Sample Sunday School Lessons for Children

The following Sunday School lesson is a free sample Sunday School lesson.
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Scaredy Cat
(A Little Lion Learns about Courage)
Written by Carolyn Warvel

(This lesson can be used along with Daniel has Courage for younger children or Daniel Prayed for older children)

Bible Verse: Isaiah 41:10a

Printable Bible Verse Card: Print out onto card stock, write the Bible memory verse you choose on the cards, copy them and cut them apart, and send one home with each child.

Teaching Concept: Children learn about how to overcome fear through this make-believe story about a little, scaredy-cat lion who meets Daniel in the lion's den.

Early Arrivals Activity

1. Practice Printing and writing - This lesson was designed to go along with ABC worksheets using the Bible verse. Children practice writing the letter C in print or cursive or write the complete verse in cursive.

2. You can also use the early arrival activities from the Daniel lessons mentioned above.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

The Lesson

You can use the following story as an introduction to the story of Daniel and then read your children the story of Daniel from a children's Bible or use the Daniel Shows Courage lesson. Tell the children that you have a special story for them about a little lion called Scaredy Cat. It isn't a true story, but we can learn something very important from it.

Scaredy Cat

It was especially dark and cold in the pit this evening. The pit lions were not in a good mood. It had been many days since they had been fed. One particularly big lion called Bruno was tossing and turning trying to get comfortable, but his stomach was growling louder than he ever could with his mouth. "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse!" he whined. Another lion that wasn't as big as Bruno but was just as mean grumbled, "I'm so hungry I could eat you!" Oh, quit whining, I'm tired of listening to you guys. All you do is whine," said another lion. "Besides, I heard that we just might be getting some dinner tonight." "You did?" Bruno asked hopefully. "Yep, I heard the King's men talking. They said that they tricked the king into making a new law. A law that says that if anyone prays to anyone but the King, himself, that he would be thrown in the lion's den. And you know what that means."

"No, what does that mean?" asked Leo, a not so bright lion." That means that we will soon be fed dinner. Everyone knows about Daniel. You can see him praying every morning and afternoon and evening on the roof of his house. He says that his god is the one and only God. There is no way he is going to pray to the king. So, if he prays this evening like he always does, that means we get dinner! Well, we'll know soon enough."

Not long after that the lions heard the clanking of the pit door. It opened slowly and then a man was thrown down into the pit with them. The lions gave out a roar so loud that it would have scared the pants off of anyone, but not Daniel. Daniel just stood there and stared at the lions. The big hungry lions opened their months and came closer to Daniel, but Daniel didn't try to run or cower away. He just bowed his head and prayed like he always did when things weren't going good. The lions didn't know what to make of this. They never saw anyone act like this before. But that didn't stop them, they inched forward. But something amazing happened when they tried to roar again, they couldn't open their mouths. They were clamped closed tighter than a lid on a Tupperware container. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't get them opened. Now the lions were scared. They ran away and hid in a corner of the pit.

That's when Daniel heard it. A tiny cry like a kitten coming from another corner of the pit. Daniel walked over to the corner. When he got a little closer he saw a tiny lion cub cowering in the dark corner behind some rocks. Daniel spoke softly to the little lion, "It's okay, little fellow. You don't have to be afraid. I won't hurt you." The little lion liked the sound of Daniel's voice. It was very soothing. Daniel spoke again. "What's your name little lion?" The little lion answered him between sobs, "They call me Scaredy Cat." "Why do they call you Scaredy Cat? That isn't a very nice name to call someone?" The little lion answered, "because I'm afraid of everything." "Everything, nobody is afraid of everything." said Daniel. "I am, I'm afraid of everything." "Like what?" asked Daniel. "Well, I'm afraid of the dark, and being alone, and people, and other lions, and mice, and spiders, and dirt, and the clouds falling on me, and getting hurt, and getting lost, and monsters, and snakes, and . . ." "Oh, that is a lot of things to be afraid of, but that isn't everything."

Then the little lion asked, "How come you weren't afraid of the big hungry lions? Everyone is afraid of them." Daniel answered, "Because I knew God was with me. He has helped me before and I knew he would help me now. You see God is my special friend. I can talk to him anytime of the day because he is always with me. Whenever I am scared or confused, I just stop and pray and he comforts me. I have learned to trust him over the years."

"Were you always this way?" asked the little lion. Daniel answered, "Oh, no, not always. I was once little like you. I had many fears, but I learned that God loves me and that no matter what happens he will be with me." You see, little lion, the more you get to know God, the more you understand how much he really loves you. And when you understand that, you understand that God will always be with you, no matter what happens.

This made the little lion feel much better. Daniel talked to the little lion all night and told him all about his God and how loving he was. When morning came the big door opened with a moan. The king, himself, peeked through the door. He yelled, "Daniel, Daniel, are you down there?" Daniel yelled back, "Yes, King Darius, I'm still here." God has protected me from the mouths of the lions." The King was so happy! He gave Daniel a great big hug and helped him out of the pit. Daniel looked back as he was about to leave. He yelled down to the little lion, "Remember, God loves you and will take care of you." The little lion wasn't so scared anymore. He looked over to the other corner and the big, hungry lions were still cowered in the corner with their mouths closed. Somehow this made the little lion feel even better.

