Exodus Children’s Sunday School Lessons

Hello, hello! Today, we're discussing the Israelites' Exodus from Egypt and how God cared for them directly afterward.

If you missed it, I recommend picking up the lessons in Preparing for the Exodus. There, you'll find lessons about Shiphrah and Puah (the two midwives who refused Pharaoh's wicked order), baby Moses in the river, and Moses' encounter with God in the burning bush.

In this collection, we'll see:

• The Plagues of Egypt and Crossing the Red Sea – God saves Israel and He saves us!
• God Gives the People Manna – We can always trust God to provide
• Help Each Other Pray! – Just as the Israelites won their first victory, we win when we help others

You'll find "first-hand accounts," discussion questions, games, crafts, and other activity ideas to help kids learn the most from your time together.

If you're looking for more ideas on how to teach these stories, visit my collection of children's sermons about the Exodus . It has object lessons for all the main stories in the sequence.

Recommended Extras

These resources from others will add to your teaching time with videos, storybooks, coloring and activity pages, and more teaching ideas.

Paid Resources

Showing videos is a great way to give kids an idea of what life was like in the time of the story. And there are quite a few choices when it comes to the story of the Exodus.

Superbook: Let My People Go – The remake of the classic series is a hit with kids. It features modern animation and fun characters, including the robot Gizmo, who travel back in time to the days of Moses.

The Greatest Adventure Stories from the Bible: Moses – This is an oldie but a goodie with an animation style that's more lifelike. It also uses the idea of time travelers to go back and observe the story.

The Prince of Egypt – Charlton Heston, the actor who played Moses in The Ten Commandments movie, voices Moses and acts as host for this series. It's also an older series, but the animation style is modern, so kids should still enjoy it just as well.

The Prince of Egypt – This DreamWorks movie does take some liberties with the Biblical story, but it can still be a great resource for teaching. Simply point out where it differs and keep going.

I recommend using one or two of these video options as bookends to your series on Moses. Show one as the first week of your series and another to close it. That way, kids get two visual perspectives on the same story, along with all the lessons you taught in between.

Bible Fun Factory Volume 3 – These five lessons from Mary Kate Warner coincide with the lessons below. She gives you additional activity and game ideas to supplement your class time.

The Beginner's Bible: Moses and the King – This book is perfect if your group is mostly made of preschoolers or early elementary students. Instead of using the videos above or telling the Bible stories I've included, you might want to read this storybook instead.

Free Resources

Free Sunday School Curriculum has coloring and activity pages along with a memory match game in their lesson on The Ten Plagues . Also, view their lesson on The Passover , Moses Leads the People out of Egypt , Through the Red Sea , and God Gives Manna to Eat .

The Ministry-to-Children website includes a lesson activity in Felicia Mollohan's Moses Crossing the Red Sea in which kids name their fears and then brainstorm about how God can help them.

Sermons4Kids describes a demonstration using pepper and dish detergent in Parting the Red Sea .

The Plagues of Egypt and Crossing the Red Sea Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this children's Sunday School lesson to teach kids about how God saved the Israelites and how He saves us.

Needed: volunteer to play Moses (you can be Moses if you want), long stick for a staff, index cards with plagues written on them, flashlight, baby doll, basket, blanket

Game: Wrapping Baby Moses – Remind students of how Moses' mother put him in a basket and put him by the river for the princess to find him. Half of the kids line up on one side of the room, the other half on the other side. In the middle of the room is a baby doll, a blanket, and a basket. On "Go", one student from one side of the room runs up and wraps the baby in the blanket and places it in the basket. As soon as the baby is in the basket, a student from the other side of the room runs out and unwraps the baby. Then a wrapper wraps, etc. The goal is to see how much time it takes for every student to complete their part. Play a couple of rounds, switching which side wraps and which side unwraps. Try to beat your previous times.

Game: Moses and the Burning Bush – Remind students of how Moses saw God talking to him out of the burning bush and had to take off his shoes to show respect for God. Kids run in a semi-lit room. When someone turns on a light or shines a flashlight, everyone has to stop and take off their shoes as quickly as they can. Take turns letting people turn on the light or have the flashlight.

As an alternative, you could play Holy Ground from the previous lesson.

