Feast of TabernaclesFestival Youth Instruction 2017

K-2 Lesson Plans

Festival Youth Instruction 2017 Lesson 1

Grades K-2 (Approximately) Building a Friendship with God

Objectives: • To identify the qualities that help make a good friend. • To help emphasize that God is a good friend to us.

Materials:

• Set of six pictures illustrating some characteristics of a friend • One copy of craft/coloring sheet called “My Feline Friend” • Glue • Scissors • Markers • Crayons • Colored pencils

Attention Grabber/Discussion: To begin greet the students and welcome them to the 2017 Festival Youth Instruction! Next, instruct the kids to get in a circle in the middle of the classroom. (If space is limited… you could have them just turn in their seats so that they are not facing another child). Take the copies of the six different pictures (found in this packet at the end of Lesson 1) and pass a different picture out to each student. (The teacher may want to cut them out before class and have them ready to pass out to students.) Make sure that you have enough so that a child will have a match with another child’s picture. For those at bigger Feast sites you may have ten children with the same picture… thus you would end up with the possibility of four different groups of children. In smaller Feast sites you might have to arrange things differently. Once each child has a picture say to the class: “Look at your picture very closely. Now turn around and without talking to anyone find another child who has the same picture on their paper.” When you find your match please sit down and hold your pictures so that other people can see them. (It’s very important that the kids do not talk but use their skills of observation to find their match. The teacher may have to help direct the children to the right area). This may take around 5-10 minutes depending on the size of class you have. Have the kids sit down with their group of kids who have the same drawing. Ask: “Will one person from each group stand up and show everyone else their picture. Ask: “What characteristics or qualities do these pictures show?” Possible answers: kindness, nice love, helping, giving…etc. Say: All of these qualities you just described can be found in a friend! Can anyone tell me what a friend is? (Let students share answers). Did you know

that the Bible talks about friendship? In Proverbs 17:17 it states: “A friend loves at all times.” Ask: What do you think this scripture means? Possible answers: a true friend will be there for you through the good times and bad, they will be loyal, etc. That is right! A true friend will be there for you even if you mess up. A true friend will also tell you in a kind way when you are NOT being a good friend. That is a hard thing to do… but a good friend will help you to be a better person! You know your parents, grandparents, and your aunt and uncles still love you when you make mistakes. They try to help you not make those same mistakes again. But do you know what? God loves us even more than our parents. He is our ultimate friend! Ask: Did you know that God truly desires to be your friend? In fact, in John 15:14 Jesus said: “You are my friends if you do whatever I command you to.” So if we want to be a friend of God we must obey him. “What does it mean to ‘obey God?” Possible answers: by keeping his commandments, obeying the rules at school, obeying parents, keeping the Sabbath Day and God’s Holy Days. Ask: Did you know that there was a person who lived a long, long time ago that was called a friend of God? Wouldn’t that be cool to be known forever as a friend of God? Can you guess who it was? Hint: Say, “He is known as the father of many nations. Hint: Say, “He and his wife were blessed with a son named Isaac when they were old. Hint: Say, “God told him to look up at the stars and his descendants would be many like the stars in heaven.” Say: Yes, you’re right—it was Abraham. Abraham was very obedient to God. God instructed him to leave his country—the only home that Abraham had known—and move to a new unknown land. He did not question God. He got up and went! He strove to keep God’s law, and he was a faithful servant of God. We can read this in Genesis 26:5 where God said, “because Abraham obeyed My voice and kept My charge, My commandments, My statues, and My laws.” In addition, the Bible tells us in James 2:23, “…Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. And he was called the friend of God.” In fact, Abraham had such a close relationship with God that he would talk to God about everything. In fact, when God decided he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of how evil the people had become… Abraham asked God six times if He would spare the cities if he could find ten righteous people. While God could not find even ten righteous people in those cities He did care for Abraham and Abraham’s family, and God removed Lot and his family from harm before he destroyed those towns. Wow, how fantastic was that! Say: Wouldn’t it be wonderful to be called a friend of God like Abraham? You can—if you are faithful and obey God in all your ways! In fact God wants you as

a friend—yes, you! He has made his way known to your grandparents, parents, aunts/uncles and YOU! Just like a good friend, God wants to share His truth and way of life with us. He wants the very best for you and me. He even wants us to share in His soon coming Kingdom! Jesus even explained this to the people of His day when He said, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Wow, imagine how much God loves you and me—so much, that He wants us to live with Him in His Kingdom forever! God’s word tells us this in Revelation 21:1-3 (read this aloud to the class). Say: So at this Feast of Tabernacles let’s learn as much as possible about God’s plan! Take what you hear in Youth Classes and at services and put it into practice. Let’s strive to be a good friend to God and other people. In Leviticus 19:18 God instructs us to, “…love your neighbor as yourself.” So you are to treat others the way you yourself would like to be treated. So let’s brainstorm some qualities that make someone a good friend, a True friend of God. Activity: Take the “My Feline Friend Page” and hand out to the children. Show them the cut out stripes you have for them. Point out that some of the stripes on the cat are already filled in with a friendship characteristic such as “nice” and “sharing.” Have students raise their hands to give other ideas of what a friend is. They may write these down on their cut out stripes. You may also write these words in big letters on a piece of paper for students to see. When you are done brainstorming the qualities and the children have written all their ideas on their kitty stripes they may then glue them to their Feline paper. Then the children may color their cat the way they want to.

