Lesson & Activities – Easy Print PDF Download
This is a simple lesson plan we have found for our kids church and God's Choice on Mother’s Day.
Learning Objectives / Indicators: After this lesson, children will . . .
- Demonstrate an understanding of what it means to honor their mother, by choosing from potential responses the ones that will most honor their mother.
- Demonstrate an attitude of appreciation toward their mother by writing a “what I like about you” letter.
Key Teaching Points:
- Parents are gifts from God to help kids.
- God expects us to have right attitudes and actions toward our parents.
- We should be thankful for our parents.
- Even parents need Jesus to forgive them, we must love parents even when they are not perfect.
Target Age Group: 5 – 10 years old {U.S. Kindergarten – 3rd Grade}
Bible Story: Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (2) “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), (3) “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
Teaching Setting: This lesson was first taught in our children’s church on Sunday morning to about 25 children. Before the lesson, the children participated in several songs and group Bible memory exercises. Target length of this lesson is 20 minutes. It would work equally well in a Sunday School class.
Items Needed:
- Special parchment or premium paper cut in half sheets. (Regular paper will do in a pinch.) Pencils, crayons or markers
- Display of Ephesians 6:1-3, this can be on a poster, marker board, or PowerPoint. If possible, have it on a format where you can underline the action verbs while discussing the passage. See “Review Action Words” below.
- Optional: Polaroid film and camera, or digital camera with the ability to print immediately.
- Optional: Printable “Moms of the Bible” game (included in the PDF above)
- Optional: Mother’s Day Coloring Pages (included in the PDF above)
Explanation: This lesson is designed to be used in Children’s Church or Sunday School on mother’s day. It has two learning objectives. First, I wanted the kids to understand what it really means to honor their mothers. Second, I wanted to help them develop an attitude of appreciation for their mothers.
Special care should be taken for children who do not have mothers in their life. In such cases, be sure to emphasize these truth apply to any parent or guardian that God has put in the child’s life.
Teaching Plan: Honor Your Mother
(a special children’s church lesson for mother’s day)
Introduction / Hook: Ask the children to close their eyes and try to picture the person you describe. Say, “Think of a woman in your life that has spent more time helping you than any other person.” Allow several volunteers to answer. If needed, ask follow up questions to help them see that their mom is a very important person in their life.
Say, “Today, we are going to learn what kind of attitude God wants us to have toward our parents. This is true for moms and dads, or foster parents, or grandparents who take care of you. But we are going to talk a lot about moms today because it is mother’s day.”
Active Listening: Say, “In just a minute we are going to read a Bible verse that teaches us how God wants us to treat our parents. While we read it, I want you to listen for any action words (verbs) that you hear. Then we’ll review to see how many you could find.”
Bible Passage: Display Ephesians 6:1-3 or have the children look it up in their Bibles. Read the Bible verses to the class; be sure to emphasize the action words discussed below. Then read it a second time to give the children a “second chance” to hear the action words.
Say It: Ask the children to repeat the Bible verse after you several times.
Review Action Words: Ask volunteers to explain which action words they heard in the passage. For each response, ask the children to explain what the word means. They may need help from the class. After each word, clarify what the word means. Here are the words they should have heard, with meaning in italics.
- Obey – Doing what a person wants you to do
- Honor – Heart attitude about a person’s importance
- Go well – Living a good life
- Live (NIV says “enjoy long life”) – Staying alive a long time
{Objective #1} Is This Honoring Your Mother?
Say, “Honoring means having a right attitude about someone and showing their importance in how you act.” Read the following statements, and have the children agree or disagree. If the statement is something that honors your mother, the children should stand up. If the statement is not honoring, the children should sit with arms crossed.
- Doing what mom says right away {True}
- Throwing a fit if you don’t get what you want {False}
- Eating your dinner with thankfulness {True}
- Complaining about what mom cooked for dinner {False}
- Telling your mom that you love her {True}
- Praying for your mom {True}
- Telling other people your mom is not nice {False}
{Objective #2} What I like about you . . .
Have the children write and decorate a letter to their mother (or caretaker) that answers this question. If you have many younger children present, they will need help writing. Encourage them to draw a picture that goes along with what they like. It may be helpful to write common words or phrases on a marker board to help the children write their letters. Some possible examples:
- I like the way you read to me
- I like the way you help me when I’m hurt
- I like it when you pray for me at bedtime
- I like it when you hug me
- I like it when you take me shopping
Share It: Ask for several volunteers to share what they wrote to their mother.
Optional: You can add a picture of the child to the card using a Polaroid camera or digital camera.
Closing: Lead the children in prayer …
Improve This Lesson: If you notice any typing errors, or think of a way to improve this lesson plan – please leave a comment below. Your help is important and makes this more useful for everyone.