Free Sunday School Lesson for Children

Sample Sunday School Lesson for Children
The following Sunday School lesson for children is a sample Sunday school lesson.
There are many more Sunday School lessons for children available on The Resource Room

Don't Forget to Say Thank You
(The Story of the Ten Lepers)
Written by Carolyn Warvel

Printable Bible Verse Card: Print out onto card stock, cut apart, and send home with each child.(A pattern for the Bible verse cards are available to members of The Resource Room.)

Scripture Reference: Luke 17:11-19

Teaching Concept:Children learn that it is important to tell Jesus how thankful they are. He likes be thanked just like we do when we do something special for someone.

Opening Activity

1. Make a Sad and Happy Leper Paper Doll Puppet with Material Clothes - This craft will work well for children first grade or older. It is a little hard for younger children.

What you will need: Cardstock, cotton material, glue or tape, crayons and scissors.

What to do:

1. Before class print out the paper doll patterns onto cardstock and cut them out. (A pattern for this craft is available to members of The Resource Room.)

2. Print out the coat pattern and cut from cotton material. (A pattern for this craft is available to members of The Resource Room.) (If possible rip the fabric instead of cutting it. This will make the doll look more ragged.) Rip long strips of off-white fabric about 1/2" wide.

3. In class have the children color both sides of the doll and draw a happy face on the other side.

4. Show them how to wrap the material strips around the head, arms, and legs. Use tape or glue to secure. While they work explain that the lepers were very poor. No one wanted to help them because they were afraid of getting the disease. They had to use whatever they could find to wrap their sores.

Note: You will need ten of these puppets for your story. If you don't have ten children in your class, make some extras before class to use during the lesson.

Ten Leper stick puppet 2. Make an Easy Stick Puppet - This craft will work well for children younger children (Kindergarten or younger). Before class print out the stick puppet patterns onto card stock cut them out. (A pattern for this craft is available to members of The Resource Room.) Glue a jumbo craft stick to the back of the happy face pattern and then glue the sad face to the back of the happy face so that you have a reversible puppet. In have the children color the puppets and then help act out the story.

3. Make a "Thank You" Book - If your children get done early with the craft above give them a sheet of paper to draw a picture of things they are thankful for. Tell them that you will be making a class book and that they will be sharing their pictures with the class after story time. Before class make a cover for your book with the title, class name, and date on the cover. Staple all the pages together when it is finished.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

The Lesson

PREPARATION: Before class have your children make the leper paper dolls. Also make a Jesus paper doll. (A pattern for this craft is available to members of The Resource Room.) When the children are finished place ten of the paper dolls in the front of the room all in a row with the sad faces showing.

What do you say when someone gives you something special?
What do you say when someone does something for you that makes you feel happy?
What do you say when someone does something to show they love you?

Did you ever forget to say thank you? I bet your mother said, "What do you say?" and reminded you to say thank you. Our story today is about some men who forgot to say thank you. But there was one special man who remembered.

Our story today comes from Luke 17. (Open your Bible to Luke 17 and tell the story in your own words.) Once there were ten very sad men. (Point to the paper dolls.) They were sad because they all had a terrible disease called leprosy. Leprosy was a terrible disease because they didn't have a cure for it and it was very contagious. That means that it could be spread from one person to another very easily. If someone got leprosy, they had to leave town and everyone they loved, and go live with other people who had the disease. The leprosy would make their skin turn white and eventually they would lose their fingers and toes. These men where sad because they didn't have much hope.

But things would soon change for these sad men.

One day they saw Jesus walking down the road on his way to Jerusalem. They couldn't come close to Jesus, but they called out to him, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us." When Jesus saw them, he said, "Go show yourselves to the priests." They did as Jesus told them and went to the priests. On their way to the priest, they were healed! All ten of them were healed! They were so excited. They didn't waste any time going back to their families.

But one of the men was different than all the rest. When he was healed, he was very excited, but he remembered to do something very important. He ran back to Jesus, shouting, "Praise God, I'm healed!" He fell, face down, on the ground by Jesus' feet, and thanked Jesus for what he had done.

Jesus looked around and asked, "Didn't I heal ten men? Where are the other nine men who were healed?" Jesus said to to the man, "You may get up and go. Your faith has made you well."

How do you think Jesus felt when only one man came back and thanked him?

Do you like to be thanked when you take the time to do something nice for someone?

How would you feel if you spent a long time making something for someone and when you gave it to them, they didn't even say thank you?

Why should we say thank you? (To show the person who did something nice that you appreciate it.)

Do you think Jesus likes to be thanked when he does something? Of course, he does.

Sometimes we don't even think about all the good things that God gives us.It is easy to forget just like the nine men in our story. Sometimes we don't even realize everything that God has given us or how important they are until something happens. For example, we don't realize how important it is to have a healthy body until we get sick. We should thank God for keeping us healthy.

There is always something we can thank Jesus for. They Bible tells us to give thanks in all circumstances. That means that we should not only thank him for the good things, but also the bad. Remember God makes everything turn out for the good for those who love him.

