Aim to learn how to pray & say thank you to God

Aim
*to learn how to pray
*to learn to to say thank you to God

Materials
* Story – “Shhh! Daddy is Praying” from The Toddlers Bedtime Story Book by V. Gilbert Beers
* picture cards of the story
* A picture to colour

Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Story
3. Discussion
4. How to pray
5. Activities – colour a picture, card games
6. Review the aims
7. Prayer

1) Introduction
*Todays’ story is called “Shhh! Daddy is praying”. Discuss a little about prayer with the children.
Ask the them if their mummy and daddy pray at home. What do they pray about? When do they pray? Do you pray also?

2) Story
1. Shhhh, table. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God for our good dinner.
2. Shhhh, chair. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God for Mummy.
3. Shhhh, big brother. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God for you.
4. Shhhh, pussy cat. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God for our church.
5. Shhhh, puppy. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God for our Bible.
6. Shhhh, door. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God that we can play together.
7. Shhhh, bed. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God for warm beds where we can sleep tonight.
8. Shhhh, jeans. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God for our good clothes.
9. Shhhh, me. Daddy is praying. He is thanking God that we love each other.
10. Shhhhhh. Daddy has stopped praying. Now its my turn. Is it your turn too?

3) Discussion about the story
*Why should you be quiet when daddy is praying? – to show respect, so daddy can pray quietly, and concentrate
* What things need to be quiet? – table, chair, big brother, pussy cat, puppy, door, bed, jeans, me
* How does daddy pray? – eyes closed, hands together
* Why does he need to do this? – helps to concentrate
*What does daddy pray about? – He says thank you to God for dinner, mummy, you, church, the bible, that we can play together, warm beds to sleep, good clothes, that we love each other
*What else can we thank God for?

4) How to pray
Say a prayer together following these prayer points:
1. Hands together
2. Eyes closed
3. Say thank you (e.g.family, friends, home, clothes, food, toys)
4. Tell God what you did at the end of each day

5) Activities
* Show picture cards to the children. Ask them what daddy is praying about in each one
*Memory game – make matching pairs
*Which one is missing? – Children look at pictures and try to remember them. Children turn away. One picture is taken away. Which picture is missing?
*Colour picture of a child praying

6) Review the aims
*to learn how to pray
*to learn to to say thank you to God
What did we learn today? – When we pray we close our eyes and put our hands together.
We can thank God for many things.We tell God what we did at the end of the day

7) Prayer
End with a prayer. Ask each child to say thank you for something. Go around more than once if children have more ideas.