Generosity - Big Hearted Friends

Your teacher has hidden a mystery object somewhere in the room.

Read through the "What Am I" poem. Click the arrow to find the answer. See if you can find it hiding in the classroom!

Discuss and answer:

• What uses do you have for this mystery object?

• What might make it useless?

(Hint, there is a song about what might make it useless and you can look at it at this Youtube site if you have time!)

Look at the book we found inside this object.

Read through the words below. Choose one or your teacher may give you one to hold and think about, while you listen to your teacher read the story found inside our mystery object.

After reading the book "Have You Filled a Bucket Today?", discuss the following:

• Being a bucket filler is like sharing blessings. We can bless others with kind words and actions in lots of ways.

• Because we are Jesus' friends, we want to copy what He does and bless others by filling up their buckets.

• Discuss the thoughts expressed on the inside cover of the book.

Move outside for this game. The teacher will give you a mini bucket. You aim is to pour out all the water from your team's container and deposit it in the central water container. How quickly can you generously give it away?

At the end of the game, reflect on ways we've seen God and Jesus' generosity through the stories we learned this year.

The teacher will then put your name onto your bucket. These will be kept in the classroom and your challenge is to fill other's buckets each day with a small generous message.

Learning Objective: Summarise what selected Bible passages reveal about God and identify their practical applications for daily life.

When we are friends of Jesus, He helps us change to be like Him. We grow to have the qualities that He has. Since He is generous, He can help us be generous too. Watch the videos below to find out about some of God's friends who were generous.

Now brainstorm a list of at least six words to describe each story (like we did for the Bucket story).

Think about the stories we read about last time:

1. The Widow's Offering (Luke 21:1-4, Mark 12:41, 42)

2. King David and Mephibosheth (2 Samuel 9:1-13)

3. The Woman of Shunem (2kings 4:8-17)

To help understand what motivates people, we will work through "5 Why's" about the story of "The Widow's Offering". Read each question and see how the answer helps to form the next question:

Each question asked 'why'.

Why we do things is our motivation.

Did the poor widow woman have a selfish, small heart, or a selfless, large heart?

Your teacher will split the class into groups and assign you to one of the following images. Your group will need to look at the photograph and think about what may have happened just prior to this situation. You will need to predict what may be the consequence if generous kindness or love is shown compared with it not being shown. You will then need to act out these before and after generosity scenarios to the class.

Being generous can completely change the ending of the story.

Learning objective: The Holy Spirit can teach us and help us become more like Jesus

Learning objective: The Holy Spirit can teach us and help us become more like Jesus

Have a look at the picture below and think about how it relates to the bucket story and generosity. What questions come to mind when you look at this picture?

Take out your Bibles and find 2 Corinthians 9:7. All read it out loud together.

• How does this relate to generosity being something that uses initiative (to choose to do something independently before anyone else)?

• How large is my heart? How large is your heart?

Your teacher will give you one of the following cards.

You will then need to break into groups of three with others who have the same card type as you do. Discuss (according to your card type) either:

1. A time when you have observed (seen) someone being really generous. Tell about this time. What happened and what was the result?

2. A time when you have been a participant (the one doing the generous act). What happened and what was the result?

3. A time when you received an act of generosity from someone else. What happened and how did you feel?

Please note: For the act to be truly generous, it must have been an action of initiative, rather than having been asked to do it.

Now it is your turn. Create a bucket list of blessings that you want to pour into the lives of others as they live their lives.

Please note: You may want to use the Graffiti Carousel List to help generate this. In how any ways will you be generous?

Learning objective: One of God's purposes for us it to show His love to others.

Create a chant or an acrostic for the word Generosity.

G is for ...., E is for ...., N is for .... etc.