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.
Before teaching this lesson, collect recycled, clean containers—bottles, boxes, jars, etc.—for the children to use to create shaker instruments.
Always be joyful because you belong to the Lord. I will say it again. Be joyful!
Philippians 4:4
What a blessing it is to belong to the Lord! God is with you through any challenges or hardships you encounter. God is good, and He has many good things planned for you. Know that what is in store for you in heaven is truly worth rejoicing over!
What earthly celebrations do you participate in? Christmas, Easter, and other holy days are enjoyable to celebrate. Most communities have many other days they celebrate throughout the year. Think about how you show your joy for the Lord during these celebrations. Do you dance, sing, or prepare special meals for your family? No matter how you celebrate—be joyful! God created you. He loves you and shares your joy. He is right there celebrating with you!
Encourage families to discuss with their children how they celebrate special occasions. Have families share how they celebrated as children and what their favorite celebrations were.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Greet each child with a joyful song. It can be one you know or a song you make up. Ask the children to sit together in a large circle before beginning the lesson.
Welcome! Today, we are going to have a celebration!
Children might talk about the activities, foods, music, or other elements that make up a celebration.
Raise your hands if you sing songs or make music during celebrations. Today, we will focus on the music we make when we celebrate. Let’s make a musical instrument!
Put the children in pairs. If you have an odd number of students, you can have a group of 3 children. Demonstrate how to make an instrument while sharing the directions for making instruments with the children. Then share the directions a second time as the children create their instruments.
Give each group a container and some of the pebbles or other materials.
One person in each group will hold the container while the other person puts a small handful of pebbles (or other small materials) inside it. Then, switch roles so the other person gets to pour in the pebbles. Continue working like this until your container has about 3–4 handfuls of pebbles inside of it. Close the container using the lid. If your container does not have a lid, hold your hand over the opening of the container when you use your instrument.
After the children have made their instruments, give them 1 minute to play them. Tell the children to take turns with their group. After a minute, signal the children to stop playing their instruments. Ask them to place their instruments in the middle of the circle. Keep the children with their partners or groups for the rest of the lesson.
Think for a moment about how you might use the instrument you made.
Allow 2–3 children to respond.
Let’s hear how someone used instruments and dancing to celebrate something special that happened to him.
The Bible tells about a king called David. God made David the king of His people—the nation of Israel. One day, God came to David and asked him to carry a very special item, the ark of God.
King David was honored to take the ark of God from where he was to Jerusalem. The ark of God represented God’s presence. So wherever the ark was, God was with the people there. David travelled with 30,000 soldiers to bring the ark to the city. On the way, David celebrated.
Read this verse directly from your Bible.
David was celebrating with all his might in front of the Lord. So was the whole community of Israel. All of them were playing castanets, harps, lyres, tambourines, rattles and cymbals.
2 Samuel 6:5
What a sight this must have been! Imagine a parade of more than 30,000 people celebrating with instruments. The people and King David were very thankful to have this ark with them. Think of a time when you were thankful for something.
Allow the children 1 minute to discuss the following questions with their partners. Pause after each question for the children to respond.
On the way to Jerusalem, David left the ark in the house of a man named Obed–Edom. God blessed this man’s family because the ark was in his house. After 3 months, David brought the ark to Jerusalem. As he and his men travelled with the ark, David walked in joyful celebration.
David was wearing a sacred linen apron. He danced in front of the Lord with all his might. He did it while he was bringing up the ark of the Lord. The whole community of Israel helped him bring it up. They shouted. They blew trumpets.
2 Samuel 6:14–15
David was so happy and excited to bring the ark to his city that he danced!
Allow children a minute to discuss the following questions with their partners. Pause after each question for the children to respond.
After David brought the ark of the Lord to Jerusalem, he gave everyone date cakes, raisin cakes, and bread. Everyone celebrated! Imagine how the cakes and bread must have smelled. Just as they are today, the cakes would have been very special to the people who received them from King David.
Allow children a minute to discuss the following questions with their partners. Pause after each question for the children to respond.
In the Bible, God tells His people to remember and celebrate all the good things in their lives. When they celebrated, they would worship, sing, dance, eat special foods, and talk about God’s goodness.
God wants us to remember and celebrate too! He knows that remembering and celebrating helps us when life gets difficult. Even in those times, we can think of the all the good things we have enjoyed in life and celebrate them. Most of all, we can celebrate that God loves us and wants us to be part of His family.
People celebrate in different ways, but food and music are usually part of a celebration. Sharing special foods helps families and friends to connect with one another and share their blessings. Singing songs and making music is another way to enjoy special time with one another.
Optional: If you are using Student Pages, instruct students to create their lyres. Give each child crayons and scissors, and a piece of string to cut into pieces and glue across the instrument. If scissors are not available, have the children wrap their strings around the lyres.
Earlier, you each made instruments. As you learned in today’s story, instruments can help us celebrate exciting things that happen in our lives. In a moment, I will ask you to play your instruments. Before we do this, we must create a song. Will you help me to make a song of celebration? I will give you a minute to share with your partners something you are thankful for that has happened to you in the last 2 weeks. For example, you may be thankful that your mother got better after being sick, or you may be thankful for the food you ate yesterday.
After 1 minute, raise your hand or give a signal to have the children look at you.
Raise your hand if you would like to share the good thing that has happened to you in the last 2 weeks.
Allow 3–5 children to respond. Use the children’s comments to help you create a song of celebration. You may choose to sing or chant the celebrations of the students as they play their instruments. Create a rhythm and teach it to the students. Allow the children to take turns playing the instruments as they dance and sing. Give them 5–7 minutes to make music, sing, and dance.
I enjoyed listening to the beautiful music you made! Thank you for celebrating with me today!
End class by saying this blessing, based on 2 Samuel 6:5, over the children.
Blessing: May your heart be so full of God’s love that you are thankful. May you find that you dance and make joyful music to thank God!
Share the worship song for this quarter with your children 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.
