God in Our Monday to Sunday (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
- clock or timer
- paper to keep score and pen or pencil
- large sheet of paper
- pencils
- the-kingdom-times.pdf
- pens, markers, colored pencils, crayons
OPENING ACTIVITY: Work of a week race (5 MINUTES)
Divide the class into two teams. Put two minutes on the clock. The first person on each team runs to the teacher who is on the opposite side of the room and shouts a task they do anytime between Monday through Sunday, then runs back to the end of the line. The teacher writes down the tasks and keeps score. The team who lists the most tasks by the end of the two minutes wins.
Review that God is in every day, every hour and every second of each week. Each of us lived 604,800 seconds this past week. God was in every moment of it whether we realized or not.
God's Many coworkers map (10 MINUTES)
On the large sheet of paper, have students draw a circle with their name in it. Connect the circles to show they are all part of one team. Give each child a blank sheet of paper. Ask them to fill out the following:
- Draw a line from your circle and list the chores you are responsible for
- Draw a line from your circle for each member of your family
- Write down what kind of work they do under their name and where they work.
Remind the children that God calls us to partner with him in all things. Each child's faith, hope and love affects how the other people on this map experience faith, hope and love.
the kingdom times (20 MINUTES)
Distribute a copy of the-kingdom-times.pdf to each student. Ask them to think of someone they know well whose work is unnoticed or underappreciated. God values this work. Newspapers often recognize people who are famous as if the work they do is more valuable. But God notices every single person, and the ordinary work they do with faith, hope and love counts. Create a newspaper headline and article showing off this person the way God sees him or her. For example, "Today, Mrs. Smith Folded Her Laundry!" or "Henry Did His Homework!" They can give their newspaper to the person as a way of saying that person's work truly matters.
Ask children to lay their hands on the map they created and lead them to pray that each person listed would discover more of God in all 168 hours of this week. Bless the work of each person on the map.
