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Different Kinds Of Sin

Unit 17 / Lesson 4

Different Kinds Of Sin

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Stacking Cereal

      • Materials:

        • One table per group of four

        • Hand sanitizer, to use before touching food.

        • One bowl per group of four

        • A box of Cheerios, or Froot Loops, Shreddies, or other cereal that is easily stacked (if you play this game often, you may want to switch up the cereal type to keep the game fresh)

    • Balloon Caterpillar

      • For the concept of the game, watch this video:

      • Materials: 

        • One balloon per child, with a few spares besides.

        • Four chairs.

      • For a smoother experience, you will want to have the balloons inflated before the lesson.

    • Oven Mitt Challenge

      • Materials:

        • Two tables

        • Two sets of oven mitts

        • Hershey Kisses -- at least one per child.

      • Please watch this video for one minute starting at the 2:00 mark to see what the game is like:

  • Main Activity (Piñata Breaking and Making)

    • In this lesson plan, the children will be breaking a piñata and then helping to make a different piñata. If you don’t want to make a piñata for the second half of the main activity, you may prefer to teach some memory verses in exchange for candy.

    • The concept:

      • For the general concept of breaking a piñata, you can see the first minute of this video:

      • The children will take turns hitting the piñata with a stick until it breaks. Then, the candy that is inside will spill out.

    • Materials for piñata breaking:

      • Buy one or two piñatas, filling each one with some treats

        • Alternatively, you can make your own piñata. See further in this lesson plan for the video, "How to make the easiest piñata, by DIY with Tina"

      • You will need a stick, ideally a padded one to reduce the damage from missed swings

      • You will need a way to elevate the piñata. You can tie it to a fixture on the ceiling, or you can suspend it off a long pole or a rope.

      • You will want to provide small bags (e.g. Ziploc bags) to for kids to take home candy

    • Optional: Making a Piñata

      • Watch this video for the concept:

      • For the concept of this craft:

        • The teacher will prepare the structure of the piñata and stuff it with candy. This will involve obtaining a cardboard box, removing the flaps, taping the sides, and preparing a loop of string so that the piñata can be suspended. 

        • The children will decorate the box by cutting streamers into frills and putting them onto the box.

        • Once the second piñata is completed and stuffed with candy, the children will break it just as they broke the first piñata.

      • Materials for a piñata craft:

        • Wrapped candies to stuff a piñata

        • At least one cardboard box in addition to the ready-made piñata

        • Tape for the cardboard box

        • Tape to attach decorations to the box

        • Streamers

        • Scissors

        • String to hang up the piñata

        • A stick or bat

  • A word study for adults:

    • The word for “thinking” in verse 18 comes from the Hebrew word, horesh. The word horesh carries a helpful word picture. The Hebrews used the word horesh in the context of farming, when they ploughed the ground to break it up before sowing seeds. And they used the word horesh when they engraved designs on a piece of metal. The idea behind this word horesh was to make a permanent mark that would lead to further things. It’s useful to think along those lines. If you’ve ever tried to cut a piece of wood with a handsaw, you know that you can’t just put the saw on a fresh piece of wood and start pulling it back and forth, because the saw will go all over the place, and you’ll just end up with a scratched up piece of wood with no useful cut on it. So, you make a mark on the wood, and you carefully run the saw over the mark a few times until you make a groove. And then, once the groove is set, you can saw away until there’s a clean break. That’s the idea for thinking in our passage. The idea is that the big things in our lives start with the little grooves that are made in our heart. And the key to having a heart that’s right with God is to be careful which kinds of grooves are being made. Some grooves need to be avoided – grooves of dishonesty and laziness and rage and bitterness and revenge. The more time we spend on those grooves, the more ingrained they will be, and eventually something will break in our lives if we don’t leave those grooves behind. But, on the other hand, some grooves are good. Grooves like a strong work ethic, or respect for other people, or discipline with your finances. The more you do those things, the more ingrained those habits will be, and those things will become easier over time. If we persevere in those things they lead to breakthroughs in service and in joy. But either way, the big things in our lives start with the little grooves in our hearts.


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    SLIDE 2

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 3

  • Intro Game: Stacking Cereal

    • Instructions

      • Let's start our lesson with a game! It's the stacking cereal game!

      • We'll make teams of four people each, and each team will have their own table. Your team will be making a tower of cereal.

      • We'll see which team can make the tallest tower in five minutes!

      • Teacher: give children hand sanitizer to clean their hands. Then, give each team a bowl of cereal and a table, so they can build towers of cereal. You may want to encourage them to make multiple stacks of cereal that support each other. After five minutes, have the children stop. Praise the children for their efforts and then have them sit down for the lesson.

