Fruit of the Spirit Bible Lesson and Activities for Sunday School

Fruit of the Spirit Lesson 9 - Self-control/Temperance

 

 

 

Color a Bible Verse Picture for Self-control

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Make a Fruit Cup

 

 

Make a Fruit of the Spirit Picture with Starburst Candy

 

Children color a Bible verse picture and then glue Starburst candy on the picture gluing the matching flavor of candy next to the fruit.

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Make Edible Strawberries

Have your students dip whole strawberries into colored sugar or melted chocolate. As you work talk to your children about self-control when eating. It is okay to eat sweets, but we must have self-control and not eat too many. We must also eat the foods that are good for us before we eat the foods that aren't as nutritious.

If strawberries are out of season, you can try this recipe:

Strawberry Shaped Cookies Recipe

1/2 cup Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1 pkg. Dry Strawberry Jell-O (Minus 2 Tbsp.)
1 1/2 cup Angel Flake Coconut
Red Food Coloring

1. Mix all the ingredients together.

2. Shape the dough to look like strawberries and then roll them in two tablespoons or Jell-O mixed with red sugar.

3. Use green icing to make leaves.

 

 

3. Tell the children that Squirmy is going to help us learn the Bible verse. Ask Squirmy what he did with the strawberry. Squirmy should say, "What strawberry?" And you say, "Squirmy, you remember the strawberry with the Bible verse on it." Squirmy says, "Oh, that strawberry. I forgot about that. I'm afraid I didn't have much self-control with that either." Squirmy then brings out the strawberry.

4. Go over the Bible verse and have Squirmy pop his head out and say "slow" or "quick" in the appropriate place. Keep reviewing until the children remember the verse.

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Practice Listening

(Older children) Pass out a sheet of paper to each child. Tell them that they are going to practice being slow to speak and quick to listen. Tell them to do exactly like you say. They have to listen carefully because you aren't going to repeat yourself. It is very important that we learn to control our mouths and our ears to know when we should speak and when we should listen. Today we are going to practice listening.

Make the directions match your children's age. The older the children the more directions you should give at one time. Have them draw a design on their paper as you explain what to draw. For example, you can say something like this.

1. Draw a big circle in the middle of your paper.
2. Draw a line though the circle from top to bottom, cutting the circle in half but don't make the line go outside the circle.
3. Draw three small circles on the left side of the big circle, one on top of the other, but not touching each other.
4. Draw three X's on the right side of the big circle, one on top of the other but they should not be touching. The bottom one should be bigger than the middle one and the middle one should be bigger than the top one.

When the children are all done have them compare their pictures. How well did they do listening to the directions?

 

 

Play a Bible Verse Review Game

This game is played like Duck, Duck, Goose but instead of the children saying "Duck, Duck, Goose, they say the Bible verse. The first child says one word of the verse each time he taps a child's head. When he comes to the last word of the verse, he runs around the circle while the child who was tapped last chases him around the circle to his space.

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4. Fruit Sticks Review Game

 

Before class prepare fruit sticks by drawing the different fruits from the lessons on jumbo craft sticks. You can also write the fruit of the Spirit each fruit represents next to the pictures. (If you don't want to use craft sticks, you can just use pictures of the fruit.)

In class give each child a stick and play some review games using these sticks.

1. Find Your Group Game - On the word "go" have your children get into groups according to their fruit. See how long it takes them to get organized. Have the children swap sticks and try again to see if they can do it faster. If you have younger children, you can place pictures of the different fruit on the wall in your room and have the children go to the fruit that matches the fruit on their sticks. When you point to a group have them shout out what their fruit represents.

2. Line Up Game - Divide the children up into groups with two different fruit per group. On the word "go" have them line up in a specified pattern such as "Lemon, grape, lemon, grape” or lemon, lemon, grape, grape, lemon, lemon". The team to line up correctly first wins.

3. Review the Verse Game - You can say things like:

"Everyone who has the self-control fruit, say the memory verse."

"Everyone who has the love fruit, jump up and down three times.”

"Everyone who has the peace fruit take three steps backwards."

4. Drop the Sticks in a Bowl Game - Place a plastic bowl on the floor in front of your students. Have them each take turns trying to drop their stick into a bowl. (Children should hold their hands and forearms so that they are parallel to the floor.) If the stick pops back out of the bowl when dropped, the student must go to the back of the line and try again when it is his turn. Keep playing until all the sticks are in the bowl. (Use a smaller bowl for older children. Test your bowl before class to make sure it is not too hard or too easy to get the sticks in the bowl.)

 

 

 

Children play dominoes with fruit pictures to help them remember the Fruit of the Spirit. This game is available to members only.

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Fruit of the Spirit Ideas from Readers:

Print the scripture verse from Galatians 5:22-23 onto a white sheet of construction paper along with a seven piece puzzle in the shape of a heart. I also printed the seven piece puzzle onto colored construction paper with the love scripture from John 13:34 on it. I cut out the colored puzzle pieces and put them in zip-lock bags, to keep each puzzle separate. During class, the children got to choose what color puzzle they wanted to work. Using the puzzle printed on the white construction paper, they worked their puzzle and then glued the pieces down. The children really enjoyed working the puzzle and of course, gluing down the pieces. Theresa Bostick

Hi! I teach the preschool Sunday school class at my church. We are learning about the Fruits of the Spirit. Our fruit this week was PATIENCE. I used the story of Hannah for my lesson, as she must have had a lot of patience to have continued to pray for so long for a baby.

For our craft, we made a "Patience Necklace". I purchased large wooden beads and made a necklace charm, out of construction paper, with the word "patience" printed on it. During class, the children got to pick their string color and the color of necklace charm they wanted. I gave them all the same amount of beads, and as they worked to string them, we talked about how they were using the Fruit of the Spirit, patience to string the beads and make their necklaces. Some of them had to use more patience than the others, but I think they all understood my point. Theresa Bostick

My daughters were having a hard time (as we all do sometimes) exercising the Fruit of the Spirit. I printed off some fruit pictures and printed a Fruit of the Spirit on each one of the fruit. I then found a basket picture in a clipart program of mine and attached a small magnet to the back of it and to each of the fruit pieces and stuck it on my refrigerator. As my children exemplified a certain fruit during the day, I told them they could go to the refrigerator and place that fruit in their basket (They each had their name printed on their basket.) The goal was to see who could fill up their basket during the day. It worked very well ! Kerrie Wade

Make a Fruit of the Spirit Lapbook to go along with these lessons - 1+1+1=1 Blog has a picture and directions on how she made a lapbook using the printouts from these lessons.

 

 

 

“Fruit of the Spirit” Lesson for Older Children - Children learn about how the Holy Spirit helps us to become more like Jesus. They learn that as we grow in Christ the Holy Spirit helps us to produce fruit that is pleasing and glorifies God.