FAITH QUEST
Moses, the Plagues, and Passover
CREATION STATION
Scripture: Exodus 6-12, with emphasis on Exodus 12:21-42.
The scripture passage is Exodus 6:26-30, 7:1-5, 17-21, 8 - 12:1-32. The Lord commanded Aaron and Moses to lead every family and tribe of Israel out of Egypt, and so they ordered the king of Egypt (called Pharaoh) to set the people of Israel free. These people were helpless slaves in Egypt and they were suffering. The Lord said to Moses “Tell Aaron everything I say to you, and he will order the king to let my people leave the country. But...the king won’t listen to you. He won’t listen even when I do many terrible things to him and his nation. Then I will bring a final punishment on Egypt and the king will let Israel’s families and tribes (God’s people) go. When this happens, the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord.”
Key Scripture Verse: Exodus 6:1 “The Lord God told Moses:...Because of my mighty power, [Pharaoh] will let my people go.” (Contemporary English Version)
Memory Verse: Romans 8:39: Nothing in all creation can
separate us from God's love for us in Christ Jesus our Lord! (CEV)
Concepts:
· God saved God’s people with a mighty hand.
· God helps people who suffer.
· God remembers and keeps God’s promises.
· God commands us to remember God’s salvation in worship.
Objectives:
1. Students will learn that God had to send some very terrible punishments to the Egyptians before their king would let the Israelite people, who were slaves in Egypt, go free.
2. Students will learn about the plagues that God sent and discuss how God spoke to Moses and planned for Aaron to speak to the king and carry out God’s plan.
3. The children will create fabric banners using stamps to depict the plagues.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions:
1. Welcome the children and introduce yourself. Wear your name tag
2. Start the “lesson time” with prayer. Ask for volunteers, but plan on praying yourself. A short prayer thanking God for being a part of our lives would be appropriate. Ask God to help us to be aware of his presence so that we may do good things as Jesus has taught us.
Bible Story:
1. Spend a short amount of time summarizing the story of the plagues and Passover. Have the children use their Bibles to locate the story. Review the names of the plagues that the Egyptian suffered. The plagues were turning the Nile River to blood, frogs, gnats, flies that carried disease, cattle dying, boils or sores on the peoples’ skin, hail that smashed the crops, locusts that ate the crops, darkness that remained for three days, and finally the death of all first-born males. These terrible things only happened to the Egyptians, not to God’s people. When God brought death to the Egyptians, God passed over the Israelite’s homes because they had obeyed his instructions to Moses to mark the top and sides of their doorways with blood from the lamb they had eaten for dinner. Explain that this is how God saved God’s people with a mighty hand.
2. Take a minute to talk to the children about the creation they are going to be doing in this workshop. Tell them that they can choose to make a banner showing the symbols for all or only some of the plagues. “Plague” might be a new word for some children. Explain that it is a terrible trouble, in this case 10 of them.
Application:
1. Create! It would be a good idea to have children put on smocks. Pass out materials. Every child will receive a piece of paper or fabric.
2. Show the children samples of the finished product. Tell them that they will be making their own design with symbols of the plagues that God made the Egyptians suffer in order to make the king let God’s people go free from slavery.
3. Tell the children that they will be sharing several stamps representing the 10 plagues that God sent.
4. Set up 4 paint stations - one for each color. Place the color-coded stamps and Styrofoam dishes with liquid acrylic paint in them on the tables. Designate two or more brushes to each dish of a color. Tell the children that all stamps of a particular design will be printed in the same color.
5. Show them that the paint should only coat the surface. Avoid getting paint in the spaces or the image will be lost.
6. Now the children should move from color station to color station using the brushes to spread the designated paint color over a stamp surface and press the stamp straight down onto their paper or fabric without twisting. The process can be repeated with the same or different stamps until the desired effect is achieved.
7. The cow stamp should be printed with feet up.
8. When pictures or banners near completion use the brushes to put each child’s initials on their work.
9. Clean up! Involve all kids in this so that you will have time to share together in the closing. Brushes can either be washed or disposed of. Damp wipe all stamps and set them out to dry. These will have to last five weeks.
Reflection Time:
1. Shepherds will pass out the journals and pencils/markers. The children should spend a few minutes reflecting upon the morning’s lesson: We remember what God has done in the past and we celebrate what God is doing today.
2. The children could draw some of the plagues onto their Journal Sheet.
Closing:
1. The closing is to be a worship experience for you and the children. Encourage the children to share ideas about how God helps people who suffer and that “God saved God’s people with a mighty hand.”
2. Say the Key Verse together (see above). You may want to have this verse printed on a banner and hung in the room, write it on the white board in the room, or have it on slips of paper that each child can take home with them.
3. Pray! Ask the kids if they have any prayer requests. Thank God for being with us.
Teacher preparation in
advance:
1. Read the scripture passages and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Workshop.
2. Prepare an opening prayer in case nobody volunteers to pray.
3. Purchase materials and check the art room to see what supplies exist. Make a sample so you will understand the process and pitfalls.
5. Prepare all the materials you will need for the creation process. Have the materials ready to go. There will be limited time for the creation process, so do everything you can to conserve time.
6. Decide how you want to close the lesson. Prepare a prayer or use one of the group suggestions above.
Materials:
Dark to medium blue construction paper 12” x 18” - sold in packs of 50 sheets for $3.41
or
Fabric, smooth, shiny, medium blue cotton cut or torn to 12” x18”
Liquid acrylic paint:
red - river, boils, doorway
green - frogs, locusts
black - gnats, flies, darkness
white - cattle, hail
1” Polyfoam brushes
Small Styrofoam plates
Stamps with plagues symbols (damp wipe and let dry between classes)