During the lesson, the information for you to know is written in regular type, and what we suggest speaking or reading aloud to children is in bold. All resources for this lesson, including the Teacher Guide, Student Page, Family Connection Card, and other resources can be downloaded in a ZIP file by clicking on the following link:
In some lessons you will find "resource articles." These are articles written by experts from around the world to help equip you for your work with children and adolescents. Share them with parents or guardians if you consider it appropriate.
*If you are using paper or cardboard, have the story drawings from the previous lesson available for the children who return to class this week. If you use the optional image from The Action Bible, save it to use again in Lesson 12.
Before the children arrive, review the story you wrote in lessons 9 and 10. You will use your story as your example for this lesson. If you do not have a story, you will need to fold a paper or piece of cardboard into 4 sections. Each number below corresponds with a box on your paper. Draw pictures in the following order to show your story.
My heart is full of beautiful words as I say my poem for the king. My tongue is like the pen of a skillful writer.
Psalm 45:1
This psalm gives us a beautiful description of how we can use our words to worship God. As skilful writers of our parts in His great story, we can share the amazing ways He is working in our hearts and lives. When we share His love and His truth in our stories, we draw others closer to God and bring glory to His great name.
When you think about your story, what words come to mind? If these words are good and affirming, write them down. If they are not, think about how you can change the words in your mind to those that bring glory to God. Whether your story is full of hope or full of struggle, God can help to guide your thoughts and your words toward that which brings glory to His name.
Encourage families to tell stories using descriptive words. Ask family members to include details about what the places and people in the story look like and use descriptive words to explain the action in a story.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Greet the children as they come to class. Ask them to sit in groups of 3–4.
This week, we will learn more about storytelling. Let’s start with a story you are getting to know well. In a moment, when I tell the story of Paul’s shipwreck, you will act out the story in your groups. You will need to decide who will pretend to be the following people:
You will try to match your actions to what is happening to your character in the story. If you are acting as the other men on the ship, you will act out everything that does not mention Paul or Julius.
Let’s begin our true story from the Bible with Paul. Paul was once someone who did not like Christians. But, one day, Paul heard Jesus’ voice when he was traveling on a road. Paul decided to follow Jesus and tell others about Jesus’ teachings and sacrifice for us. Many Jewish people did not like what Paul was doing, so they asked to put him on trial.
Pause and fall to your knees and pretend to tell others about Jesus. Encourage the children pretending to be Paul in the other groups to do the same.
In the trial, it was decided Paul would go to Rome to speak with Caesar—the ruler over the whole Roman empire. Paul, along with other prisoners, boarded a ship. They were going to Rome.
Encourage the “Pauls” to pretend to walk onto a ship with their hands together as if in chains.
The man in charge of the prisoners was a Roman commander in the Imperial Guard named Julius. Paul describes Julius as being kind to him.
Have the children pretending to be Julius stand up and show how they could be kind to Paul.
The ship and those in it had been traveling for many days when a storm came. The Bible tells us:
If possible, read these verses directly from your Bible.
A gentle south wind began to blow. The ship’s crew thought they saw their chance to leave safely. So they pulled up the anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind blew down from the island. It had the force of a hurricane. It was called the Northeaster.
Acts 27:13–14
Have all the children in the group pretend to be on a ship. Ask them to show what they might do if a big storm hit their ship.
The men continued to sail through the storm. They did many different things to try to keep the ship from sinking. First, they threw extra items and supplies from the ship into the sea.
Pause for the children to pretend to throw things from the ship into the sea.
After 14 days in the storm, Paul asked the men to eat as much food as they could. Then they threw what was left of the food into the sea.
Pause for the children to pretend to eat and throw food overboard. If the children want, they may continue to act as you tell the next part of the story.
Optional: If possible, share the image from The Action Bible.
Finally, they came to an island where they stopped the ship. Listen to what they did to get off the ship.
Encourage the children pretending to be the other men on the ship to act out the following part of the story.
So they cut the anchors loose and left them in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that held the rudders. They lifted the sail at the front of the ship to the wind. Then they headed for the beach. But the ship hit a sandbar. So the front of it got stuck and wouldn’t move. The back of the ship was broken to pieces by the pounding of the waves.
