Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand: Bible Lesson

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This Sunday I continued my series of New Testament stories in children’s church. This Bible lesson plan for children can be used in Sunday school or children’s church.

We’ve included two lesson plan options, coloring page, craft ideas, teaching skit, worksheets, and some visual helps. It’s everything you need to teach in one easy download. Don’t try to use it all in one Sunday, but pick out what helps you and ignore the rest.

Children’s Church Bible Lesson: Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand
Text: John 6:1-14; Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17)
Target Age: Kindergarten – 5th

Learning Objectives: After this lesson, children will demonstrate knowledge of the key people and events in this passage … by retelling the story back to the teacher at the end of the session. Key points include:

  1. Situation: Large crowd follows Jesus up the mountain.
  2. Problem: No food for all the people.
  3. Complication: Jesus tells his disciples to feed the crowd.
  4. Complication: A young boy shares his lunch – but it’s not enough
  5. Resolution: Jesus performs a miracle by multiplying a small boys gift.

Items Needed:

  • Marked Bible for this passage. Prepare the copy in advance by highlighting the significant points to emphasize. Underlining words or ideas that will need additional explanation. I typically make small notes in the margin.
  • Snack. If you have snack in your children’s church this would be a perfect way to integrate the snack and the lesson. You could keep it basic with goldfish or go for something bigger with real bread and cooked fish.

Bonus Teaching Ideas

Explanation: This story has several great themes to bring out for the children. Sometimes it has been reduced to a story about sharing, but the biblical writer really wants us to see that Jesus can provide. It’s about the power of Jesus. There is a lesson in the fact that God chose to use the young boy’s gift, just don’t let that overshadow the main point about the divinity of Christ.

There is also the theme of compassion in this text. When Mark tells this story in Mark 6:34-44, he points out that the miracle was motivated by Jesus’ compassion for the crowd and a concern that they might faint without food returning home. There is certainly a lesson here about caring for the hungry.

This miracle is also a set-up for an upcoming lesson on Jesus as the “bread of life” in John 6:25-40. You might hint to the kids that Jesus is going to give the people something better than food next week.

Jesus Feeds Five Thousand, John 6:1-14
Sunday School Lesson For Children

One Page Teaching Plan

Hook – Lesson Introduction

Take out your snack and begin to eat it in front of the class. Wait for someone to ask you to share. Assure them you will share after the lesson, but ask them to think about how they would feel it there wasn’t enough food for everyone. Say, “In today’s story, we are going to learn about a time when Jesus make food for 5,000 families out of one small snack.”

Book – Bible Teaching Content

Active Listening: Ask the children to listen carefully for the details of the story, so that they can re-tell it to you afterward.
Read (and summarize) John 6:1-14. Be sure to engage the children with good story telling. Key points include:

  1. Situation: Large crowd follows Jesus up the mountain.
  2. Problem: No food for all the people and they are getting really weak.
  3. Complication: Jesus tells his disciples to feed the crowd.
  4. Complication: A young boy shares his lunch – but it’s not enough
  5. Resolution: Jesus performs a miracle by multiplying a small boys gift.

Review: Read the following statements. Have the children stand up if this was something that happened in this story. If it didn’t happen in this story they should sit with arms crossed – even if they are true statements taught in other parts of the Bible the children should remain seated.

  • Jesus turned regular water into wine to save a wedding party.
  • Jesus told his disciples to feed the 5,000 families.
  • A young boy offered to share his five loaves of bread and two fish.
  • Satan tried to get Jesus to turn stones into bread.
  • God sent down bread falling from the sky to feed the Israelites.
  • Jesus told the disciples to pick up all the leftover bread.

To use this lesson for Children’s Sunday School, you will want to add additional learning activities here like a Bible craft to complement the Bible lesson.

Look/Took – Applying the Lesson to Life

Talk About It: Ask the children to discuss the following questions to better understand the story.

  • Why do you think Jesus wanted to feed the 5,000 families?
  • What do you think the little boy was feeling when he saw Jesus use his gift for the miracle?
  • What does this story tell you about whom Jesus really was?

Test: Ask several volunteers to come up to the front to re-tell the story to the class. If they need help prompt them with questions like “what happened next.”

Jesus Feeds 5000 Sunday School Lesson for Kids

2 thoughts on “Jesus Feeds The Five Thousand: Bible Lesson”

  1. Hi, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the typo of the text reference in the beginning of your article but, the text you’ve mentioned is John 26:1-15 whereas John has only 21 books. And in the book of John, Jesus feeding the 5000 is mentioned in John 6:1-15. It would be great if you’d check it out once. Otherwise, your article content was great and insightful and really helpful too.

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