Ages and Stages: Lessons for Grandparents’ Day

Use these wonderful Bible activities to build relationships and engage seniors with children in your ministry. These lessons are a perfect way to celebrate Grandparents’ Day! 

Grandparents’ Day Lessons for Preschool-Kindergarten

1. Working Together

In large letters, print the words of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 on a sheet of poster board. Laminate it if possible. Cut the poster board into large, easily put together puzzle pieces. Mix up the pieces on a large tabletop.

Have children and senior adults work together on the puzzle. When the puzzle is complete, have an adult read aloud the passage. Say: Puzzles are fun to put together. This one has a special scripture passage that Moses gave to the Hebrew people. It tells us to love God all the time. Some of us are little now; some of us are much older and have loved God for a longer time. God likes us to work together to learn about him. Putting together the puzzle was a fun way to work together!

2. Walk and Talk

Form pairs of children and adults. Tell the adults to take their child partners on a 5- to 10-minute tour of the kids area of your church. For safety, have everyone stay in spaces where kids are always visible to you and your background checked ministry partners. While on the tour, have the adults follow these instructions:

Walk your preschool friend around. Talk about your favorite memories of the church and God. Ask the child to share favorite things to do at church. Tell your new friend the first time you remember learning about God. Remind the child the Bible tells us (in Deuteronomy 6:7) that adults are supposed to talk with their children about God. Discuss other things about God that the child wants to talk about.

When the pairs return, sit in a circle. Ask:

• What did you like most about your time together? What did you talk about on your trip?
• Why is it important for kids and adults to spend time together?
• What did you learn from each other about enjoying church?

3. Tied to God

Give each pair a crayon, two chenille wires, and two 3X5 cards. Ask each person to fold their card, draw a heart on the inside, and print the words “I LOVE GOD.” Adults can help children. Use a hole punch to make a hole in each card. Then have partners each thread a chenille wire through the hole in the card and then gently twist the two ends around a wrist to make a card wristband.

Gather the groups around the puzzle from the opening activity. Read the verses again. Ask people to each hold up their wrist with the card on it. Say: Moses told God’s people to tie God’s words to their hands. We just did that in a fun way! Let’s remember that God wants us to work together and learn from each other. Close in prayer, thanking God for the new friends made today.

4. Grandparents’ Day Food for Thought

Form groups of four, with at least one senior adult in each group. Provide sanitizing hand wipes and some allergy sensitive snack mix ingredients groups can use to work together in making a simple snack. As they prepare the food, have the adult share memories about making favorite foods and who taught them to cook or bake. Then have children talk about memories related to their favorite foods. When the snacks are assembled and ready, allow everyone to enjoy the fruit of their work!

Grandparents’ Day Lessons for Grades 1-3

1. All Mixed Up

Write the verses of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 on a sheet of paper. Photocopy and enlarge it as much as possible. Make one enlargement for every four people. Cut apart four- to six-word sections of each passage and put the word strips in an envelope for each group.

Form pairs of children and older adults. Then form groups of two pairs each. Give each pair a Bible and an envelope with word strips. Tell the groups their job is to see which team can perfectly put back together Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

After all the groups are finished, ask:

• What was fun about working with your partners?
• How did you figure out the order of the words?
• What did you learn about each other as you worked together?
• What do you think is the most important advice in this passage?

Say: Moses told the Hebrew people to do everything they could to love God. He wanted to make sure they never forgot about God’s love. One way we learn about God’s love is from each other. That’s why we’re making new friends today with people of different ages. This is a great way we can learn about and share God’s love!

2. Loving God

Give each pair two long strips of paper, tape, and markers. Tell partners to each write the words “I will love God with all my heart” on their paper strip. Then have partners help each other put on their paper strips as wristbands. Encourage partners to talk with one another about what they think it means to love God with all their heart and how their wristband could help them remember God each day.

3. Here’s My Heart

Write the words “GOD’S HEART” on a large red construction paper heart. Form a circle and give everyone a pencil. Pass around the heart. Have each person tear off a piece of God’s heart and write his or her name on it. Tell pairs to exchange signed heart pieces.

Say: You made a new friend today. You talked about God’s love and we’ve had a great time. God wants us to take care of these new friendships that make his heart happy. Take your heart piece home and put it somewhere as a reminder of God and your new friend. Close in prayer, thanking God for new friends.

4. Grandparents’ Day Food for Thought

Form groups of four, with at least one senior adult in each group. Provide sanitizing hand wipes and some allergy sensitive snack mix ingredients groups can use to work together in making a simple snack. As they prepare the food, have the adult share memories about making favorite foods and who taught them to cook or bake. Then have children talk about memories related to their favorite foods. When the snacks are assembled and ready, allow everyone to enjoy the fruit of their work!

Grandparents’ Day Lessons for Grades 4-6

1. Say What?

Form pairs of children and adults. Tell senior adults they’ll have to mime a verse from Scripture for their child partners. Show adults Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Tell adults they can condense the passage to embody the main thought. After a few minutes, have adults mime their verse for their partners until at least one partner shouts it.

Afterward, read aloud Deuteronomy 6:4-9.

Ask:

• What was fun about working with your partner?
• Were there things you learned about each other as you worked together? If so, what were they? 
• What do you think is the most important advice in this passage?

Say: Moses told the Hebrew people to do everything they could to love God. He wanted to make sure they never forgot about God’s love. One way we learn about God’s love is from each other. That’s why we’re making new friends today with people of different ages. We can learn together about and sharing God’s love.

2. What Do You See?

Have pairs sit facing one another. Tell them to look at one another very carefully. Now have them sit back-to-back. Tell each person to change three things about themselves that they don’t think their partner will notice. Then have pairs face one another and figure out what got changed.

Take a survey to see if the kids did a better job noticing what got changed or if the older adults did.

Ask:

• How easy or difficult was it to discover changes?
• Why don’t we always notice things about other people?
• How can being more observant help us notice and discover more about God too?

Say: God’s Word never changes. Even from a long time ago, God’s Word tells adults to tell children about and be an example of God’s love. Adults, what an amazing opportunity to teach kids! And kids, there’s adventure and big discoveries for you in listening and learning from grown ups who love Jesus too!

3. Shout It

Read aloud Deuteronomy 6:8-9. Give each pair two construction paper pennants and crayons or markers. Have pairs make a pennant to hang on a door at home. It should state something they believe about God’s love. Once the pennants are finished, have partners trade pennants. Have each person complete this statement: “One way I will love God this week is by…” Close in prayer, thanking God for new friends made today.

4. Grandparents’ Day Food for Thought

Form groups of four, with at least one senior adult in each group. Provide sanitizing hand wipes and some allergy sensitive snack mix ingredients groups can use to work together in making a simple snack. As they prepare the food, have the adult share memories about making favorite foods and who taught them to cook or bake. Then have children talk about memories related to their favorite foods. When the snacks are assembled and ready, allow everyone to enjoy the fruit of their work!

Looking for more ideas for Grandparents’ Day? We have you covered!