Chapter 1 : Bible Fun For Kids: Jesus feeds the The Bible says the people in the crowd were like sheep without a shepherd, which means they were lost and confused about life. By teaching them, Jesus was a kind and loving Shepherd who took care of them. Just remember, only God can do miracles and He still does them today! When the disciples returned, they met with Jesus to tell Him about all the people they talked with and had healed. They were all very excited to tell Jesus about their adventures. The problem was, people followed the disciples so they could find Jesus. They had seen the miracles He had done and wanted to see more. But Jesus knew the disciples wanted to talk to Him. But many people saw them leaving and recognized them and ran after them on land. The boat Jesus and the disciples were in was slowed down because of wind, so the people actually got to the other side of shore before them. When Jesus and the disciples arrived, they noticed the large crowd. Jesus felt love for these people because He knew they needed a teacher and someone to believe in. He knew that the disciples would understand, so He began teaching the large crowd many things. It was starting to get late in the day and none of the people had supper yet. The disciples came to Jesus and said, "There is no food around here and its already getting late. Maybe we should send the people away so they can go to the surrounding towns and get themselves something to eat. He stopped the boy and asked him what he had. He quickly ran over to where the disciples were talking to Jesus and said, "Here is a boy with five small loaves of bread and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many people? After everyone was seated, Jesus took the loaves of bread and thanked God for it. Then the disciples passed around the bread and everyone could take as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. Remember, these were five small loaves of bread and two small fish, only enough for a boy to eat. After everyone was full, Jesus asked the disciples to gather all the food that was leftover so nothing would be wasted. After they gathered all the baskets of food, they counted them up. His small lunch probably barely filled one of the baskets before Jesus touched it, and that is a miracle! After the people realized what had happened, they said to each other, "This must be an important person sent from God. Page 1
Chapter 2 : Mark - Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand - The - Bible Gateway Jesus Feeds 5, People. How can a five loaves of bread and two fish feed people? Listen to this story about Jesus and a little boy's lunch. The Story of Dorcas. You can download this lesson plan as a Word document from the following link: After this lesson, children will demonstrate knowledge of the key people and events in this passage â by retelling the story back to the teacher at the end of the session. Large crowd follows Jesus up the mountain. No food for all the people. Jesus tells his disciples to feed the crowd. Jesus performs a miracle by multiplying a small boys gift. Kindergarten â 5th Items Needed: Marked Bible for this passage. Prepare the copy in advance by highlighting the significant points to emphasize. Underlining words or ideas that will need additional explanation. I typically make small notes in the margin. You could keep it basic with goldfish or go for something bigger with real bread and cooked fish. This story has several great themes to bring out for the children. Sometimes it has been reduced to a story about sharing, but the biblical writer really wants us to see that Jesus can provide. There is also the theme of compassion in this text. When Mark tells this story in Mark 6: There is certainly a lesson here about caring for the hungry. You might hint to the kids that Jesus is going to give the people something better than food next week. Jesus Feeds Five Thousand, John 6: Wait for someone to ask you to share. Ask the children to listen carefully for the details of the story, so that they can re-tell it to you afterward. Read and summarize John 6: Be sure to engage the children with good story telling. No food for all the people and they are getting really weak. Read the following statements. Have the children stand up if this was something that happened in this story. Jesus turned regular water into wine to save a wedding party. Jesus told his disciples to feed the 5, families. A young boy offered to share his five loaves of bread and two fish. Satan tried to get Jesus to turn stones into bread. God sent down bread falling from the sky to feed the Israelites. Jesus told the disciples to pick up all the leftover bread. Ask the children to discuss the following questions to better understand the story. Why do you think Jesus wanted to feed the 5, families? What do you think the little boy was feeling when he saw Jesus use his gift for the miracle? What does this story tell you about whom Jesus really was? Ask several volunteers to come up to the front to re-tell the story to the class. Page 2
