Rotation.org Writing Team

The Lord's Prayer

The "Give us This Day our Daily Pizza" Workshop

Summary of Activities

In Jesus' Galilean-Aramaic language, the word for bread ("pitha") is the same word from which we get "pizza." So students will make a "Daily Prayer Pizza" that represents our need to feed our growing relationship with God through prayer. During the baking time, students will participate in a science experiment making "Elephant Toothpaste" which will demonstrate how God's presence is the most important ingredient in our prayers. Then students will eat their pizza as part of a reflection prayer that explains various lines in the Lord's Prayer.

Scripture for the Lesson

Matthew 6:5-13 (NRSV)

Lesson Objectives

See the Bible Background at rotation.org for this set's complete list of objectives. 

Preparation and Materials

• Read the Bible Background and scripture.
• Try out the Elephant Toothpaste experiment at home (see supplies below)
• Gather the following items:
  
  • Slice(s) of bread for an opening activity (not to be eaten so can be stale bread)
    
    
  • For the pizza-making ingredients and utensils:
    • Ready-made pizza dough - one 13.8 oz. can of Pillsbury™ refrigerated classic pizza crust makes enough for approximately 7 students.
    • 1 cup pizza sauce, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (4 oz)
    • An assortment of kid-friendly toppings such as pepperoni, sausage, pineapple, veggies
    • Parchment paper cut into 6x6 squares (one per student)
    • Permanent marker or pencils
    • Baking sheets, hot pads (and access to an oven, of course)
    • Spoons for spreading sauce, one per student and for distributing toppings
    • Pizza cutter
    • Foil (in case any leftover pizza needs to go home)
    • A 4" heart-shaped cookie cutter OR a 2.5" circle biscuit cutter and a sharp knife (for use by an adult).
        Tip: Make your own heart-shaped pizza: Cut one 3" square of dough per student and one 2.5" circle. Cut each circle in half and apply the two half-circles to the edges of a square, pressing the dough together.
      
      
  • For making Elephant Toothpaste:
    • 1-liter plastic bottle (empty)
    • Food coloring (If you want to get fancy, use two or more colors. Refer to the instructions at this website for how to make striped toothpaste.)
    • Two pourable measuring cups, and a 1 Tablespoon measure
    • Warm water, baker's yeast, and a spoon for stirring
    • A funnel
    • Liquid dish soap
    • Hydrogen peroxide - use a stronger 6% solution, also known as "20 Volume" or V20, available at beauty supply stores. (Be sure to use "clear developer" NOT cream.)
    • Safety goggles, an apron, and gloves for the experiment leader
    • A table covered in a plastic tablecloth
    • A 13 x 9" baking pan or tray
    • An emergency bottle of water (just in case) to wash any splashes from skin
        Tip: Recruit a parent and a teen to procure, setup, and perform the experiment.
      
      
• On the day of class...
  • Preheat an oven to the temperature recommended on the dough package.
  • Set up the Elephant Toothpaste experiment.
  • (If using boxed pizza dough, follow package instructions to make the dough.)
  • Form pizza dough into a 9 x 15" rectangle. Cut heart shapes of dough and place on pieces of pre-cut parchment paper OR form heart-shapes per the instructions above.
  • Set out the pizza-making supplies with spoons for each ingredient.

Lesson Plan

As with most Cooking Workshop, the order of lesson plan activities is a little different due to making & baking time. You will introduce the idea of "daily prayer pizza" during the making of the pizza, and return to it after the baking is done.

Opening (10 minutes)

Welcome students and explain what they will be doing and learning about today. 

"Pass the Daily Bread"
Ask for a show of hands how many know "some," "most," or "all" of the Lord's Prayer. Invite a student who says they know "most" to begin saying it out loud. To "choose" that person, toss a piece of bread for them to catch. If and when they stop/skip/misspeak, praise them for getting that far and invite them to "toss the bread" to another student who thinks they know what comes next. Do this until the class has come up with the complete version of the Lord's Prayer. (Fill in and give hints as needed.) 

Now look up and read the passage in Matthew 6:5-13.

