The ‘Good Shepherd’ Childrens Lesson on John 10:11-18 is part of the ‘Who Am I?’ teaching series about Jesus.
Main Idea: Jesus is the Good Shepherd
Suggested Schedule: (90 mins)
- Welcome (5 mins)
- Cotton Wool Sheep Game (5mins)
- Review Big Verse (5 mins)
- Set the Scene: Bible story/skit and review questions (10-15 mins)
- Object Lesson 1 talk (5mins)
- Sheep Escape Game (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 2 talk (5 mins)
- Spot the Difference Game (5 mins)
- Object Lesson 3 game and talk (10 mins)
- Scripture Whisper Game (5 mins)
- Sense How You Feel activity (10 – 25 mins)
- Seek God Prayer (5 mins)
Supplies:
- vaseline, cotton wool
- Sheep printable
- slips of shepherd activities
- headphones and sound bites of people (mp3) and a way to listen to them.
- tape
- WWJD band
- shepherd outfit
- cotton wool
- paper plate
- black card
- googly eyes
- glue
- radio
- Lego or construction toys
- playdough or clay
- Pens
- paper
- Cross
- Sign “I am the Good Shepherd”
SONG and BIBLE STORY VIDEO IDEAS available via our dedicated Pinterest Board.
GAME IDEAS:
COTTON WOOL SHEEP – mins
Description: One-on-one game
Supplies: vaseline, cotton wool
Details: (regular) Put a little vaseline on each child’s nose and let them see how many cotton balls they can get stuck on their face without using their hands.
SHEEP ESCAPE – 5 MINS
Description: Team Game
Supplies: You will need sheep printables that each team can have on their side of the room and blu tac or tape to put the printables on the walls or around the room.
Details: (regular) The sheep (piece of paper stuck to walls) have escaped so a shepherd from each team must come and bring them all back to the pen (front of the room).
SPOT THE DIFFERENCE – 5 mins
Description: Power Point Game
Supplies: Slide with two pictures of various sheep – one has 10 differences on it.
Details: (Keynote) Show the slide, go around the group asking them to identify one difference, until all the differences are identified.
BIG VERSE: Fear not for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10.
(regular/widescreen/social media image) Download the Bible cards here.
SET THE SCENE: 10-15 MINS
Description: Story time.
Supplies: Bible and/or skit or Bible story video (see Pinterest)
Details: Read or act out John 10:11-18. Then ask a few of the review questions below:
REVIEW QUESTIONS:
1. Who lays their life down for the sheep? (v11)
2. Who runs away from the dangerous wolf? (v12)
3. Is the shepherd only interested in the sheep he already has in the pen? (v16)
4. What command had God given to Jesus? (v18)
SPOT THE SIMPLE MEANING:
1) THE GOOD SHEPHERD CARES FOR AND KNOWS HIS SHEEP – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 1
Supplies: You will need slips of shepherd activities, tape and a shepherd outfit.
Details:
Say: Did you see that?! If you were a sheep who would you rather took care of you- the shepherd or the hired man? Me too! What were some of the things that the Good Shepherd did? [Have laminated slips to stick on the Good Shepherd]
That’s right! The Good Shepherd loves his sheep and looks after them because they are His sheep! He provides for them and feeds them. You know, if you decide to follow Jesus then just like the drama showed he will look after you, provide for you and care for you just like the good shepherd in that drama because you become one of His sheep!
Did you see how the Good shepherd knew all of His sheep’ names? Thats exactly how it is with Jesus and us. He knows us by name and loves us so much that He died for us!
2) HIS SHEEP LISTEN TO HIS VOICE – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 2
Supplies: Need headphones and sound bites of people (mp3) and a way to listen to them.
Details:
Say: It’s much easier to tell someone’s voice when you know who they are isn’t it?! If you have never seen or spoken to someone before then it is pretty much impossible to tell who they are by just hearing their voice because you have never heard it before! But if you’ve ever spoken to someone in your family, or a friend on the phone then you will probably know as soon as you hear his or her voice who it is.
When we become one of Jesus’ followers- one of His sheep- we start to learn what His voice sounds like. His voice is different to yours or mine- we might not hear him speak out loud in a big booming voice but we can hear Him speak to us in lots of different ways. 3 of those ways are:
Praying: When we are talking to God in prayer sometimes we might feel Him speaking into our heart and showing us what to do.
