Creative Teaching Ideas: Jesus Feeds the 5000

Here are some creative teaching ideas to bring the Bible story of Jesus Feeds the 5000 to life for your Sunday School class.

Have a picnic in Sunday School

Since this Bible story deals with Jesus feeding a large crowd, it makes sense to tell the story while having a picnic of sorts during Sunday School. Putting the picnic together is super easy and will leave a lasting impression on the children long after the class is over. You'll need a blanket to spread out on the floor and a small basket or lunch bag. For your 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread, consider using cooked fish sticks and small rolls or bread sticks.

As you're telling the story from the Bible of how Jesus fed the crowd of 5000 with a little boy's lunch of 2 fishes and 5 loaves of bread, show them your picnic basket and even pass it around so the children can see how much food that really was. After you're done telling the story, you can give them a small snack of goldfish crackers or bread sticks along with some juice or water.

Make bread with your Sunday School class

If you really want to involve your class, consider have your kids help you make bread while you tell the lesson of Jesus feeding the 5000. If your Sunday School class is not too big and can comfortably gather in your church kitchen then this would be a great project for them. you can use a simple recipe for making biscuits or if you have a bread maker, you can also have your class help you with the process of getting the ingredients into the bread maker. Another option is to buy ready made biscuits from a can and just have your class help get them out of the can and place them on the baking sheets. Have a table set up with things like peanut butter, jelly and butter for the kids to put on their fresh out of the oven biscuits.

Make fish sandwiches

You can take the bread making one step further and also have fish sticks ready for the kids to eat with their bread. Or you can just purchase buns and make fish sticks to have real fish sandwiches. Just remember that some of the kids might not like fish, so make it clear that they don't have to eat the fish sticks if they don't want to. You could have another option (like chicken nuggets) for those kids who don't like fish sticks.