Kids ask for a lot of things—toys, games, play time, popularity, and fashion are at the top of the list. This is a lesson about keeping priorities straight. Solomon asked for wisdom, and God was so pleased with his request that he gave him riches and long life as well. Solomon got all because he had his priorities straight.

Game of Riches
Need:  2 Tubes of Pringles

Tell the children in your Sunday school class to all wash their hands before starting. Bring one tube of Pringles to the table and open it. (Put the lid in your pocket for later use.)

Tell them they are  going to pretend they’re a king like Solomon. God said that he would make Solomon rich. It’s kind of important for a King to have lots of stuff and lots of money to buy stuff with.

Let’s pretend we’re a king, too, and pretend that each of the Pringles in the tube is a solid gold piece worth a million dollars. Hand the jar to the first child at the table. Open the tube and have them take out as many million dollars as they think they want so that they can buy all the stuff they want as king. They can’t eat them yet! “Take as many as you want—first come, first serve—and don’t break any! Any broken Pringles have to be swept away, and can’t be used or eaten!”

Let each child reach in the jar and take as many Pringles as he wishes. Soon, the tube may be empty before all the children have gotten any. Encourage the children who were first to share with their classmates and not be greedy. If one child has none, ask others what they want to do about it. Let them decide. If some children snatch, discourage it. If some children don’t have as many, whisper to them,
“Don’t worry! It will all work out!”

Everyone count your dollars. We’re going to go around the table and see how many each person has. Ask children how many dollars they have and what they want to buy with all that money. Don’t let them eat yet.

To the child who has the least amount of Pringles, say, “You don’t have as many. You have the least amount. You were close to the end, and you’re not the type to grab, huh? Would you like to have the empty tube as your reward?”

The child might be ambivalent, but encourage him. Remove the lid from your pocket, put it back on top, and hand the tube to him. Next tell the child “I think there’s a secret message in the lid especially for you.”  Have the child peel off the lid and read the message. If he or she is too young, read the message on the lid for him:

Congratulations. God often chooses the youngest or smallest or the one who has the least to be his special wise servant. You didn’t snatch, and you were wise. Therefore, God will reward you with more wisdom and with riches, too.

Give the child the prize, which is a second, private Pringles can. Use the tube to fill in so that everyone has the same amount, and give the remainder of the tube to the child so he can take home with him for later.

Everybody can eat now eat their Pringles!

Technorati Tags: Sunday school activities, lessons of Solomon, Sunday school

God and Joshua worked together to get the walls of Jericho to come down. Joshua had to lead the men who blew the horns. After the walls came down, Joshua had to lead the army in to take over the land. God made the walls tumble down.

When we work together with God, amazing things can happen. To remind us of that, we’re making our own “Jericho Horns” today.

Jericho Horns
• construction paper, one sheet for each child
• glue sticks
• marker pens
• stapler
• brown construction paper, maybe five sheets cut into little squares to make bricks.

Give each student a sheet of construction paper. You should have the word JOSHUA written in large letters at the top of each sheet, or show them how to do this if they are old enough.

The small brown squares are bricks of the walls of Jericho which they can glue on in a haphazard fashion (as if they are flying).
**Note to students: If they only glue down half of each brick, the unglued part might vibrate and add to the noise, depending on the type of paper used, once the horn is made.

Have each student roll his paper lengthwise but unevenly, so that near the mouth, there is only a very small hole, and near the opposite end there is a bigger hole. They can blow through the horns.

Sometimes we think of being strong as having lots of muscles. But one of the most important things about true strength is that true strength sees the good in everyone.  A strong heart is more important than a strong body!

Technorati Tags: Bible study for Joshua, Sunday school

After the Hebrews’ 40 years in the desert, they were finally ready to become a nation, to capture land of their own. We’ve spent the last few weeks looking at some of the Ten Commandments. God gave these to the Hebrew people while they were wandering around the desert.

The Hebrews went into the desert with Moses as former slaves who needed to learn many things in order to become strong. God gave these tasks to the Hebrew people while they were wandering around the desert. Joshua led the Hebrew army after Moses led them for 40 years through the desert.

Try this activity with your younger Sunday school students to illustrate to them how much the Hebrews had to learn before they could establish their own nation.

Growing Up Strong Game
Have children form two lines for a relay race at one end of the room.
Each child must cross the room twice before the next child can go.

Each must:

• Crawl on all fours to the other end
• Hop back one foot
• Hop to the other end on two feet
• Run to the finish and tag the next child.