    SLIDE 4

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it gets us thinking about mistakes. If we want to build a tall tower of cereal, we need to be careful how we build, because all the little mistakes we make add up. Even if a piece of cereal is off by a little bit, that little mistake will make it harder for you to keep building up. And, if we make too many mistakes, the whole tower will come tumbling down!

      • But, what if there were some way to keep our mistakes really small? Well, then, we could build a really tall tower!

    SLIDE 5

  • Relevance

    • And life is like that too. We all want to do great things, and we all want to have great friendships. But, there are mistakes that we make along the way. And, the mistakes add up until we can't do great things anymore.

    • But, what if there was a way to find our biggest mistakes and fix them? Well, then, we could do amazing things and have amazing friendships.

    • So, our lesson today is about the biggest mistakes that God wants us to fix.

    SLIDE 6

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is: where can we find our biggest mistakes?

    SLIDE 7

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea is: we can find our biggest mistakes in our thoughts, our words, and our actions.

    SLIDE 8

  • Bible Reference

    • That's what our Bible passage is about. Let's read it:

    • Proverbs 6:16-19 (ICB)

    SLIDE 9

    • 16 There are six things the Lord hates.

      There are seven things he cannot stand:

    SLIDE 10

    • 17 a proud look,

      a lying tongue,

      hands that kill innocent people,

    SLIDE 11

    • 18 a mind that thinks up evil plans,

       feet that are quick to do evil,

    SLIDE 12

    • 19 a witness who tells lies

      and a man who causes trouble among brothers.


    Point 1

    SLIDE 13

  • Our first point is, we can find mistakes in our thoughts.

  • SLIDE 14

  • Game (Caterpillar Balloon)

    • Instructions

      • Let’s start this point with a game. It’s called the Balloon Caterpillar! Let's watch how it works.

      • Teacher: play this YouTube video:

      • In this game, everyone on your team will have balloons in between them.

      • We will set up four chairs at the corners of the room, and your goal as a team will be to have one person touch all four chairs before your caterpillar falls apart. If your caterpillar falls apart, you need to start again at zero, and try to reach all four chairs.

      • Teacher: form teams of about 4-5 each.

    SLIDE 15

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it's about working together. We can only win if we work together! So, we need the right attitude. We can't just think we're the best and nobody else matters. And, we can't run off and do something else. If we're going to win, we really need to have the right ideas in our minds.

    SLIDE 16

  • Bible Reference

    • That’s what we see in the first half of our Bible passage. Let's read the first half again.

    • Proverbs 6:16-18a (ICB)

    SLIDE 17

    • 16 There are six things the Lord hates.

      There are seven things he cannot stand:

    SLIDE 18

    • 17 a proud look,

      a lying tongue,

      hands that kill innocent people,

    SLIDE 19

    • 18 a mind that thinks up evil plans,

       feet that are quick to do evil,

    SLIDE 20

    • 19 a witness who tells lies

      and a man who causes trouble among brothers.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 21

    • The first thing on our list is a proud look. A proud look is when we think we're better than everyone else, and we don't need other people. If we think like that, we can't work with other people, and we can't help other people. So, God hates that kind of thinking and He can't stand it.

    SLIDE 22

    • God also hates a mind that thinks up evil plans. God has given us a wonderful ability to think about things and make plans. But, God really hates it when we use that ability to hurt people.

  • Application

    SLIDE 23

    • Maybe you get really angry sometimes, and the first thing you can think of is all these ideas for how to hurt people back, because they hurt you first. We need to be careful not to make evil plans, because God hates evil plans.

    SLIDE 24

    • So, the way we think really matters! God doesn't just care about what we do. He also cares about how we think. Because, if we can think better, we can do amazing things with Him.

    SLIDE 25

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's pause for a discussion question

      • What is a good thing to think about when we are angry?


    Point 2

    SLIDE 26

  • Moving on, our second point is, we can find mistakes in our words and actions.

    SLIDE 27

  • Game: Oven Mitt Race

    • Instructions

      • Teacher's setup:

        • Set up two tables

        • Provide a pair of oven mitts for each table

        • Provide one or two Hershey Kisses per child

      • Let's start this point with a game! It's called the Oven Mitt Race!

      • Let's see how it works.

      • In this game we'll have two teams, and each team will have one table and two oven mitts.

      • The goal of this game is to have everyone on your team unwrap a Hershey Kiss using the oven mitts.

      • You will unwrap one, and then you’ll pass the oven mitts to someone else. 

      • If you get really stuck, you can pass your mitts to someone else.

