Year 1, Term 6: Jesus the storyteller

Key Question: Why did Jesus tell stories?

Key Question: What is a parable?

Lesson 1: Why Stories Matter

Key Question: Why do we tell stories? How do they help us?

  • Explore what it means to believe in someone. Role-play situations where trust is important. Play a trust game – choose a pair of pupils and blindfold one member - let this child be guided through an obstacle course by the command of the other child. Repeat with another pair of children. Discuss - what is trust?
  • Talk about the qualities which pupils most admire in adults in their lives. Record one good thing about every adult in the school whom they know.
  • Talk about how stories are often used by teachers – do pupils find this helpful?
  • Explain that Christians trust Jesus, who they believe told humans about God. Recall with a partner what is already known about Jesus and his work of teaching people about God. Start a class sheet about what Jesus told people. Write on this recalled information, e.g. how people should livewith reference to the story of Zacchaeus from Unit 1:4.
  • Begin a story with ‘Once upon a time’, and then stop. Ask pupils what they were expecting. Discuss storytelling. What is a story? Who ‘tells’ stories? What kind of stories do you like best?
  • How do we learn things from stories? Tell the story about the boy who cried wolf. Explore the meaning of the story and behaviour of the characters. Is there a message in the story for today?
  • Mind map what we already know about Jesus. Explain that Jesus was a good storyteller who told some of the most well-known stories in the world. These are written in the Bible. Jesus used stories to teach people about God and how they should live. Explain that over the next few weeks they are

going to hear some of Jesus’ stories.

Lesson 2 The Lost Sheep

Key Question: Why do people matter to God?

  • Share feelings about losing and finding something / someone again. Talk about the feelings of celebration that are experienced at the time of 'finding'.
  • What is the role of a shepherd in protecting sheep? Share ideas of how the shepherd might feel about the sheep-compare feelings of those who have pets.
  • Retell Jesus' story of the lost sheep. Who did Jesus want us to think the characters were meant to be? How did the shepherd feel when he found the sheep? (Luke chapter 15:1-7)
  • Play a class game of 'hide and sheep' to encourage pupils to realise that the shepherd might have had a hard time finding the sheep.
  • Draw out the meaning of the story: Jesus said that everyone is important to God like the sheep are important to the shepherd. On paper, write what Jesus told about God through this story. Attach to class recording sheet.
  • Share a celebratory 'shepherd's lunchbox' celebration meal including foods eaten in Jesus' time, e.g. orange segments, dates, pitta bread, fried fish, honey......

Lesson 3: The Good Samaritan

Key Question: How are we to treat other people?

  • Show the children a First Aid Kit. Display each item and talk about what they’re for. Ask if there’s anyone that wants to be bandaged up! Choose a volunteer to be the ‘injured’ person and another to have a go at bandaging them. Afterwards, explain that giving ‘First Aid’ might have something to do with today’s parable.
  • Talk about different ways that people show love / care for each other. Talk about the instruction from Jesus to 'Love your neighbour'. Who might Jesus have meant by a 'neighbour' and what did he mean by 'love'?
  • Tell the story of the 'Good Samaritan' explaining that Jews and Samaritans didn't like each other. Act out a modern version of the story to ensure that pupils get its message. (Children choose classic enemies/friends from TV or stories that they know, e.g. 3 little pigs & the big bad wolf) The story can be found in Luke chapter 10:30-37.
  • Point out that the characters who 'pass by' should have been caring but were not. Why were those who might be expected to help afraid to be involved or couldn't be bothered while the man who was traditionally the injured man's enemy helped him? What did love mean in the story?
  • Writing or Art Activity: Who are my neighbours?

Lesson 4: The Loving Father or The Lost Son

Key Question: What do Jesus’ stories tell us about God?

