40+ Activities to Teach Children the Fruits of the Spirit

The fruits of the Spirit are a beautiful and essential part of a Christian life, offering a blueprint for how believers are called to live. But how do you translate profound concepts like “patience” or “self-control” into something tangible and exciting for little hearts and minds?

Teaching children about love, joy, peace, and the other fruits isn’t just about memorization; it’s about cultivating a vibrant, living faith that expresses itself in their daily actions and interactions. This post will explore engaging and age-appropriate ways to introduce the fruits of the Spirit to kids, helping them not only understand these divine qualities but also demonstrate them in their lives.

In this blog post:

What are the fruits of the Spirit?
How to talk about the fruits of the Spirit with kids
40+ activities for teaching kids about the fruits of the Spirit
Try a free week of Flourish Family Bible Curriculum
Bible resources to connect to young hearts from Treehouse Schoolhouse

What are the fruits of the Spirit?

The fruits of the Spirit are described in Galatians 5:22-23 as “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.”

In Galatians, the fruits of the Spirit are listed with instructions on how to walk with the Spirit. They are a contrast to walking according to the “desires of the flesh.” When someone accepts Jesus as their Savior and Lord, they begin to reflect His nature and character. Christians turn away from sinful behaviors, and the Word of God and Holy Spirit teach and empower them to live more like Christ in their words, thoughts, and actions. As Christians grow in their faith and mature, their lives bear more fruit and display Christ-like behavior.

How to talk about the fruits of the Spirit with kids

10 Kids’ Bible Activities for Growing a Relationship with God

It is a beautiful step when you begin to teach children about what a life with Christ looks like. If you have already developed habits in your home of reading the Bible or praying together, you may find it is natural to talk about the fruits of the spirit. If not, let me encourage you to begin small and journey together in learning truths and concepts from the Bible.

When talking about the fruits of the spirit with children, the emphasis should be that producing these fruits will be an overflow of their relationship with Christ. These qualities are not simply behaviors or actions, they are a part of spiritual development and a real connection between them and God. Throughout this process of learning, parents can also trust that God will work in their children’s hearts and produce these fruits in children.

As children learn about what love is, or what it means to be kind and gentle, it is not simply expectations on external behaviors and how they should act. These qualities show a transformation of the heart. When they display these characteristics, it is not simply a sign of their hard work or of their good behavior, it is indicating God’s work in their hearts as they grow closer to Him. When they struggle with being patient or kind, encourage them to pray and ask God to empower and help them, rather than just change the external behavior.

40+ activities for teaching kids about the fruits of the Spirit

Here are 40+ simple activities to teach children about the fruits of the Spirit:

