Aim

To help children appreciate that there are different stages of life.

Preparation

Before the lesson prepare events cards.

Lesson

Begin lesson by teaching/ reciting the poem Solomon Grundy. Tell the children that the poem tells the story of Solomon's life from beginning to end, but the poet has left a lot of important events out. Ask the children what they think these might be?

Examples, Starting school, starting work, having children, buying a house, retiring from work, children growing up.

After discussion ask children in groups to arrange a list of these events (or corresponding images) in their correct chronological order.

Once completed, inform them that these events happen at diffent stages of a person's life. Ask them to define the different stages of life. A very sophisticated definition would be:

• babyhood and infancy
• childhood and teenage years
• young adulthood and middle age
• old age.

At what stage are they?

Do they have any abiding memories/anecdotes of their infancy? Invite them to draw / write about one such memory/ anecdote.

Invite volunteers to share their work with the rest of the class.

Following discussion, explore the children's understanding of God.

• What stage do Christians believe He is at?
• Does He get old and change through time like humans do?

Christians believe that God stays the same. But 2000 years ago, He became a human. He was born as a baby and grew up to be a man. Do any of the children know what His name was?

Inform children that next week, they will be learning more about Jesus.

Notes

For those teachers who are not familiar with the rhyme Solomon Grundy, the words are as follows:

Solomon Grundy born on a Monday
Christened on Tuesday
Married on Wednesday
Took ill on Thursday
Worse on Friday
Died on Saturday
Buried on Sunday
That was the end of Solomon Grundy