Lesson: (Note: Always allow students enough time to think about and answer the questions before clarifying the teaching.)

(Ask Moses to come in.)

(Moses reads the following script based on Exodus 4:18-14:31 .)

Moses: (enters, carrying a staff) Hello again, everyone! I came to tell you a little more about my story. Last time, I said that God talked to me out of that burning bush and told me that He wanted me to be the leader who would bring the Israelites out of Egypt so that they wouldn't be slaves anymore. I didn't want to be the leader. I was too afraid. But when God says something, you just have to trust Him and do it. So, I took my wife and kids and started on my way back to Egypt.

God sent my older brother, Aaron, to help me, and when we got back to Egypt, I told all the Israelites that God cared about them and wanted to take them out of Egypt so that they wouldn't have to be slaves anymore. I showed them how God could make my staff turn into a snake and how God could make my hand get a disease but then get better.

After that, Aaron and I went to the palace to talk to Pharaoh. I told Pharaoh, "God says to let His people go." But Pharaoh said, "I don't believe in God, so I'm not going to let the Israelites go. In fact, now I'm going make their work even harder."

So, Pharaoh told the slave bosses to be even meaner to the Israelites. But God said, "Pharaoh will let the Israelites go because I will make him let them go."

The next morning, Aaron and I went back to talk to Pharaoh. I said, "God says to let His people go."

Pharaoh said, "What can you do to prove that your God is real and that I should listen to Him?"

Aaron took my staff and threw it down on the ground and God turned into a snake. But, then, Pharaoh's magicians did a magic trick to make it look like their staves also turned into snakes. My staff then swallowed the magician's snakes, but Pharaoh still wouldn't listen to God and let the Israelites go.

So, the next morning, Aaron and I went back to Pharaoh. He still wouldn't let the Israelites go, so God told us to turn all the water in Egypt into blood. Aaron hit the water of the river with his staff and all the water in Egypt turned into blood. The fish in the river died and no one could drink any water. But, then, Pharaoh's magicians did a magic trick to make it look like they could turn water into blood too. So Pharaoh still wouldn't listen to God and let the Israelites go.

A week later, Aaron and I went back to Pharaoh and said, "God says to let His people go." Pharaoh still wouldn't listen, so God made frogs, thousands and thousands of frogs, come and cover the whole country. They were jumping up on people's tables and bothering everything. They were really annoying.

Finally, Pharaoh asked us to pray for God to take away the frogs. But, when we did, and God took away the frogs, Pharaoh said he still wouldn't listen to God and let the Israelites go.

This kept happening. God made gnats come and bother everyone. Then, He made flies, more flies than you've ever seen, come. Next, God made all the cows in Egypt die, but let the cows that Israelites had live. Then, He made sores and a painful rash come out on all the Egyptians. Next, He made big hail fall on the Egyptians, like big rocks falling out of the sky. It crushed all of the farmers' food and made holes in the buildings. Then, God sent a bunch of locust insects to eat the rest of the Egyptians' food. After that, God made it totally dark for three days in Egypt. Nobody could see the sun or the moon or the stars for three days except for the Israelites. And, every time, Pharaoh still wouldn't listen to God and let the Israelites go.

Finally, God told me to tell all the Israelites to kill a lamb and to put its blood on the doorframes of their front doors. That night, God sent His angel to kill all of the firstborn children in Egypt. The angel killed the oldest child in every house. But, he skipped the houses of the Israelites, because when the angel saw the blood on the doorframes of the Israelites' front doors, he would skip that house and not kill any children living there.

Pharaoh woke up in the middle of the night and saw that even his oldest child had been killed by the angel. Then he told me and the Israelites to leave right away. He was afraid that God might do something worse to him if he didn't let us go. The other Egyptians even gave us money so that we would be nice to them and leave as fast as we could. None of the Egyptians wanted God to punish them any more.

So in the middle of the night, I took all of the Israelites and left Egypt. We weren't slaves anymore. God had said that He would make Pharaoh let us go, and that's what He did. God didn't want to do all of those bad things to the Egyptians. If Pharaoh would have listened, God wouldn't have had to do all those things. But we were happy because God had freed us from our slavery.

That night, we camped by the sea. But, Pharaoh decided he wanted to chase us and bring us back to Egypt to be his slaves. So, he sent his army to attack and bring us back.