  • Remind the children of last week’s lesson when we considered the meaning of The Good Samaritan parable.
  • Show the children an award/medal or certificate of some kind and discuss the kinds of things people get awards for. Ask: Do you think there should be an award for when someone admits that they’re wrong? Explain that admitting you were wrong is not often recognised as deserving an award, but it needs lots of courage and bravery to do so.
  • Read a version of the story or tell the story of the lost / prodigal son in Luke chapter 15:11-32 in your own words.
  • Drama Activity - Statues: Invite the children to get into the position that expresses some of the emotions experienced in the story. Explain that they must not move – it’s like a photograph:
  • The young son at the beginning, feeling very fed up
  • The dad feeling very unhappy, waving goodbye
  • The young son feeding the pigs, feeling very hungry
  • The dad at the end of the story welcoming his son
  • The son at the home-coming party
  • Invite the children to suggest what happened next after each break, e.g. how the son felt, what he said, what he did.
  • Share ideas about how hard it can be to say sorry and how hard it can be to forgive someone when they have said sorry to you. Explore through suggested examples and relate to the characters in the story.
  • Hot seat the story as different characters exploring feelings and motivation.
  • Write a note or postcard from the lost son to his brother or his father saying sorry.
  • Recall the key ideas in the story with the children: being sorry, forgiveness, making up. Focus on the ‘good’ son. Was he jealous? How would we have felt? Write down how he felt at different parts of the story.
  • Lead children in a discussion of a deeper meaning of the story if the father represented God. Why did the father celebrate the return of his’ bad’ son? Did the father love both sons? What might this teach about God?
  • Remind pupils that Jesus told the story to teach people important lessons. It is called a parable. Ask children what they think this story means.
  • Make a class definition of a parable to display on the wall and record in books.

Lesson 5 The Pearl and Story of the Buried Treasure

Key Question: What do we treasure the most?

Explanatory Notes: The Kingdom of God: In Christian thinking, the Kingdom of God is not so much a place, as the people whom God rules. The Kingdom spreads as each new person accepts God as their king. The parables of ‘The Pearl’ and ‘The Treasure’ express the value of the Kingdom and the person’s joy at finding it.

Money was often buried. In the days before banks, burial in the ground was the safest way of storing money. It is this habit which has led to so many “finds” by archaeologists….. Pearls were of great worth in the ancient world. Merchants from the Middle East would go as far as India looking for them.

  • Reveal some jewellery or something of value. Explain that jewellery can be very expensive – very precious. Ask if any of the children have anything precious at home. If you could find some treasure, what would you like it to be?
  • Guess where the treasure is! Create a simple treasure map. Invite the children to guess where the treasure might be.
  • Tell the stories of The Pearl and The Hidden Treasure from Matthew chapter 13:44-46. You should be able to find suitable pictures from the internet to help you.
  • Invite a child to be the ‘man/merchant’ in the story and give them a hat to wear. Invite the class to ask them questions. How did you feel when you found the treasure? Were you worried when you sold everything you had?
  • Discuss the value of people and friendships. Place a ‘treasure box’ in the middle. Show some photos of your family and friends. Ask: Are people more important than any ‘thing’ we could possibly own? ‘Ask them to think of things that are ‘treasures’ for them – not toys or jewels or money, but relationships, special times, love, joy, peace and so on’. Children that give an answer can place a piece of the ‘treasure’ into the box.
  • What do you think that the story means? Does it have a special message for people?

Lesson 6: The Wise and Foolish Builders

Key Question: What does Jesus want his listeners to learn to do from his stories?

  • Have a game of Pictionary and invite pupils to draw items used on a building site: a bucket, a saw, a hammer, a trowel.
  • Tell the story of the Two Builders from Matthew chapter 7:24-29. You may like a couple of volunteers to mime being the two builders as you tell the story.
  • Hot Seating: Invite a child to be the ‘wise man/foolish man’ and give them a hat to wear. Invite the class to ask them questions. Perhaps ask some of the following yourself:
  • To the foolish man: Why did you choose to build on sand? Didn’t you know that your house might fall down?
  • To the wise man: was it hard work? Were you frightened when the storms came? How did you know the rock was the best place?
  • To both: How did you feel when your house fell down/stayed up?
  • Play ‘Simon Says’. Explain to the class that Jesus said anyone who hears his words and does them is like the wise man…. But whoever hears his words but does not do them is like the foolish man. Establish that the first thing a person needs to do is listen before they can know what to do. Christian people try and listen to Jesus’ words. One way they do this is by reading the Bible. Another way is through praying.
  • Drama – do some building! Invite the children to stand up and find a space. Have them mime the following actions: Digging, laying bricks, mixing cement, painting, carrying two heavy buckets, sawing, hammering
  • ‘ROCK’ and ‘SAND’. Show the children some words relating to behaviour and attitudes, asking them which heading they belong under. Is it a ‘wise man’ attitude, or a ‘foolish man’ attitude? Afterwards, explain that helping others isn’t easy. Showing kindness isn’t always easy. Listening to instructions and doing them isn’t always easy, but by doing the right thing we can be like the wise man.

‘ROCK’ words: Listening, kindness, caring, helping, loving, forgiving, sharing etc

‘SAND’ words: Hating, hitting, unkindness, revenge, greedy, spiteful, selfishness etc