This lesson is targeted for older preschool children, age 4 and age 5 years old. It would serve well as a preschool Sunday School lesson. You could also adapted this lesson plan for other ministry settings. You may also our Bible lessons for older children on knowing God.
Bible Passage:Isaiah 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:23, 25; James 1:9-11
Bible Lesson Title: God’s Word is Eternal
Target Age Group: 4-5 years old (U.S. preschool & Kindergarten)
Target Time Frame: 30 minutes
Original Teaching Context: Preschool Sunday School
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Lesson One: God’s Word is Eternal (30 minutes)
Scripture: Isaiah 40:6-8; 1 Peter 1:23, 25; James 1:9-11
Exegetical Idea: God declares through Isaiah that people are frail and fading, but the Word of the Lord is durable and eternal.
Pedagogical Idea: God desires for us to understand that we are nothing and dead without Him, and it is only in His eternal word that we may gain life.
Cognitive Aim: Children will understand that who we are and what we do will eventually fade away, but God’s eternal word can give us life and eternal beauty.
Affective Aim: Children will feel joy knowing God can grant to them life.
Behavioral Aim: Children will memorize Isaiah 40:8
Memory Verse: Isaiah 40:8, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of the Lord lasts forever.”
Lesson Overview
- Kindle Curiosity (5 minutes) Description: Shows the preschoolers how flowers will all eventually die. Supplies: Dead flower or withered grass
- God Revealed (7 minutes) Description: Read Isaiah 40:6-8 using visuals. Supplies: Dead flower from Step 1, Bible, visuals (see details in Step 2 below)
- Personal Pursuit (20 minutes) Description: Supplies: Dandelions, fresh flower.
- Daily Knowing (10 minutes) Description: Preschoolers will work on memorizing Isaiah 40:8 using body motions. Supplies: Bibles, note cards with Isaiah 40:8 to give to parents, vanilla.
1. Kindle Curiosity (5 minutes)
Show the preschoolers the dead flower(s) or withered grass.
- Question: What do you see? What do you think happened? Why? Does this happen to all plants?
- Say: All plants will eventually die for some reason, whether it is lack of water, sunlight, good soil, or just old age. Today we are going to begin to know God better through Isaiah chapter 40 (hold up your Bible and show them the “I” for Isaiah and the number 40) We will be learning from verses 6, 7, & 8 (help them recognize these numbers in the Bible).
- Isaiah was a prophet. Can you say prophet? A prophet was a person chosen by God to speak His words to the rest of the people. Remember how special and important God’s word is to us!* Get ready to hear God’s amazing words by turning off your mouths and on your ears! (Demonstrate by placing your hand over your mouth and turning your earlobes. Encourage the children to follow your example).
*If the children you are teaching have never been taught about the Bible, explain to them what it is and why it is so important. You may teach the class a saying or verse to memorize about the Bible and repeat it with them each week. For example, “This is the Bible. It is God’s Word. He wrote it, so we know everything in it is true. It is divided into two parts- the Old Testament and New Testament. Today’s lesson is from the …”
2. God Revealed (5 minutes)
- Before you read the verses, give each child visuals (Such as an open mouth for the words “call out,” a pictures of grass, flowers, dead grass and flowers, and a Bible) to hold up when they hear the word describing their picture. You will most likely have to prompt them.
- Read Isaiah 40:6-8
- God tells Isaiah to call out or cry out. This means that what He wanted Isaiah to tell the people was so important that he needed to speak it so that everyone could hear! (Read v.8 again, but yell it out and invite the children to join in!)
- Say: God said that people are like grass. Do you remember what God says will happen to the grass? (Show them the dead flowers or grass from the beginning of the lesson).
- Ask: So if people are like grass, what do you think God meant? (This is an abstract question, but some children may make the connection. If they are confused and unsure, help them arrive at the biblical truth).
- Share with the children something about what God revealed to you as you studied this passage. Preschoolers love hearing personal stories about their teachers!
3. Personal Pursuit (10 minutes)
- This is a dandelion. Isn’t it beautiful? Look at the details God put in each tiny little part. (Allow each of them to examine it closely. Tell them not to blow the dandelion yet because we will do it all together soon.)
- Let’s see what happens when we all blow together on this dandelion! One, two, three blow! (Gasp) What happened?! This dandelion isn’t so beautiful anymore. It’s just a stem!
- Sometimes we think that we do very important things, things that make us beautiful and special like singers or princesses or superheroes. However, God shows us in these verses that we are nothing without Him, we are like the stem of this dandelion. When we really know Him, it is like His breath blows on us and we see that everything about us we thought was special becomes nothing (as you are saying this blow on another dandelion to demonstrate this thought)!
- But, when we believe in God and love Him with all of our hearts, we become truly beautiful (have a fresh flower or dandelion ready and present it) and the beauty that comes from loving our God never dies or withers. It lasts forever! He is always our beauty! The words in this Bible will never fade, and they are our source for true life, to God, to eternal beauty.
- What do you think about that?
- Have a time to pray and thank God for the Bible, through which we can know God and have eternal beauty. Encourage the children to say their own prayers with their arms spread open and their faces to the sky! (There is no certain way to pray; many times in Scripture, it says they “lifted their eyes to the heavens.” Allow children to express their prayers to God creatively, wondrously, and however they would like).
4. Daily Knowing (10 minutes)
- Say: It is so important to know God’s word because that is how we come to know Him and obtain eternal beauty; He is our beauty. Today we are going to do something special to help you know God’s word!
- Read Isaiah 40:8 with the children. You will be memorizing this verse together using body motions. Allow them to think up motions that will help them memorize this verse. When you have several motions, repeat the verse and motions until they seem to have it. Make sure you review with them the next week or when you have encounters during the week one-on-one.
- Encourage them to share this verse with their parents when they pick them up so their parents will be able to help them practice at home. Provide each parent with a notecard that has Isaiah 40:8 written on it*.
- As the children leave the room, rub their wrist with some vanilla. Tell them as they smell it throughout the day, to remember that God’s word lasts forever!
*If some children do not have parents who are believers, make a special effort to encourage them in every time you see them in their scripture memorization and pursuit of God.
Need More Ideas? You can browse all our free materials for Preschool Sunday School. You may also enjoy our printable Bible Coloring pages.