Your aim in this study is to help the child explore what temptation is and how to deal with it at their developmental level. Whether working with a class or your own children you need to provide an environment where the child can grow in their understanding of what the Bible teaches about it.
1. Provide a good role model of wanting to learn from God. Explain to the children what is the task (learning about temptation) and that you will be using the Bible to help understand it (because God has given this to us to work out how to live). Then open the study in prayer. Ask God to help you understand and invite the children to use their own words to also ask God to help them learn.
2. Motivate the children. Explain that God loves us very much and wants to help us. Explain that there is an enemy called the Devil or Satan who is trying to get us to do wrong things (this is temptation). Tell the children that they need to listen to God and follow what God says because giving into temptation is DANGEROUS. We will hurt ourselves and other people.
If you have a group think about playing a simple game a few times to illustrate the spiritual battle going on. Try the game "blindfold". The aim is for a child to walk across the room blindfolded avoiding obstacles (buckets or cushions etc.). Two other children are selected to give instructions (in turn) that will either guide the child to the obstacle or around it. The child blindfolded has to choose which voice to listen to and navigate across the room. Once the two children have given their instructions they sit down and two others are chosen to move the blindfolded child along a little further across the room, again one giving good advice and the other bad advice.Keep count of how many obstacles are hit. The winner will not have hit any!
Once the children have played the game a few times and taken turns in the different roles explain that God is our friend trying to get us through our lives with good advice; and the Devil is an enemy trying to trick us, lie to us, give us bad advice - to tempt us and trip us up. Temptation often sounds like nice advice - but following it is DANGEROUS and will cause us lots of problems. It will lead us into sin and wrongdoing. We have to RESIST temptation.
3. Ask the children to turn to their Bible. Introduce the idea that Jesus - our Lord and Saviour - was tempted but resisted. Read the account of Jesus being tempted in Luke 4:1 - 13. It may be helpful to find some pictures that illustrate the three temptations - turning stones to bread; worshiping Satan and throwing himself from the Temple - as you read the account. Point out that Jesus resisted the temptations that He was given and he did not do what the Devil asked him to do because that would have been wrong.It was bad advice for him in the plan that God had (even though he could have done it, He didn't).
4. Jesus is our greatest example. Encourage the children to be like Jesus and resist the Devil. Ask them to think about how Jesus resisted temptation as they do some craft that illustrate the temptations. Older children could draw pictures, or cut illustrations from magazines to create an illustration of these three temptations.
When children have finished illustrating the temptations get their answers about how they think Jesus managed to resist temptation. Lead them to think about how Jesus knew the Word of God (Scripture) and did it. He quoted scripture at the Devil three times! Explain it is important for us to be able to do the same - to know the Bible, to apply it and resist the Devil with it.
5. Give the children a Scripture verse to help them resist temptation. Try James Chapter 4 verse 7 and read "So then, submit yourselves to God. Resist the Devil, and he will run away from you" (James 4:7). Ask the children to remember this verse or its paraphrase "resist the devil and he will run away from you". If they take away nothing else about temptation, let them know that they need to resist the Devil and submit to God.
6. Finish your study with a prayer of thanks to God; and ask for God's blessing and help to "resist temptation" and instead follow God.
If you are seeking extra material check out http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/lessons/topics /temptation.htm for some great kids resources on temptation based around James Chapter 1. Or the temptations of Jesus in Luke 4 at http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/lessons/tempt1 .htm and http://www.ebibleteacher.com/children/lessons/tempt2 .htm