The Ten Commandments. Lesson At-A-Glance. Gather (10 minutes) Arrival Activity Kids create a graffiti wall with family rules.

Transcription

1 The Ten Commandments Lesson At-A-Glance Scripture Reference Exodus 20:1-17 Lesson Focus God tells us how to get along. Bible Memory Verse I am the Lord your God. Exodus 20:2a Gather (10 minutes) Arrival Activity Kids create a graffiti wall with family rules. Activity Pages, markers, mural paper Opening Conversation Kids review the previous week, build relationships, and learn the new Bible Memory Verse. Opening Prayer Kids give thanks to God for the commandments. Spark Bibles, Spark Bible Stickers Mural paper from Arrival Activity Open the Bible (15 minutes) The Ten Commandments Story Kids share in the reading of the Bible story. Two Tuesday To-Do Tallies Kids view the commandments in real-life situations by reading a contemporary story. Commandment Match Kids match real-life situations with the commandments. Spark Bibles, Spark Bible Stickers Spark Bibles, Sticky notes, pencils The Ten Commandments 53

2 Activate Faith (15 minutes) Lesson At-A-Glance Fun Facts Kids dig deeper into the lesson by solving a Fun Facts puzzle. Commandment Hold Em Kids make playing cards that will help them memorize the commandments. Scissors Send (5 minutes) Closing Conversation Kids review the BMV and look at the Faith on the Go! options. Closing Prayer Kids ask God for help in getting along with others. Family Pages Visit for more Spark content! Watch a short Lesson Prep Video that will prepare you and give you confidence to explore this Bible story with the kids you are leading. You will also find four downloadable resources for this lesson: an Activity Page, a Family Page, and two additional in-class activities. 54 The Ten Commandments

3 Gather Time (10 minutes) Arrival Activity If some kids arrive earlier than others and you need a lesson-based activity, make copies of the downloadable Activity Page and set them out for kids to try. Place the mural paper on the floor in your meeting area. Write the title Get Along Graffiti across the top of the mural paper. Hi! I m happy to see you at Sunday school. Today we re going to look at the Bible story where God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and all the people. One of the important things that the commandments do is that they show us how to treat each other. Activity Pages Markers Mural paper Think about the rules you have at your house that help show you how to treat your family and how to get along with people in your house. Write two or three of your family rules up on this Get Along Graffiti board. You can make drawings for your rules too, if you want. Hang the mural paper on the wall. Opening Conversation Who was able to try a Faith on the Go! activity this past week? Tell us what you did. Allow some time for sharing. Who can tell me the Bible Memory Verse (BMV) from last week? If kids remember the BMV, invite them to recite it for the group. Guide kids to help them remember parts they don t. Let s go back to the Get Along Graffiti. Ask kids to point out and describe the rules they have written on the mural paper. For a few of the rules, ask kids to discuss what would happen if nobody obeyed the rule, or if the rule didn t exist. God s commandments are like family rules. They show us how to get along. Spark Bibles Spark Bible Stickers Mural paper from Arrival Activity Let s look at today s Bible Memory Verse. It s Exodus 20:2a. Do you remember what the a means? (We only read the first part of the verse.) Help kids find the verse on page 80 in their Spark Bibles. Read I am the Lord your God aloud together several times. Next, try reciting it together without looking. Congratulate kids and invite them to place I Memorized It stickers in their Bibles. The Ten Commandments 55

4 Opening Prayer I think we re seeing that rules and commandments are pretty important for us. Let s say a prayer of thank you to God for giving us rules that show us how to get along. Pick one of the family rules that you put on the Get Along Graffiti board. We ll stand in a circle and I ll start the prayer. The person on my left will say, Thank you, God, and then name the rule they are thankful for. Then we ll go around the circle so that each of you has a chance to thank God. Let s pray. Dear God, Sometimes rules are hard to obey, but we do give you thanks for rules that help us get along with each other. Allow each kid to give a prayer of thanks. Amen. Open the Bible (15 minutes) The Ten Commandments Story Before class begins mark nine separate sticky notes with the numbers 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. Hand them out to nine kids. If you have fewer than nine kids, give some kids more than one numbered sticky note. In your own Bible underline verses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10, and 11. These are the verses you ll read. We re going to read the Bible passage where God gave the commandments. I ve given you a number of a Bible verse from Exodus 20:1-17. You can go ahead and underline that verse in your Bible. Pay close attention while we re reading. When we get to your verse, I want you to read it. I will read all of the other verses. Read the passage. Spark Bibles Spark Bible Stickers Sticky notes Good job, everybody, go ahead and put an I Read It sticker on this page in your Bibles. Hand out leaflets and discuss the I Wonder statements. How many answers can kids come up with for each statement? Two Tuesday To-Do Tallies Our leaflet story today is made up of two lists. The first list is for a kid who is following the commandments, and the second list is for a kid who does the opposite of the commandments. Ask for volunteers to read the two lists. Compare the correlating numbers of the two lists. How are they different? What will be the result of each action? Who would kids rather have as their friend? Why? 56 The Ten Commandments