Prayer: Ask God to produce the fruits of the Spirit in you, in your children, or in your family as a whole. Pray specifically for an area you are struggling with.
Scripture Memorization: Memorize Galatians 5:22-23 together as a family.
Watercolor: Freehand or watercolor a picture of fruit. Write Galatians 5:22-23 somewhere on the page.
Fruits of the Spirit Rock Painting: Make reminders of the fruits of the Spirit with this painted rock activity. Paint different rocks and label them with the fruits of the Spirit. Set them in your garden or by a walkway where you will be reminded of them often.
Fruits of the Spirit Vision Board: Grab a simple accordion notebook and make a collage. Use one page for each fruit of the Spirit. Have your child cut out images and words for each fruit of the Spirit to show what it means to them. Display it in their room as a reminder.
Fruits of the Spirit Charades: Write the fruits of the Spirit on slips of paper and have children play charades to act out different fruits of the Spirit.
Fruits of the Spirit Necklace: Use this tutorial to color and create a fruits of the Spirit necklace your children can wear.
Bible Story Connection: Talk about Bible stories your children know, and ask them which fruits of the Spirit are evident in familiar Bible stories. To go deeper, make a list of Bible stories your children know for each fruit of the Spirit.
Fruit Sewing Project: Use this tutorial to sew felt fruits. Put them together in a basket to remind children about the different qualities that reflect God’s character.
Fruit of the Spirit Salad: Choose nine colorful fruits and attribute a fruit of the Spirit to each type of fruit. Mix them together and enjoy eating a tasty fruit salad together.
Love Photo Album: Gather or print photos of people you love and people who love you and make or store them in a photo album.
Letter Writing: Write a letter or card to someone you love and send it to them in the mail. Older children could practice typing by sending an email to someone they love and care about.
Love Coupon Book: Have children create a coupon book with loving actions they can do to parents or siblings, like helping clean up toys or setting the table. Write each action down on a piece of paper, and staple them together to make a coupon book.
Discuss Love Languages: Using The Five Love Languages as a starting point, discuss with children how love can be expressed in different ways. Ask children what types of actions make them feel the most loved.
Role-Play Bible Stories about Love: Read a Bible story that talks about love, such as The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37) or The Prodigal Son (Luke 5:11-32). Have your children act out the story and take turns playing different characters.
Joyful Movement and Dancing: Turn on some happy songs and enjoy dancing around together.
Joyful Scavenger Hunt: Have children go on a hunt throughout the house to look for items that bring them joy.
Joyful Scenario Discussions: Talk with your children about how you can exhibit joy even when things are not happy. Talk about disappointing situations (“It rained when we went to the park” or “I burned the cookies I worked hard to make”) and how you can respond with joy even when things don’t go your way.
Peaceful Windchime: Use a tutorial to make a simple windchime together. Listen to the sounds together and talk about how the sounds are peaceful and calming.
Peaceful Sensory Jar: Create a visual aid to explain to children what peace is. Grab a clear jar and add water, glitter, and small toys or beads to the inside of the jar. Shake up the jar and watch things swirl around. Then, set the jar down and watch all of the movement slow and then stop. Talk about how our minds can feel “shaken up” when we are worried, but can settle down when we experience peace.
Symbols of Peace: Teach your children about global symbols of peace like an olive branch, a dove, and the peace sign.
Patience Puzzle: Do a puzzle together and talk about what patience means and how to endure even when things are difficult or take a long time.
Stanford Marshmallow Experiment: Perform the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment with your kinds and see who has the most patience and self-control.
Play a Waiting Game: Set a timer for different increments of time (30 seconds, one minute, five minutes) and have your children experience waiting patiently. Ask them about what it felt like to wait and which amount of time was easier.
Patience Snail Mail: Mail a card to someone you know who lives far away. Wait and see how many days it takes for the mail to arrive.
Patience Baking: Bake bread with yeast or a recipe that needs time to cool or chill together with your children, and note that sometimes things that are good require extra time.
Patience Pointillism: Practice patience through artwork by working on a craft that requires a lot of time. Follow a Pointillism tutorial and create artwork by making tiny dots until you have an entire piece of artwork. Do an artist study on this technique and learn about George Seurat and his tiny dot paintings.
Kindness Tree: Cultivate kindness in your home with this visual activity. Draw a tree on a posterboard or large sheet of paper. Cut out small fruit shapes on colored construction paper. As you or your children notice kind actions, write them on the construction paper and glue them to the tree. Notice how your tree fills up with these fruits.
Kindness Jar: Display a large, empty jar in your home where everyone can see it. When a family member does a kind deed, add a cotton ball to the jar and watch it fill up.
Kindness Chain: Cut strips of paper and have your children write down kind deeds they have observed in their life. Make a paper chain from the strips of paper to see how impactful kind deeds can be.
Kindness Calendar: Get out a calendar for the month and write down different acts of kindness for each day of the month, such as “Share a toy” or “Let someone go first in line.” Set aside time each day to do one of these activities.
High Five Chain: Talk about how even small acts of kindness can bring joy to others. Stand in a circle and take turns giving high fives until you make it all the way around the circle.
Faithful Gardening: Grow a plant from seed in your garden and watch it grow. Talk about faithfulness starts as a small seed and will develop and grow if you care for it.
Faithfulness Building Project: Provide a building toy like LEGO that comes with instructions. Practice doing the building activity according to the instructions. Talk about how part of being faithful to God is following His instructions.
Faithfulness in daily responsibilities: Make a chore chart for each child and list daily responsibilities. Talk about how being faithful in small ways prepares us for being faithful in big ways.
Faithful tasks: Give a child a simple task and teach them how to execute it faithfully. Then, give them a two-step prompt and ask them to complete it faithfully (“walk the dog, then clean up your toys”).
Gentleness Feather Touch Game: Give each child a feather. Challenge them to gently touch different objects (a sibling’s arm, a flower petal, a piece of fruit) with just the feather, without pressing too hard or causing anything to move.
Practice Petting an Animal Gently: Arrange for interaction with a gentle pet (a dog or cat). Guide children on how to approach and stroke the animal softly, without pulling fur, squeezing, or making sudden loud noises.
Baby Doll Gentleness Care: Have children model what it looks like to care for someone who needs additional help. Use baby dolls to talk about what babies need, like bottles, diapers, and extra blankets, and how when we take care of babies we are extra careful and gentle.
Gentleness Jenga: Use the game of Jenga to practice moving items gently, so the wooden tower doesn’t fall over.
Whisper Telephone: Sit in a circle and play a game of “whisper telephone” where a message is whispered in a gentle voice from one person to the next. Or, have a conversation where everyone practices using only soft voices.
Sort Delicate Items: Provide a mix of sturdy and delicate objects (e.g., cotton balls, silk scarves, fresh flowers, dry pasta, small glass marbles, plastic toys). Ask children to sort them into two piles: “needs gentle hands” and “strong hands are okay.” Have them practice handling the delicate items very carefully.
Balloon Pass: Give children a balloon. Challenge them to pass the balloon around a circle or across a room without letting it touch the ground and without popping it. This requires very gentle taps and pushes.
Red Light, Green Light: Play the classic game of Red Light, Green Light to practice self-control. However, add variations where the “red light” is held longer, or unexpected “yellow lights” mean to slow down very slowly. You can also add specific movements they must not do while the light is red (e.g., “don’t wiggle,” “don’t smile”).

