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

The Good Shepherd
Written by Carolyn Warvel

Scripture References:
Memory Verse: , " I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." John 10:14

Story Reference: Psalm 23, "The Lord is my Shepherd."

Printable Bible Phrase Cards: Print out the cards onto card stock, cut them apart, and send one home with each child.

Teaching Concepts: God is like a good shepherd: He knows us, leads us, protects us, and keeps us from harm.

Take Home Letter - Print out the letters, cut them apart, and send home with the children.

The Lesson

How would you describe God?  What is he like? (Let the children answer and write their answers on the board.)

Here are some of the ways God is described in the Bible: He is our rock  He is a shelter from the storm, our hiding place, a gardener, spring of living water, bread of life, friend, light of the world, master, morning star, doctor, King, Judge, Ruler, Savior, Teacher, and our creator.

Today we are going to look at how David describes God. Does anyone remember what David's job was? He was a shepherd before he became king. He described God as the good shepherd in Psalms. Does everyone know what a shepherd is?

If God is our shepherd what does that make us? Sheep.

Did you know that we are a lot like sheep? Can anyone think of a way we might be like sheep? ( Hold up a stuffed sheep and let the children come up with some ideas.)

Sheep need a shepherd to guide them, protect them and help them. We need God to guide us, protect us and help us too.

Tangled up
Sometimes sheep get themselves tangled up in brambles because they aren't looking where they are going. Their fleece is thick and the more they try to free themselves the more stuck they become. The shepherd has to come and cut the sheep free. 

Fall over
Sometimes sheep fall over and can't get up by themselves. The shepherd has to come and help them up.

Lost
Sheep don't always pay attention to where they are going.  Sometimes they are so concerned about what they are eating that they tend to wander off and get lost and the shepherd has to go out and look for them.  

We need God to help just like sheep need a shepherd to help them when they get in trouble. We need God to help us do the right things.  Sheep need the shepherd to save them when they are in trouble.  We need Jesus to save us from our sins.  He died for us so we can be forgiven of our sins and live forever with him in heaven.

We are a lot like sheep. There are so many things going on around us that we sometimes forget about God and what he wants us to do.  Instead of reading our Bibles and praying, we wonder off to do other things. We need the Holy Spirit to guide us and remind us about God.

Protection
Sheep can't protect themselves very well. They don't have sharp claws or sharp teeth and they don't run very fast. The shepherd has to protect his sheep from dangerous animals.  He carries a rod or stick that he uses to fight off any wild animals. We also need God's protection. We can go to him when we are in trouble or scared and he will comfort us.

God is our shepherd. He is a good shepherd. A good shepherd knows each one of his sheep by name. He not only knows their names, but he knows every thing about them. He knows what they sound like. He can tell by the way they cry if they are in trouble, or lost, or sick.  God, our shepherd, knows everything about you.  He  loves you just the way you are, bad things and all.  He knows when you are sad, or happy, or lonely.

A good shepherd never leaves his sheep alone. (Psalm 23:6)   God will never leave you because he is your good shepherd. (Matthew 28:20)

The Bible tells us (Open your Bible and read the verse) in Mark 10:14, " I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me." Use the bulletin board review sheep (below) to review the Bible verse. Put the sheep in order and go over the verse.  Mix up the sheep and have the children put them back in order. Save them for next week as a review.

Prayer

Father, thank you for being our good shepherd. Thank you for protecting us, and guiding us, and dying on the cross so that we might be saved.  Forgive us when we don't always follow you.  Keep us on the right paths and show us the way you would like us to go. Amen.

Bible Verse Review

Print out extra sheep from the bulletin board display patterns below. Cut out the sheep and glue them onto separate pieces of construction paper.  Write one word of the Bible verse, "I am the good shepherd", on each sheet next to the sheep.  Use these to review the Bible verse. Put the sheep in order and go over the verse. Mix them all up and have the children try to put them back in order. Use them next week as a review.

Bulletin Board Display

"God is Our Shepherd and We are His Lambs" Bulletin Board Display-

What you will: Printer paper, gray and pink crayons, and stapler.

What to do:

1. Print out the following files

1. Sheep pattern 1
2. Sheep pattern 2
3. Sheep border/ vertical
4. Sheep border/ horizontal
5. Title pattern - Use legal sized paper for this pattern

2. Cut the rows of sheep apart and staple them one on top of the other or next to each other to make a border around your board.

3. Cut out the title words and glue them onto to the center of two sheets of construction paper that have been stapled in the center of your board side by side.

4. Color and cut out the sheep and place them around the title as shown above and around your board.

Crafts

1. Make a "God Loves You" Sheep with noodles or cotton balls. (This craft is available to members of The Resource Room.)

2. Make a Sheep with Shaking Head - This little guy looks great in your car. It shakes it's head up and down as you drive. (This craft is available to members of The Resource Room.)

3. Make a shepherd boy with sheep standup figure. (This craft is available to members of The Resource Room.)

Activities

1. Play a Sheep Game.

The children in this game are sheep. The object of the game is to get to the green pasture first (sheep playing piece) by throwing the die and moving forward the amount of spaces indicated on the die. If a sheep lands on a purple situation space, the sheep picks up a situation card and does what it says on the card.  The sheep can lose a turn, or move forward or backward spaces depending on the situation.

