top of page
Big Ideas, Little Steps

Unit 18 / Lesson 4

Big Ideas, Little Steps

Click for slides

Lesson 104: Big Ideas, Little Steps

  • Teacher's Prep

    • Games

      • Bunny Tail Hunt

        • Materials:

          • Cotton balls -- about 10 per child.

          • A bag of chocolate eggs or other similarly small prizes -- enough for about three chocolate eggs per child

          • A big basket in which to put all the cotton balls at the end of the game.

        • Instructions for preparation

          • This game is very similar to an Easter egg hunt, except that there is less chocolate and less mess. The concept is that the children will be finding cotton balls, and the cotton balls will be exchanged for chocolate eggs at a time of your choosing.

          • Cotton balls will ideally be spread generously over a wide area and multiple rooms which can be explored. You will want to have them all spread out before the lesson begins.

          • Make some cotton balls easy to find, and some more challenging.

      • Paper Towers

        • Get familiar with this activity by watching the YouTube video below:

        • Materials:

          • 20 sheets of paper per four children

          • 1 measuring tape

          • Have several sheets of paper on standby in case the children ruin a sheet and want a new one.

        • Before the class, have the sheets of paper portioned into stacks of exactly 20 sheets each, so that you can hand out the stacks quickly.

      • The Floor is Lava

        • Materials: 

          • Four chairs or pylons

          • Foam floor tiles – about four tiles per team of ten children. For an idea of how these mats look, you can search Google for “foam floor tiles.”

        • Have foam mats ready in stacks, ready to give to each team

    • Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (Main Activity)

  • Intro

    • Gathering

      • How was your week?


  • Intro Game: Bunny Tail Hunt

    • Instructions

      • Let's start our lesson with a game.

      • It’s a bunny tail hunt! It’s like an easter egg hunt but with cotton balls. We have a whole bunch of cotton balls and they have all been spread out over a big area. 

      • In a moment, you'll all get a chance to look for them. And if you find most of them, you'll get a prize at the end of the lesson.

      • Teacher: let the children know exactly how many cotton balls there are, and in which rooms they are hidden. Set some benchmarks for them. For example, if they can find half of the cotton balls, they can each get 1 chocolate egg. If they can find three quarters of the cotton balls, they can each get 2 chocolate eggs. If they can find almost all of the cotton balls, they can each get three chocolate eggs.

      • You will have five minutes to find as many as you can! Then you can bring them back here and put them in this basket, and then we’ll see what kind of prize you’ll get.

      • Teacher: give the children about five minutes to find as many cotton balls as they can. Have them put all the cotton balls into a basket when they come back.

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it starts with a promise. 

      • I made a promise in the beginning that if you can find the bunny tails, you can get some treats. The promise made the game so much better! If you didn't have a promise, then all you'd be finding was little cotton balls, and you’d probably find it boring after a while. So, it helps to know we’re working for something great.

  • Relevance

    • And, real life is like that too. God has given all of us work to do. He wants us to become like Jesus, and help people. But, He also gives us promises to encourage us. He promises that if we trust Him and obey Him, He will take care of us. And, in the end, we will have the greatest prize.

  • Big Question

    • So, our big question today is: how can we get the prize that God has promised us?

  • Big Idea

    • Today we will learn two of the things we need to do:

      • 1. We should learn big ideas.

        • (We should learn the big ideas that God teaches us in the Bible.)

      • 2. We should celebrate little steps

        • (We should celebrate every time we take a little step towards God, even if we're not perfect yet.)

  • Bible Reference

    • That's what we'll learn from today's Bible story.

    • Let's watch the story of Nehemiah again:

    • Teacher: play this YouTube video:

    • Today we'll talk about the part of the story right after Nehemiah finished the wall. Let's read what happened next!

    • Nehemiah 8:1-3 (CEV)

      • 1-2 On the first day of the seventh month, the people came together in the open area in front of the Water Gate. Then they asked Ezra, who was a teacher of the Law of Moses, to read to them from this Law that the Lord had given his people. Ezra the priest came with the Law and stood before the crowd of men, women, and the children who were old enough to understand. 3 From early morning till noon, he read the Law of Moses to them, and they listened carefully.