If you don’t have enough children for a relay, simply time them, one compared to the next. When all have been timed, ask them how it felt to have to crawl in the beginning?Then they ‘grew,’ but were still a little clumsy. That was the hopping-on-one-foot part. Did they feel clumsy? Then, they got to hop on two feet. Did they feel a little more graceful?
And how about running for the finish line? Were you glad to be free and strong?

We can’t expect to do everything right, especially when we are little and just learning.  But Jesus helps us, and every day we get a little bigger, stronger, and more free! With Jesus in charge of our lives, we can look forward to someday
being very big and strong Christians.

Technorati Tags: Bible studies for children, Moses, Joshua, Sunday school

Before Moses got the Ten Commandments from God, the Hebrews had to walk in the desert a very long time, and it was hot. But God took care of them.

This activity is a memorial to that journey. If we put it at home somewhere where we can see it, let it serve to remind us that God takes care of us in tough times also.

Give each student a baby food jar with lid and a spoon. Put the different colored sand bags down on the table where they can share.
Show them how to spoon in different colors to make layers.
Explain:
• brown sand represents the dry ground
• green sand represents what little vegetation they could find in the desert
• blue sand symbolizes the sky and how it rarely rained
• yellow sand symbolizes the sun
• red sand symbolizes how God fed them in the desert when there wasn’t any food
• white sand symbolizes God Himself and how he always watches over us

Note: For sand projects, it pays to put newspaper down under the work table.

Technorati Tags: children’s Sunday school activities, Sunday school, Ten Commandments

Children tend to “live in the now,” meaning they don’t worry about dinner until they start to feel hungry. “Mom or Dad will take care of it,” they think. Hence, they might be surprised to hear how fast the Israelites started to grumble at Moses with things like, “What will we eat out here in the desert?”

The Israelites were so happy for their freedom, and then they got unhappy really fast when they thought God wouldn’t give them anything to eat.How quickly they forgot that  God had freed them by throwing back the waters of the Red Sea. Soon after, they were complaining because they didn’t have food. God provided the food, and they tried to save it. When it spoiled, they were unhappy again.

Ask your students to draw a picture of something they want very badly. They should write at the bottom when they expect to get this thing (tomorrow, next week, next birthday, next year). It’s hard for us to remember what we have when there’s something we want. But guess what? There’s always something we want. However, when we forget what we already have, our feelings start to sink.

You can use a  bottle of bubbles and bubble blower to illustrate this point. Point out that sometimes the things we want are like bubbles. They shoot out into the air and look very fun and beautiful. Blow again, tell the children not to break them, and watch them get close to the ground. When we’re not grateful enough, and when we’re not patient enough, our desires burst, like the bubbles. Most of our desires are short term. We often get the item and then stop caring about it because something else gets to be a want. Then we want that new thing.

Teach them to ask God to help them be patient for the thing they want on the other side. And help them to accept His will, if you think we will lose interest in it quickly or you have an even better plan in mind!

Technorati Tags: Bible study lessons for children, Bread from Heaven, Israelites

If we’re going to trust God to take our problems and work with us to be free and happy, we first have to believe that he hears our prayers. Here is The Listening Game to help your students understand God hears our prayers.

Show everyone six items:

• A quarter, spoon, ping pong ball, a small book, your car keys, and a plastic hanger.
• Have everyone sit in a circle facing outward or sit with their heads down on a table.
• Take turns dropping the items.
• When it makes its noise, ask: Was it the quarter, spoon, ping pong ball, book, car keys or hanger?

Go through every item, showing them after each turn that they were correct, then have them put their heads down again.

All our voices are different, and all our “Red Sea Problems” were different. But just like we know the sounds of different things, God knows the sound of each of our voices. We can believe he hears us and wants to help us be free.

Technorati Tags: Sunday school, Moses Parting the Red Sea, Bible studies for children

One of the reasons God likes it when we listen to Mom and Dad is that it’s good training for us. Our parents love us more than anyone on earth. So they come closest to showing us how much God loves us, which is even more. That’s why we call God our Father in Heaven.

Game
Bring out one index card for each child. Go around placing the index card on one of each child’s shoulders  telling them all to hold the card in place with their hand.

Tell them to pretend this card is like a really good friend. Let’s see how well the friend stays with us. Everyone let go of the card, letting it balance on your shoulder.  Allow them to get the card balanced. Now everyone take three big steps forward.   All should lose their cards.