But do you think God would let Pharaoh take us back to be his slaves again?

No, God put a wall of fire between us and the Egyptian army so that they couldn't get to us. Then, God said, "Moses, stretch your staff out toward the sea." I did, and God started moving the water in the sea to the right and to the left so that there was a wall of water on both sides of us, but dry ground in the middle.

God told me, "Lead the Israelites through the sea on the dry ground." By the morning, we had all crossed through the sea on dry ground. When we were on the other side, God moved the wall of fire so that the Egyptians could see us on the other side of the sea. They started to run through the sea on the dry ground to chase us, but then, God said, "Stretch your staff out toward the sea again."

I did, and God made the wall of water on the right and the wall of water on the left come back down and drown the whole Egyptian army so that they couldn't get us.

And that's how God rescued us from slavery in Egypt.

(Have the students thank Moses.)

Review Questions Why did Moses' staff eat the magicians' staves? (To show that God is more powerful than the magicians' magic tricks.)

What did God want Pharaoh to do? (God wanted Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of Egypt and to stop making them be slaves.)

What did God do when Pharaoh wouldn't listen to Him? (He punished the Egyptians and even sent an angel to kill all of the firstborn children.)

Why didn't the angel kill any of the Israelites' children? (The Israelites put the blood of a lamb on the doorframe of their houses. When the angel saw the blood, he knew not to enter that house.)

As Christians, we're also saved by the blood of a lamb. The Bible tells us that Jesus was the lamb that was sacrificed for all of us. Because of His blood, God doesn't punish us. Jesus' blood saves us, just like the blood of the lamb saved the Israelite children.

Game: Impersonating the Plagues – Give each child or group a card with a plague written on it. They have 2 minutes to figure out how to act out that plague without using words. The plagues are the river turning to blood, frogs everywhere, gnats everywhere, flies everywhere, cows dying, sores on everyone, hail, locusts eating everything, total darkness, death of the oldest children. You can also act out the plagues as a whole class.

Why did make all those terrible things happen to Egypt? (God was punishing Pharaoh because he wouldn't listen to God.)

Do you think you should listen to God when He tells you to do something? (Yes.)

Pharaoh sent his army to get the Israelites, but what did God do for the Israelites? (God parted the sea and let the Israelites pass through so that the Egyptians couldn't hurt them. Then, He made the water come back down and drown the Egyptian army.)

When you find yourself in a hard situation, do you think God can rescue you like He rescued Moses and the Israelites?

Game: Crossing the Red Sea – Divide students into two teams. One team is the Israelites, the other the Egyptians. Have the Israelites stand a few feet in front of the Egyptians. Tell the Israelites to run in a certain direction when you say, "Go." Tell the Egyptians to chase the Israelites, but they can't cross a certain line. Don't tell them where the line is. Let the Israelites cross the line. When the Egyptians do, tell them they're out because they crossed the line. They'll complain that that this isn't fair, but explain that this is what God did for the Israelites. He let the Israelites cross the Red Sea (the line), but not the Egyptians. He protected the Israelites, but destroyed the Egyptians.

Closing Prayer: Lord, thank You for this lesson about how You saved the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. We also thank You for saving us by the blood of Jesus. Help us to always listen to You like Pharaoh should have. Amen.

God Gives the People Manna Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this children's Sunday School lesson to teach children about God's provision.)

Needed: pair of adult shoes, hat, Desert Survival Gear Relay game cards (use clip art or photos of various items), drawing paper, crayons or colored pencils

Intro Game: Desert Survival Gear Relay – You will need an adult-size pair of shoes and a large hat as well as game cards with necessary and unnecessary items pictured on them. Children will run a relay race against the clock to collect all the necessary things that the Israelites needed in the desert.

The first person in the line wears the shoes (because the Israelites were walking through sand and that's pretty difficult) and the hat (to keep the desert sun out of their eyes). On "Go," they run to where the game cards are and select something they think the Israelites would have needed. They run back to their team and give the shoes and hat to the next person, and the game continues.

If a team-member selects an item that the rest of them think is unnecessary, they have to run back and get something else. The game is finished when all of the necessary items have been collected. The students need to work quickly to get the best time because the Israelites had to leave Egypt and go into the desert in a hurry.