Chapter 3 : Chapter Jesus Feeds 5, People Jesus Feeds 5, People "Chapter Jesus Feeds 5, People," New Testament Stories (), Some friends of John the Baptist told Jesus that John had been killed by the king. Aside from the resurrection, the story of Jesus feeding the 5, is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. Obviously, the Gospel writers considered this a significant miracle. To feed 5, people with five loaves and two fish is indeed miraculous, but the Greek term used in Matthew They knew the people needed to reach surrounding villages soon to buy food, find lodging, etc. But Christ had a better idea: At this point, the disciples should have recalled the many miracles they had seen Jesus do. Jesus called for the bread and fish to be brought to Him Matthew He then gave thanks for the meal, broke the bread, and gave it to His disciples to give to the crowd. Amazingly, the entire multitude was fed with that small meal. God will shatter the pint-sized expectations of what His followers can do if they would learn to bring Him what they have already been given. Christians must never believe their resources are too little to serve God. God delights in taking a humble, seemingly insignificant person and using him or her for His glory see 1 Corinthians 1: He quickly calculated how many man-hours of work it would take to feed all those people; he saw the task as impossible because he approached it as if everything depended on his own work. Jesus bypassed all human effort and did the impossible. It is noteworthy that Jesus fed the people through the agency of His disciples. In this way, the disciples had to trust the Lord for everything they distributed. They could only give as they received. Philip, Andrew, and the rest were put in a position of total dependence upon the Lord for the supply. God still uses people the same way today. The problem comes when we are faced with a practical outworking of the theory; we tend to doubt that God will want to meet our need. Elisha told his servant to feed the people gathered there, although there was not enough food for the hundred men. He says He will do more than provide for His people; He will give an abundance Psalm Christians must bring their lives to God in a spirit of obedience and sacrifice, no matter how insignificant they may think their gifts or talents are Romans When doing so, expect God to do far beyond what can be imagined Ephesians 3: Also, Christians should trust that God not only wants to meet the needs of His children, but He wants to lavish His children with spiritual blessings, even to overflowing Psalm Page 3
Chapter 4 : Jesus Feeds 5, People Kids Corner To feed 5, people with five loaves and two fish is indeed miraculous, but the Greek term used in Matthew specifies males, and Matthew further emphasizes the point by adding, "Besides women and children.". Jesus took a boat to a deserted place to be by Himself. But the crowds of people heard about it and they followed Him on foot from the cities. Probably as the people went looking to find Jesus, they passed towns and more and more people gathered with them to find Him. Jesus has been teaching a couple years, so people want to see Him. Luke tells us there were about 5, men, so add the woman and children, there were probably over 15, people all together. He went to them and healed the sick. We should send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding villages, which were probably several miles away, and buy themselves some food. They asked if they should go buy denarii worth of bread, which is about 8 months wages back then. They told Jesus that there were only 5 Barley loaves of bread and 2 fish. The fish was probably to put on the bread, like sardines or tuna. They sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. The men sat apart in groups and the women sat together in groups with the children. This made it easy to divide up the food they would need. He took the 5 loaves of bread and the 2 fish and He looked up into heaven, and praying to God, He gave thanks for the food and broke it. Then Jesus handed it out to the people. He did the same with the fish. After the Disciples collected all the food, there were 12 baskets left over! Remember there are 12 Disciples and there were 12 baskets of food left over. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. Now after seeing this miracle, more people believed in Jesus. Click here to download. This a basket you can print for this Bible lesson. Once everything is printed and cut out, fold on all the dark brown lines toward the inside. Then, I stapled each of the two baskets on the bottom, like in the above photo. You can glue or tape the bottom together once the sides are glued together. You have choices for the handle. The first photo shows one handle. You can glue or staple the handle to the basket. I prefer not to use staples where kids might be touching. So, I added 2 handles on the sides. I used an awl to poke the holes and I used brads to attach the handles, plus they are moveable. Again, you can glue, staple or tape them on. This is the finished basket. You can use napkins, a paper towel, fabric or whatever you want to pretty up the inside. I used a 12x12 piece of cardstock, cut into a 6x6 square and then I crumbled it up. Once I opened it back up, it looked real nice inside the basket. Once you add the fish and the bread it is finished. You can use different fish and bread see photos further down and not print these. You can print the worksheet here. You can print them here: The kids will cut out Jesus and the boy and glue them onto the background. You can print it here. You can find all the download links for the Life of Jesus lapbooks and the lapbook worksheets here. I used small baskets with a piece of cloth. The kids really had fun! Page 4
