Preteen Sunday School Lesson: The Importance of Manners

Use this quick and easy preteen Sunday school lesson to help your preteens understand the importance of having good manners.

1. Don’t Be Cruel

Form two teams and have them line up against opposite walls. Give each team sheets of paper and pencils. Have them write on each sheet names kids call each other — nothing vulgar.

When they’re finished, designate a line down the middle of the room. On “go,” have kids wad up their papers and bombard the other team with them without crossing the line. After five minutes, the team with the most paper wads on their side of the room loses.

Call time, declare the winner and ask:

• How did it feel to be bombarded with paper wads?
• How would it have felt if those paper wads had been the actual names written on the papers?

2. Manners Matter

Read aloud 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. Read verse 5 and say: Love has good manners. Ask:

• Is it good manners to call people names?
• What are some other manners we need to have?
• Why are manners important to God?

Give kids each a sheet of paper and a pencil. Say: I’m going to read some situations that require manners. On your paper, write the most mannerly thing to do in each situation from the three choices I give you.

Read the following and add other situations:

A. Your friend wears an outfit that others laugh at. You:

1. laugh;
2. ignore the friend;
3. point out something good about the outfit.

B. Someone calls while your mom is in the bathroom. You:

1. tell where your mom is;
2. say your mom is busy and write a phone message;
3. say call back later but don’t get the caller’s name.

C. At a friend’s house for dinner, you drop a pea on the carpet. You:

1. pick it up with your napkin;
2. grind it into the carpet;
3. call the dog over to eat it.

D. In a restaurant, you get a piece of pork chop stuck in your teeth. You:

1. try to dig it out with your fingernail,
2. excuse yourself and remove it in the bathroom;
3. loudly try to suck the meat out of your teeth.

3. May I Serve You?

Have four kids sit at each table and imagine they’re in a restaurant. Serve (from the left) dishes of ice cream, spoons and napkins. Encourage kids to “coach” each other about appropriate table manners.

4. Get It Straight

Say: You need good manners in almost every area of your life. Let’s make something that’ll help you practice good manners at home.

From scrap paper, have kids each make a phone message pad for their home. Have kids cut paper to an equal size, stack it and punch two holes through the top of the stack. Then have them thread yarn through the holes and tie it in a bow.

Close in prayer.

Looking for more preteen lessons? Check out these posts!