When all of the necessary items have been collected, however, point out that none of the cards had any food or water on them. Tell them that God gave the Israelites their food and water and then hand them the cards picturing those things.

Lesson: (Summarize Exodus 15:22-16:36 using the following story and asking the included questions as you read.)

After God brought Moses and the Israelites out of Egypt, they had to walk through the desert for three days and couldn't find any water to drink. Everyone act like you're walking through desert… Now, act as if you're walking and you're really thirsty.

Where were the people walking? (In the desert.)

How long did they walk without finding any water? (Three days.)

Do you think you would get thirsty after walking in the desert and not having any water for three days? (Yes.)

Finally, on the third day, the people did find water. Everyone look happy and excited. But, when they tried to drink it, it tasted bad because there was something wrong with it. They couldn't drink it. So, they all got grumpy and started complaining to Moses and to God. Everyone, look grumpy.

When the people did find water, what was wrong with it? (It tasted too bad to drink.)

Were the people happy that they couldn't drink the water? (No, they were frustrated.)

Would you be frustrated if you were them? (Yes.)

Then, Moses prayed to God and God told him to throw some wood into the water. When Moses threw the wood in, the water tasted better and was okay for the people to drink. Everyone, look happy.

What did Moses do when the people couldn't drink the water? (He prayed to God for help.)

Did God help them? (Yes.)

How did God help them? (He made the water good to drink.)

When you have a problem and get frustrated, do you think you can pray to God and God will help you? (Yes.)

After God gave the people water to drink, they again went out walking through the desert. They had to keep walking through the desert to get to their new home, the place where Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph had all been from before the Israelites moved to Egypt. Everyone, pretend like you're walking in the desert again.

While they were in the desert, they ran out of food and started to whine and complain because they were so hungry. Everyone, act like you're hungry. They even said that they wished they had stayed slaves in Egypt so that they could at least have some food.

What was the problem this time? (They were hungry and couldn't find any food in the desert.)

So, God said to Moses, "Moses, I'm going to give the people food to eat." And Moses said to the people, "Stop whining and complaining against God and saying that you wish you were still slaves. God's going to give us food." And that night, God sent a bunch of birds, hundreds and thousands of them, that came and landed in the people's camp. Everyone, act like birds coming in for a landing. And they caught the birds and cooked them and ate them. Act like you're catching birds and then cooking and eating them. When they woke up the next morning… Everyone, act like you're waking up… there was a bunch of bread lying on the ground.

What did God do for the people? (He made a bunch of birds fly in and land on the ground for them to eat and He made bread appear on the ground.)

The people called the bread that God gave them manna. Everyone say, "manna." God told them to only take as much of the bread as they needed for that day. Everyone, pretend like you're taking a little bit of bread off the ground.

He promised to send them more manna the next morning. But, some people gathered more bread than they really needed. Everyone, pretend like you're taking a lot of bread off the ground. They kept it until the next day. When they woke up the next day… Everyone, act like you're waking up… that left-over bread that they had kept was all moldy and covered in maggots. Everyone, show me your best "gross face".

God told them to only collect as much as they needed for that day, but some people wanted to get more. Why do you think they collected more? (They didn't trust God that He would give them more the next day.)

What happened to the left-over bread? (It got maggots on it and got all moldy.)

God gave fresh bread to the people every day, but on Saturday, He told them to collect a little extra. He told them to collect enough for two days – for Saturday and Sunday – because He wasn't going to give them any bread on Sunday. He wanted them to be in church… Everyone, pretend like you're in church… and resting the rest of the day on Sunday… Everyone, pretend like you're resting… instead of going out and collecting the bread.

What happened on Saturday? (God gave them enough bread for two days.)

Why did God give them enough for two days on Saturday? (Because people aren't supposed to work on Sunday or do other things. They're supposed to use their time to go to church and to rest.)

Do you think the people should have complained against God about not having any water or food? (No.)

What should they have done instead of complaining? (They should have prayed and asked God to help them.)

Can we pray when we need God to help us? (Yes.)

Craft: Drawing Your Prayer – Have students draw a picture of something they might need and how God might supply that need. When they're finished, ask for volunteers to share.

Snack: Manna – Give each child a slice of bread with honey on it. Tell the children that the manna God gave the Israelites was bread that tasted like it had honey in it.

