The Beatitudes

Cooking Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Students have breakfast while practicing some Beatitudes – taking care of the needs of someone else and learning humility. [Note: 1st – 6th graders visited this workshop.]

Scripture Reference & Key Bible Verse & Objectives: 

Refer to first post in this lesson set.

Leader Preparation:

•  Read the scripture for this lesson.
• Read and reflect on the overview material provided for this lesson.
• Gather the materials.

Supplies List:

Before Start of Class:

Presentation

Opening – Welcome & Lesson Introduction:

Greet your students warmly, welcoming them to the Cooking Workshop. Introduce yourself and any other adults. Ask the Shepherd to take attendance & do name tags while you start the lesson.

Say: Today we are in the cooking workshop or rather, the eating workshop! Hopefully everyone is hungry because we will be having breakfast. Our breakfast will be served in a different way.

• Ask: Before we have breakfast, what can you tell me about the Beatitudes? (allow all replies; this helps you to hear what students know/don't know) 

Say: We are learning this month about Jesus’ “Sermon on the Mount,” which includes Jesus’ teachings called The Beatitudes. God sent his son Jesus into the world to teach us how we should live. Let’s listen to what Jesus had to say about how we should do this.

Dig - Main Content & Reflection:

• Ask: Where in the Bible would we read about Jesus teaching his disciples? (in the New Testament)
• What are the first four books of the New Testament?
• What do we call the first four books of the New Testament? (the Gospels)

For 3rd grade- 6th grade:

Say: The word gospel means “good news.” In the Gospels, Jesus teaches us good news.

Do:  Distribute Adventure Bibles. Teach the quick way to find the New Testament. (Opening the Bible in middle lands you usually in Psalms. Taking just the back half and finding middle of that, gets you to beginning of NT.)

Have everyone find Matthew 5:1.
Point out that the chapter numbers are large, and in these Bibles they are yellow; the verse numbers are smaller.
Have students notice the heading at Matthew 5:1 (“the Beatitudes").

Have every one to look at the box on the bottom left side of page 1056. Read them this note. [It says: “The Beatitudes are special sayings of Jesus. They explain how to be blessed. Blessed means “truly happy.” Some people think that money or power will bring them happiness, but Jesus wants his listeners to know how they can be truly happy.”]

• Ask: I thought that money was what made people happy? (accept all responses)

Say: Let’s listen to other Beatitudes that will help us be truly happy or blessed.
Read to them Matthew 5:1-10.

For 1st and 2nd grade:

Say: We find Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes in the New Testament in the book of Matthew.

Show them the picture on page 280 and 281 of The Young Reader’s Bible. [We aren’t going to read any of the words in this Bible – just using it for the picture.]

Since younger students visit this workshop later in the Rotation, prompt them with questions such as –

• Who taught us the Beatitudes? (Jesus)
• Why is there a crowd of people around Jesus?
• What did Jesus do when He saw the crowd? (sat down and began to teach)
• What did Jesus say?
• What do you suppose the people listening to Jesus thought about the Beatitudes?
• What do you think of the Beatitudes?

For all students:

Make sure that you are holding a Bible open to Matthew 5.

Say: Today we are going to focus on one of the eight Beatitudes that Jesus taught. Jesus said… [Read Matthew 5:5 from an Adventure Bible.]

• Ask: What does the word “meek” mean? [Refer to the easel.]

Say: Some people might say that “meek” means someone who doesn’t stick up for them selves – someone who may get bullied or pushed around. Someone who does what others want. That is not what Jesus meant when he said, “Blessed are the meek.” What Jesus meant was, “blessed are those who are considerate, patient, who don’t need to be first, who are humble.

• Ask: Who likes to be first in line when it’s time to line up for recess at school?
• Who in your family gets to open the first gift on Christmas?
• Is it hard to wait; to let someone else go first?
• Is it hard to care about someone else without worrying about yourself?

Say: You are going to get a chance to help each other this morning with breakfast. We are going to practice being meek. First let’s wash our hands.

Have everyone wash their hands and stand near the food table. See if they remember what meek means.

Say: Jesus taught us to be considerate, and patient; to put someone else's needs first, and also to let others help us if we need help. 

Explain the rules of breakfast:

Say: I had mentioned that we would be serving breakfast in a different way today. There are certain “rules” about our breakfast. It is like a game.