Reading the Bible: He speaks to us when we read the Bible by telling us things about ourselves, like ‘you are fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139) and by telling us things about Himself too. His words in the Bible also help us to learn how to love others and to live a godly life.
Going to Church: If you don’t have a Bible then going to church will help you to learn more about God and to understand Him for yourself. Here you can learn to listen to, and recognize, His voice!
[Someone walk in with headphones on] Hello! Can you hear me?
[Say to the kids] They can’t hear me because they are so distracted with what they are doing. If we want to be a good friend of God we will want to make time to listen for when He wants to speak. Maybe we can spend a couple of minutes talking to Him before we go to sleep, or maybe read a Bible story to learn more about Him each day.
3) HIS SHEEP FOLLOW HIM – 5 MINS
Description: Object Lesson 3
Supplies: WWJD band.
Details:
Say: We need to be careful who we listen to and who we choose to follow in our lives because Jesus showed us that some people will lead us in the wrong direction (just like the hired man) and we can get in trouble or hurt.
Jesus says that His sheep listen to His voice and follow Him and He looks after them when they do. His sheep do the things He would do. Have you seen my wristband here? It has some letters on it ‘WWJD.’ That means ‘What Would Jesus Do’? When I’m not sure if something is good or bad, right or wrong, I will think about what Jesus would do in that situation. Jesus is always good, loving to others and doesn’t ever think about Himself. I want to follow Him by doing the same- I don’t want to follow people that will get me doing wrong things. If I’m not sure about something I can always pray and ask God to help me make the right decision too!
Let’s pray now and ask Him to help us to listen and follow Him.
SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES:
SCRIPTURE WHISPER- 10 MINS
Description: Spoken activity
Supplies: Nothing
Details:
Ask the children to form either one big circle or smaller circles. Pick a child to start and whisper one of the following verses – this gets whispered around the group and the last person shouts out what the verse was. Is it correct?!
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. John 10 v
27
Call to me and I will answer you. Jeremiah 33 v 3
You will seek me and find me. Jeremiah 29:13
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. Psalm 32 v8
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
- How can we hear Jesus voice?
- Do you find it easy to listen to God?
- What are the different ways we can hear God?
- What happens if we don’t listen to God?
SENSE HOW YOU FEEL – 10 MINS EACH OR IN TANDEM/ROTATION
Encourage the children to think about the questions above as they do one of the activities:
Description: Craft.
Supplies: Cotton wool, paper plate, black card, googly eyes, glue
Details: Make a simple sheep by gluing cotton wool onto a paper plate. Make a head out of black card and legs. Stick on the googly eyes.
Description: Moulding activity.
Supplies: Playdough or clay.
Details: Mould a sheep.
Description: Building activity.
Supplies: Lego or construction toys.
Details: Ask God to give you a picture and then build it! Ask God what it means while you are building it.
Description: Sensory activity.
Supplies: Radio
Details: Try tuning in a radio – then when you’ve found a channel spend a few minutes listening before tunning into another station.
Description: Activity Booklets.
Supplies: 5-7s and 8-11s booklets (included in download), markers.
Details: Fill in or color the 5-7s (PDF) and 8-11s (PDF) booklets.
SEEK GOD: 5 MINS
Description: Prayer activity
Supplies: Pens, paper, Cross, Sign “I am the Good Shepherd”
Details:
Put the sign I am the good shepherd on the cross.
Ask the children to close their eyes and as they do ask Jesus to speak to them. Play some quiet music in the background.
Start by simply asking Jesus a question and then waiting to see what pops in their head. For example, Jesus what is it that you like about me?
Encourage them to write anything down – God might give them a picture.
If the children are having trouble hearing God explain that sometimes we have to spend some time tuning into God (like the radio!). That our minds can get distracted but Jesus wants to speak to everyone of us.
Close the time with a prayer: Thank you God that you are our shepherd. That you care for us and that you speak to us. Amen
ZOOM FRIENDLY LESSON:
PICTURE THIS (regular/widescreen)
CLOSE INSPECTION (Keynote)
