A disobedient son throws away his wealth and comes crawling back to his father. Teach your preschoolers about the Prodigal Son with these ideas and suggestions.

The ideas below may help you when teaching your preschoolers a lesson about the Prodigal Son and how God will always take us back when we turn from Him. Feel free to use these ideas to supplement your current curriculum or to make your own lesson.

Story Suggestion

Luke 15:11-32

Game Ideas

Hide-N-Seek

Directions: Have one child hide his eyes while the other children find a place to hide. After counting to 10 or 20, the seeker must find the hidden children. This is best played in an open space like outdoors on a playground or in a gym. Give the children boundaries where they cannot go beyond and watch them carefully as they hide.

Hot or Cold

Directions: Choose a child to hide an item in the room. Do not let any of the other children see where the item is being hidden. The child who hid the item now picks another child to guess where the item is by giving the hints "hot" or "cold." If the seeker is close to the item, the child who hid the item will say, "You're getting hotter." If the seeker is far from the object, the other child will say, "You're getting colder." When the seeker finds the object, she will then hide a different object and choose another seeker. Let each child have the chance to be either the seeker or the one hiding before the game ends.

Snacks

A good snack for this lesson would be:

Chocolate coins that you can find at a store, along with a fruit tray and juice.

Another good snack idea for this lesson would be:

Feast

Small ham biscuits, grapes, pudding cups, and juice. Have a feast just like the father did when his son came home. Make portions very small.

Art Center Ideas

Prodigal Son Coloring Page

Directions: Print the coloring below for the children to color.

Feast Collage

Materials:

• Old magazines
• Glue sticks
• Construction paper
• Safety scissors
• Crayons
• Marker

Directions:

Preparation: On the construction paper, draw a plate and some utensils with a marker. Also write your memory verse on the bottom of the paper.

1. Place magazines in the center of a table.
2. Give each child a sheet of construction paper, a glue stick, and a pair of safety scissors. Instruct the children to find pictures of their favorite foods in the magazines and cut them out.
3. Then have them glue the pictures to their plate.

Suggested Prayer (or use your own)

I see you made the trees so tall. I see you made the sky. I love you, God, with all my heart. I praise you day and night. Amen.

See the full list of Sunday School lesson ideas on both the Old Testament and the New Testament!