Acts 27:40–41
Encourage all of the children to pretend to swim as you read the next part.
Everyone on the ship safely swam to the shore of the island. God kept His promise to Paul and showed grace to all of the men on the ship.
Encourage the children to smile and clap to show their excitement over reaching land safely.
That was a really fun way to tell the true story from the Bible of Paul’s shipwreck! You may sit in your regular places. Let’s talk about what made this story so much fun to tell.
Good stories are interesting for the listener.
What makes a story interesting?
Allow 2–3 children to respond.
An interesting story usually includes action. This can be shown through a problem or a situation that causes the listener to wonder what will happen next. In the story of Paul’s shipwreck, the storm and everything the men do to try to save the ship create action.
How did you show the action in the story?
Possible answers may include: I moved my body to show what it would be like to be on a ship in a storm. I showed emotions on my face.
Moving your body and showing the emotions of the people in the story can help to make a story interesting for the listener. It also helps to use interesting words when telling your story.
Listen to these verses from the story of Paul’s shipwreck. Be ready to tell me the interesting words you hear.
The descriptive details from the verses below are underlined to help with the discussion about descriptive words.
A gentle south wind began to blow. The ship’s crew thought they saw their chance to leave safely. So they pulled up the anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, a wind blew down from the island. It had the force of a hurricane. It was called the Northeaster.
Acts 27:13–14
What words did you hear that described the action?
Allow 3–4 children to respond. If they do not mention these words or phrases, restate the phrases that are underlined in the verses above and ask the following questions:
What words are used to describe the wind?
Which shore were the men sailing along?
The shore of Crete
Words that describe the people and action in a story help to make it interesting. If this part of the story did not have these words, it would be less interesting. Listen to what it would sound like without these words:
The wind blew. The ship’s crew thought they could safely sail, so they pulled up the anchor and kept sailing. The wind kept blowing.
This is not nearly as interesting as hearing how strong the wind became and where the men were sailing, right? Let’s practice using interesting words to describe something.
Hold up a piece of fruit. Allow the whole class to respond together to each of the following questions.
Use some of the descriptive words the children said to fill in the blanks of the sentence that follows.
I have in my hand a ______, ________, ________ (type of fruit). That is much more interesting than saying, “I have a piece of fruit in my hand,” right?
You can also use words such as gentle, hard, rough, small, big, tall, and short to describe people, places, and actions. Words that tell you exactly what something is called, such as the name of a place, also help to describe action.
Optional: If you are using Student Pages, give the children crayons and allow 1–2 minutes for them to complete their pages.
Let’s use what you have learned about using interesting words and actions to tell your story.
Give the children who were present for Lesson 10 their picture stories. Give the children who were not present for Lesson 10 paper or cardboard divided into 4 sections. Then give all of the children crayons or pencils to draw with. If you are using dirt and sticks, give each child a stick and an area where he can draw.
Have the children sit in pairs. If there are children who were not present for Lesson 10, have them partner with children who attended that lesson. As you read through each story part, point to the drawings on your picture story to show them which boxes to draw in.
Now, I want you to use the details you drew to tell your story to your partner. Be sure to use actions and interesting words as you tell your story.
Give the children 3–5 minutes to tell their stories. At the end of this time, collect their stories and save them for the next lesson.
Your stories are becoming very interesting with all of the details you added today! Stories often remind us of things that have happened. Our memory verse reminds us of the true story of creation.
If you are using the Memory Verse Poster, show it to the students.
The heavens tell about the glory of God. The skies show that his hands created them.
Psalm 19:1
Say this verse with expression. Have the children repeat this with you 3 times. Then end class by saying this blessing, based on Psalm 45:1, over the children.
Blessing: May the words you use be interesting for the listener. May your stories be told in a way people want to hear.
Lead the children in singing this quarter’s song, if possible.
Life on Life ©2020 David C Cook. Reproducible for home or classroom use only. All other uses require written permission from David C Cook [email protected]. All rights reserved.
