Unit 2 / Lesson 5
Why Character Matters
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Teacher's Prep
Intro Activity (snacks and sharing)
You may want to have a sweet snack like raisins, and a salty snack like crackers
Two bowls to put the snacks for every group of four children
Print off discussion questions for each child (note, each page in the printout below is good for four if you cut the page into four strips).
Games
Styrofoam Cup Pyramid
Get 45 styrofoam cups for every five children. Other disposable cups work as well (if you want to be more environmentally friendly), but styrofoam cups tend to be very affordable.
Prepare stacks of 45 cups for each team for easy distribution. 45 is the exact number they need for a pyramid that has 9 cups on the bottom and is 9 levels high.
Face the Cookie
Get a pack of Oreo cookies so that each child can have a cookie.
Main Activity (Stomp Rockets):
See this website for the full instructions
Note: it's not crucial to make the fins on the rocket (which would take the most time), but it is crucial to close off the front end of the rocket with tape so that the air doesn't just go through the straw.
Materials:
Empty Capri Sun juice pouches or similar pouches
(Note: have the children drink the juice at the beginning of the activity in order to empty the pouch)
Flexible Drinking Straw
Colored Paper
Pencil
Tape
Scissors
Glue Stick
As part of your preparation, make a sample rocket before class as an example to show the children before they make their own.
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
Connect with students as they come in
SLIDE 2
Intro Activity: Snacks and sharing about your week
Instructions
We will start this lesson with snacks and sharing! We'll have about 10 minutes to chat about our week in little groups.
Please form groups of about four people each, and spread out to different parts of the room. We'll get you some discussion questions and some snacks once you are in your groups.
Teacher: distribute discussion questions and snacks, and give 10 minutes for their discussion
SLIDE 3
Debrief
We started with snacks and sharing because it reminds us we are all different. We all do different things, and we all think in a different way. We are also all changing, meaning the person you are this week is a little different from the person you were last week. You're probably very different from what you were like a year ago.
If you think about it, not every change inside of us is a good change. Sometimes people change to become angry, mean, selfish, and lazy. Other people change to become kind, hard-working, and wise.
These are called character changes. They are changes inside of us.
As it turns out, these character changes really matter. It makes a really big difference what kind of person we are becoming on the inside.
SLIDE 4
Big Question
Our big question today is: why does character matter?
Big Idea
Today we will learn that bad character leads to trouble, but good character leads to treasure.
SLIDE 5
Bible Reference
We'll see this in our Bible story. Let's watch the story first.
YouTube: The Bereans Search the Scriptures | Bible Lessons for Kids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1o28-eUPX0&ab_channel=KidVu
Point 1
SLIDE 6
Our first point is, bad character leads to trouble
SLIDE 7
Game: Styrofoam Cup Pyramids
Instructions
Let's start this point with a game! It's a cup stacking game. You will be working in teams of about 5 people each, stacking the cups into a pyramid.
Your pyramid will have 9 cups on the bottom, and it will be 9 levels high when you are done.
You won’t just be building this tower once, but five times! Each time you finish it, you can knock it over, and it will be a different person’s turn to stack.
To make it quicker, you can have two people helping you on your turn. Your helpers can switch if they get tired. Make sure everyone has a turn building the pyramid.
Any questions?
Alright, let's number off so that everyone is in a group of about 5 people.
Teacher: the point of numbering off is to make the teams as even as possible. If you see a team that is very imbalanced, you can try to rebalance the teams in some way.
Teacher: give each team a stack of 45 cups.
Remember, each team will be making the pyramid five times, and each time it will have 9 cups on the bottom, and it will be 9 levels high.
SLIDE 8
Debrief
We played this game because it helps us appreciate how important it is to start right. If the bottom level of your pyramid is not good, it makes everything above it hard, or even impossible.
That's what it's like with our character. If we have bad character, it will make the rest of our lives difficult.
SLIDE 9
Bible Reference
Our Bible story talks about some people who had bad character. They were Jewish people from the city of Thessalonica. They didn't like it when Paul and Silas talked about Jesus. We already saw those people in the video, but now let’s read the story from the Bible.
Acts 17:5-7 (CEV)
5 The Jewish leaders were jealous and got some troublemakers who hung around the marketplace to start a riot in the city. They wanted to drag Paul and Silas out to the mob, and so they went straight to Jason's home. 6 But when they did not find them there, they dragged out Jason and some of the Lord's followers. They took them to the city authorities and shouted, “Paul and Silas have been upsetting things everywhere. Now they have come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his home. All of them break the laws of the Roman Emperor by claiming that someone named Jesus is king.”
Explanation
In our story, the Jewish leaders were jealous that people were listening to Paul and Silas, so they decided to get rid of them. They said Paul and Silas were criminals who kept making trouble everywhere, breaking the law and talking about a new king. This was only half true, but the Jewish leaders didn't care. They were not interested in the truth, they were just interested in getting rid of Paul and Silas.
Their bad character caused them to do some pretty terrible things. They caused a lot of trouble, and they missed their chance to know God and live forever.