Ask students to point out some of the differences between the version of the Lord's Prayer they just recited in your "bread game" and the version found in their Bible.
Teach them that there are several versions of the Lord's Prayer used in churches around our country and the world that have different word choices. Point out a few examples, such as the use of the word "debts" and "trespasses" (and that they mean the same thing). With older students, note some of the differences in translation they may read or see in their Bibles and hear in the Prayer, difference such as:

"Lead us not into temptation" (traditional) vs. "do not bring us to the time of trial" (NRSV)
"deliver us from evil" (traditional) vs. "rescue us from the evil one" (NRSV)
  (see the Bible Background for many more).

  If you have time, play "Pass the Daily Bread" one more time, only this time tell them that they are only to say "one short part" of the prayer and then pass the bread to someone else who will add the next short part, and so on until the class has recited the entire prayer again.

Making Our Daily Pizza (10 minutes)

Safe Food Practice: Wash hands first or pass hand-sanitizer or wipes. Do not allow students to stick their hands into the bowl of cheese or toppings. Instead, use a spoon to pour an amount into their hand for them to apply to their pizza.

Say:  Today we are going to focus on one of the most famous and important instructions in the Prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples. He told us we should pray to God to "give us this day our "daily bread."  
Ask:  How often does Jesus say we should be praying? (at least every day!)
How many of you pray each day?
When do you pray?
What do you usually pray for?
Say:  Jesus instructs us to pray every day for our "daily bread."

Ask:  What does "daily bread" mean?
Say:  Jesus didn't speak English. He spoke a version of the Hebrew language called "Galilean Aramaic." And it just so happens that the word for BREAD in Jesus' language is the word "PITHA." "Give us this day our daily PITHA" is what Jesus would have said to his disciples!

Ask:  What word does the word "pitha" sound like to you?  (Pita and pizza!)
Say: Yes, the word "pizza" comes the word "pita" which is one of many words for bread in the Middle East. In his native Galilean Aramaic language, Jesus would have pronounced it "pitha." So when you pray "Give us this day our daily bread," you can also say, "Give us this day our daily pizza!" 

Say: To help us think about what Jesus meant when he said "give us this day our daily pizza" we are each going to make our own daily pizza using these key ingredients: dough, sauce, cheese, and your choice of toppings.

The Daily Pizza Discussion and Pizza Making

As you pass out the ingredients and begin working with them, you will say a little bit about each of them. You'll have an opportunity to reinforce the ingredients when you eat the pizzas, so concentrate on getting the pizzas assembled and into the oven.

Give each student a 6" x 6" square of parchment paper with a heart-shaped pizza dough on it. (This paper will make it easy to transfer their pizzas on and off the baking sheet.) Have them WRITE their name on a corner of the paper with a permanent marker or a pencil.

Say this about the pizza dough:  Pinch up the edges of your dough so as to hold the sauce. As you work with this dough—this bread—think about this: Jesus said to pray every day. Jesus is our most important "daily bread." In fact, he once said, "I am the Bread of Life!" (in John 6:35). So one way to think about praying "give us this day our daily bread," is that we are asking for Jesus everyday! Just as bread helps us to grow, Jesus helps us grow in our faith every day.
Ask:  What are some things that Jesus feeds us every day ?  (love, forgiveness, guidance, his Word, fellowship, purpose, etc.)

Say this about the sauce:  As you spread your "daily sauce" on your daily bread dough, think about this: when we pray we are praying for God's love to flow over us and surround us, and surround and flow to other people in our lives. When we pray for daily pizza, we are praying for God's love to flow from us to all the other people we share every day with.
Ask:  How else can you say, "Lord, let your sauce flow through me!"

Say this about the cheese: 
Ask:  Who loves cheese!  Why do we put cheese on our pizzas? What does the cheese do for the bread, the sauce, and the toppings? 
Say:  That's right, the cheese holds everything together and make it taste yummy. Our daily prayers are a lot like pizza cheese—our prayers help us "stick" to God. Cheese is yummy too. Prayers are one of the gooey things that feed our faith. Eat a daily prayer pizza with cheese on it and your faith, your relationship with God will grow strong!  (Go ahead and taste some of your cheese.)

