The Good Samaritan is a biblical story of compassion, helping others, and showing kindness. There are many key teaching points to help our children understand empathy and look after each other. The following activities will give you inspiration on how to teach these elements in different ways and incorporate some fun craft projects as well!
1. Helping Hands
Helping others is a key moral of the story. This super easy-to-construct, interactive chart will encourage your children to be good Samaritans in the classroom and at home, and give them a sense of achievement whilst doing so!
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2. Cool Crossword
Use a Good Samaritan crossword to ensure that your students are aware of some of the trickier vocabulary that the story presents. This could be a fun partner game or a competitive race against the clock.
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3. Storyboard That
This interactive storyboard platform is a great way for students to recreate the Good Samaritan story whilst developing their writing skills and comic book art. These can be printed and displayed in numerous ways in your classroom or in Sunday School areas too!
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4. Story Sequencing
Use these printable worksheets for your students to sequence the Good Samaritan story. Students can color and write the story in their own words or even turn it into a fun flip book to retell the story. They could also complete this from other points of view such as the injured people or the person in danger.
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5. Coloring Pages
Add a splash of color to your Sunday School teaching space with these fun coloring sheets depicting the story of the Good Samaritan. Students can color a scene from the story and then share it with their friends to develop a deeper understanding of the tale.
Learn More: Coloring Home
6. Healing Heart Hands Craft
You will require some cardstock, paper bags, felt, and general craft items to create these beautiful healing hands. Children cut out a heart shape and a handprint from cardstock. They can decorate their hearts with ways to be kind and write ideas on how they can care for others. Lastly, they can finish the card off by gluing everything together and threading a ribbon through the top.
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7. Compassion Rolls
This is a super easy craft using toilet roll tubes, band-aids, and Hershey’s. Students fill the tubes with Hershey’s and decorate the outside whilst learning about compassion and helping others.
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8. Awesome Anagrams
For an easy filler activity, this anagram worksheet will keep your students entertained as they try to unscramble the keywords from the story. There are also answer templates and an easier version provided to suit all learner’s needs.
Learn More: DLTK Kids
9. Story Wheel
A story wheel is a great way for children to retell and illustrate the story in a crafty way. Templates are available for those that may need help with scissors. Students must write the main parts of the story before piecing everything together.
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10. Craft Donkey
This cute donkey will remind students of the key moral of the Good Samaritan story. You will need the template, some felt tips or markers, brads, scissors, and paper.
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11. Helping Hands Coupon Book
Another simple craft that only requires paper, markers, and scissors. Children will choose ways in which they can help others and stick or draw these ideas onto cut-outs of their hands. Loop the hands together using a pretty ribbon to construct a book!
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12. Treat Bags
We suggest setting up a small donation box to gather items for your treat bags. These could be a great end-of-year gift to encourage compassion, empathy, and helping others within the local community. Your learners can decorate them as they wish and attach little ribbon-tied quotes and parable verses for extra effect.
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13. Craft Emergency Bag
This is a great teaching point when learning to help others, particularly from a medical perspective. Children will enjoy cutting, coloring, and sticking together their emergency bags. You could also ask them to write on the back why it’s important to help others.
Learn More: Crafting The Word Of God
14. Band-Aid Craft
Using strips of paper to create some small ‘lift-the-flap’ band-aid designs, have your children write ways to help others or key quotes from the parable of the good Samaritan. They can display these on a noticeboard or share them with their friends to teach about the key messages.
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15. Kindness Cootie Catchers
This is a fun craft to immerse your children in the key theme of the story; kindness. These are relatively easy to make and children can decorate with prompts that encourage readers to show kindness to others.
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16. Create A Kindness Tree
This beautiful and easy-to-construct tree is visually effective whilst enabling students to write and reflect on acts of kindness. They will simply write ideas on love hearts, or any other shape, and hang them from a small tree as a reminder to always help others.
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17. Puzzle Maze
This is for the students who love to solve problems! This tricky maze requires students to navigate the donkey and the Samaritan back to the city with the person in need. It’s a great filler activity that requires minimal prep!
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18. Interactive Worksheets
This fun activity can be completed online. Students will move the statements to fit with the questions on this interactive worksheet. This would be a great discussion task for further study.
Learn More: Live Worksheets
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