Closing Prayer: Father God, we thank You that You always know what we need and You're always there to help us. We pray that You'll help us to trust You and pray to You when we need something. In Jesus' name, amen.

Help Each Other Pray! Children's Sunday School Lesson

Purpose: Use this children's Sunday School lesson about Moses to teach kids about praying with others.

Needed: Nothing

Intro Activity: Stick 'Em Up! – Hold a contest of who can keep both arms raised in the arm the longest. Next, have students form a circle and hold hands as they all raise their arms. Time how long they can all keep their hands raised.

Lesson: (Summarize Exodus 17:8-16 , using the following story and asking the included questions as you read.)

While the Israelites were walking in the desert… Everyone, pretend like you're walking through the desert… on their way to their new home that God was taking them to, they got close to the town of Rephidim.

Where were the Israelites going? (To their new home that God was taking them to.)

When the Israelites got close to Rephidim, the people of that town, called the Amalekites… Everyone, say "Amalekites"… came out and attacked them! Everyone, act like you're about to fight someone.

Why do you think the Amalekites attacked the Israelites? (Affirm all reasonable responses. Suggest that maybe the Amalekites were afraid that the Israelites were coming to attack them. Suggest that maybe the Amalekites wanted to take all the Israelites' things for themselves. The truth is we don't know why the Amalekites attacked.)

So, Moses said to his helper, Joshua, "Joshua, choose some of our men and go fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow, I will stand up on the top of that hill with the staff of God in my hands." So, the next day, Joshua went out to fight the Amalekites. Everyone, act like you're about to fight someone. And Moses and his brother Aaron and Hur climbed up to the top of a high hill. Everyone, act like you're climbing up a high hill.

When they got to the top of the hill, Moses held up his hands really high over his head. Everyone, lift your hands up high and keep them there. And when Moses lifted his hands high in the air, he was reaching up to Heaven, to God. As long as Moses had his hands reaching up to God, God made it so that Joshua and the Israelites were winning the fight against the Amalekites.

But, after a while, Moses' arms got tired and he had to bring them down. He had to stop raising his hands to God. Everyone, bring your hands back down. And when Moses brought his hands down from reaching up to God, Joshua and the Israelites started losing the fight. So, Moses' brother Aaron and Hur hurried up and helped Moses keep his hands up, reaching up to God. Everyone, grab hands and help each other keep your hands up. And God helped Israel win the fight!

Why was Moses was holding up his hands? (He was holding up his hands to God for God to help them.) When Moses was holding up his hands to God, who was winning? (The Israelites were winning.)

When Moses got tired and stopped holding up his hands, who was winning then? (The Amalekites.)

What did Aaron and Hur do to help Moses? (They held his arms up.)

When you have a problem in your life, like the Israelites had a problem when the Amalekites attacked them, do you think you could reach up and ask for God's help? (Yes.)

How do we ask for God's help? (We pray.)

And what if we get tired of praying? Can we ask someone to help us pray, like Aaron and Hur helped Moses keep his hands up? (Yes. We can ask our parents or our teachers at church or our friends to help us pray, and God will help us with our problem. And we should also ask other people if they want us to help them pray too.)

Game: Stick 'Em Up! Round Two – Play the intro game with everyone holding hands to see if the group can beat their previous time.

Game: Amalekites vs. Israelites – Divide students into two teams for a game of tag. When you raise your arms, the Israelites chase the Amalekites. When you lower your arms, the Amalekites chase the Israelites. The team who tags everyone on the opposite team first wins. Play as long as time allows.

Prayer Activity: Have students form groups of three and take turns sharing prayer requests and then praying for one another.

Following this lesson might be a great time to do a series of lessons on the Ten Commandments. Otherwise, continue the narrative series with lessons Israel learned 40 Years in the Desert . This series on Moses and the Exodus concludes with Building the Nation and Entering the Promised Land .

These and all the other lessons from this series are included in my book Slaves to Conquerors: Children's Sunday School Lessons for Exodus – Joshua .

Patreon supporters will find print-out lessons for this post and a sheet for the Desert Survival Relay Game.

Enjoy your time teaching this week, and may God's Spirit be with your spirit in all you do! - Steve