Say this about the toppings:  As you choose which toppings will go on your pizza, think about how one of these toppings could depict you. Before we eat our pizza, I'm going to ask you how a topping could be interpreted as YOU, so give this some thought. Pick any topping you'd like and I will pour some into your hand to go on your pizza.
Say:  Imagine that you are putting YOU on top of your daily prayer pizza. God wants YOU to "stick on" him and with him! He wants to feed you and fill your life with good things. One of the ways God feeds us is through our daily prayers.
Ask:  Most people think of prayers as something you do to ASK God for things, but what sorts of things does God FEED US with when we pray? (love, assurance, guidance, strength, removes fear, etc.)

Finally, put the pizzas onto a baking sheet, place them in the oven, and set your timer!

  Hot Tip: Have a volunteer watch the pizzas cook. Sometimes the "times" on the package aren't right for small pizzas, and some church ovens may heat inconsistently. Small crusts usually take just 8 to 10 minutes.

Note:  The dough, sauce, cheese, and toppings can metaphorically also represent other ideas about prayer and faith. Keep it simple for younger children. 

Elephant Toothpaste Demonstration (10 minutes)

God's presence = the most important ingredient in your prayers!

"Elephant Toothpaste" is the fun name for a popular science experiment demonstration that uses yeast to release the oxygen in a soapy solution of hydrogen peroxide, causing an impressive but safe fountain of foam. It looks like toothpaste! Enough for an elephant! You'll have about 8 to 12 minutes of baking time to do this demonstration. It's so fun to do and watch, that you should plan on doing it at least twice (so plan your ingredients accordingly).

Your students MAY be familiar with this experiment, but you can guarantee that they have never heard it explained in terms of the presence of God in prayer.

(There is a version of this experiment that uses potassium chloride in place of the yeast to produce a geyser of foam, but that is a little too much for the typical Sunday School setting.)

Say:  While we wait for our pizza to bake, let's watch an experiment that involves a hidden ingredient that I will ask you to identify. Speaking of hidden ingredients... there is an ingredient that we can't see that is in our pizza dough—something which makes pizza bread dough rise and turn fluffy.
Ask:  Does anyone know what that hidden ingredient is? (yeast)
Say:  Yeast helps the dough rise. In the following experiment yeast also plays a role. We will see this yeast but there is a different hidden ingredient involved. I wonder if you'll be able to tell me what that hidden ingredient is?

Create Elephant Toothpaste:

1. The experiment leader should don safety goggles, an apron, and gloves. (The hydrogen peroxide can irritate/burn the skin and cause bleached spots, but it looks cool to get decked out!)  
2. Name each ingredient as you add it... Into a pourable measuring cup, mix 1 Tablespoon of yeast in 3 Tablespoons of warm water. Stir until yeast dissolves. Set aside.
3. Place the empty bottle in the center of the tray on the covered table.
4. Using the funnel, pour 1/2 cup of "20 Volume" 6% hydrogen peroxide into the bottle.
5. Add a generous squirt of dish soap and several drops of food coloring. Swirl the mixture a little bit.
6. Instruct students to stand back.
7. Pour the yeast mixture through the funnel into the bottle. Give it a quick swirl then step back to watch!
   
   

Ask:  What was the hidden ingredient in our experiment which created all this foam?
Say:  The "hidden" ingredient is oxygen in the hydrogen peroxide. When yeast is added to the hydrogen peroxide it creates a chemical reaction that releases the oxygen into the soapy solution, which erupts as foam.

Ask:  What if I told you there was a hidden ingredient in prayer? What do you suppose that hidden ingredient is? (allow a few replies)
Say:  The "hidden" ingredient in prayer is God's presence, God's Spirit. When we pray we can't see God, but God is with us. In prayer, we are sharing with the unseen presence of God.

