Matthew 11:2-6 Jesus, The Messiah

Welcome remarks
Greet the children, welcome them to our church, introduce my self and briefly states the rules. Basically the rules are:
1. Listen quietly when someone is speaking.
2. Let teacher know when I need to go outside the room.
*I also welcome kids inputs if there are any more rule suggestions they would like to add.

Prayer
I sometimes ask volunteer prayer leaders especially for classes with 8+yo students.

Scripture

2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Source: ESV.org

Activity
Using your own words
In this activity, I would like the children to recall the story and truly understand the passage by letting them retell the story using their own words. With guide objects, I will give them an example then I will ask for volunteers to retell the story.

Here are the object guides:

1. John the Baptist in prison (image credit: JW.org)

2. Disciples of John the Baptist asking Jesus (image credit: ReasonsForJesus.com)

3. Jesus' miracles (image credit: GodisReal.Today) with an enumeration of all Jesus did

Game
Guess the word
Adopting this activity from Sermons4Kids.com, I have printed out words which I will randomly post around the room. I will ask the kids to form groups of three, then with a volunteer scorer and time keeper, I will read out the questions. The children are to find the answers from the posted words and the first to give it to me wins a point.

Click here to print this PDF of word choices

Summary
At this stage, I summarize what we have learned with asking for volunteers of lessons they have picked up for the day.

Afterwards, I ask for prayer reports and concerns then we pray as a group.

If we still have time, I do this activity:

Activity

Seat work

I will next ask the kids to settle down and set up their tables and chairs. I will hand out this worksheet from Sermon4Kids.

James 2:1, 8-9 On Favoritism, Equality and Fairness

Scripture:
My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism.... If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers. James 2:1, 8-9 (NIV)

Junior class (ages 8-12 years)
Ice breaker (5-10 minutes):
I am unique! Since Sunday School is informal, not a lot of the kids know the teacher. To promote eagerness and friendship among everyone, play this mini game.

1. Teacher mentions something about herself that is unique e.g. craving for food that is crunchy every after meals instead of sweet dessert.
2. Distribute bits of paper and pen/pencils to each student. 
3. Ask each one to write one thing that is unique about themselves within the amount of time teacher will set, without writing their name in the paper. The amount of time depends on the teacher. Feel free to adjust when you see kids having a hard time, but encourage them to write whatever comes to mind as usually, those are the correct things. 
4. When the time is up, collect the answers. 
5. Pick one paper from the submission and read out loud for the kids to guess. Depending on your time or size of class, teacher may read all or just choose several. 
6. (Optional) Give prizes! 

Summarize this activity by emphasizing that each one of us is unique. Like crayons, our individuality does not mean one is better or weaker than the other. God uses all of us to create HIS masterpiece.

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Bible verse reading (7 - 15 minutes)
At this point, I bring different Bible versions for the kids to read from and in our native language too.

James 2:1 English Standard Version (ESV) The Sin of Partiality 2 My brothers,[a] show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.

James 2:8-9 English Standard Version (ESV) 8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

After reading, I ask two or three students what their thoughts are about the Bible verse we have just read, reassuring them that there are no wrong or right questions. My usual questions are:

• What is the most important idea that came to your mind after hearing about our verse for the day?
• Can you think of an example of where we can see this applied today? 

Credit: CrossCards

Group Activity (10 - 15 minutes) 
Verse Clues 

1. Write the Bible verse on various colors of paper, dividing the verse into several lines. Cut the verse according to line. 
2. Fold them and mix with other similar paper. 
3. Dividing the class into two, ask the student to properly arrange the Bible verse. 
4. (Optional) Make it a contest. The first team to arrange the verse correctly wins! You may add obstacles like distance, physical activity (jumping, spinning, skipping step, etc). 

A different version of this, from Sermons4Kids is called Color Clue. It goes like this: The teacher could give a child a color clue for the first part of today's verse, then give another child another color clue for the next part of the verse and continue until all of the Bible verse is in order and taped to the wall or to a poster board. Let children know that all the parts of the verse are very important but were all on different colors of paper or different shapes and sizes for the children to find.

I choose not to do to this because we share our venue with other ministries.

Individual activity (3 - 5 minutes) Word search Here is a handy printable from Sermos4Kids
 Other resources: Sermons4Kids