Discussion:

Have you ever felt like this little lion? All of us are afraid of things sometimes, aren't we? Scaredy Cat had lot of fears, didn't he? (Let your children share their thoughts.) You may even want to share what you were afraid of when you were little and how you learned to trust God to take care of you more and more as you grew older and learned to know God better and better.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

Prayer

Dear God, Help us to learn to trust you more and more each day. Help us to be aware of your love and kindness for us. We know that your love is perfect and we don't need to be afraid.

Activities

1. Play a "Spin the Lion" Game - Before class make the lion craft pictured with paper plates. Go to craft page 19 for directions. Make up some cards with questions about the story written on them. Add some cards with activities written on them such as "Roar like a lion", "Walk around the outside of the circle acting like a lion", etc. Have the children sit in a circle around the lion. The teacher will spin the lion. The child who is directly in line with the lion's face has to answer a question or do something that is written on the cards. If you would like, you can place the cards in the lion's mouth and clip them on with a paper clip or clothes pin and have the children remove one card when it is their turn. You can also make up your own games using words or math problems depending on what your child is learning at the time.

If you don't want to make the lion paper plate spinner, you can use a paper lion spinner. Print out the pattern onto card stock and color it. Cut it out and punch a hole in the middle. Use a paper fastener to attach to another piece of cardboard or use a thumb tack and stick it to a box. (This pattern also contains a pattern for the "Pink Elephant?" lesson.

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

2. Lions in The Den
Written by Nancy Foss
(Sing to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus")

The lions in the den go roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar.
Repeat
All day long.

Daniel's in the den praying to God, praying to God, praying to God.
Repeat
All night long.

The lions in the den go snore, (9 times)
Repeat
All night long.

Daniel's alive jump up and down (3 times)
Daniel's alive jump up and down, turn around and sit down.

(You can have the kids just roar or snore using sounds if you don't want to
repeat the words roar and snore so many times).

Crafts

1. Make a stuffed lion. For this craft you can use a gift bad or a plastic sandwich bag filled with yellow pom pom balls or wadded up tissue paper. Go to Craft Page 19 for a pattern and directions for this craft.

2. Make a lion face with a noodle mane. This craft just used noodles glued to paper. I bought these noodles at Wild Oats (a health food store). Go to Craft Page 19 for a pattern and directions for this craft.

scaredy cat lion puppet 3. Make a Scaredy Cat Puppet and act out the story - Go to Craft Page 19 for a pattern and directions for this craft.

scaredy cat book craft 4. Make a Scaredy Cat Book - This little book is in the shape of a lion. The tail is made from yarn. Children can print Bible verses inside that will help them not to be scared. Print out the cover pattern and cut them out. Use the cover to trace a back cover and pages. Staple them together at the top of the head. 1 John 1: 5, Psalm 27: 1, 2 Timothy 1:7, Joshua 1:9, Psalm 46:1-3, I John 4:18, and Hebrews 13:6

How to Print or Copy these instructions.

Other Uses for This Book:

1. Write a word rhyming with cat on each page.
2. Have children write their own story in the book.
3. Have a child dictate their own story to you to write for them.
4. You can also write other words that start with the C sound in the book.
5. Make it a prayer book. Help the children come up with a prayer they can pray when they are scared.

(If you use this book in another way, I would love to hear how you use it. I will add it to the list of ideas and add a week to your subscription. I would love to hear from you.)

Other Ideas:

I'm pre-paring the lesson for the letter C this week. I'm going to be making the prayer book with the kids, but because they are so young and do not know how to write yet, instead of a prayer, they will draw pictures of the things they're afraid of that they would like Jesus to help them with, then they can share with the class and each child will be prayed for. Mindy Carlough

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

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.

For the "C" lesson, I bought orange plastic plates and glued yellow crepe paper around the plate for the mane, glued on eyes, cut a piece out of the plate at the bottom and taped a tongue depressor on the plate for them to use the lion as a puppet. I put the memory verse on the back of the plate. Bonnie Lucas

I took the paper plate lion idea. I used a yellow Styrofoam plate. (I think as the colors appear thru out the year for the seasons I am going to stock up for crafts.). Then I took a plain white paper plate and spray painted both sides yellow. It was quick and easy. I folded them in half with the inside of the plate out. I cut the outside edge off on the upper half and folded the remaining circle center down. I then positioned the cut out edge where it was even with the folded edge. It over lapped the bottom rim. I stapled the top and bottom rim together at the corners and trimmed the excess off to where it was a smooth oval. This made the 'mane' to my lion with no additional materials. I cut out legs, tail and ears, and a tongue from construction paper. The ears were positioned right behind the fold at the top of the head. I also cut out a big red tongue (thought about teeth to go under the top of the mouth but didn't have time) and got a big punch of a heart and cut that out of pink for the nose. I went to makingfriends.com and ran off the eyes from one of the yarn bugs and cut them out for the eyes. Each was put place together with a plate so all could be handed out to each child for their craft. I did the memory verse on a business card with a small lion in the corner and that went in the mouth.
We used glue sticks for everything but the legs, and tail. Those we stapled because they didn't hold. We have glues sticks for each child and it is working well. They stick quick, not drying time or mess. Even the three year olds do well with supervision. They turned out really cute. If you had the time you could add yarn or construction paper whiskers and tassel for the tail. I told both stories. The Bible one first Daniel shows courage then did the scaredy cat one and told them we were pretending this might have happened because so many that are young take these things as in the Bible. We also sang, "God is bigger than the Boogie Man", from Veggie Tales and inserted things they were afraid of in the place of boogie man and monster. Showing the veggie tale movie Where is God when I am scared would be good before as an addition to this lesson.