    • Nehemiah 8:9-12 (CEV)

      • 9 The people started crying when God's Law was read to them. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher, and the Levites who had been teaching the people all said, “This is a special day for the Lord your God. So don't be sad and don't cry!”

10 Nehemiah told the people, “Enjoy your good food and wine and share some with those who didn't have anything to bring. Don't be sad! This is a special day for the Lord, and he will make you happy and strong.”

11 The Levites encouraged the people by saying, “This is a sacred day, so don't worry or mourn!” 12 When the people returned to their homes, they celebrated by eating and drinking and by sharing their food with those in need, because they had understood what had been read to them.

  • Point 1

    • The first thing we learn from our story is:

      • We should learn big ideas.

        • (We should learn the big ideas that God teaches us in the Bible.)

    • Game: Paper Tower

      • Instructions

        • Let's start this point with a game. It's called the paper tower challenge! In a moment, we will form teams of 3 or 4, and each team will have 20 sheets of paper

        • And you'll have ten minutes to try to build the tallest tower you can, using just those twenty sheets of paper and nothing more.

        • If you really ruin a sheet of paper, you can trade it in for a new one, but you can only have twenty sheets of paper, nothing else.

        • Teacher: divide the class into teams of 3 or 4, and then give each team 20 sheets of paper. To keep track of time, set a ten-minute timer on the computer, OR search YouTube for "10-minute timer."

      • Debrief

        • We played this game because it's about getting the big ideas right. If we want to build a tall tower, we need to follow rules. We should build carefully, and not wrinkle the paper. We should try to make circles or triangles. And, we should learn from each other and work together. Rules like that help us to build better towers.

        • And, the rules in the Bible are like that too. God knows the best way for us to do things. So, He tells us. If we trust Him and follow what He says, we will live a very good life. But, if we do whatever we feel like, we can get into a lot of trouble.

        • God’s people had to learn this lesson the hard way.

    • Explanation

      • In our Bible story, God's people had gotten themselves into a lot of trouble. They lived in a city with a broken down wall. Can you imagine living in a house with a broken down wall? Anyone could just come in and take your stuff. That’s what it was like to have a city with a broken wall.

      • And Nehemiah knew why it was like that. It's because God's people had done terrible things and they had not listened to God. They had worshipped other gods, and they had done terrible things to each other. And, God had warned them lots of times that if they did those things, He would take away their land. But, God's people didn't listen. So, God stopped protecting His people, and big armies came and fought against God's people, and the big armies broke down the wall and took all of their stuff.

      • Nehemiah was very sad that the wall was broken down. So, in the first half of our book, Nehemiah went to the city of Jerusalem, and He helped everyone to build the wall again, and it was great. God's people must have felt so much safer!

      • BUT, they still had a problem. They needed to stop doing bad things and worshipping other gods. If they didn’t stop, they would just get into trouble again. So, Nehemiah got everyone to come together, and they all listened to the law that God had given to Moses.

      • Nehemiah wanted everyone to learn God’s law, because there was a promise in His law. The promise was, if God's people did terrible things and God took away their land, they could always go back to the law that God had given them. And, they could trust God and love God again. And, if they did, God would give them back everything they had lost.

      • So, the first step was to learn God's laws again so they could know how to be God's friends.

      • That's what the first half of our Bible passage is about. Let's read it again.

    • Bible Reference

      • Nehemiah 8:1-3 (CEV)

        • 1-2 On the first day of the seventh month, the people came together in the open area in front of the Water Gate. Then they asked Ezra, who was a teacher of the Law of Moses, to read to them from this Law that the Lord had given his people. Ezra the priest came with the Law and stood before the crowd of men, women, and the children who were old enough to understand. 3 From early morning till noon, he read the Law of Moses to them, and they listened carefully.

    • Application

      • We need to do that too. We need to spend time learning about the Bible. There's so much to learn! The Bible tells us what God is like, and it tells us how to be His friends. It tells us what He's done for us, and why we should trust Him. And, it tells us what He will do, and what we can do to work with Him.

      • It's really hard to be friends with God if we stop learning about the Bible.

      • But, if we know the Bible and trust the Bible, we can be great friends with God. God will be a better friend than anyone else in the whole world. He will always take care of you, and he will always help you do the best thing for yourself and for everyone else.

    • Discussion Question

      • Now let's pause for a discussion question.

