The Lord’s Prayer Explained for Children - Primary RE Lesson Plan

This Primary School RE lesson plan about The Lord’s Prayer introduces children to one of Christianity’s most important and well-known prayers in a clear, engaging, and age-appropriate way.
Produced in the United Kingdom with no political bias or denominational slant, this PowerPoint resource explains how Jesus gave the prayer as a guide or template, teaching Christians to honour God, trust His plans, and ask for daily needs such as food, forgiveness, and protection.
Pupils will also explore key Christian values in the prayer, including being sincere in prayer, desiring what God wants first, admitting mistakes, forgiving others, resisting temptation, and standing up to evil.
This RE resource helps children understand the meaning and relevance of The Lord’s Prayer and encourages them to reflect on its themes of faith, humility, and responsibility in everyday life.

1. Jesus’ prayer template or example of prayer. Proclaims that God is our Father and worthy of respect. Pray for what He wants and for our needs. Asking God to forgive us, remembering we must forgive others. Pray for God’s protection. The Lord’s Prayer Explained for Children - Primary RE Lesson Plan .

2. Teacher’s overview: Pray along these lines – Jesus gave an outline for a prayer, a prayer template. It acknowledges God as our heavenly Father. The need to honour and respect God. Pray for what God wants; His rule and plans are the best. Not taking our food and necessities for granted. Asking God to forgive all the wrong things that we do. Remember, God is everywhere, so everything that we do is seen by Him. We should forgive others; otherwise, we won’t be forgiven. Pray for God’s protection. The Christian values we learn from Jesus’ teaching: Be real in our prayers, do not be selfish, desire what God wants first, own up to things that we do wrong, forgive others who hurt and do wrong to us, admit that we can be tempted into wrong things, so plan (and pray) to avoid them, realise that there is evil in the world, so again, plan (and pray) to stand up to it. Resources for The Lord’s Prayer lesson plan: None. Optional: See the ‘What is Prayer - Christian Prayer Explained for Children Primary Lesson Plan’ that introduces the subject of prayer, and where Jesus gave some dos and don’ts regarding prayer: https://notmanywise.uk/re-lesson-plans/the-lords-prayer-re-resources/

3. Jesus was out in the countryside, and he sat down to teach the large crowd about the Kingdom of God. Then he said, “And now about prayer.” He gave some dos and don’ts regarding prayer. (See the ‘What is Prayer - Christian Prayer Explained for Children Primary Lesson Plan’ that introduces the subject of prayer.) Then Jesus said, “Pray along these lines.” (Matthew 6:9 The Living Bible) He was giving an outline for a prayer, a prayer template. You can use this as a framework to create your own prayers. Some people say the prayer as it is written. Neither is wrong, provided you mean what you are saying! Q. Can anyone recite it? Q. Who has heard of the Lord’s Prayer?

4. Jesus starts by acknowledging that God wants us to be in His family by calling Him Father, that He is powerful, is in a high place, and He is very special: “This is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, let your name be kept holy.” Matthew 6:9 God’s Word translation Other translations say: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name” Q. What does ‘let your name be kept holy’ mean?

5. Answer: ‘Let your name be kept holy’ means that He is high up in heaven itself, whereas we are here on Earth. God’s name stands for all that is God, so His name being kept holy means that He should be honoured and respected, and be admired for who He is. Christians believe that God expects to be shown respect because He created the world and keeps it going. Q. Why is it good to show respect to God?

6. b) In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to pray for what God wants: “May your kingdom come. May your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew 6:10 Living Bible Asking for His kingdom, and for His will to be done, is really surrendering to God because His rule and His plans are the best thing for your life. In heaven, everyone submits to God – that is why it is heaven, because there is no selfishness, no cruelty, no lies, but there is plenty of happiness and peace, etc. Q. What makes heaven so good?

7. c) The Lord’s Prayer then says: “Give us today our daily bread.” Matthew 6:11 NIV Q. What does daily bread mean?

