Sample Sunday School Lessons for Children

Martin's Big Words (The Story of Martin Luther King, Jr. for Children)

 

Member's

Bible Verse:

Galatians 3:28

Printable Bible Verse Card:

Print out onto card stock, cut apart, and send home with each child. NIV Version or KJV Version.

Teaching Concept:

Children learn about the power of God's words and how Martin Luther King, Jr. used words to change a bad situation.

 

Early Arrivals Activities

 

 

 

Two smiley-faced characters holding hands with the quote from Martin Luther King, Jr. at the bottom of the page: "I have a dream . . . little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sister and brothers." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Use craft spoons and foam shapes or patterns cut from colorful paper.

What to do:

1. Before class print out the people patterns on flesh colored paper and the background pattern onto white paper.

Member's Pattern - - Availabe with the complete lesson.

Instant Digital Download - - This pattern only.

2. In class have your children color the background pattern.

3. Show them how to glue the arms and legs to the back of the circles as shown in the picture to make people . Glue two of the smiley face characters to the center of the paper so that they are holding hands.

Copyright 2002, Digital by Design, Inc. - See Copyright Information

 

The Lesson

 

Preparation: You will need some dot stickers of two different colors. Before story time give each child a sticker. Try to give out an even amount of both colors. At story time separate the children by color. Have the children with one color sit in the back while all the children of the other color sit up front next to you. Now tell the children that you brought a little treat for them today, but that only the children with "red" stickers can have one. Hand the treats out. Ask the children how they feel about that, then give the rest of the children a treat. (If you don't want to use stickers, you can use hair color or another way to separate the children.)(If you have really young children (3's and 4's) you may not want to use this demonstration, but instead just ask them how they would feel if they had to sit in the back of the room, or ride in the back of the bus, or only drink out of a certain water fountain.)

You felt exactly like the Afro-American people felt a long time ago. People treated them badly just because they had dark skin. In the south there were laws that were very unfair (called "Jim Crow" laws). They said that black people had to sit in the back of buses and if there weren't enough seats in the bus they had to get up and give their seat to a white person if they wanted it. That doesn't sound very fair does it? There were also laws saying that black people couldn't drink out of the same water fountain as white people. They couldn't eat at some restaurants, they had to sit in the back seats of theaters, and they couldn't even stay at some motels. That doesn't sound very nice, does it? But if the people broke the law and tried to drink water from a water fountain, or use a rest room that said "white's only", or not get up when a white person wanted to sit down, they would be arrested and put into jail. They could also be beaten up or even killed.

Martin Luther King lived in Atlanta Georgia when all this was happening. When he was a young boy he would listen to his father preach on Sundays about how wrong this was. His father would tell the people that we are all one in Christ. Jesus loves us all and he wants us to treat everyone nice no matter what they look like, or how they dress, or what color their skin is.

Martin wanted to be just like his father. He wanted to use big powerful words like his father because he spoke the truth and saw that his words gave people hope and made them happy. When he grew up he became a minister too.

Martin wasn't afraid to speak up and tell people what God put on his heart even when he knew he could be arrested or even killed. Martin spoke out against the bad laws and he showed others how to do it also. He showed people how to fight with words, the truth, and prayer. He knew that words where much stronger than any weapon. He said that "Love is the key to the problems of the world," and that "Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that . . . " He would organize marches and sit ins. When the police tried to arrest them, they didn't try to fight back. When people threw bottles at them or used fire hoses on them they didn't try to fight back, instead he told them to stop and pray.

After a long fight the Jim Crow laws were thrown out and new laws were written to make sure that all people no matter what their color, religion, or beliefs were treated the same.

There are still many instances of people being treated badly because they are different, but Martin Luther King was a great help in getting people to realize that the Bible teaches us how to treat others.

He will always be remembered for the work he did to spread God's words or love.

Read Luke 6: 27-36

 

Prayer

 

Father, We thank for Martin Luther King, Jr. and his willingness to stand up for the truth. Help us to be brave like him. Help us to stand up for what is right and not to judge others by what they look like on the outside. Amen

 

Crafts and Activities

 

Have the children decide what they would like to write on their Pictures. Suggest things like "Untied in Love", "We are one in Christ", or "Love one another", etc.

Member's Pattern - - Available with the complete lesson.

Instant Digital Download -

 

 

If you did use the sticker example before the lesson, you may want to use this demonstration. Before class prepare two different snacks and drinks. Make one snack and drink look very appetizing and the other not very good. Separate the children into two groups. Stick red stickers on the foreheads of one group and blue on the foreheads of others. Tell the children that the children with the "red" stickers get to go first. Give them all the "good drinks and good snacks". After you have served all the "red" children, serve the "blue" children. Once all the children are served and have eaten, asked them how they felt about snack time. Discuss with them that that is how black children were treated when Martin Luther King was a little boy their age.

