The following children’s Bible lesson on The Fall of Man will help children to understand more about the original sin of Adam and Eve. It continues a children’s church curriculum based on &utm_medium=blogpartners”>The Big Picture Story Bible. These children’s church lessons can easily be modified to serve as children’s Sunday School lessons.
Download this lesson plan as a Microsoft Word document from this link – A Very Sad Day: Adam & Eve Disobey God
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About This Children’s Bible Lesson Plan
Title: A Very Sad Day (The Big Picture Of The Bible Lesson #2). You could also title it “Adam and Eve Disobey God Lesson” or “Fall of Man Bible Study.”
Learning Objectives: After this Bible lesson, children will demonstrate understanding of the fall of mankind (Genesis 3), by answering 3 simple questions in their own words.
Target Age Group: 5 – 10 years old {U.S. Kindergarten – 3rd Grade}
Bible Story: Genesis 3
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.
Items Needed:
- Printed “One Page Teaching Plan” from this lesson plan.
- &utm_medium=blogpartners”>The Big Picture Story Bible (or summary of the Bible story in your own words)
- A book for the “introduction / demonstration”
- Three pieces of paper (or marker board) displaying the “questions” from below.
- A piece of fruit or other props to act out the story.
Explanation: Our world is not the way it is supposed to be. Much of the goodness of God’s creation is lost – so much of life is filled with bad. The Bible teaches that mankind’s disobedience brought sin and misery into the world. This is a basic feature of a Christian worldview. Children need to understand what went wrong before they can understand how Jesus will make it right once again.
This story deals with the concept of God’s punishment and anger toward sin. Remember that God is loving and his goodness requires an appropriate response to evil. So his anger toward human rebellion is another way we can see his goodness. The promise given in Genesis 3 is a beautiful foreshadowing of Christus Victor. God continues to love his disobedient children and will one day rescue them from the mess they have made.
This lesson plan is part of my series based on &utm_medium=blogpartners”>The Big Picture Story Bible by David R. Helm and Gail Schoonmaker. These lessons can be used with other story Bibles or by telling the Bible stories in your own words. However, I strongly recommend this book for it’s excellent illustrations and unifying approach to salvation history.
Children’s Bible Lesson: A Very Sad Day
Introduction / Demonstration: Say, “Life is full of choices and every choice makes other things happen. Some choices lead to good things and other lead to bad things. Call on a volunteer to hold a book at arms length in front of them. Then ask them to choose to release the book from their hands. After the book falls to the ground, explain that it was the choice to release it that made it fall. Now repeat the demonstration but have an adult volunteer sit on the floor where the book will drop. (This should be done carefully so no one gets hurt.) Explain that our choices can often hurt other people.
Say, “In our lesson today, you will learn about the very bad choice that Adam & Eve made. This lesson will help you to understand how Adam & Eve’s choice to disobey God first brought bad results into the good world that God made.
Active Listening: Ask for children to listen carefully for the following three questions as you read. These are the key points for them to understand from the lesson, so be sure to emphasize them as you read. Display the following questions on pieces of paper (or marker board):
- What was the choice?
- Why did God have to punish Adam & Eve?
- What was the promise?
Read: “Part 2” from on The Big Picture Story Bible. (Or tell the story of the Genesis 3 in your own words emphasizing the answers to the questions above.) Be sure to engage the children with good story telling. Ask unscripted questions to clarify points in the story.
Review: Call on volunteers to answer the three questions from the story you just read. Their responses should be something like this:
- The people had to choose between obeying God or listening to Satan.
- God punished them because they disobeyed his Word, which was meant to rule over his place and his people.
- The promise was that one day someone would come and crush Satan’s power over people.
Act It Out: Call on three volunteers (Adam, Even, Snake) to act out the events from the story. You may want to bring an apple for visual effect. You can read portions from Genesis 3 to help.
- Have Adam & Eve stand at one side of the room. The snake will “crawl” across the floor to them.
- Snake: “Did God really say not to eat from that tree?”
- Eve: “God said if we eat it we will die.”
- Snake: “You will not die if you eat this.” Remind the children about the choice.
- Eve looks at the fruit and says, “This looks like good fruit, why would God not want me to be happy.” She then takes a bite. Then shares with Adam.
- Explain to the children that this choice to disobey God resulted in many bad things for all people. But God’s promised to put things right again one day.
Review: Remind the children of the book drop object lesson from the introduction. Explain that when we choose to disobey God it brings bad results into our lives. Our sin separates us from God. But God loves us and has made a way to be right with him once again.
Pray: Lead the children in prayer…
I have adapted lessons 1 and 2 for ages 3-7 if you are interested.
I am interested!