Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding. He turned water into wine, and saved the reception from going bad. Teach your preschoolers about Jesus' first miracle.

The ideas below may help you when teaching a lesson about when Jesus turned water into wine. Feel free to use these ideas to supplement your current curriculum or to make your own lesson.

Story Suggestion

The Bible passage based on this lesson is John 2: 1-11. This passage in the Bible shows that Jesus attended a wedding and was able to turn pots of water into wine to be used for the wedding celebration, after the initial supply ran out. It was his first recorded miracle.

Game Ideas

Pass the Jar

Directions: This game is played like Hot Potato; however, you will give the children a small clay vessel or empty jar to represent the water and wine jars used at the wedding feast to pass around the circle. Have the children sit in a circle and hand one child the jar. Play the music and have the children pass the jar around the circle until the music stops. The child left holding the jar is out. This continues until only one child is left—that child will be the winner.

Water, Water, Wine

Directions: Kids will recognize this as the popular “Duck, Duck, Goose." Place children in the circle and have one walk around tapping each child on the head by saying, “water, water, wine." When he or she says “wine,” they will race around the circle and the next child becomes “it."

Snacks

A good snack for this lesson would be wedding cupcakes and flavored drink.

Since Jesus turned the water into wine at a wedding, an appropriate snack would be wedding cake. Instead of making a large cake, bring some plain, unfrosted cupcakes for the children. Provide them with plain white frosting and some decorative sprinkles. Have them decorate their own wedding cupcake. Also, make grape Kool-Aid to show the children how the water magically turns to “wine” when mixed with the water.

Another good snack for this lesson would be grapes.

Wine is made from grapes, so why not show the children the different things that can be made out of grapes. Bring in some green and red grapes for the children to sample, as well as raisins, and grape juice. You can even show them how grapes are mashed to make wine.

Art Center Ideas

Clay Water Pots

Materials:

• Salt dough
• Acrylic paint
• Paintbrushes

Directions: Make enough salt dough so that each child has enough to sculpt a clay pot. To make salt dough you need:

• 4 cups of flour
• 1 cup of salt
• 1 cup of warm water

Start by mixing the flour and salt in a large bowl. Gradually add the water and mix with your hands (this is a perfect job for the kids). Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about ten minutes. The consistency should be very smooth and pliable. It is now ready to use. Give each child dough and show them how to make a clay pot. Allow the pots to dry. This may take several days depending on how thick the dough is, but after it is dry, you can use acrylic paint to decorate.

Tissue Paper Grapes

Materials:

• Print out of a bunch of grapes
• Red or purple tissue paper cut into small squares
• Glue
• Q-tips

Directions: Children will cover the print out with tissue paper to make the grapes look three-dimensional. Place one square of tissue paper on the end of the Q-tip and dip it in the glue. Press it onto the paper. Continue until the entire picture is covered. Color in some leaves and a stem. If the q-tips are too hard to work with, then try the end of an old pencil.

Suggested Prayer

This is a song that came from the website Garden of Praise. This could be used as a prayer.

"In Cana one day was a wedding so fine, for Jesus and Mary were there. His mother told him that they had no more wine; would Jesus have something to share? Oh, Mother, my dear, my time has not come near, but Mary continued to try. So Jesus gave orders for servants that day, and gallons of wine did provide. And gallons of wine did provide."

See more Sunday School lesson ideas and great Bible crafts here!