Ask the children if they are treated that way today in school?

 

 

Bring in a brown egg and a white egg. Discuss how the eggs are different. Ask the children which one they like better. Ask them which one they would like to eat. Break the eggs and show them what is inside. Show them that even though the eggs look different on the outside, they look the same on the inside. This is just like people, we look different but we all experience the same feeling of love, hate, jealousy, and fear. Jesus doesn't care how we look on the outside, he only cares how we look on the inside. We should not judge people by the way they look, but by the way the act.

 

 

Have them make one of the Free Bus Boycott crafts on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Craft Page.

 

 

5. Find Out More about Each Other

Place your children in groups of two. Ask them to talk to their partners to find out three things that they have in common or are similar. Then ask them to find three things that are different about each other.

 

 

“I don’t like Red!” said Yellow,
And Green said, “Nor do I!
And no one here likes Orange,
But no one knows just why.”

At the end of the story the crayons realize that they are all very important when they see a beautiful picture being drawn by the author. You can also draw the picture as you tell the story.

You can have your children color a crayon pattern and add arms, legs, and eyes to make them look alive. Staple the crayons on the bulletin board to make a display. And write the words "We are one in Christ, Gal. 3:28" in the middle of the board.

Member's - Available with the complete lesson.

Free Instant Download - This pattern only.

Copyright 2002, Digital by Design, Inc. - See Copyright Information

 

Songs

 

Sing Happy Birthday to Martin

Have the children stand in a circle and hold hands crossing their own hand in front of their bodies.

 

 

Copyright © 2002 Digital by Design
Danielle's Place of Crafts and Activities
https://www.daniellesplace.com

All rights reserved.  The craft patterns, ideas, songs, etc. on this web site are copyrighted. You may not publish a copy of them on any other web site, but you may publish a picture of a finished project you made (not the directions and patterns) on another web site as long as you state where you got the project and include a link back to the project on this web site for the directions and patterns. It is illegal to copy material from this web site without permission and publish it any where on the web even if you include the copyright notice and author's name.

If you would like to publish something from this web site on your site email us (see link above) for permission.

 

Comments

We would love to hear your comments about this lesson. If you taught this lesson, we would love to hear how it went, if you changed anything, added anything, what age you taught and was it appropriate.  Any comments that would help others teach this lesson are welcome.

Here are some other suggestions for songs sent in by Kathleen

We Shall Overcome
(We shall overcome, we shall overcome, we shall overcome some day, deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day.)
there other verses as well for this song

"If I were Brave" by Jana Stanfield, www.janastanfield.com

(What would I do today, if I were brave? What would I do today, if I were brave?)

We used your Martin Luther King, Jr. Lesson for my Wednesday night children's program. It was very well received by the kids. It gave us a chance to talk about how ALL people over generations have been discriminated against which opened feed back from the children. They even commented that because they are children sometimes they get discriminated against and that their opinions are not heard. We played a game where we marked the children with two different color markers (example red/green) on their hands. We randomly choose a color group that we did not want to have sitting with us and they were sent to the back of the room while the other group had a fun minute project to do (then we reversed the group). It was great way to let the children Feel being separated from their friends. We also blind folded a child and had another child stand in front of the blind folded child and asked them to describe how they looked. Obviously they couldn't tell anything about the person because they couldn't see them. That lead to a discussion about judging people because of their looks.

We did the coloring pages and concluded with Dr. Seuss' storybook Sneetches on the Beaches. Which is a wonderful story about being different and does it really matter...Seuss has a wonderful way of using funny pictures and rhymes to really get important information across to the children (and adults).

Your site has been wonderful for creative ideas, lessons and crafts. Thank you, Linda Giotis - member

We did a crayon idea in our three year old class at preschool. We talked about how everybody is different and passed out a crayon to each child. We broke some and tore the paper off some. We started to collect them back into the box and asked the children about the differences. Are they still able to use them even if they are broken? Did it change what they can do? etc. Connie

 

Copyright Notice

The craft patterns, ideas, songs, lessons, etc. on this web site are copyrighted.

You may not publish a copy of them on any other web site.

You may publish a picture of a finished project you made from this site (not the directions and patterns) on another web site as long as you state where you got the project and include a link back to the project on this web site for the directions and patterns.

It is illegal to copy material from this web site without permission and publish it any where on the web even if you include the copyright notice and author's name.

If you would like to publish something from this web site on your site email us (see link above) for permission.

All rights reserved. While many of the crafts on this site are free, they are still copyrighted. They may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, except for use in your local church, school, home, library, and other organizations. It is illegal to copy any part of this craft and place it on another web site, bulletin board, or personal web site. To request permission to copy this material for any other use than personal use contact me by e-mail.

 

For more Sample Sunday school lessons go to the Sample Sunday School Lessons Page.

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