Jesus and the Children
A "S.T.E.M." Workshop
Written by Brooke Williams for First United Methodist Church of Kingfisher, OK
Overview
Students will learn that Jesus invites and welcomes them into his presence, and that he wants to have a relationship with him. Students will learn about children around the world, noticing things they have in common and ways they are different. They will also learn different ways graphs and charts are used to display data, examining global, national, and local statistics about children. Lastly, students will practice making their own graphs and charts using data about themselves (as a group).
Scripture Reference - Mark 10:13-16 (NIrV)
Little Children Are Brought to Jesus | 13 People were bringing little children to Jesus. They wanted him to place his hands on them to bless them. But the disciples told them to stop. 14 When Jesus saw this, he was angry. He said to his disciples, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t keep them away. God’s kingdom belongs to people like them. 15 What I’m about to tell you is true. Anyone who will not receive God’s kingdom like a little child will never enter it.” 16 Then he took the children in his arms. He placed his hands on them to bless them.
Supplies
- Children’s bible or Storybook bible
- Counting cubes or chips, in sets of 100 (or beans, Cheerios, etc.)
- If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith (the book)
- Download and print, or prepare to show on a big screen the slideshow of the book (attached). You really need to buy the book if you're going to fairly show its pages which are so nicely formatted in the slideshow.
- Graphs and Charts About Kids printouts
- Newsprint, paper roll, or poster board
- Poster markers
- Supplies easy to represent units: colored sticky notes, stickers, etc.
- Ruler or yardstick, optional (to draw lines or measure unit divisions - for older students)
Lesson Plan
Explore the Bible Story
Read the scripture or Bible story to the students.
Say: Sometimes, adults can think children are annoying or distracting and they don’t want to have children around. Have you ever been somewhere where adults were acting like that? (Let kids answer.) In this Bible story, Jesus makes sure that the disciples - who were adults - included the children. When the disciples wanted to keep the children away, Jesus scolds them and invites the children to come to him. Jesus tells the disciples that children are an important part of God’s Kingdom. He even says that the grown-ups need to become like children to enter God’s Kingdom.
Discussion Topics
- Do you think children are important to Jesus? Why?
- Does Jesus want to have a relationship with children? What does he do or say that lets children know he wants to have a relationship?
- What do you think Jesus meant when he said everyone needs to receive God’s kingdom like a child? What do kids do (how do kids act) that is different from grown-ups?
- Children around the world - and throughout time - are the same in many ways. All children have to learn to walk and talk; all children lose their baby teeth; all children have birthdays. But there are many ways children are different. What are some ways children who lived in Jesus’ time might be different from you? Let’s take a look at how children around the world have different experiences.
"If the World Were a Village" Activities
Visualizing the world's children, their differences...
Split the students into groups and give each group a set of 100 counters (beans, Cheerios). Tell them that to imagine all of the people in the world (8.2 billion) are represented by 100 people living in a village. Have the students use the counters to visualize the data about the 100 people that you are about to describe. You can assign different data sets to different groups.
Either read If the World Were a Village by David J. Smith, or SHOW the attached "slideshow" of the book, or select data from the book or select from the following data (source: Statistics – 100 People). [NOTE: I realize the book and the data below aren't exclusive to children, but it's still helpful to demonstrate the diversity of children around the world. Please purchase the book if you plan on showing the slideshow which features illustrations from the book!]
- 59 Asians | 18 Africans | 13 people from the Americas | 9 Europeans | 1 person from Oceania (Australia, New Zealand and surrounding islands)
- 31 Christians | 25 Muslims | 15 Hindus | 7 Buddhists | 5 people who practice a Folk religion | 1 person who is Jewish or practices another religion | 16 people who would not be aligned with a religion
- 12 would speak Mandarin Chinese | 6 would speak Spanish | 5 would speak English | 5 would speak Arabic | 4 would speak Hindi | 3 would speak Bengali | 3 would speak Portuguese | 2 would speak Russian | 2 would speak Japanese | 58 would speak other languages
- 87 would be able to read and write | 13 would not
- 66 would be active Internet users | 34 would not use the Internet
- 78 people would have an adequate place to shelter them from the wind and the rain | 22 would not
- 60 would have enough food | 29 would be moderately or severely food insecure | 11 would be undernourished
- 92 would have access to safe drinking water | 8 people would have no clean, safe water to drink
I think this activity will appeal more to younger students, feel free to spend more time on this with them.
Additional idea: Create counting mats (or use dry erase boards) with areas for each category. Areas could be designated with pictures for the categories. One could use a map of the world for the first data set. This could easily be turned into an "infographic" category, as well, as a 5th type discussed below.
Learning with Graphs and Charts
See/download these illustrations at the google docs link
Say: Now we are going to look at some statistics (or facts) about children a little closer to home. Graphs and charts are like pictures that help us understand data. Let’s look at some different graphs and charts, and then we will make our own.
Explain each type of graph and chart and the data that it represents. Then ask the students some basic questions so they can practice using the graphs and charts to find the answers.
Pie Chart: Kids in the United States (1)
- A pie chart is a circular chart that uses slices to represent the sizes of the data that make up the whole.
Bar Graph/Bar Chart: Age of Kids in Oklahoma (1)
- A bar graph/bar chart uses rectangular bars of different sizes to compare the categories of data.
Pictograph: Participation in Sports, Ages 6-12 (2)
- A pictograph uses pictures to represent the data.
Line Graph: Children’s Reading Trends (3)
- A line graph uses connected dots to show the relationship of data over time.
(1) Data from Annie E. Casey Foundation. https://datacenter.aecf.org/da...ion=OK#OK/2/0/char/0 (2) Data from Project Play. https://projectplay.org/youth-.../participation-rates (3) Data from National Literacy Trust. https://nlt.cdn.ngo/media/docu...g_in_2024_Report.pdf [NOTE: You can change the filters on some of these sites to reflect your state. I also cherry-picked the sports I know are available in my community, but there are more options for you to customize to your community!]
Create Graphs and Charts About Us
Help the students to recreate each graph and chart using data about themselves (as a group).
Optional: Compare and contrast the ones they made with the first graphs and charts.
(I think this activity will appeal more to older students, feel free to spend more time on this with them.)
Rotation.org Content Team Added This Ending:
End with this "grouping" activity by asking the children to:
- Stand apart to represent the 7 Continents (name them)
- Group into people from the "East" (China, India, etc) and "West"
- Group into rich and poor (using the stats from the book)
- Group into "Christian" 37% vs "Non-Christian"
- Group into how many people are "sinners" versus how many are "not sinners."
- Group into "the children Jesus invites to come to him and the ones he rejects."
Discuss whether Jesus cares which country or what language they speak.
Discuss what separates people from each other and whether /how those matter to Jesus.
Discuss how Jesus wants us to treat the children he calls to himself.
