Day 3: Do Not Worry
*There are 5 activities for this day’s lesson. Feel free to choose one or two of the activities OR spread them out across several days.
* Even though worry and fear aren’t exactly the same, being scared is something young children relate more to than worry, so I talked about worry and being scared together for this lesson.
- Materials:
- Bible (I like the NirV)
- Children’s Bible (I’m using the Say & Pray Bible for this lesson)
- Toilet paper tube
- Activity #1: Several sheets of colored construction paper, people showing emotions (pictures from magazines OR pictures of your child and/or family members), glue, stapler OR single hole punch and two pieces of yarn
- Activity #2: Medium plastic bin, bag of birdseed, measuring spoons, cups, bowls, empty egg carton, toy birds
- Activity #3: Butcher paper, painter’s tape, dot stickers, markers (same colors as dot stickers)
- Activity #4: Tray/cookie sheet (OR painter’s tape and sheet of contact paper), various items from nature (flowers, leaves, grass, rocks, sticks)
- Activity #5: 1-3 empty and cleaned plastic bottles, various clothespins that will fit inside the bottle openings, bowl, colored dot stickers (optional)
Day 3: Lesson
- Open Bible to Matthew 6:25-34. Ask if child wants to touch God’s Word. Touch gently. Then, read:
- I tell you, do not worry or be scared. Don’t worry about your life and what you will eat or drink. And don’t worry about your body and what you will wear.
- Look at the birds of the air: They don’t store food away, but your heavenly Father feeds them.
- Look at the wild flowers growing: They don’t work or make clothes, but God dresses the flowers better than the richest man!
- Your Father who is in heaven knows what you need. Put God’s Kingdom first, and do what He wants you to do. Then all these things will be given to you.
Children’s Bible Reading: Open Say & Pray Bible.
- Peek at the animals through TP tube.
- For each animal, speak: God our Father feeds the ____. God our Father clothes the ____.
- See the grass and how it grows. God the Father makes the plants and flowers beautiful!
- Peek through the TP tube at child (and let them peek at you). God our Father gives _____ all she/he needs!
Sing: Seek Ye First
Activity #1: Faces Book Craft, Emotions – Worry
- Prep: Cut smaller sheets of paper (one for each emotion you want to include – you can use the front and back of the pages if you’d like). Write each emotion at the top of a sheet of paper – make sure to include WORRIED/scared. Find and cut out people showing emotions from magazines (unless using pictures of you or your child).
- Look at each picture and talk about what emotion the person is showing. Try to imitate the facial expressions.
- Glue the facial expression pictures onto the matching emotion written on each page.
- Decorate the Front Cover however you’d like.
- Staple the pages together into a book OR make 2 hole punches along the left side and tie with yarn.
Activity #2: Birdseed Bin, Birds
- Prep: Pour birdseed into plastic bin. Add tools to scoop and pour, empty egg carton, and toy birds.
- Play with the birdseed and the birds.
Sing (Tune: Three Blind Mice)
- Look at the birds. Look at the birds.
- They do not worry. They do not worry.
- God our Father, He feeds the birds.
- God our Father, He feeds the birds.
- Look at the birds.
- Look at the birds. Look at the birds.
- They are not scared. They are not scared.
- God our Father, He feeds the birds.
- God our Father, He feeds the birds.
- Look at the birds.
- If God our Father cares for the birds, God our Father will care for us!
Activity #3: Dot Sticker Flowers, Flowers
- Prep: Tape sheet of butcher paper to the wall with painter’s tape. Draw large flowers on the paper – use green for the stems and leaves and other colors for the flower petals.
- Give child dot stickers and have them match the stickers to the colors on the flowers, lining the flowers with dots!
- Sing (Tune: Three Blind Mice)
Look at the flowers. Look at the flowers.
They do not work. They do not work.
Our Father God makes them beautiful.
Our Father God makes them beautiful.
Look at the flowers.
- If God our Father cares for the flowers, God our Father will care for us!
Activity #4: Nature I-Spy, Flowers/Plants
- Prep: Gather various items that stand out from each other: flowers of different colors and number of petals, leaves that are different shapes or textures, rocks, sticks. Lay them all out on a tray/cookie sheet. OR use painter’s tape to tape up a sheet of contact paper (sticky side out) onto fence or house for an outdoor sticky wall (test the tape to make sure it won’t peel off paint or ruin what it is taped to!). Rocks/sticks will not stick to the sticky wall, so we just picked plants and flowers.
- Play a game of I-Spy by giving clues to guide child to finding an object. “I spy a flower that is pink with 5 petals.” “I spy an object that is green and poky.”
- Discuss the beauty and intricacy of nature and how God takes care of every living thing on earth.
- If God our Father cares for the flowers and plants, God our Father will care for us!
Activity #5: Clothespin Worry Drop, Emotion/Worry
- Prep: Place the clothespins in a bowl and set out with the bottles (lids removed – but you can keep the lids nearby if desired). If you’d like to make an added challenge, place a different colored dot sticker on each bottle, and label each clothespin with a color. This way, the child can also match up the colors as they drop the clothespins.
- Drop the clothespins into the bottles. Shake the bottles to hear the pins rattling.
- Can discuss things that make you worry or things that scare you and talk about how we can give our worries to God and trust Him to take care of us.
- Speak:
Clunk! Go my worries. Clink! Clank! Clunk!
Giving my worries to God.
Bang! Go my worries. Bing! Bang! Bong!
Giving my worries to God.
- This activity is fun because there is a lot of room for exploration. I let Katelyn continue to play with the materials for 30-45 minutes, and she experimented with them in all different ways!
Closing: John 17:17, Your Word is truth. Give all your worries to God. He cares for you!