We have taught this lesson to several groups of children over several years and we love teaching it. The children in our first grade class are in the summer between kindergarten and first grade when this lesson rolls around, and are super excited to eat food in Bible class. The teenagers and adults we made this for were also super excited and ate all our food right up.
These pictures are from the lesson we taught to teenagers and adults. We prepared for 50 people to eat the plagues. An endeavor like this takes alot of prep work and a team behind the scenes. Above, the ladies are preparing for plague 10.
This is what 10 plagues for 50 people looks like laid out on two 10-foot tables.
We gave each participant his own plate and a bottle of water, just in case. Each of my four adult helpers had small plates or cups with the plague food in it. See, in the picture of the tables above, each plague number has four little plates above it, one for each helper. As Jeremy and Mike taught the lesson, the helpers circulated through the tables and passed out the plague food. Above, Mike gamely takes a bite of the first plague - the River Nile turns to blood. It's sardines in tomato sauce, ya'll. Seriously.
Some of our participants...
When we taught the lesson with first graders, we emphasized that the plagues showed God's mighty power and ability to control everything. When we taught the same piece of scripture for teenagers and adults, we emphasized that God was using his power and strength to show the impotence of the Egyptian gods.
This lesson is powerful, but eating through the plagues needs to be accompanied by more discussion, drawing emphasis from the text based on age appropriate needs.
Of course, please be aware of food allergies. Before we teach this lesson, we send home a list of ingredients for parent approval. We do have to make changes occasionally because of food allergies, and parents have always been gracious and appreciative of the chance to protect their children while still allowing them to participate in a fun activity.
