Recently, I taught a Sunday School class on the 10 Commandments. This post shares what I did and some resources Sunday School teachers can consider using.
Bible Passage: Exodus 19-20
Duration: 60mins
Age Group: 10-12 years old
Opening Activity
To activate prior knowledge and help children connect God’s laws to their daily life, I used examples of game rules and school rules. I showed the children a short video on soccer game fouls. You can use any other video of your choice. Then we discussed some questions on why rules are important in a game, which I then connected to ideas about school rules and laws.
Discussion Questions
- What are some fouls you witnessed? What other rules of Soccer do you know about?
- Why do we need boundaries?
- What are some rules you have in school? What is their purpose?
- What is a law?
Lesson Proper
We then read the bible passage, stopping at specific sections to answer the questions below.
Discussion Questions and Activities
- In Exodus 19:4-6, what does God remind his people?
- God’s covenant has two parts. What does God require his people to?
And what does God promise to do for his people? - After the Israelites heard God’s covenant, what did they promise to do?
- What are the 10 commandments?
To help the children remember the order of the commandments, I showed the video by Ron White that features hand actions to help with memorising the verses. Ron White is a genius and I thank him for this fun video that that we could follow along.
The children then did a worksheet where they rearranged the commandments in the right order.
We also discussed what the purpose of the 10 commandments were and the children filled in this simple table.
Consolidation
To end off the lesson, I wanted the children to experience what it would feel like if no one followed rules. So I designed an adapted UNO game. The usual rules applied, however, I created several new game instruction cards and gave one to each child. They each had to follow the unique instruction given to them while playing the UNO game. Essentially, the cards either disadvantaged them or gave special privileges.
Examples of Card Instructions
– You can only put out one card at your turn.
– You can take anyone’s card for your own.
– You need to draw a card after every turn (Essentially, this child can never win the UNO game.)
– You are the winner at the end of the day.
Response from the Children
Obviously, the disadvantaged children were upset and felt the game was unfair. Those with privileges were gleeful. I stopped the game after we had gone on for 3 rounds and held a quick discussion on how each felt while they were playing the adapted UNO game. The children spoke about the confusion they felt and agreed that the game was no fun when everyone played according to their own rules.
Conclusion:
It was nice to see that the children enjoyed the activities. They were also able to express the purpose of God’s laws by relating them to school rules and game rules. When I asked them if they felt Christians have too many rules to follow, I was glad to hear that they thought ten rules were not too many and that the rules were pretty reasonable.