Chapter 5 : Jesus Feeds 5, People - friend Jesus Feeds 5, People Over the next several weeks we are introducing the children to Jesus through His miracles. A simple definition of a miracle is something that only Jesus can do! Jesus Feeds People Again. Jesus fed the, not the Oh, there are a few differences: Why, I wonder, did Jesus do the same thing twice? And with only 16 chapters to work with, why did Mark take time to tell the same story twice? Well, let me give you three answers to those questions. Scholars say that the places mentioned in each story suggest that the was a Jewish crowd, while the were Gentiles. In the boat with Jesus later on, Mark says the disciples had only "one loaf" with them. So they decided to buy vast amounts of canned goods and store them at the church, just in case. And their fears came to pass. West Beirut was entirely cut off. No one could enter or leave. No food was allowed in. One was to distribute the food first to church members, then as supplies permitted, to other Christians, and finally, if any was left over, to the Muslims. The second proposal was just the opposite: The meeting lasted six hours. In the end, there was enough for everyone. Jesus feeds both Jews and Gentiles, both Muslims and Christians. We need only one loaf; he wants us all to eat together. Have they completely forgotten? Later, when they were alone, Jesus asked them, "Why are you talking about not having any bread? When I broke the five loaves for the, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect? And the truth is: We disciples are such forgetful people! So Jesus just keeps reminding us, and asking us to feed hungry people. Here is one last reason why Jesus has to feed the crowds again: When I was in grade school I often visited the home of a friend whose grandma from Germany lived with them. And the answer is still yesâ yes, Grandma, ve vant to eat again. And so do all our neighbors. Rather as Suzanne Henderson has noted, "Though Jesus presides over the miracle, he does so by empowering his companions. What Jesus does is remind them to share their food and bless it along the way. When those things take place, the miracle of everybody eating always happens. I saw in the news last week about a tiny Baptist church outside Shreveport that happened to be on a ridge higher than the surrounding land. And during the flood and recovery there that church has fed thousands of people, not just once but day after day. They have fed many times more people than there are members of their church. And our newest venture is that dinner every first Thursday at CRC. When we started it, there was some anxiety. Is it too much? Can we get enough food? Will there be enough volunteers? That was my anxiety, by the way. We forget that the miracle is this: Because we all need to eat again. Orbis Books,, Lindvall, The Christian Life: A Geography of God Louisville: Geneva Press,, The Gospel Witness to Jesus Nashville: Abingdon Press,, Page 5
Chapter 6 : Bible Story Lesson Plan: Jesus Feeds Five Thousand John â blog.quintoapp.com â This miracle when Jesus feeds is recorded in all four Gospels, with only slight differences in details. It is a separate incident from the feeding of the 4, It is a separate incident from the feeding of the 4, How can a five loaves of bread and two fish feed people? One day it was getting late and the people were getting hungry. Disciples, look at this great crowd of people. Where can we buy bread for all these people to eat? Crowd noises shouting to crowd Does anyone have any food with them? I brought some food with me. Little boy, thank you. Come with us and we will show Jesus what you have. Crowd noises Disciple 2: Jesus, here is a boy with five small loaves of barley bread. He also has two small fish. But, how far will that go in such a large crowd? There are more than people here. What should we do? Tell all of the people sit down. Crowd noises, disciples telling people to sit Jesus: Thank You, Father in heaven, for giving to us these loaves of barley bread. Thank You also for these fish. Let all of the people here eat and be nourished from the food that You have provided. Let them see Your glory. The five loaves and two fish fed everyone! Sounds of passing food and encouraging people to eat Jesus: Has everyone had enough to eat? Yes, Jesus, every single person in this huge crowd has had enough to eat. Then take some baskets and collect the leftovers. Let nothing be wasted. Look, Jesus, we have collected twelve baskets full of leftover pieces of bread and fish. I am the Bread of Life. Anyone who comes to me will never go hungry, and anyone who believes in me will never be thirsty. The crowd was amazed at this miracle and thought that Jesus was a prophet sent by God. The little boy learned that even the smallest gift given to Jesus can bring great results. If you want to read more about the miracles of Jesus, read the book of John in the New Testament part of your Bible. Page 6