Festival Youth Instruction 2017 Lesson 2

Grades K-2 (Approximately) Building a Friendship with God

Objective: • To help children understand that God wants to build a friendship with them

now and in the future. Materials:

• Concentration Worksheet Pages • Feast Bookmarks • Coloring pencils • Crayons • Yarn • Hole punch

Attention Grabber/Discussion: To begin greet the kids and discuss how their Feast is going so far. Ask then what kinds of experiences or activities they have enjoyed so far. Ask: Have you made any new friends? Have you spent time with your new friends and or old friends? What type of activities have you done? Possible answers: played outside, shared a meal, sat with them at church, and went to youth classes with them. Say: Sounds like everyone is having a good time. Last class we discussed what qualities make up a good friend and that God wants to build a friendship with you. Ask: Can anyone tell me what were some qualities of a friend that we discussed? Possible answers: nice, giving, honest, etc. That’s right! Those qualities all help someone to be a good friend. Say: We are going to play a concentration game today to help us focus on what a friend does. I’m going to pass out some Concentration Cards with pictures on them to each group of two people. Each group will need to turn your cards face down on the floor or a table. The first person will turn over a card and then turn over another card to try and match the first card. If the cards do not match, then turn them back over. The next person will then repeat this action to try and find a match. Note to teachers: You will have to make copies and cut out the concentration cards ahead of time so that each group of kids has two sets of each picture to turn over. You may need to have your assistants help if the kids get confused. Once finished ask: Did you notice anything in common that the pictures on our cards have? Allow all possible answers.

Say: All of the pictures on our Concentration cards help explain what a friend does. Remember from our last class we learned that God wants to be our friend. He will always be there for us. God will never leave us or forsake us! Read Deuteronomy 31:8 and Hebrews 13:5. Ask: Did you know that God has many qualities? He loves to give us gifts and share his way of life with us. In Matthew 7:11 Jesus tells us: “If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” Ask: In what ways do you think God gives us gifts? Possible answers: his laws, he protects us, gives us talents, he can heal us of sickness, and he shares with us his plan of salvation. Say: Yes, that is right! God is our ultimate friend. He wants to share with us now His Sabbath, Holy Days and Festivals like the Feast so that we can learn and grow in His truth and one day even receive eternal life with Him in His Kingdom. Wow! What a great gift to receive. In fact, God loves us so much that He gave his only son, Jesus Christ, for us. Remember that Jesus died for us to cover all mankind’s sins so that we might one day enter God’s family. We are told this in John 3:16. Say: We are experiencing God’s good gift of the Feast of Tabernacles. We have the opportunity to come to church every day, learn more about God in services, and youth instruction. We are able to eat special food and participate in unique activities with our family and friends. Wow! How wonderful it is that we have such a loving friend in God. Ask: Do you think it is a good idea to copy what God does? Answer: Yes, that is right. We should strive to be like God. To be His friend means that we need to be growing in His characteristics like, love, obedience, sharing and giving. In fact, Christ tells us to imitate God the Father like He did. We are told by the Apostle Paul in I Corinthians 11:1 to imitate him, just as he imitated Christ! Ask: Did you know that there was a time long ago when God’s chosen people, Israel, had lost God’s Holy Days and Festivals? They didn’t even know about the Feast! Could you imagine not knowing about this wonderful opportunity? Let’s read about this in Nehemiah 8:1-3; 8:8-12; 8:14-18 (read those passages out loud to the class). Say: The people were so happy to learn about the Feast of Tabernacles. They sat and listened to God’s word, they could not believe that they had been missing this Festival for all those years! They read God’s instruction in the Bible to share their portion with those who did not have as much. What a great thing to do. Isn’t that what we do here at the Feast of Tabernacles? Don’t you get to participate in

special activities, enjoy good food, share with your friends and family, and receive special gifts from your parents? Yes, your parents have learned the trait of sharing and now they are passing that trait onto you. That is what God wants! He loves us so much and He wants us to obey Him and share in His future coming Kingdom. He wants us in His family! Say: We can practice the trait of sharing and giving here at the Feast. We can share our time by talking to elderly members who are sitting down by themselves. They love to talk to kids! Or maybe you see another child who is sitting by themselves. You could go and talk to them so that they don’t feel lonely. Activity: Say: Today we are going to practice the trait of giving by coloring a special bookmark to give to someone here at the Feast. You will be practicing being a good friend and sharing a gift with someone here at the Feast. If we have extra you can color and keep one for yourself! Teachers you may now hand out the bookmarks that were especially made for the kids to color and hand out at the Feast. You may want to spend time cutting the yarn and punching holes in the tops of the bookmarks ahead of class time. Have a great Feast!

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