Pharisees try to trick Jesus

(Matthew 22: 15-22)

The lesson today is about the story of when the Pharisees try to trick Jesus into taking sides. They are upset about the amount of taxes that are forced upon them by Caesar, so they try to get Jesus to join with them and say it is unfair. Jesus knows if he sides with the people, Caesar will put him in jail, but if he sides with Caesar, the people will think he is a traitor. Therefore, he tells them to show him a coin. When they do so, he points out that it is Caesar's picture on the coin, thereby showing that it is Caesar's money. He says to them, "Give therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's."

We talked today about what things belong to God. How do we know they are God's? What should we give back to God and how do we do that? Of course, this opened up a wonderful discussion that took many directions. We covered topics such as tithing, charity, neighborly love, kindness, sacrifice, blessings, and personal responsibilities to family and community. We ended up concluding that everything belongs to God! 

Our craft today was to make coins representing what we give back to God. I asked the children to draw pictures of things they possess that they can give back to God.

We made coins once before with The Widow's Mite lesson. This time I wanted the coins to be larger to give the children plenty of room to draw.

Materials needed:

u Wooden circles (I could only find button shapes. They came from Michaels for a few cents per button. I'll show you how to get rid of the button holes below.) 

u Circle stickers

u Candy foil wrappers (also found at Michaels)

u Sharpie or tool of choice to draw picture on foil

Instructions:

1) Give each child one button, two sheets of foil, a pen and two stickers. 

2) Ask the children to put a sticker on each side of the button to cover up the button holes. This will prevent the holes from showing through the finished product.

3) Wrap one sheet of foil around one side of the coin.

4) Wrap the other sheet over the other side. This is the top.

5) Instruct the kids to draw a picture of something they have been blessed with that they can give back to God.

NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!

The Widow's Mite

(Luke 21: 1-4 and Mark 12: 41-44)

Did you know at the time of the writing of the bible, there was  no such thing as a mite? According to Wikipedia, the term mite came about with the Kings James version. The widow actually gave two small copper coins. These coins were called leptons. But, at the time the KJB was written, the smallest coin was called a mite, so it was translated as a mite. I just found this interesting and thought I'd share. :)

Whenever this lesson rolls around, I usually show the kids how to make their own lepton/mite. And each time, the method gets perfected slightly from the time before. Here's the latest version:

Materials:

Any type of circle cutter

Aluminum foil

Sharpies (brown + other colors)

Chips (I found a small package at the dollar store) 

I have to admit, it seemed wrong buying poker chips to use at church, and I still feel a little guilty about it, but I reasoned with myself that we were not gambling with them, and then I marched right up to the checkout. While waiting in line, I asked God to help me find a better item to use for this purpose. Since nothing better has turned up yet, I guess he's okay with it. At least that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it. :D

Instructions:

1) Using the circle cutter, cut two circles slightly larger than each coin. I used 
1 7/8" circles.

2) Allow each child to draw a face, sun, or other simple picture on each piece of foil.

3) Next, since the widow's coins were copper, use a brown or copper marker to shade the aluminum foil around the picture to mimic copper. Notice I forgot this step in my picture - sorry about that. I tried to find copper foil at Michael's or Hobby Lobby so this step could be omitted, but the only copper sheets I could find were too thick and actually had sharp edges. Oh well. The kids have never minded coloring their coins to look like copper anyway.

4) First wrap the back piece around one side of the coin, and then wrap the top piece around the other side. Press the edges snuggly to the coin.

NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!