- Start with everyone along the starting line
- Stand at the finish line, turn around, and say "Green light, 1,2,3!" - as you do, everyone will move towards the finish line to tag the leader.
- After a seconds say "Red light, 1,2,3." Everyone must immediately stop.
- Play this game, but instead of calling out "1,2,3" when you get them to stop, call out "1,2, Faith!" or "1,2, Hope!" or "1,2, Love!" Depending on the word that is called, students have to freeze in the position called. You can walk around and see if they wiggle - which usually gets the children giggling. Any players that move have to return to the starting line.
- Start a new round after the leader is tagged. The first person to tag the leader can be the new leader.
Remind students that because we know Jesus, we now work for and with Him. This means doing work with 3 things: faith, hope and love.
Applying Faith-Hope-Love: blessing Cards (25 MINUTES)
Explain to students that you are going to make cards to bless people with - reminders that God sees and loves them. Explain that you are going to pray together as a class to invite God into inspiring the decorations, in showing us who to give these cards to, and leaving them in the right places to reach people who need encouragement. Pray for the cards and ask God for His love. Ask students to take a moment to ask God who they should make the cards for. Provide a moment of silence for this. A random person may come to mind - encourage them to ask God whether this is from Him.
Make the cards. Have students fold construction paper in half, then tear in half to make 2 cards. Cut out a heart from the God-sees-you-heart-printout.pdf, sign it and paste to one side of the paper. On the front, students can decorate with the name of the person they want to bless - or if it's a surprise, the title "I prayed for you today."
Leave the cards. Children can either give to someone they have designated or leave them in places that come to mind (i.e. church fellowship hall, bathroom).
Explain that how this activity was done was a way of inviting God into our work. By pausing, we first invited God into the process. We asked for His ideas and wisdom in who to serve with this project. We invited Him into our creativity and made these with love. We have hope and faith that by inviting God into this, we might be used by God to encourage someone who needed this message. We can do the same things with other work that we do during the week.
SHARE & PRAY (5 MINUTES)
Ask if any students have any prayer requests to share. Ask which are is the hardest - doing work with faith, with hope, or with love? Pray for these, and pray blessing on the children.
