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November Week 1
Handout front Who were the Pilgrims
picture from http://www.plimoth.org/learn/education/kids/coloring.asp
Handout back Scripture:Psalm 106:1 Praise the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
Song: “Oh, the Lord is Good to Me.”
The Lord is good to me
and so I thank the Lord
For giving me
the things I need
The sun and the rain
and the apple seed
The Lord is good to me.
Prayer: Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat,
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you, God, for everything!
~Edith Rutter Leatham~
Materials Needed:
Look at http://www.plimoth.org/learn/ and if you live near enough, go and visit Plimoth Plantation. ( This is great for more then just Chapel. When I was in New England, I took my youth group each year. I created a list of questions that were along the idea of a scavenger hunt. The youth had to get the answers and then they ”preached” the message on the Sunday nearest Thanksgiving)
A set of pilgrim forms/cutouts. These are available at teacher stores. Look for the ones that have an image of the Mayflower, Pilgrims, Native American people, houses, wetus (weh t’oos) Wampanoag houses, canoes, and animals. If you cannot get to a teacher store, try getting pictures from the internet. If you cannot get on the internet, draw what your own version of these. The children will love it. Simply tell them who is who. They will follow along.
For this lesson you will need the Mayflower, a Dad, Mom, and Child Pilgrim and a pig, cow, sheep, goat, and/or chicken. You can simply hold these or you can add sticks to them to make them more like puppets.
Lesson:
Read scripture.
This passage comes from one of the songs in our Bible. The person singing is happy because God has always been present, even when life got difficult .
This month we are learning about the Pilgrims, the Wampanoag People and Thanksgiving. Have any of you seen pictures of thanksgiving? ( wait) Did you see any Pilgrims? ( wait) A Pilgrim is a person who goes on a journey to find an important place. It is usually a place where they hope to come to know God better. There were some people in England back in the year 1620 who wanted to find a place where they could read their Bibles and worship God without getting in trouble with the King. ( Hold up the Dad, Mom, and Child Pilgrim) They left Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620 on a ship called the Mayflower.( Hold up the Mayflower and pretend that the family gets on board). This was just a regular family. Some families brought servants and many brought animals ( Hold up one or more of the cow,chicken, pig, goat, and/or sheep puppets. These are animals that were not in North America.) And they set sail. There were a lot of people on the ship so the children didn’t have much room to run or play. And then it was difficult to play as the ocean had many big waves ( make the ship go up and down with the people and animals). Many people got sick ( pretend that the pilgrims are getting sick over the edge of the Mayflower - the kids will certainly laugh.) After 66 days, they arrived. These were regular English families. They were not pioneers. Oh, there were some among them that were not Pilgrims but had come for the ride to the new land thinking that they could get lots of money. They were mostly disappointed. Meanwhile, the Pilgrims wanted to continue to live like they had back in England only now they would be free to read their Bibles and go to church as they thought was right to do. Children, can you imagine, the Pilgrims would get in trouble with the King for reading their Bibles. They came to a far away place just to have the freedom to worship God in a way that was right for them. Imagine that.
Let’s sing our song!
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