TOPIC: IS YOUR LIFE BUILT ON THE SAND OR ON THE ROCK? 
(Бесіда на морально-етичну тему)

The aim of the devotion:

to develop students’ critical and creative thinking by learning about the main moral values for building their firm life foundation.

Objectives:

 -to encourage students to: communicate about the main concepts for building their firm life foundation.

- to practice different language skills (writing, speaking, listening);

- to teach students to work in groups; 

- to help students be prudent, wise and sensible.

Procedure

Warming – up

Teacher:  Good morning! Nice to see you!

Let’s start our lesson traditionally with the anthem of Ukraine, pledges to the flags.

Dear students, every day we learn some interesting stories from the Bible. What does the Holy Book teach us? In what way does it help us to build our character?

Student 1: We should read and study the Bible because it’s God’s Word to us.

Discussion

Teacher:  Moreover, we read a lot of parables. What is a parable? Do you know the meaning of the word “parable”?

Student 1: Parable is a story that teaches us  truth about God.

Student 2: A parable helps us to understand how to live in a right way.

Teacher :  Today we’ll speak about one more character trait. Look at the blackboard and you can see our today’s key Bible verse:

Teacher:  Who can give the Ukrainian equivalent to this verse?

Student 1:  «Обачливий зважає на кроки свої.»

Teacher:  Who is a prudent man?

Student 1:  A prudent man makes wise decisions.

Watching and listening to a parable

Teacher:  To demonstrate this character trait, let’s listen to the story called “The Wise Man and the Foolish Man”. The story is about one man who built his house on the rock and another man who built his house on the sand and what happened to their houses. After that you’ll answer the questions according to the parable.

Students watch a video:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb0YTNdYxIs

Teacher may read this parable:

Parable  About the Wise Man and the Foolish Man

There were once two men, and each needed to build a house.

The first man was foolish, and chose to build on sandy soil where it was easy to access and easy to dig the foundations. In a few short weeks he was almost finished.

The second man was wise, and chose to build his house on a rocky hill, where it was very hard to access and to dig the foundation. He spent many months building his house.

As time passed a huge storm broke upon the houses of these men. After much rain, a flood swept through the valley and the man's house that was built on the sand was swept away. But the second man who had built on the rocky hill was safe. No matter how hard it rained or how fierce the floods were his house remained solid and immovable.

Let's ask ourselves the question. What's the foundation of our life? Are we like the foolish man, are our lives built on sand?

Teacher:  Now answer the questions:

•                    Which man was wise and prudent? (the man who built his house on the rock)
•                    Which man wasn’t prudent? (the man who built his house on the sand)
•                    What happened to the house built on the sand? (the rain washed it away)

Teacher: Now we can make a conclusion that if you want to be successful in your life, you must build your life on a good foundation. In this parable a good foundation is a Rock.

Now, let’s make a good foundation for our house which you can see on the blackboard. You’ll receive some stones with different moral values. Then you’ll name them and put under the house of life.

Writing and Speaking.

Each of the pupils is given a piece of paper of a stone form.

Teacher:  Now, think carefully and write a character trait you know on the “stone”. Then you can build a firm foundation for your house.

(Життя – це все, що вас оточує і в чому ви живете. Запам’ятайте: найперше, життя залежить від основи, по-якій ти йдеш, на якій ти живеш. Тому почніть з вашого фундаменту життя!)

 (students’ ideas)

Team work.

Teacher divides class into four groups. Each team is handed scrambled sentences (some pieces of advice to build their firm life foundation), so they have to complete them correctly as fast as they can.

Teacher:  Let’s read aloud the main concepts for building our firm life foundation.

Teacher:  Who can make a conclusion of this devotion?

Student: We must be wise and prudent when we build our life foundation.

We must be full of only good and positive moral values. 

Then we will be strong, steadfast and confident like the house on the firm rock foundation.