Here is a preschool lesson about prayer for your toddler or preschool Sunday School class at church. It’s based on selected scriptures and teachers younger children this powerful truth – they can talk to God.
This lesson plan was written for a preschool class at church, but it could be modified for other ministry settings. You could expand it for elementary children or use it at home for family devotions.
Bible Truth: I Can Pray
Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – “pray continually” | Colossians 4:2 – “Devote yourselves to prayer” | Ephesians 6:18 – “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”
Target Age Group: Ages 2 – 4
Learning Context: Any small group setting like Sunday School or Church Toddler class.
Target Time Frame: 30 minutes
Materials Needed: Pictures to represent a quiet place (search Google images), being alone, being in a crowd, night, day, storm, sunny day.
Coloring Page: Print off our prayer coloring pages.
Lesson Plan: Briefly explain the following scriptures to the children, be expressive and show this fact is amazing – God actually wants us to talk to him.
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17 – “pray continually”
- Colossians 4:2 – “Devote yourselves to prayer”
- Ephesians 6:18 – “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests”
Explain to them that God tells us in His word to pray and that they can pray to God any time. Explain that praying is talking with God.
Show pictures of places where we can pray. Use the pictures to help kids understand when and where we can pray.
Craft Time:
Materials Needed for Craft Time:
- Empty/cleaned baby food jars with lids
- Labels that are preprinted with “I Can Pray”
- Praying hands/Bible stickers
- 4 small pieces of paper per child
- Crayons/pencils
Craft Procedure:
- Give each child a baby food jar. Help him put one of the provided “I Can Pray” labels on it. They can also use other stickers to decorate their jar.
- Give each child four small pieces of paper. Have kids each draw a picture of something they want to pray for on each paper. Suggest praying for Mommy, Daddy, your church, and people who are sick. Have kids fold their drawings and put them into their jars. During prayer time, have kids pull out pictures and pray for what they’ve drawn. Challenge kids to take their jars home and have their parents pray with them everyday.
Need More Preschool Ideas? Then browse our lessons for Preschool Sunday School or print one of our free Bible coloring pages.
I woud be happy to give you our feedback if you still need it or would want it. We have a preschool group that is called MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). It meets once a months and we have a large resoonse each year. We tend to say YES to anyone they need to put in our group, and my husband and I are flexible. We have taught all ages over these 25 years from 2I/2 to 18 and adult. Your lesson plans and ideas are a blessing to us and I’m certain they will be to our precious ones. Our group is “supposed” to be ages 3 and 4 and no more than 10. WE have had as many as 16 and 2!/2 to almost 5. Our children MOSTLY have very “hands on” parents and just 1 or 2 each year that are single parents. ALL parents are overrun with things to do I feel, but many have older siblings who can help. There you have it. My “right arm” is Bob, hubby of 30 years this October 4th. We have no children of our own much to our heartbroken sadness, but the Lord has given us generations of children who love us here at St. Paul UMC. our first lesson starts tomorrow and all our prep work has been done and NOW I find you!! But I will be eagerly reading and using your suggestions each month and giving you our feedback. Thank you ahead of time. This month we are all seeds lol. Apples and planting seeds of faith and miracles of God turning us from babies into adults in His plan, and the mustard seed , etc etc. Some really cute ideas, crafts and stories and yummy treats to go along with it. Not always “themy”…In fact I will be surprised that we make it thru half of this on first day. Please pray for us and we and our children wil pray for you all. Thank you, Cindy and Bob
I love your site and lesson ideas, but I’d love more multicultural representation in the coloring pages. I know that you are using a lot of public domain images, but it would SO wonderful to have more diversity 🙂
Thanks so much for the comment – that’s definitely a priority for us since we serve kids ministry in all different places!
Here are a few that might help! https://ministry-to-children.com/?s=diversity+coloring
From Australia I want to say thank you for so many free stories and craft ideas!!!. This year I have little ones from 1-3yrs. Your bibles stories are great and helpful.
Thanks for your help!.
Blessings!