I took the song you had posted sung to the wheels on the bus and wrote a new one. Here it is:

Daniel in the Lions Den
(Sing to the tune of "The Wheels on the Bus")

The king told everyone to "Pray to my idol, pray to my idol, pray to my idol",
The king told everyone to "Pray to my idol, pray to it, for thirty days."

Daniel said, "I can't, I only pray to God, only pray to God, only pray to God".
Daniel said, "I can't, I only pray to God, all of the time."

The king said, "Then you have be a lion dinner, have to be a lion dinner, have to be a lion dinner."
The king said, "Then you have be a lion dinner because you won't obey me".

Daniel was thrown in the lion's den, lions den, lions den, lions den.
Daniel was thrown in the lion's den, clank, clank, clank.

It was dark in the lions den. Daniel couldn't see a thing, Daniel couldn't see a thing,
Daniel's stayed alive so clap your hands, and sit down.

The lions in the den went roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar, roar.
The lions in the den went roar, roar roar, they were very hungry.

Daniel started praying to our God, to our God, to our God.
Daniel started praying to our God, to protect Him from all harm.

God answered prayer and shut their mouths, shut their mouths, shut their mouths.
God answered prayer and shut their mouths so they couldn't bite.

Daniel stayed alive, so jump up and down, shout real loud, turn around.
Daniel stayed alive so clap your hands, sit down.

Sent in by Narita Roady

I just used this lesson for my preschool Sunday school class this week. It was great. We cut out the lions face and glued it on a small paper plate and had the kids put the noodles around the face. The kids had a blast doing this and then we talked about our fears and wrote them down in our lion booklet we made. The kids had such a blast doing this. It was so amazing the stories these kids came up with when we talked about our fears. I couldn't get them to stop telling their stories. But it was so much fun listening to everyone of them. Jeanie

I used this lesson but I ready the from the Bible for the lesson. I them read the story about Scaredy Cat. The kids loved it and after they made their puppets they wanted to read it again and do it kind of like a skit. Some of the kids made Scaredy cat puppets and some made Bruno and some made the other Lion. The kids really enjoyed this lesson. I also used white bags for the puppets instead of brown and let them color them. They turned out really cute. Heather Kinsey

I used the Scaredy Cat lesson Sunday with my kindergarten class. The story is so fresh and relevant, and the Scaredy Cat Hand Puppet is wonderful. Here is what I learned from assembling him: (1) Two-sided tape is the best way to fasten the parts. They are hard to reach with a stapler, and it is hard to hold the parts in place while waiting for glue to dry on card stock. The tape is fast, easy, and fast holding. (2) While working out the details with my grandson, he put the ears on with a downward slant, and it made a cute puppy dog. This pattern would be great for several animals, depending on the ear placement.

Also, the Lion Booklet with scripture promises was an excellent follow-up piece to send home with the students. I provided stickers for them to decorate the pages around the scripture verses. Thank you for a great lesson. Jean Kemp

My preschool Sunday school class did the lesson "Scaredy Cat" on October 30. The children colored the "C" coloring sheet available from your abc worksheets. The children then made Cat Masks. I cut out a cat shaped head only on black construction paper. We then added pink triangles from construction paper to the inside of the ears of the cat. We then added six white whiskers (3 to each side) of the cats nose. I then used a hole punch to make holes for the eyes. Then we took a jumbo craft stick and taped it for a handle to the right side lower corner of the cat face. I made a little label to glue to the craft stick. It said, "Don't be a scaredy cat"! For God said, "Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God." Isaiah 41:10. Thanks, Ella

I did the Scaredy Cat Lesson with my 2-5 year mid-week class. We really enjoyed it. I also did the Daniel Shows Courage Lesson. For the den I bought bulletin board paper that looked like rock walls, and made my lion's den out of cardboard covered in that paper. Before class I painted an angel with glow in the dark paint and had a black light in the room. When the lesson said, "Daniel closed his eyes and prayed, I made my kids close their eyes as well. When they opened them the lights were off and the black light revealed the angel in the lion's den with Daniel. The kids loved it and raved about it. I also used the stuffed lion craft, but we used popcorn in the Baggies so it was a craft/snack. The kids had a blast eating and coloring! Jana Monroe

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