Application
SLIDE 10
This story is a warning to us; that bad character leads to trouble--for other people and for ourselves. However, bad character is not just something that happens to us. There’s actually something we can do to fix bad character, and there’s something we can do to build good character. The key is to watch what we are thinking about.
Let’s read from the Bible, from Romans 12:2 (ICB)
Do not be shaped by this world. Instead be changed within by a new way of thinking. Then you will be able to decide what God wants for you. And you will be able to know what is good and pleasing to God and what is perfect.
This verse tells us our minds could be shaped by this world – by the things that everyone else does at school, and by the things we see on TV. If we only follow what people think is cool, and what we see on TV, we will get into trouble. The Bible teaches us a different way to think. It teaches us to remember everything God has done for us. It teaches us to join in God’s work, and it teaches us to think about whatever is true, right, and beautiful (Philippians 4:8). When we feed our minds with good ideas, our character becomes strong and healthy. In the words of the Bible, we are “changed within by a new way of thinking.”
SLIDE 11
Discussion Question
Let's stop for some discussion questions!
Where can you find ideas that are true and right and beautiful?
What do you think will happen if you feed your mind with bad ideas?
SLIDE 12
Point 2
Our second point is, good character leads to treasure.
SLIDE 13
Game: Face the Cookie
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game! It's called Face the Cookie! You will all get an Oreo cookie. You play the game by tilting your head up and putting the Oreo cookie on your eye. The goal is to move the cookie into your mouth using just the muscles on your head and your face. If your cookie drops off your face, you need to put the cookie on your eye and try again.
Teacher: demonstrate how the game works. Alternatively, there is a video tutorial on YouTube which you can show. Also, you may want them to play around a table so the cookies will drop onto the table instead of the ground.
Debrief
We played this game because even though it's challenging, we know there's a prize at the end. Life is like that too; there is a prize that is even better than a cookie.
SLIDE 14
Bible Reference
Let's read the next part of our Bible passage, which is about the people who had good character.
Acts 17:11-12 (CEV)
11 The people in Berea were much nicer than those in Thessalonica, and they gladly accepted the message. Day after day they studied the Scriptures to see if these things were true. 12 Many of them put their faith in the Lord, including some important Greek women and several men.
Explanation
Remember in the first part of our story, Paul and Silas were in the city of Thessalonica. They were chased out by people with bad character, so they went to the next city, which was Berea. These people were different. They were nicer.
In the original language (Greek), it says they were more noble. The word noble means they came from good families that taught them well.
When the people in Berea heard the news about Jesus, they wanted to hear all about Him. They went back to their Bibles to check that everything that Paul and Silas said was true.
As a result, a lot of people found out the truth about Jesus, and they became Christians, joining in God’s work.
SLIDE 15
Application
This is a happy story and it's an encouragement to us to do the same thing as them.
If we have good character like the people in Berea, we will love the truth, and we will want the truth. Sometimes the truth makes us happy because we learn that we are doing things right. But sometimes the truth can make us sad and uncomfortable, especially if we find out we have been doing things wrong.
A lot of people don't like to find out they are wrong. The Bible tells us we need people to correct us if we are going to learn.
Let's read from Proverbs 13:18 (ICB)
A person who refuses correction will end up poor and disgraced. But a person who accepts correction will be honored.
The Bible tells us if we don’t let people correct us, we will end up in big trouble. But, if we listen to people when they correct us, we will be honored.
If we continue to learn like that, we will know God, and we will know all kinds of things, and we will have all kinds of treasure in our lives.
SLIDE 16
Discussion Question (optional)
Let’s stop for a discussion question.
What is the best thing to do when someone tells us we are wrong?
Suggested answer: We learn from the people in Berea that we should listen and then we should check to see if that person is right. If they are, we should believe them. We can even thank them because they have given us the truth which is a kind of treasure.
SLIDE 17
Conclusion
To wrap up our lesson, let’s go over all the big ideas again
Our big question today was: why does character matter?
Our answer was: bad character leads to trouble, but good character leads to treasure.
Let's learn from the people in our story. If we only want the truth when it's easy and comfortable, we will be like those people in the first city that Paul and Silas went to. We will cause a lot of trouble for ourselves and for other people. But, if we love the truth like the people of Berea, we will have a treasure that we can share.
Let's always try to learn the truth even when it means we have to change, and even if we need to do some work to find out if it's really true.
Main Activity: Stomp Rockets
SLIDE 18
Our craft today will help us appreciate our lesson a bit more.
Today we will be making stomp rockets! They are rockets that are powered by air when you stomp on the launcher.
In order to make these rockets we'll need to follow a bunch of steps. Some will be easy and fun, like drinking juice. Some steps will be harder, and you might feel like skipping them. If you do all the steps whether they are easy or hard, you will get a stomp rocket.
For us, we need to follow the truth whether it is easy or hard.
Teacher: show them the stomp rocket that you made before class. Then guide them through this website step by step: https://babbledabbledo.com/juicy-diy-stomp-rockets/