Kids: Early Arrival Activity

Teacher Note: Additional activities for today’s lesson can be found on the Bible Study Manager page for this lesson. Look for the tab labeled “Extra Resources.”

Teacher Note: This activity calls for making mailboxes from paper plates; however, if tissue boxes or shoe boxes are available, consider using them instead for better durability. If you use boxes, provide decorative paper for the students to use to cover the boxes. They will decorate the boxes to serve as mailboxes. Help your students cut a hole in the top of the box if necessary so that they can place letters inside their mailboxes throughout the quarter.

In today’s lesson, your students will begin a study of Paul’s epistles. Epistles are also known as letters. Paul wrote 13 letters that are recorded in the New Testament. In these letters, Paul wrote to churches as well as individual people.

To introduce the lesson and the idea of Paul writing letters to new believers, your students will make mailboxes. They will add their own letters to the mailboxes throughout the quarter.

Give each student two paper plates. Instruct them to lay one paper plate in front of them as if they are going to eat off of it. Then tell them to cut the other paper plate in half. They will place one half of the second plate upside down on the bottom of the whole paper plate to create a pocket. They will then staple the half paper plate to the bottom of the whole paper plate, creating an open pocket for them to place letters in.

Encourage your students to decorate their mailboxes by writing their names on them and adding some drawings and stickers. Tell your students that after the Bible Story Time, they will write a letter to put in the mailbox. They will add a new letter to the mailbox almost every week of this quarter.

Explain that they will leave their mailboxes at church until the quarter is over. At the end of the quarter, they will take their mailboxes home.