This lesson plan is featured in The Religion Teacher’s First Reconciliation Activity Pack to help kids prepare for the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.
Sin and Grace Lesson Objectives
- Students will be able to define sin and grace.
- Students will feel grateful for the grace of God.
Lesson Activities & Assessment
Hook: Best Birthday Present
Ask student to share:
What is the best birthday present you have ever received?
After students share their favorite presents, ask them:
Did you earn that present?
Were you given this present because of how good you were or because of how much someone loved you?
In the same way that parents give gifts to their kids out of love, God gives us the gift of grace because of love. There is nothing we can do to deserve it. He gives us grace because he loves us as his children.
Present: What is Sin?
Watch The Religion Teacher’s “The Meaning of Sin in Christianity” video and complete the graphic organizer.
Present: What is Grace?
Watch The Religion Teacher’s “The Meaning of Grace in Christianity” video and complete the graphic organizer.
Download the Sin and Grace Video Worksheets
Download a graphic organizer worksheet for both of these videos to help your students listen and learn what they see and hear.
Download the Sin and Grace Video Worksheets here:
Practice: Sin Scenarios
To emphasize the consequence of sin as separation, read the following moral scenarios, and have students respond to the questions.
The Big Test
You forgot to study for a big test. You notice your neighbor’s answers are easy to see. You copy them on your test.
Discussion Questions:
- What did you do wrong?
- How could this sin separate you from the teachers?
- How could this sin separate you from your neighbor?
- How could this sin separate you from your parents?
- How could this sin separate you from God?
- What could God’s grace help you do instead?
Lunchtime Gossip
At lunch a group of people make fun of a classmate. You try to look good by making fun of the classmate too.
Discussion Questions
- What did you do wrong?
- How could this sin separate you from the classmate?
- How could this sin separate you from the group of people at lunch?
- How could this sin separate you from God?
- What could God’s grace help you do instead?
You Choose
Now invite students to create the own sin scenarios in just a few sentences.
Discussion Questions
- What did you do wrong?
- How will this sin separate you from someone else?
- How will this sin separate you from God?
- What could God’s grace help you do instead?
Prayer Meditation: Grace Chain
By God’s grace we are reunited with him and our neighbors. We experience this grace as forgiveness and mercy. We are also given help by God to be united as his children.
Distribute strips of paper cut vertically. Along the strip of paper, have students respond to this prompt:
Describe one moment of God helping you in your life.
As students finish, have them work together to connect their strips of paper with tape to form a “Grace Chain.” Remind the students that grace unites us as children of God. It helps us break down the barriers of sin and sorrow that separate us from one another and from God.
(If a student cannot think of anything to write, then welcome this as an opportunity to pray for God’s grace right in this moment. They can write a prayer on the paper asking God to give them the grace to overcome some challenge in their lives.)
Follow this activity with the recitation of this Prayer to Desire God, attributed to Saint Anselm of Canterbury.
O Lord my God,
grant me grace to desire You with my whole heart;
that desiring You, I may seek and find You;
and finding You, may love You;
and loving You, may hate those sins
which separate me from You.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Proof Assessment: Sin and Grace Exit Ticket
Student will write the definitions of sin and grace in their own words on two sides of an index card.
The Religion Teacher’s First Reconciliation Activity Pack
Are you preparing kids to go to confession for the first time? The Religion Teacher’s First Reconciliation Activity Pack provides teachers, catechists, and parents with ready-to-use lesson plans, worksheets, videos, prayers, meditations, and assessments to guide students toward a deeper experience of God’s mercy and forgiveness.
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