In Matthew 17:20 Jesus compared faith to a mustard seed, a tiny seed out of which great things grow. For this activity use cress seeds Cress grows easily in a classroom. Give each child or group of children a patch of cress seeds on a bed of cotton wool to look after. Have children observe the seeds' growth daily over the course of a week. Use the experiment to illustrate how a little bit of faith can accomplish great things.
Create a wall chart to illustrate the people we put faith in every day, such as doctors, firefighters, teachers and parents. Have children cut pictures out of magazines or make original drawings and add words if necessary, creating a large collage of images. As children carry out the activity, discuss the nature of faith, including feeling safe, depending on others to do something you can't do for yourself and trusting someone, even when you don't fully understand.
The Bible is full of stories of people showing great faith. Bring these stories alive by giving small groups a Bible story to turn into a short drama. Examples include David slaying Goliath (1 Samuel 17), the faith of the centurion (Matthew 8:5-13) and the apostle Paul's conversion on the road to Damascus (Acts 1:1-19). In the first half of the lesson, have each group create a short play of approximately two minutes and rehearses it, then in the second half, have children perform their skits for the class.
Hebrews 11 gives a long list of Bible heroes who had accomplished great things through faith in God. Let each child pick one or more characters to write a news report about. Tell students to design the newspaper page and write the story, describing the character and what he did. Turning it into a script for a short radio interview is a variation. Encourage students to share their articles with the class, or have a show-and-tell for the best articles.