Chapter 7 : Bible Fun For Kids: Jesus feeds the 5, Jesus went to a place near the water. More than 5, people followed Jesus there. They wanted Jesus to teach them. Jesus taught them many things. Sunday, March 8, Jesus Feeds 5, People Over the next several weeks we are introducing the children to Jesus through His miracles. A simple definition of a miracle is something that only Jesus can do! We will emphasize that point each week to help the kids develop an understanding of the power that Jesus has to care for them and protect them. Jesus will take care of me. Jesus feeds 5, people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. According to my Google search, one cup of rice contains 6,, grains of uncooked rice. Place this amount of rice in a baggie to help the kiddos understand how large a crowd of 5, people really is. Before I start the story, I like to get my class thinking about numbers of people with this comparison visual. In our Bible story today, there were five thousand people that came to listen to Jesus. Lay a blanket or sheet in the grass for the kids to sit on as you tell the story with your basket of bread and fish. If going outside is not an option, lay down a blanket or sheet in your classroom, and imagine with the children that you are outside. He was very kind to share his lunch with Jesus. I bring out a basket with 5 rolls of bread and two frozen fish fillets sealed in their packages, covered with a cloth. The rolls are aromatic, and add a nice sensory element to the lesson. Before I remove the cloth, I allow the children to smell the basket, and guess what they think is in the basket. This is a simple way to keep them engaged and interested in the lesson. We count the bread and the fish together. I pause here, hold up my bag of rice again, and ask, "Is this enough food to feed all of these people? There is a little bit of food in the basket. Maybe enough for everyone in your family to eat, but not enough to feed ALL of these people. At the conclusion of the story I say to my class, "Only Jesus could feed all those people with a little bit of food. Only Jesus can do that! Break the bread rolls into pieces to share with the children, and serve them Goldfish crackers from your basket. This could be a puppet song, or you could point to the pictures and objects used in the lesson, as the kids sing along. It goes perfectly with the our series of lessons about miracles, so it will be on repeat over the next couple weeks. Here is a fun and simple game to help emphasize this part of the story. Quickly distribute the cotton balls randomly on the floor of the classroom. Instruct the children that when you say go, they are to turn around, and pick up as many cotton balls, as fast as they, can to fill their bowl. You are going to count out loud to twelve, and then ring your bell. When they hear the bell they should stop collecting cotton balls, and sit down right where they are. Jesus did an amazing miracle! After He fed 5, people with only five loaves and two fish, there was still all these baskets of bread leftover! Page 7
Chapter 8 : Jesus Feeds 5, People - Godly Material Worship Woodworks John New International Version (NIV) Jesus Feeds the Five Thousand 6 Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), 2 and a great. Jesus feeds the 5, We have been studying some of the miracles of Jesus. A miracle is an act of God. Jesus did miracles to prove who He was, the Son of God. Jesus took a boat to a deserted place to be by Himself. But the crowds of people heard about it and they followed Him on foot from the cities. Jesus has been teaching a couple years, so people want to see Him. Luke tells us there were about 5, men, so we need to add the woman and children, and that is a lot of people! Jesus went to them and healed the sick. We should send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding villages and buy themselves some food. They asked if they should go buy denarii worth of bread, which is about 8 months wages back then. The fish was probably to put on the bread, like sardines or tuna. The men sat apart in groups and the women sat together in groups with the children. This made it easy to divide up the food they would need. This is a great example of praying and thanking God for our food before we eat. Then Jesus handed it out to the people. He did the same with the fish. After the Disciples collected all the food, there were 12 baskets left over! Remember there are 12 Disciples and there were 12 baskets of food left over. So they all ate and were filled, and twelve baskets of the leftover fragments were taken up by them. Now after seeing this miracle, more people believed in Jesus. Click here to download. I created this easy to make project for this lesson. You can download everything here. You can find the fish here. The students will leave them in class until we finish the miracles lessons, then they take them home. I decided to limit this lapbook to the miracles that Jesus did to prove Himself. Page 8