5 Commandment Match Ask a volunteer to read the instructions for the puzzle. Invite kids to work in pairs or threes. Give help when needed. Answer Key Working at a job for 7 days a week and never going to worship. 3 BROKEN Complaining to your parents that all your friends have the newest gaming system but yours is old. 10 BROKEN Praying to God to say Thank you, and to ask for the things you and others need. 2 KEPT A husband wakes up early to make breakfast for his wife. 6 KEPT Worshipping a wooden idol shaped like a duck-billed platypus and named Cranky Pat. 1 BROKEN Sticking up for a friend when other people are gossiping about him or her. 8 KEPT Shoving your brother or sister down whenever he or she goes into your bedroom. 5 BROKEN Helping yourself to your brother or sister s stash of Halloween candy. 7 BROKEN Playing video games when your mom told you to get your homework done. 4 BROKEN Helping a friend fix his bike. 9 KEPT Spark Bibles Helpful comments for these answers: Second Commandment: This commandment is about not swearing and cursing, but is also about using God s name in appropriate ways, like prayer, praising God, and giving thanks to God. Fifth Commandment: This commandment is about not murdering, but it is also about not endangering or harming others. Ninth Commandment: This commandment is about not coveting a neighbor s house, but is also about helping neighbors keep what they have. Activate Faith (15 minutes) Fun Facts Before class begins, photocopy and enlarge the fun facts below by 100%. Cut each sentence out and then divide each sentence in two by cutting at the gap. Don t allow kids to read the fun facts yet. Have them place their leaflets in their Bibles. Give each kid a portion of one of the fun facts. If you have more than 12 kids, have some kids pair up. If you have fewer than 12 kids, give some kids more than one slip of paper. Some of you have the first half of a Fun Fact; some of you have the second half. Compare your half with those of other kids until everyone has matched up their Fun Facts. The Ten Commandments 57

6 Once kids have matched all Fun Facts, have them read them out loud. The Fun Facts are on the third page of the leaflet. Although we call them the Ten Commandments, the Bible never numbers them. Just like the entire Old Testament, Hebrew is the original language of the commandments. The first three commandments show us how to have a relationship with God. The last seven commandments show us how to have relationships with others. Exodus 31:18 says that God gave Moses the commandments on Mount Sinai. Moses was on Mount Sinai with God for forty days. Commandment Hold Em Ask a volunteer to read Commandment Hold Em on the third page of the leaflet. Each of these cards has one of the commandments printed on it. The numbers of the commandments are on the other side. Cut the cards out. Shuffle them in a stack with the number sides up. Guess the commandment by looking at the number. You can play alone, in a group of classmates, and with your family at home! After kids have cut out the cards, play one or two rounds in which you draw a card, show them the number, and see who can answer first. Scissors Send (5 minutes) Closing Conversation Oh no! It s time to finish up, already! Before we go, let s take a peek at our Bible Memory Verse again. Practice the Bible Memory Verse, Exodus 20:2a on page 81 in the Spark Bible, again a few times. Now let s take turns naming one thing you ve learned today. Maybe it s from the Bible story, from the Fun Facts, or from any other part of our time together today. Start things off by sharing yourself. Ask volunteers to read through the Faith on the Go! suggestions on the fourth page of the leaflet. Have kids circle at least one that they will try during the coming week. 58 The Ten Commandments

7 Closing Prayer For our closing prayer I want you to think of someone in your family or at your school who you ve been having a difficult time getting along with lately. Don t say his or her name out loud, just think about the person. Now think of ways that the commandments could help you get along with him or her. After a minute of thinking about this I ll say a prayer for us. Allow about a minute of silence begin praying. Family Pages Dear God, Thank you for giving us the commandments to help us get along with each other. Please help each of us as we try use your commandments in order to get along with our family and friends. Amen. Be sure to send a leaflet and a Family Page home with each kid. The Ten Commandments 59