(Pick ten children to act out the story while you read the following poem. Line them up in a row. Have them hold the sad face side of their puppets in front of them.)

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

Ten Sad Men
Written by Carolyn Warvel

Ten sad lepers all in a row,
covered with rags from head to their toes.
(Tell the children to make crying and whining noises like they are in pain.)

Then they saw Jesus walking by.
They got excited and started to cry.

(Tell the children to make their puppets jump up and down and shout,
"Help us Jesus. We don't want to die!"

Then Jesus told them to go to the priest.
They ran off towards the northeast.
(Tell the children to move their puppets up and down like they are running.)

On the way their leprosy disappeared.
They ran home both far and near.
(Tell the children to turn their puppets to the happy face side and move them up and down again.)

They forgot about Jesus and didn't look back.
But one young man didn't follow the pack.
(Have the first child in the row move his puppet towards you.)

He went to Jesus and fell down on his face.
He gave him thanks for his saving grace.
(Have the first children place his puppet face down.)

Puppet Show for Older Children - Older children will enjoy making a puppet show using their paper dolls. Use the pattern above to make the lepers and this Jesus pattern to make Jesus puppet. (A pattern for this craft is available to members of The Resource Room.) Glue or tape paint sticks to the doll's bodies to make puppets. You can make a simple stage by turning a table sideways. If you have access to a video camera, make sure to tape the show and show the children the recording as soon as they are done. They may want to do the show again if they see problems with the first one.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

Prayer

Before you start the prayer tell the children that each of them will have a chance to give thanks for something. Have them stand in a circle. Tell them that you will start the prayer and that the person on your left can then say something that he is thankful for. Tell them that you will finish the prayer. If a child doesn't want to pray he can squeeze the hand of the child next to him to let him know.

Father, help us to remember to be thankful. Everything we have comes from you. I would like to thank you for ______________.

Activity

1. Review the "Thank You" Book - Show your children the finished book. Go through the pages one at a time asking the children to explain what they drew and are thankful for.

2. Play a Musical Chairs Tthank You Game - Place the same amount of chairs in the center of the room as you have children. On some of the chairs tape different colors of construction paper. Play some music and have the children walk around the chairs. When the music stops all the children should find a seat. All the children who are sitting on a seat with a piece of construction paper must think of something they are thankful for that is that color. For example, if a child sits on a seat with an orange sheet of paper, he must think of something orange that he is thankful such as a pumpkin, orange, orange paper, orange crayon, orange paint, etc.

3. Look up Bible Verses and Decide What the Verse is Saying We Should be Thankful For. When a verse is read, write down the reference and a few words that describe what we should be thankful for. You can assign each child a verse or group the children and give each group a verse.
Psalm138:2 - Praise for lovingkindness and truth.
1 Thess.1:2 - Give thanks for you.
1 Tim. 2:1-2 - Thanks for all men, kings, and all who are in authority.
2 Corinthians 9:15 - Thanks for his unspeakable gift.
1 Corinthians 15:57 - Thanks for victory through Jesus.
1 Thess. 5:16-18 - Give thanks in all circumstances.
Psalm 136:26 - Thanks for his mercy.
Colossians 1:12 - Thanks our inheritance.
John 6:11 - Thanks for food.
Daniel 2:23 - Thanks for wisdom and strength.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information or storage retrieval system, except for local church or school use only. This copyright notice must be included on all copies. Requests for permission to copy this material for any other uses should be addressed to Carolyn Warvel, 588 Duran Street, Henderson, NV 89015 or e-mail me at care@daniellesplace.com

Comments

We would love to hear your comments about this lesson. If you taught this lesson, we would love to hear how it went, if you changed anything, added anything, what age you taught and was it appropriate. Any comments that would help others teach this lesson are welcome.

I used the Ten Leper Lesson that you provided. The children were happy to act out the story and that way they really understood what was being taught!
Thanks, Heather

We did this lesson this week and the children enjoyed it. One thing I added that was a lot of the fun was giving the children "leprosy" by putting stickers all over their face and hands. I guess you could try face painting also, but I wasn"t that brave. Thanks for your site. Mr. Ricky

I taught this lesson last week to my Sunday School class. They loved it. They really enjoyed making the little lepers and they turned out so cute. Thank you so much for this site. Tina Russell

I did the Ten Lepers Lesson a couple the weeks before last and it was great. We used the story from the Beginner's Bible and make the Popsicle stickleper you suggested. I can't thank you enough for your great ideas on your website. Thanks again! Katherine

My preschool Sunday school class recently did the "Don't Forget To Say Thank You" lesson. I stressed to them the importance of saying thank you and being appreciative of what people give them or do for them. They were just as eager to talk about the subject by telling me instances in which a person should say "thank you". We went around the room and asked each child to name something they were thankful for. We then made a "Tree of Thanks" that I purchased from Oriental Trading. Each tree came with 10 colored leaves that we wrote the children's responses to on that they were thankful for. The craft turned out very nice and the children had several compliments on them. Ella

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