      • When you have unwrapped all the Hershey kisses, you win! Your team can share the candy as a snack.

    SLIDE 28

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it helps us think about sin.

      • Sin is like the big oven mitts that make it hard to open the candy.

      • When people say the wrong things and do the wrong things, it can be so hard to do the simplest thing!

      • But, if we could get rid of our sin, life would be so much easier and sweeter.

  • Bible Reference

    • So, our Bible passage gives us two more places to look so we can get rid of our sin. Let's read the whole passage again.

    • Proverbs 6:16-19 (ICB)

    SLIDE 29

    • 16 There are six things the Lord hates.

      There are seven things he cannot stand:

    SLIDE 30

    • 17 a proud look,

      a lying tongue,

      hands that kill innocent people,

    SLIDE 31

    • 18 a mind that thinks up evil plans,

       feet that are quick to do evil,

    SLIDE 32

    • 19 a witness who tells lies

      and a man who causes trouble among brothers.

  • Explanation

    SLIDE 33

    • So, our list talks about the things we say and the things we do.

    • It talks about people who tell lies.

    • And it talks about people who kill and they're quick to do evil.

    • Now, I'm pretty sure none of us have killed another person before. But, that verse has a bigger idea. We need to remember WHY God hates it when people kill each other. God hates it when people kill each other – because He loves people!

    • And, when we remember that God loves people, we'll see that we need to use our hands to help people and not hurt people.

    SLIDE 34

    • And, it's like that with our words too.

    SLIDE 35

    • Our Bible passage tells us that God hates it when people lie to each other. But, we need to remember the reason why. The reason is because God loves people, but lies hurt people. The point is to not hurt people. But, there are other ways to hurt people with our words. For example, sometimes we can say mean things that are true. And, God hates that too, because He loves people.

    SLIDE 36

  • Application

    • So, let's always be careful to help people with our hands, and not use our hands to hurt people.

    • And let's always be careful to help people with our words, and not use our words to hurt people.

    • If we can be careful like that, we'll get rid of so many mistakes!

    • And we'll make friends, and we'll do great things for God.

  • Discussion Question

    • Now, let's pause for a couple of discussion questions:

      • Why does God hate it when people hurt each other?

      • What is a helpful thing you can do with your hands?


    SLIDE 36

    Conclusion

  • Now let's wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again. Our big question was: where can we find our biggest mistakes?

    SLIDE 37

  • Today we learned that we can find our biggest mistakes in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. We learned that God cares about the way we think. So we need to keep a good attitude and not think we're better than everyone else. And, we need to use our words and our hands to help people and not hurt them. Because, if we can get rid of these mistakes, we can have the most amazing friendships and we can do the most amazing things with God.


    Main Activity: Piñata

    SLIDE 38

  • Introduction to the main activity

    • And now, it's time for our main activity. Today we are breaking a piñata!

      • Optional: and maybe we'll have time to make our own afterwards!

    • Let's watch a video for a moment to see how a piñata works.

    • Teacher: play the first minute of this video:

    • Kids Hitting Piñata at Birthday Party (HD), by DaDiscoveries

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI_-Cr8zUPs 

  • Relevance to the lesson

    • I want you to think for a moment about the stick that people use to break the piñata. The stick helps us remember our lesson -- because we can use the stick to do something good or something bad. 

    • We could use the stick to hurt people. But, the best way to use the stick is to get the candy out of the piñata and share it with everyone!

    • So, in real life, it’s like everyone has a stick. All of us have the ability to hurt people with our thoughts and our words and our hands. But God wants us to help people instead.

  • Breaking a piñata

    • Now let's break a piñata together!

    • Teacher: suspend a piñata, and have the students line up. Each one can hit the piñata twice before passing the stick on. Eventually, with enough hits, the piñata will fall to the ground, where it may need further hits to completely break apart so that the candy inside can be harvested. Once they are finished with the piñata, distribute the candy into little bags for the children to enjoy. 

  • Making a piñata (optional)

    • Now it's time to make our own piñata!

    • Let's watch a quick video on what we will do:

    • Teacher: show this YouTube video:

    • That is what we will make today! We already have the cardboard box with candy inside.

    • Teacher: show the children the basic piñata you have prepared, which is a cardboard box with flaps removed, a string attached, and candy inside.

    • Now we need to decorate it. Everyone is going to get a bunch of streamers, and we are going to cut them so that we can make little frills which we will attach to our piñata.

    • Once our piñata is finished we can break it, and maybe we can have a bit more candy.

    • Teacher: pass out scissors and streamers, and provide tape so that frills can be attached to the box. Once the box is fully decorated, hang it up and have them break it just like they broke the first piñata.

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