Ask:  What are ways we can "feel" God's presence in prayer?
Say:  Some people talk about "feeling close to God" in prayer. Often it's a feeling of comfort or release from stress. Talking to God can feel like "hope" that things are going to be all right, a sense of "trust" or lack of "fear" that comes over our thoughts. Some people do experience the presence of God as a strange "warmth" or soothing feeling that goes through their bodies. All of these "sensations" may come from being in God's presence, or they may simply be our body reacting to the knowledge that God is with us. To become aware of God's voice and presence in prayer can take preparation and practice. It can mean spending time in silence and searching your thoughts. It can take sharing your prayers with others to learn from them and receive guidance.

Note: The foam could be hot. Wait a bit to cool before cleaning up. Keep gloves and goggles on. Disposal down the drain is okay.

Eating our Daily Pizza Prayer (5 to 10 minutes)

Do:  Use a pizza cutter on each student's pizza to create FIVE bite-size pieces, one for the "toppings question" and four for the following "Pizza Prayer."

Say:  We have made daily bread prayer pizza! We will eat our pizza piece by piece, parts of it while we pray. You may eat one piece each time I invite you to eat a piece.

Topping Question:

Say:  During the pizza making, we imagined a topping as a picture of you.
Ask students to share how a certain topping represents them.
Follow up with the idea that just like "daily food" keeps us alive and growing, our daily prayers with God feed our spirits and grow our relationship with God.

Do:  Invite everyone to eat one slice of their pizza, saying...

just like daily food grows our bodies,
our daily prayers grow our relationship with God.

Pizza Prayer:

Students will eat one bite at a time when prompted in the following prayer. Allow time to eat each piece before moving on to the next portion of the prayer.

Say:  We will eat the remaining pieces of our daily bread pizza as we pray. Being in a spirit of prayer...

Prayer 1:  Our Father who art in heaven, awesome, bright, and loving is your name! Today and every day, be with us and in us.

Say:  If this is your prayer too, take and eat one piece of your daily bread pizza.

Prayer 2: God, we want your kingdom and desire to surround us. Today and every day, we pray for you to come into our lives—to change us and change the world.

Say:  Take and eat another pizza piece if this is your prayer too.

Prayer 3: Lord, lead us away from temptation and evil, today and every day, be our guide and savior.

Say:  Take and eat another piece if this is your prayer too.

Prayer 4: We pray to you Our Father because we believe in your Kingdom, and in your power to change us and the world and in your everlasting glory and love. Today and every day you are our bread, our strength, and our hope.

Say:  Take and eat the last piece if this is your prayer too.

Say:  Say "Amen!" if you love God and your daily prayer pizza to him!

Adaptations

For Younger Students:   

Adapt the opening game by tossing a ball to a student as you say a word of the Lord's Prayer. When they catch the ball, they repeat the word as they throw the ball back to you. Continue with the next word in the prayer tossing the ball to another student. Continue tossing the ball back and forth until you've completed the prayer.

Adapt the Daily Pizza making by simplifying your vocabulary and describing the "cheese" as our "faith" (or "belief") which connects us to God.
Have them taste each ingredient prior to using/applying it: Talk about how the sauce tastes both sweet and tangy (God is like that, both sweet and tangy—meaning, he will both encourage and challenge us. He will comfort and ask us to obey him.) 
The toppings can represent them as in the main lesson above, or you can have them think about all the "parts of a prayer" such as the praise and the Amen. Give them suggestions as to how the toppings can depict them: They have green eyes (broccoli), curly hair (kale), are blonde (pineapple), have freckles (pepperoni), etc.

For Intergenerational Use:

Have families or groups make larger pizzas together—each placing their own unique toppings on a section of the pizza. Write some thoughts about prayer on a blank pizza box or the "pizza round" cardboard that goes under the pizza to take it home.  Make extra "daily prayer" pizzas for others and include description, scripture, and prayer encouragements on the box.

For older children with more class time:

Have students cut out the pizza dough.
Use a slightly less potent hydrogen peroxide solution (for safety sake) and let each of them make Elephants Toothpaste in a water bottle. 
Make extra prayer pizzas to share.

For those who need to "simplify" the lesson or activities:

After the "Pass the Daily Bread" activity, reduce the opening to a simple Bible study.
Reduce the number of pizza topping options.

Written by Pam Bryson, Neil MacQueen, and the Rotation.org Writing Team

Copyright 2020, Rotation.org Inc.