Go around with clothes pins (the pinching kind) and attach the card with the clothes pin to everyone’s shoulder. God’s love, which is a lot like your parents’ love, doesn’t fall away at the first sign of trouble. Tell them to not touch the clothes pin or the card. Have them jiggle themselves around and try to get rid of “gods’ love”(symbolized by the attached card). Give them a chance to wiggle and jiggle. Some will be able to dislodge the clothes pin, though most will not.

It is a lot harder to get rid of the love of God in your life than even a good friend, isn’t it? People give up on us sometimes and go find new friends, and that hurts. But God’s love is like a parents’ love. It stays.

Technorati Tags: Sunday school games, Sunday school, fifth commandment

Ask your students how many of them recognize some of the things that maybe they spend too much time thinking about and could be threatening to become an idol?  Let kids think of some things they don’t want to become false idols in their lives.

Emphasize to them that the way to love God more than their potential idols is to talk to Him and listen to him. Tell them when they speak to him, he does speak back to their heart. He is kind and good and cares about everything they do.

Because God is the King, talking with him can make them feel more like the children of the King. Communing with God, mixing their prayers in with his love, will make them feel like one of his royal children.

Royal Purple Passion Punch Activity
Do they know that purple is considered the color of royalty?

Have on the table cups filled halfway with water. Have one child come forward and pick up a cup of water. Ask him to think of something he could almost make into an idol and promise that he won’t. As the child says what the almost-idol is, put drops of blue food coloring into his water.

Ask him to now shut his eyes and say a silent prayer, and to try to think of what God might be saying to him.
Repeat this for every child at the table. Then go around with red food coloring. Ask each child to repeat what his almost idol was. Say, “God loves you a lot more than [soccer, football, whatever the item was] loves you.” Add drops of blue food coloring until the color in his cup is purple.

Now, have everyone add their Royal Purple Water to the punch bowl. After children pour their water in, add lemonade mix, and they can drink their Royal Punch they made as they learned from the lesson about idols and how to talk to God.

Technorati Tags: Ten Commandments, Sunday school, Sunday school activities

Begin by asking them,”What is a god?” Answers should range from someone you worship to someone who answers prayers.  People can often want things so much that form idols.  Are they aware that a car can be a god because
of how we feel about it? Like a bicycle? Or a video game? A god is something that you want so badly or love so much that you can’t remember your love for God the Father.

There is only one God the Father up in heaven. Children should learn at an early age that a god is anything we love so much that it clouds our love for the Father, or more importantly, His love for us.

Bible Reading:
Exodus 20:2 (New International Version)
1 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.

Activity:
• Aluminum foil
• 8 Slips of paper with one word written on each: THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE ME.

Hide these balls of foil around the room.

Let the kids hunt around for the balled up pieces of aluminum foil, bring them to the table, and find the slips of paper inside.
Try to figure out what order the words go in.

It’s today’s lesson.
The words should spell out:
Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me

Technorati Tags: Sunday school curriculum, First Commandment, Sunday school

As children are often comforted by rules, and the Ten Commandments are quite telling about the nature of goodness.

Tell the children that they are starting class with a treasure hunt.There are gold coins hidden all over the room. They can find them, but they can’t eat them now! There are also four bigger silver treasures hidden.

Hold up a balled up piece of aluminum foil so they can see it.

Find all the gold and silver and put it in the center of the table!

Once all the coins are found, open the silver balls and find the four pieces of paper hidden inside. Put them in order. They will spell out:  What is a god?

That is the question you’re going to answer in today’s lesson.

Have them give the gold coins to the teacher.  They will have to wait to have the gold coins or they will have to decide if they can give them to others who may need them more.  This will be their introduction to sacrifices and tough choices.

Children should learn at an early age that a god is anything we love so much that it clouds our love for the Father, or more importantly, His love for us.  Ask your Sunday school students, “What is a god? Answers will range from someone you worship to someone who answers prayers.

A god is something that you want so badly or love so much that you can’t remember your love for God the Father. When God says, “You shall have no other gods before me,” it means you can love your stuff, but not to the point where you’re almost worshipping your stuff. Ask them What stuff they can think of that could become a god or idol?  Allow children to think of things they can get addicted to or jealous over, etc.

Next ask about sharing.  Can they give something they really want for themselves to another who may have less than they do?  God would like for us to help those less fortunate.

Technorati Tags: kids Sunday school, Ten Commandments, Sunday school