Scripture: Luke 17:12-19
Target Age Group: 1st through 6th grade
Welcome the children to the classroom and chat with them about their week as they gather around the table.
Pray and ask God to teach the children not just head knowledge, but also heart knowledge.
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Bible Lesson:
Have the children open their Bibles to Luke 17.
(Read the story to the children because at this age some of the children do not read smoothly, which hinders comprehension for the whole class.)
Discussion:
- How many men had leprosy? 10
- Leprosy is a disease that causes the skin to fall off. They had sores all over.
- How did they address Jesus? “Master”
- Why do you think that they called out to Jesus from a distance? If you had leprosy, you had to stay away from other people so that they wouldn’t get leprosy too.
- Think about how sad that would have been for these people. They could never go home to their families, or hug them. If anybody came to close to them they would have to call out, “Unclean! Unclean!” to warn the person to keep their distance.
- Jesus heard them, but, did Jesus say, “You are healed?” No.
- What did he say? “Go, show yourselves to the priests.”
- Back then people were to show themselves to the priest to have the priest declare them healed and clean. Then they would be able to go back to their families again.
- Did they do what Jesus said? Yes. They all obeyed Jesus.
- When they left to see the priest, what happened? They were healed.
- Who came back to thank Jesus? Only one of them. The Samaritan.
- Again Jesus points out that the Samaritan – the one who was looked down upon – was the one who had a heart of gratitude.
- What did Jesus say about that? “Where are the other nine? Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?”
- Jesus wants us to obey him, but what else does he want? He wants our hearts to be tender and thankful toward him.
- Do you think that you would have been like the 9 or like the Samaritan?
- Hopefully, we will always remember to be thankful to Jesus for all of the blessings that he has given us.
- What are some other things that you are grateful to the Lord for?
- Like the lepers, we were healed, too. What were we healed from? Our sin.
- How can we show Jesus our thanks? We can pray and say “Thank you.” But, we can also praise him, and serve him to show our gratitude.
- Let’s pray and thank him now….
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During the remaining class time do activities that help to reinforce what the children have learned. Here are some suggestions…
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Memorize the verse.
Psalms 107:1 “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.”
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Have the children use colors or pastels to draw their own vision of the story on a sketch pad page. Or have them color a color page related to the story.
Color page #1 from Bible Printables.
Color page #2 from Sermons4Kids
An excellent color page book is “Through-the-Bible Coloring Pages For Ages 4-8” by Janet Skiles. The pages are reproducible.
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Show a video of this story:
Video #1 Dan Huffman
Video #2 Lego version
Video #4 Nite Nite with Frankie
Video #6 The Global Gospel
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Share this children’s sermon from Sermons4kids. Don’t forget the activities at the bottom of the page!
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Have the children fill out these worksheets and color page from Calvary Curriculum.
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Share this object lesson from Children’s Ministry.
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Mission Bible Class has an excellent lesson with activity ideas for this story.
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Play the Be Thankful Game from the Gospel Tract Society.
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Ministry for Children has a whole page of links to crafts and activities for Thanksgiving.
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Here is an interesting way to share this story.
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Jesus Without Language has a really cute spinner craft.
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Have older kids make this craft from Emmanuel.
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Have the children make the booklet “One Leper Thanks Jesus” by Lambsongs. (Scroll Down.)
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Share this lesson from Ministry to Children.
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This lesson from Church of God has some worksheets and a color page.
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Help the children to realize how many things they have to be thankful for with this object lesson from Sunday Children’s Focus.
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Make a Thanksgiving paper chain.
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Play this file folder game from the Catholic Toolbox.
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Make thank you cards for Jesus from the Toy Maker.
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Sing:
“Dont Be A Turkey” by Yancy
“Thank You Lord” by Hillsong
“I Thank God” by Rhema Marvanne
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Evaluate what the children have learned. While they are coloring or crafting ask each one what they learned today.
Send each child’s parent an e-mail (or a hard copy) of the Parents’ Page.
Children's Church 
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