      • What's your favorite Bible story?

      • Teacher’s comment: 

        • There's so much to learn in the Bible, right? And, you'll know you're learning it right if you do what it says and it keeps helping you.

  • Point 2

    • Moving on, our second point is:

      • We should celebrate little steps

        • (We should celebrate every time we take a little step towards God, even if we're not perfect yet.)

    • Game: The Floor is Lava

      • Instructions

        • Teacher: Set up four chairs at the corners of the room. The chairs should not be touching the corners of the room, but rather, they should be about 2 metres away from the perimeter of your floor space. These chairs will serve as pylons so that teams will go around the outside of the pylons.

        • We'll start our point with a game! We're playing The Floor is Lava!

        • So we'll split into two teams, and the goal of your team is to make two laps around the room. We have four chairs at the corners of the room, and you will need to go around the outside of the chairs. And once you go around the outside of all the chairs, you will go back to your starting spot, to complete the lap. And when you've finished two whole laps, you win.

        • But the only catch is, the floor is made out of lava. So, the only thing you can step on is these foam mats. So, you'll want to lay down some foam mats, and then you can pick up the foam mat at the back, and move it to the front.

        • There's no penalty for stepping off the mat, but just try to stay on the mat, because it's more fun that way.

        • Teacher: form two teams, and have them start at opposite corners of the room. Have them do two laps around the room, stepping only on their foam mats.

      • Debrief

        • We played this game because it reminds us that it's okay to take one step at a time. When we move one step, we haven't gotten to the finish line, but we've gotten closer, and that's the important thing. And, if we just keep moving closer, we'll eventually get to the finish line.

        • And it's like when we're trying to be friends with God as well. We don't get everything right the first time. But, we can still celebrate when we get a little bit closer.

    • Bible Reference

      • That's what we learn from the second half of our Bible passage. Let's read it again:

      • Nehemiah 8:9-12 (CEV)

        • 9 The people started crying when God's Law was read to them. Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and teacher, and the Levites who had been teaching the people all said, “This is a special day for the Lord your God. So don't be sad and don't cry!”

        • 10 Nehemiah told the people, “Enjoy your good food and wine and share some with those who didn't have anything to bring. Don't be sad! This is a special day for the Lord, and he will make you happy and strong.”

        • 11 The Levites encouraged the people by saying, “This is a sacred day, so don't worry or mourn!” 12 When the people returned to their homes, they celebrated by eating and drinking and by sharing their food with those in need, because they had understood what had been read to them.

    • Explanation

      • In our story, the people were crying because they knew how many things they had done wrong. And, they knew that God wanted them to change and do some very difficult things.

      • But, before they did all those difficult things, it was right to celebrate. They had taken a big step toward God. They still had so much work to do, but they could still celebrate that they finally knew what to do.

    • Application

      • And, we can celebrate like that too. We will never be perfect. We will never do everything right, and we will never think everything right. BUT if we take a step in the right direction, it's worth celebrating. And, we can celebrate with all our friends when they take a step in the right direction, even when they don't get everything right.

    • Discussion Question

      • Let's pause for a discussion question.

        • What is a way that God still wants you to keep growing?

  • Conclusion

    • Let's wrap up this lesson by going over the big ideas again.

    • Our big question today was: how can we get the prize that God has promised us?

    • We learned from Nehemiah that:

      • 1. We should learn big ideas.

        • (We should learn the big ideas that God teaches us in the Bible.)

      • 2. We should celebrate little steps

        • (We should celebrate every time we take a little step towards God, even if we're not perfect yet.)

    • Teacher: you may want to take a moment to distribute the prizes that they won from the bunny tails hunt.

  • Main Activity: Chocolate Covered Strawberries

    • And now it's time for our main activity. Today, we are making chocolate covered strawberries!

    • Let's watch a quick video to see how to make them.

    • Teacher: play this YouTube short video:

    • We watched this video to get the big idea. BUT, when we make the snack, we'll need to follow lots of little steps. We can't get it all done in one step. But, we can enjoy every step and celebrate that we got something done, even when we're not totally done.

    • And that's what it's like to follow Jesus as well.

    • Teacher: follow the steps at this website:


© 2025 Purple Curriculum. All rights reserved.

bottom of page