Aim to be grateful to God for the food we eat

Aim
* To be grateful to God for the food we eat
* To understand how bread is made

Materials
* “Pass the Rolls,” from The Toddlers Bedtime Story Book, by V. Gilbert Beers
* Samples of different kinds of bread – white, brown, pitta bread, muffins etc.,
* Bread dough for children to poke,
* Some grains of wheat to feel, from a pet shop or health food shop.
* pictures of bread from magazines
* paper, pencils,scissors, glue
* a picture to colour

Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Story & Discussion
3. Activities – action rhyme, bread collage, loaves & fishes, grain pattern, sow seeds, colour a picture
4. Review aims of lesson
5. Prayer

1) Introduction
* Show the children the different kinds of bread. Ask them what kind of bread they like and what they spread on it. Taste some of the bread.
* Ask them where bread comes from. Show the grains. Talk about the farmers who plant the grains and what they need to grow – sunshine, rain, soil, warmth. Talk about cutting the grain with big machines, storing and selling it. Grinding grain into flour, putting it into bags, sending it to bakeries. Talk about turning flour into dough and baking it in ovens, taking to shops, where we buy it. Let them poke bread dough.

• To eat one piece of bread we should think about all the stages it took for the grains to turn into a loaf of bread. Every time we eat bread we should be grateful to God and all the people who helped bring bread to our table.
  * Show pictures of farmer cutting field of wheat and mother and boy eating toast. – the beginning and end of a piece of bread

2) Story and Discussion
* Tell the story. Discuss the importance of being grateful for each roll of bread and always saying please, when we want to eat food at the table. When we say please we are showing God that we are grateful for the food.

3) Activities
* Action Rhyme – The Farmer Sows the Seeds
* Bread collage – Children could cut out pictures of bread from magazines, or colour and paint loaf and roll shapes to make a bread collage.
* Loaves and fishes in the basket. For each child cut a round shape in a neutral colour for a picnic basket, five bread roll shapes and two fish shapes. Let the children stick the loaves and fishes in the basket.
* Grain pattern – Make a pattern or picture by gluing grains to a piece of strong paper.
* Sow grain seeds – Sow some grain in a shallow box or tray and watch them grow.
* Colour picture – mother and boy eating toast

4) Review the aims of the lesson
To be grateful to God for the food we eat
To understand how bread is made

5) Prayer
Thank you for the food to eat,
Bread and butter, milk and meat.
Fruit and fish the boats bring in,
Thank you, God, for everything,