The Widow's Mite

Art Workshop

“How Great Thou Art”
Grades K-2

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Making stewardship banks.

Lesson Objectives:

The children will learn:

• That the widow gave from a generous and cheerful heart
• That she put all her trust in God to take care of her.
• How to be a good steward (manager) of their money
• Make stewardship banks

Leader Preparation:

1. Read the scripture passage and Bible Background
2. Familiarize yourself with the art project before you teach it

Supplies List:

• Regular Bible and The Beginner’s Bible
• Short individual potato chip cans like Pringles, 3 for each child
• Construction paper, multi colored, pre-cut to go around cans
• Colored markers
• Scotch tape
• Glue
• Raffia, enough to tie around all 3 cans at once and make a bow
• Sharp utensil to cut “coin slots” in the plastic covers of each can
• Play money
• Large rubber bands such as go around a Sunday paper
• White labels for cans (self adhesive computer labels?)

Presentation

Opening - Welcome and Lesson Introduction:

Welcome the children as they arrive. Tell them that we are going to start off the new Sunday School year with a new theme. Last year’s was, Best Friends, Blessed Friends, and this year’s is, Come Join the Circle. To start off the circle of Bible characters that we will meet this year is a very humble and generous woman that we know only as a “widow”. What is a widow? (Allow time for answers.) Before we meet this widow, let us begin with prayer.

Dear God, we ask that you be with us today as we begin a new Sunday School year. Help us to be good listeners as we hear today’s story about a widow. Show us how to live our lives in the circle of God’s family. And all God’s children say, AMEN.

Dig - Main Content and Reflection:

Read Story: The Beginner’s Bible pp. 433-436

After reading the story, begin a short discussion of it with the following ideas.

What was different about the widow’s gift compared to the rich givers?

The widow was very poor. The other people had plenty of money. The widow gave only a few pennies but the rich people gave many dollars. The rich people didn’t need the money they gave; it was extra. The widow gave all the money she had.

Jesus said the widow’s gift was bigger than all the others. How can that be?

Jesus was thinking about the effect the gift had on the giver when he said this. For the widow, the gift was everything she had. She could not give any more even if she wanted to. She had to trust God to take care of her now. But for the rich people, it was just a little bit of what they had.

Jesus said that made the widow’s gift much more valuable even though in dollars it was not worth as much as what the rich people gave.

Is giving money the only thing that we have to give? No, we can give anything we have: our time, our talents or abilities.

What might be some examples of this? Allow for any answers, visiting the sick, singing in a choir, helping someone with a chore, sending a card, etc.

Activity:
SAY: Today we are going to make banks to help us be good stewards (managers) of our money. Even though you are a child, you still have opportunities to receive money. Sometimes we get an allowance, or we do a special job that our parents or grandparents pay us a little money. Sometimes it is our birthday, or Christmas or another special day that we receive some money.

Can any of you think of a time when you have gotten money? (Allow for a short time of sharing.)

1. Distribute 3 bank cans to each child. You should already have cut the slots for the coins in the lids.
2. Give each of them 3 pieces of construction paper to decorate. It might be better to have the construction paper cut to fit the can below where the lids fit on to the cans so that the paper isn’t ripped when putting the lids on and off. Depending on the age of the children, you might want to have already printed the labels: GIVING, SAVING, SPENDING on the construction paper. The older kids should be able to label their own banks. It’s up to you.
3. As you are working, talk about how it is a good idea to save some of your money and they can talk to their parents about how much to save. God asks us to give some of our money to the work of the church and He tells us in the Bible that we should give one tenth of what we have. So if we have a dollar, He would like to see us give a dime of that dollar, or 10 cents as our offering to Him on Sunday morning. So then we know how much to put in the bank that is labeled, GIVING. How much was that? (Yes, 10 cents for every dollar. So if we have 2 dollars, we would put in 20 cents. Understand? Allow time for that.)
4. After we know how much to give to God, and how much to save, then we can put the rest in the spending bank.
5. Scotch tape the decorated and labeled construction paper around the cans.
6. Glue the sides of the cans together
7. Place a large rubber bank around the 3 cans
8. Tie several lengths of raffia around the cans to cover the rubber band and make a bow.

If there is time after making the banks, the children can practice with the play money, determining how they would split up the money to go in each bank.

You could revisit the story and ask them again to think about how the widow put ALL her money in the offering. Would they ever be able to do that and to do it with a happy heart?

It really was an amazing gift that she gave!

Just let the children know that God never has asked us to give all that we have, but he does expect something in return just as we talked about earlier. We want them to remember that the next time that they come to Sunday School and we pass around the offering plate. We want them to give with a thankful and a cheerful heart. “God loves a cheerful giver.” 2Cor.9:7.

Journal Activity: Draw the widow’s coins. Incidentally the term “mite” just refers to a small offering. The actual name of the Jewish coin she probably used is “lepton”.

Closing:

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for teaching us about how important it is to give with a generous and cheerful heart like the widow in the Bible story. Thank you for all the gifts that you have cheerfully given us, even more than we need. And all God’s children say, AMEN.

Resources:

• The Beginner’s Bible, Zonderkids, Copyright 2005, Mission City Press, ISBN: 0-310-70962-8

Lesson prepared by Kathy from: Augustana Lutheran Church,
St. James, MN