What you will need: Piece of cardboard or foam core board, markers, crayons, colored paper, sheep playing pieces (one for each child), (If you don't have tiny sheep use something else like buttons). I got a set of 12, 1" poly resin sheep from Oriental Trading for $6.00 that are perfect. (www.orientaltrading.com) 

What to do:

1. At each end of a piece of cardboard draw a big pasture area and paint each area green.   Write "start" at one end and "finish" at the other end.   You can also draw a fence and gate around the start area.
2. Draw a winding path that eventually ends up at the green pasture at the other end of the board.  Mark off about 25 - 30 spaces. Make them large enough to fit several markers (sheep) at a time on them.  Have 5 to 6 children play at one time.  
3. Color or paint at least 7 of the spaces scattered evenly throughout the path purple. If a sheep lands on a purple space, he has to pick up a purple situation card and do what it says.
4. Print out the situation cards (Available to members of The Resource Room.) onto purple paper and cut them apart.
5. To play have the children take turns throwing the die and moving ahead that many spaces.  If a child lands on a purple space, he has to pick up a card and do what it says.  If he lands on something other than the purple space he stays there.  The first child to reach the new pasture or finish wins.

Following are some comments from Vicki Budden who played this game with her daughters: 

We played the Lost Sheep game and really enjoyed it. I made little sheep for the game board by using the top left sheep graphic in the coloring page. I printed a number of these out onto cardboard and stuck a cotton ball to the back of it (this was to give it a little stability - though not 100% successful!). I then drew a different colored bow onto each sheep to distinguish them and they looked quite cute. We used a 2 liter juice carton with colored dots on it to make a dice and this was very successful for my age of my girls (preschool).

2. Play "Gathering Your Sheep" balloon game.

What you will need: Balloons to make "sheep", newspaper, masking tape, two chairs, and an electric fan.

Preparation:

1. Before class blow up some balloons and draw a sheep face, ears, and tails on them with thick permanent  markers. 
2. Set up the two chairs at one end of the room, and a masking tape start line at the other end. 
3. Roll up some newspapers to make rods and tape them so that they don't come apart.
4. Have about 3 children play at once depending on how much room you have.   

How to Play:

1. Tell the children that they are going to pretend they are shepherds and that the balloons are their sheep.  Give each child a sheep. 
2. Show them the rods and tell them that the object of the game is to be the first shepherd to get his sheep into the fold with the rest of the sheep (between the chairs.  Tell them that "Anyone caught hitting someone with their rod will have to sit out of the game." Give each child a rod.
3. Have 3 children stand at the start line with their balloon in front of them.  The first child to push their "sheep" across the floor with their "rod" through the "gate" is the winner of that round.  Once all the children get a chance to play, make the game harder by turning on a fan.

Copyright 2000 by The Resource Room
Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities
http://www.daniellesplace.com

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 have done this lesson with your class 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 other teachers would be greatly appreciated and posted here for everyone to read.

I teach the 0 to 5 year old class in Sunday school. Last week, we did The Good Shepherd lesson. I did change some of it to help my children to understand it better, as they are a little younger than the lesson. As an example, to help teach them about one thing a good shepherd does, we played a "Lost Sheep" game. I hid "lost sheep" around the room, and the children had to be "good shepherds" and find them. We did this several times, and the children really enjoyed it. It helped to tie the lesson together. Thank you for such a wonderful lesson!! Theresa Bostick

Hi! I would just like to comment on how well the lesson on The Good Shepherd went in my Sunday School class last week. I teach three to five year olds, but there is one two year old and two six year olds in there also. Anyhow, I made the sock lamb and named him Woolie, because in last weeks class that was the name of our lost sheep in our Lost Sheep lesson. Well, Woolie came out and told the story of the good shepherd for me. The
children just loved him, and listened to every word. We made the craft of the lamb that says shake your head if you love Jesus, and the kids liked that also. Instead of using the pattern of the body of the lamb, I cut toilet paper rolls in half and painted them white before class. The lamb stood up better that way, and it was easier for the kids to glue their
cotton balls to. We also did the memory verse on the flannel board. I wrote the verse on construction paper, glued felt to the back, and cut the words out like a puzzle, so it would be easier to piece together. I also made the board game, and we played it, but we had a little trouble with the pieces getting bumped all over. It was mostly the littler ones. I'm sure
it would have worked better if it were just the older ones. We had an awesome jam packed Sunday School that day! Thanks a lot for all the great ideas!!!!!Sincerely, Nichole Adrian

I am very much enjoying your site. I already did The Good Shepherd's program. I combined both the young and older kids versions. A couple of things. The kids loved the shepherd interrupting the service looking for Wooley. They also loved making the bulletin board for our church. We go to a small church, and I had children from 5 to 10 in the group. An idea I had was to have each of the kids that made a lamb for the bulletin board to put their name on the lamb. The children had a very good time and stayed very interested. I look forward to using more of your ideas. Thanks again, Crystal Haglund

Our lesson was on the good shepherd and I decided the best way to teach the kids about being a good shepherd was to let them do it themselves while I told the story.
At the beginning of class, I gave each child a certain amount of cotton balls including myself. I told them they were going to be shepherds today and if they were going to be good shepherds they needed to watch over their sheep and make sure none of them disappeared during our lesson. While I told the lesson, we all had our sheep on the table and when I looked the other way a helper would come and take one or two of my sheep or I would purposely knock some off the table. So when we got to the part where I had to count my sheep to make sure they were all safe, some would be missing and the children were thrilled to tell me what happened to my sheep. At the end of the lesson I let them color the sheep page and used glue sticks to glue their sheep to their paper. They really enjoyed the participation. Ramona

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