• Ask: Does a game work if you don’t follow the rules? (no)

Explain the rules for breakfast:

• You may NOT get any food for yourself.
• You will work in pairs. When asked a question you may only respond “yes” or “no.”

You and the Shepherd should model the question process.

Workshop Leader: Would you like some cereal?
Shepherd: No
Workshop Leader: Do you want some juice?
Shepherd: Yes
(workshop leader pours a small amount of juice)
Workshop Leader: Would you like a donut?
Shepherd: No
Workshop Leader: Do you have enough breakfast?
Shepherd: No
Workshop Leader: Do you want a half a bagel?.... etc.

Continue explaining the rules for breakfast:

• You may not ask for any food for yourself.
• No pointing or giving details. (Only Yes or No).
• No one will start to eat until everyone is served.

[Note to workshop leader: A child could get a bowl of cereal without milk. Or without a spoon! This would be a good thing for discussion purposes. Please, DON’T RESCUE.  If a child sits there and no one asks that child if he/she wants anything, let that go on a while. If no one still notices, just ask if the kids have noticed whether everyone has been cared for. Capitalize on the chance for discussion.]

 For 2nd – 6th graders:

Put out the one donut on the serving table. [Do NOT have a stash in the kitchen for later - it will diminish the impact!]

For 1st graders:

Bring out the one donut after everyone has been served and has started eating. Talk about what could have happened. (See discussion below)

Serve Breakfast:

Have students stand in pairs at the table and go thorough the questions routine. Adults should monitor this process. Make sure that questions can only be answered with a yes or a no, and that the responses are only yes or no.

When the member of a pair has their breakfast they may set it at their place at the table but return to do the questioning for their team member.

When everyone has been served, say a quick blessing and allow everyone to start eating.

Discussion (as are eating):

• Ask: Did everyone get exactly what he or she wanted?
• What happened?
• How did you feel if you didn’t get exactly what you wanted?
• Ask: What happened with the donut? [Or in the case of the 1st grade: What would have happened if this one donut had been a breakfast choice?]

Say: One of Jesus’ Beatitudes is “Blessed are the peacemakers…” To Jesus a peacemaker is someone who is always trying to set things straight between people.

• Ask: If you are a peacemaker, what do you do about the donut?
• What is the way to keep right relations between us?
• How does this apply to your daily life?

Ask:

• Did everyone have the opportunity to serve someone else? How did that feel?
• How did it feel to have someone serve you.
• Have you ever had a kid your age serve you?
• How can you practice serving other people in your daily life?
• Can you think of a way that you can go home and serve one person in your family in some way?
• How can you practice serving God every day? 

If you need an extra activity:

Allow students to work on creating Madlibs in groups of two or three. Have everyone share their results with the group. (For younger students use just one sheet to do for the entire class.)

Closing:

• Ask: Do you think it is easy to live the Beatitudes? (allow all answers)

Say: Living as Jesus taught is hard! When we use these ways of living – living the Beatitudes – we are living as disciples of Jesus. This makes the world a better place and we receive that long-lasting happiness that Jesus spoke about! Let’s have our prayer time.

• Ask for any prayer requests. Ask if anyone would like to lead the group in prayer. Be prepared to say a prayer yourself, working in prayer requests. Use the Lord’s Prayer as the ending. [You may ask one or two students to lead the Lord’s Prayer.] A suggestion: “Jesus: Thank you for this food that we had to eat and the chance to practice your Beatitudes together. Thank you for the love you have for each of us. (End with the Lord’s Prayer) Amen.”

Resources:

• Trimboli, Kim. Retired  “Rotation.org Writing Team Lesson On The Beatitudes: Cooking.” 2003.
• The NIV Adventure Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zonderkidz, 2000.

A lesson written by Carol Hulbert from: First United Methodist Church
Ann Arbor, MI 

Copyright 2009 First United Methodist Church, Ann Arbor, MI. Permission to copy materials granted for non-commercial use provided credit is given and all cited references remain with this material.

 If you use this material, even in a modified form, please include the following reference:
Hulbert, Carol. "The Beatitudes: Cooking Lesson." Sept. 2009. Place URL where lesson found inside angle brackets<>.

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.