Teaching the 7th Commandment (adultery) to 6 and 7 year olds from the standpoint that we don't break our promises to each other or to God

I really struggled with how to teach "Thou shalt not commit adultery" to my class of 6-7 year olds. I finally decided to approach it from the standpoint that we don't break our promises to each other or to God. So we each made a puzzle to take home that we could break and put together. This is how we did it.

We had already talked about a rainbow (from Noah and the Ark) being a symbol of God's promise to love and protect us, so I combined the rainbow with a ring, which is a symbol of our promise to love and protect each other. We talked about how a rainbow is actually a complete circle even though we can only see part of it at a time. Then I gave each child a sheet of paper I designed on the computer with the heading, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," a picture of a rainbow, and a quote: "And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth" Gen 9:16 (KJV). The page also had a picture (clip art) of a ring with this quote: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" John 13:34 (KJV). The children glued the page onto a sheet of thin cardboard (like a gift-box), turned it over, and then drew as many lines on the back as they were old (6 year olds drew 6 lines, etc.). Then they cut along the lines to break apart the puzzle. We put it together once in class, and then I sent the pieces home in ziplock baggies so the children could do the puzzle on their own. It was a very successful way to illustrate the reason for not breaking our promises to each other and to remember God's promise (covenant) to always love and protect us.

Kerste Helms
Bellevue, WA