8. It doesn’t mean give us a loaf of Hovis wholemeal bread. Daily bread can symbolise everything that we need for our everyday life, that day. Because we get our food from a shop or supermarket, we can take all the food for granted. But it is very valuable, and if the world started to suffer from many bad droughts, then we could find that the food in our shops would become difficult to find. We mustn’t take all this for granted. (Or for vegetarians :) Q. What would you do if there were no nuts and seeds in the supermarkets? Q. What would you do if there was no meat in the supermarkets?

9. The problem is that when we take food for granted, we start to demand that it is our right to have all this food. Here is an example that highlights this problem: Someone keeps borrowing your PlayStation, football, or something valuable to you. Over time, the person borrowing it starts to expect to use it whenever they want it. But when you want to use it, the one borrowing it says you can’t because they are using it! The ownership seems to have changed. The one borrowing it now demands when and for how long they use it, because it has become their right to use it, and they are taking it for granted. Q. How does that make us feel?

10. Perhaps we take for granted the vast quantity of foodstuffs in the supermarkets. Is it right that we have so much food, whilst people in other countries may have very little food? Almost 30% of the world’s population was moderately or severely food insecure in 2021. (Facts from the World Health Organisation : ‘UN Report: Global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021’) In other words, nearly one in three people in the world runs the risk of running out of food daily. No wonder Jesus tells us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” By praying “Give us today our daily bread,” it is not taking the supply of food for granted. Q. Perhaps we should pray that, even in our ‘ civilised ’ countries?

11. d) Then Jesus teaches that prayer involves asking God to forgive all the wrong things that we do: That means saying sorry to God and really meaning it. Jesus said: “and forgive us our sins” Matthew 6:12 NIV I want you to imagine that you are not very honest and that you walk into this classroom and you notice some money on my (the teacher’s) desk. You think that I’m not here, so you take the money, but what you don’t realise is that I saw it all because I was behind …………………… Now, because you’re not very honest, you think that you will get away with it because no one saw you! But when I suddenly tell you that I was there all of the time, and I describe every last detail of what you just did, then it would be very foolish to try to deny it! Q. How do you feel about this?

12. The Bible says that God is everywhere, all the time, so everything that we do is seen by Him. It’s no good thinking that we can get away with it because God could describe every last detail. So Jesus’ teaching on prayer involves asking God to forgive our sins; That is all the wrong things that we have done, which include our actions, our thoughts and what we have said. We have got to be sincere in saying sorry to God, but there is something that we have got to do: Jesus said: “And forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.” Q. Are we good at forgiving others?

13. “And forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.” Matthew 6:12 The Living Bible. Another way of putting that sentence is; “ Forgive me in the same way as I have forgiven other people who have hurt me!” How judgmental are we? If we haven’t forgiven others, Jesus says that we won’t be forgiven. So it is pointless to pray because God says He won’t listen!

14. e) Jesus taught we should pray for God’s protection: So that we would be able to stand against all the bad influences in the world: “And never bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” Matthew 6:5-15 International Standard Version This is where Jesus finished his example prayer. In later years, the ending of the Lord’s Prayer was added: “For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours, now and forever. Amen” So, this is near the end of the teaching that Jesus gave on the subject of ‘prayer’. Q. Has any of that made you rethink prayer? Q. What about praying to score a goal? Q. What Christian values are shown in this teaching on prayer?

15. Answer to ‘What Christian values are shown in this teaching on prayer’. So we end up with this set of values: Do not be a hypocrite, do not show off, but be real in your prayers. (This value is from what Jesus said in his dos and don’ts ‘What is Prayer - Christian Prayer Explained for Children Primary Lesson Plan’.) Do not be selfish, but desire what God wants first. Own up to things that you do wrong. Forgive others who hurt and do wrong to you. Admit that you can be tempted into wrong things, so plan (and pray) to avoid them. Realise that there is evil in the world, so again, plan (and pray) to stand up to it.

16. It is good to share things with a suitable person. Teacher’s note: There are two worksheets to accompany this lesson plan. Q. Is there anybody we can share our hopes, worries and emotions with? Q. What makes somebody not suitable to share things with? Q. Have you considered sharing your hopes, worries and emotions with God?

17. See more Free Lesson Plans at: Not Many Wise Click on this link https://notmanywise.uk