Chapter 9 : Feeding the multitude - Wikipedia Many religious leaders (called Pharisees) told lies about Jesus. Some even tried to kill him. They did not believe He was really God's Son. They did not. All things are possible with God. The last time I took a trip, I took When you go on a trip, what do you take? After Jesus called His disciples and they chose to follow Him, they traveled all over the area together. Jesus told His disciples not to take anything as they traveled! Why do you think that is? He wanted them to trust God to provide all of their needs. The disciples saw Jesus heal people and heard His teachings. They heard Jesus proclaim that the kingdom of God had come. As proof that Jesus had authority to tell others about God and His kingdom, Jesus performed many miracles. He healed people of terrible diseases and injuries. He made blind people see and made crippled people walk. After some time together, Jesus even sent the disciples out on their own to preach and heal in His name. As Jesus sent the men out, listen to what He said: Do not take a walking stick or a bag. Do not take any bread, money or extra clothes. Some people who were living in sin became very angry with John. King Herod was doing very bad things. King Herod ordered that John be killed Mark 6: This made Jesus and His disciples very sad. Jesus took His disciples by boat to a quiet place so that they could rest and have something to eat Crowds of people followed Jesus wherever He went. When people heard that Jesus and the disciples had gone off to be on their own, they wanted to go there, too. So they came running from all the towns in the area and got there before Jesus and His friends. They wanted to hear Jesus teach, and they wanted to see more miracles, more signs, and more wonders. Jesus could have refused to teach the crowd. After all, He and disciples had sailed on the boat to get away from people for a while and rest. But look again at Mark 6: He felt deep concern for them. They were like sheep without a shepherd. So He began teaching them many things. So even though He needed rest, He put the needs of the crowd before His own, and He taught them. The Bible says the people in the crowd were like sheep without a shepherd, which means they were lost and confused about life. By teaching them, Jesus was a kind and loving Shepherd who took care of them. The Bible calls Jesus the Good Shepherd. And I give My life for the sheep. If we are ever lost and confusedâ like the crowd was that dayâ our Good Shepherd will gently lead us where we need to go and teach us what we need to know. By that time it was late in the day. Since Philip was from this area, this question could have been a simple question of where the shops were located John 1: But Jesus really asked Philip this question to test him. All throughout the Bible, we see that God asks questions to test men Genesis 3: But Jesus said they did not need to go away. Jesus was showing Philip and the other disciples that there was no way they could solve the problem on their own. There was no store close enough to buy this much food. And even if there was, it would have taken way more money than the disciples had! Jesus wanted the disciples to trust Him - to know that He alone was able to meet their need. God wants you to trust that He will take care of you! God may allow a situation in your life that you cannot solve. This is the perfect opportunity to rely on Him. Teacher, feel free to insert a personal story of when God allowed this kind of situation in your life. Trust that the Lord is able and willing to meet all of your needs. What do they have? Children were not seen as very important in that culture. God was going to use someone that everyone else overlooked to perform a miracle. God uses all kinds of people in His work. He often uses those who are weakest or least important in the eyes of other people. Do you LIKE to share your food? This young boy was willing to give what little he had to Jesus. Jesus told the disciples to bring the 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish to Him. Jesus then told the disciples to have the people sit down. Jesus gave thanks for the food. We should always thank God for our food. Food is a gift from God. Teaching Idea for Younger Children: What happened next was an amazing miracle. Jesus broke the bread. Hold up your bread and tear it. He gave it to His disciples to give it to the all the people. Can you imagine trying to feed that many people? The disciples went back to Jesus time and time again to get fish and bread to feed the huge crowd. At what point do you think the disciples realized that Jesus was performing a miracle? God is so generous! He is never stingy with His gifts. And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others. Everyone received as much food as they wanted, they all had pleanty to eat, and twelve baskets full of food were left Page 9
over John 6: Jesus told His disciples to gather what was left. Jesus told the disciples not to let anything be wasted. Each of the 12 disciples, who must have agonized over the shortage of food and the size of the crowd they were commanded to feed, walked away with a basket full of extra food. They came to this place sad and hungry â ready to be away from the people. But God had a different plan. He came to fill their emptiness with Himself! God supplies all our needs and more. May be reproduced for personal, nonprofit, and non-commercial uses only. Brought to you by KidzLife Unless otherwise noted the Scriptures taken from: All rights reserved worldwide. Special thanks to John R. Page 10