Paul & Silas in Prison

This is lesson 12 in the preschool series for the book of Acts. This includes the updated and corrected visuals for you to download, even though the post has them before the adjustments. You can also print a set of pictures to color.

For something different, I decided to throw a piece of fabric over a table to make it feel like a prison. We had the kids sit under the table for the lesson and pretend they were in prison. I also stumbled on these shackles that they took turns wearing. They also had their paper chains. (See below)

Paul and Silas were in Philippi with Luke and Timothy. Some of the men from the city didn’t like them preaching about God, so they took Paul and Silas to the judge.

They told the judges that Paul and Silas had brought a lot of trouble to the city. They claimed that Paul and Silas were teaching customs that were against their laws. The crowd was very angry and beat Paul and Silas.

They put Paul and Silas in prison and told the jailor to make sure they were locked up secure! The jailor wanted to make sure they couldn't escape, so he put them in an inner prison and put their feet in stocks.

At midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing to God. The other prisoners were listening to them. Can you imagine being beaten, thrown in prison and then singing?

Suddenly, there was a great earthquake! The prison shook and all the doors opened! Everyone was free from their chains! The prison guard woke up and saw that the doors of the prison were open, and he was really upset. Paul told the jailor that everyone was still there.

The guard called for a light and ran to Paul and Silas and asked: “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” They told him that first, he had to believe in Jesus.

Paul and Silas told the guard and his household about Jesus and within an hour that night, Paul and Silas were cleaned up and immediately the guard and ALL his family were baptized. They went back to the guard’s house and ate while the guard rejoiced because his whole family believed in God. Scripture is Acts 16:16-40.

Even though Paul and Silas were hurting and in prison, they praised God!

I have used these chains for several lessons, and we used them for this one.  Super easy to make! And they have so much fun with them! For these, I used my paper cutter and cut 5 pieces of color paper about 3/4"x8 1/2". Just staple your loop after inserting a strip into the previous loop. I just made 5 loops per set of chains.

This was used to reinforce what Paul and Silas was doing when they were in a bad situation. They continued to sing, pray and teach others about Jesus. Once these are ready to use (I pre-prep everything before class), The kids glued the pictures of Paul and Silas to the correct space. Then flip each down, and glue on the matching theme graphic for today's kids. We talked about praising God with songs and glued each picture to the worksheet. Then, talked about praying to God and glued the pictures to the paper. Then, discuss teaching others about Jesus and glue the pictures to the worksheet. Click here to download.

Click here to download the lesson. 

Click here to download the updated visuals.

Not all are shown.

Click here to download the pictures to color.

Click here to see the lesson & more for early elementary.