Thanksgiving is a special time of the year where families get together and celebrate good food, family, and another year of harvest. This Sunday School lesson is designed to teach children about how God is the one who provides the food and the harvest. This lesson will be best utilized in a Sunday School or Kid’s Church setting however it could also be used at a daycare.
Objective: To teach children to thank the LORD
Targeted Age Group: Preschool
Activity: Take the children outside to collect leaves (they will need the leaves for their craft)
Worship: Please note: If you do not have a copy of these song you can find them on YouTube
- Jesus Loves Me
- A Gift to You
- Thank You LORD for Making Me
Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for our friends and family. Thank you that we can get together and celebrate another year of good harvest. Thank you for Sunday School. We love you so much Jesus, Amen.
Lesson Reinforcement: Have a pumpkin, corn, and apples; show each of these foods at the appropriate time during the lesson.
Lesson: Why do we celebrate Thanksgiving? (give them time to answer). Those are all great answers; we celebrate Thanksgiving because we are thankful for a good harvest. Do you know what a harvest is? (give them time to answer). A harvest is food that grows, like corn.
Who do we celebrate Thanksgiving with? (give them time to answer). You are right, we celebrate Thanksgiving with our friends and family because we are thankful for our friends and family. We often do activities with our friends and family around Thanksgiving like carving a pumpkin.
Who gives us our harvest and our food? (give them time to answer). God is the one who gives us our food and who makes it grow, like apples. We should thank God at Thanksgiving for giving us the food that we eat and the family that we celebrate with. God is the one who takes care of us.
The Bible says,
Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 107:1, ESV)
Questions:
- Who makes our food grow? (Answer: God)
- Who should we thank at Thanksgiving? (Answer: God)
- What are you thankful for?
Application: You all just told me things that you are thankful for, how wonderful! You should pray to God and thank Him for each of these things.
Craft: Give each child a piece of paper with a tree stump printed onto it, they can glue (or tape) the leaves that they collected onto their papers to create an autumn tree.
Snack Suggestion: Apple slices and apple juice
Thank you so much for the pre-school lessons, its now a year since l started using them and they have made my class to increase more and they like the lessons. God bless you.
Thank you, God bless