Lesson 6: Cause and Effect
Aims
* To learn about cause and effect
* to understand that we can learn about God (cause) by looking at what he made (effect)
Materials
* photos of people with different expressions
* pictures reflecting something about God’s nature
* worksheets
Lesson Outline
1. Things we cannot see
2. Activities – draw faces, Simon Says, worksheets
3. Review the lesson aims
4. Conclusion
5. Prayer
1) Things we cannot see
We cannot see God, so how can we know that there is a God and how do we know what God is like? The are many things we cannot see, but we know exist. Let’s think about some of them.
AIR – We cannot see air, so how do we know that it exists? Can we describe it? We know air exists, because we feel it when the wind blows. We can make the air move when we wave our hands in the air or blow on a piece of paper. We feel it from a hair dryer. We see a balloon grow when we blow into it. Smoke rises above a fire. We know there is air when it moves something, such as paper, our hair, a balloon or smoke. We can say that the air is the cause of these things moving. What moves is the effect. Cause and effect. When you see the effect you know there is a cause.
A LIST OF EFFECTS – Can you say what is the cause of each?
1. limping – sprained ankle, falling over?
2. sickness – a virus?
3. thirsty – needs to drink water?
4. hungry – hasn’t eaten for a long time?
5. Breathing heavily – running?
GRAVITY – When you jump you always fall back down. Why is this? It’s because of something we cannot see called gravity. It is like a big magnet. In space there is no gravity, so you can float.
Gravity is the cause. Falling is the effect.
FEELINGS – What about our feelings? How do we know how someone is feeling, whether they are happy or sad? By the expression on their face. The feelings are the cause, the facial expression the effect. Sometimes you know exactly how a person is feeling by the expression on their face.
Look at pictures of people with different expressions.
Can the children identify the feelings from the expressions?
Practice making different expressions – happy, sad, surprised, angry, sleepy, afraid, bored, hungry,
thirsty, tired, suspicious. Children draw faces with different expressions. Can others identify the feelings from the faces?
Play Simon Says or Freeze to practice different feelings
THE MIND – We cannot see someone’s thoughts, but we can know what someone is thinking by what they do. For example, we can learn something about an artist’s mind, by looking at his
painting. A painting of a mountain tells us that the artist likes mountains. A painting of big waves tells us the artist likes the ocean. The mind is the cause, the painting is the effect. The same is true for a singer and the kind of songs he sings.
GOD – God is the cause. To know something about God we need to look at the effect. What is the effect? The creation is the effect. That means everything God made. God is like an artist. When we
look at what God made we can learn something about God himself. For example, when you go for a walk in a forest, see the setting sun or experience a thunder storm, they all express something about God, because God is the creator. If we look a beautiful flower that God created it tells us something about God. The fact that we have different feelings tells us that God has feelings too
Some people don’t believe in God, but when we understand about cause and effect, there must be a creator, because everything has a cause. The world didn’t just suddenly come into existence. The creation is like a beautiful painting that God worked so hard to create. God is an expert artist who put His whole heart and energy and made a most beautiful world. Even a small flower shows what an incredible artist God is. How long would it take you to make a flower as beautiful as the one on the picture?
By studying the creation we can understand a lot about God. Next time we can go into detail by looking more closely at the creation.
2) Activities
* Have large laminated pictures of faces to draw expressions. Draw a face for others to guess.
* Play Simon Says or Freeze to practise different emotions
* Complete the worksheets
Answers
We can learn about the cause by studying the effect.
ARTIST PAINTING
We can learn about an artist by studying his painting.
GOD CREATION
We can learn about God by studying the creation.
Examples of different feelings: happy, surprised, angry, sleepy, sad, afraid, bored, hungry, thirsty,
suspicious,
3) Review the lesson aims
* To learn about cause and effect
* to understand that we can learn about God (cause) by looking at what he made (effect)
4) End with a prayer
Worksheets
