OBJECTIVE
Students will learn that Jesus welcomed everyone, even the people who did not like him. Teaching us as Christians we should display the welcoming attitude of God.
OPENING PRAYER
Welcome new kids, share what you did since the last meeting and opening prayer.
LAUNCH THE LESSON
Today, we will talk about welcoming others regardless of their color, creed, gender, or thinking and acting differently from us or anything that we might think sets them apart from us.
Here is a book (or video) to help us with this topic.
PICK ONE
Read the book
•“We are the same, we are different, and we all belong”
by KayJay Miller
Pick one:
We all belong
https://youtu.be/ffX3GeRuoJE?si=cnE6wHqh-lR9hyJh
We are different, we are the same (younger kids)
https://youtu.be/hUrjb4SZnxg?si=lT_xg3P4e0rkgUat
EXPLORE THE LESSON
Jesus taught us this lesson many, many years ago
With Jesus as our example, we should never be shy about welcoming others. Whether we welcome friends into our homes, visitors into our Spiritist center, or just a new student into our class. As Christians, we should display the welcoming attitude of God.
To help you study this welcoming attitude of God, here is a Bible verse to get us started:
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28
This verse symbolizes God’s welcoming attitude. This reminder was written to the early church. It went against their culture to welcome people different from themselves (Greeks, slaves, etc.) – just like in today’s world, there are some people we might find it hard to welcome based on our cultural expectations or likes. But if everyone is a child of God, we are the same, and everyone should be welcomed.
ACTIVITIES
The great classroom contract
Create a chart about classroom expectations:
Start asking them to imagine what a “great” classroom LOOKS like (what they see when they look around in their classroom and at the children). As students raise their hands and share ideas, add those ideas to the anchor chart. You may give hints or ask questions until someone mentions an idea you want to add into the chart.
Switch to what a “great” classroom SOUNDS like (what they hear in terms of noise and what people say). Children eagerly share their ideas and I add them to that section.
Some of the ideas for “A Great Classroom sounds like include quiet working, manners, laughing, kind words, questions, and more.
Lastly, talk about what a “great” classroom FEELS like (what feelings they have inside when they are at school and how people make them feel). This part is a bit more difficult for children. When you talk, encourage them to think about how they feel on a good day and when good things happen. This is good practice for kids to identify different emotions.
Some of the ideas for “A Great Classroom feels like include open, welcoming, respectful, happy, honest, and more.
REFERENCE
Classroom Expectations: Creating a Classroom Contract – Proud to be Primary
ACTIVITY 2 – Team building: Guess who?
Have students write their favorite thing to do when they have free time. Please ask them not to share with anyone what you wrote.
The educator can then rewrite them and put them on the whiteboard.
Students have to guess who the post-it belongs to