Full to the Brim Children's Lessons for Lent (Year C)
We’ve created these children’s lessons to be used with our Full to the Brim series for Lent–Easter (Year C) in worship, Sunday School, or at home. Each week of these children’s lessons includes a core affirmation for children to hear and repeat, a paraphrase of the bible story with questions to ask, a suggested book to read with questions to ask, and an art prompt. The weeks and scriptures included are:
First Sunday in Lent (Luke 4:1-13)
Second Sunday in Lent (Luke 13:31-35)
Third Sunday in Lent (Luke 13:1-9)
Fourth Sunday in Lent (Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32)
Fifth Sunday in Lent (John 12:1-8)
Palm/Passion Sunday (Luke 19:28-40)
Easter Sunday (Luke 19:28-40)
Note: If you would like to provide something for children during Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, or Good Friday services, we suggest adapting our children’s lessons for Again & Again, providing a coloring page from our image licensing library, or printing our Lord’s Prayer visual map.
Click here to download the lessons, and keep reading for more information about how to adapt these lessons for your own context.
SAMPLE SUNDAY SCHOOL OUTLINE
Prepare by posting the weekly affirmation somewhere children can see, such as on a dry erase board, chalk board, or flip chart.
Begin the lesson by reading the affirmation and asking children to repeat it with you a few times. You might ask them what that means to them, or what a particular word in the affirmation means to them.
Move to reading the picture book together. Ask questions throughout the book and at the end of reading together.
Transition to the bible story. You might read from a children’s bible, tell the story in the manner of Godly Play®, or use the provided paraphrase. Ask questions throughout the story and at the end of reading together. If you want to print an image for children to look at while you read the story aloud, there are many great images in our image licensing library that correspond to these scriptures.
After the bible story, return to the weekly affirmation. Ask children to say the affirmation again with you a few times. You might also use this time to tie in both stories with the affirmation.
Pray together to close your time, either at this point or after completing the art prompt together.
SAMPLE CHILDREN’S MOMENT OUTLINE
Begin the children’s moment by reading the weekly affirmation and asking children to repeat it after you a few times. You might ask them what that means to them, or what a particular word in the affirmation means to them.
Read either the bible story or the picture book together. Ask questions throughout the story and at the end of reading together.
After the story, return to the weekly affirmation. Ask children (and the congregation!) to say the affirmation with you a few times.
Close in prayer and distribute the pre-formatted drawing pages if not already distributed in Sunday School, worship folders, worship bags, or bulletins.
SHARING THESE LESSONS FOR USE AT HOME
Physically: Print the lessons to distribute to families or include them with a Lenten take-home kit along with any other crafts, supplies, or worship materials for the family.
Digitally: Email the lessons to families weekly (just copy and paste) or attach the PDF for families to utilize at home. Books can be checked out from the library or found in the linked read-aloud videos on YouTube. Drawing pages can be split from the full PDF file to be attached to an email by using an online PDF splitting tool.
REV. ANNA STRICKLAND
Operations Support & Content Creation
Rev. Anna Strickland (she/her/hers) looks for the Divine in the everyday like treasure in clay jars and first encountered God in the integration of her spiritual self and artistic self. She is a native Austinite and graduated from the University of Texas where she now works in college ministry, especially serving LGBTQ students.