Try a free week of Flourish Family Bible Curriculum

To dive deeper into teaching contentment in your home, try a free week of Flourish Family Bible Curriculum, Week 7: I am thankful and content for what I have.

Flourish Family Bible Curriculum is an 18-week family Bible curriculum. Each week centers around one declaration statement related to the themes of Mission, Virtue, and Love. Flourish incorporates beauty subjects with Bible study including daily Scripture readings, discussion and prayer prompts, hymns, poetry, and art study. Enjoy the rhythms of connection and beauty found in our beloved Rooted Family Bible Curriculum with a focus on bearing fruit through our lives in the world around us.

Try a free week of Flourish Family Bible Curriculum here.

Bible resources to connect to young hearts from Treehouse Schoolhouse

If you are looking for ways to study the Scriptures together with your family in a meaningful way, consider these Bible resources and curriculum options from Treehouse Schoolhouse. These are suitable for Morning Time learning, homeschool curriculum or family Bible study. All of these studies are suitable for children of multiple ages to study and learn together.

Rooted Family Bible Curriculum

Rooted Family Bible Curriculum is a family Bible curriculum designed to cultivate deep roots in the rich soil of God’s Word.

Embark on a journey of the heart guided by Scripture, beauty, art, hands-on connections, and family discussion. Instill courage, confidence, and Biblical character in your children by rooting them in their heavenly identity, their devotion to God, and the wisdom of Scripture. It’s about giving children a solid root system in the Word of God before we launch them into the world.

Rooted is an 18-week family Bible curriculum. Each week centers around one declaration statement related to the themes of Identity, Devotion, and Wisdom. Rooted incorporates beauty subjects with Bible study including daily Scripture readings, discussion and prayer prompts, hymns, poetry, and art study.

Flourish Family Bible Curriculum

Flourish Family Bible Curriculum is a family Bible curriculum to cultivate virtues that produce fruit in the world around us. Flourish is an 18-week family Bible curriculum centering on themes of Mission, Virtue, and Love. Flourish incorporates beauty subjects with Bible study including daily Scripture readings, discussion and prayer prompts, hymns, poetry, and art study. Enjoy the rhythms of connection and beauty found in our beloved Rooted Family Bible Curriculum with a focus on bearing fruit through our lives in the world around us.

A Connected Christmas

nature-inspired holiday crafts for kids and families

A Connected Christmas is a curriculum designed to connect hearts to the heart of Christmas – to the truth of Jesus coming to earth to seek and save the lost. Explore the nativity story through Scripture readings to delight in festive carols, stories, poetry, art, baking, and handcrafts.

A Virtuous Valentine’s

A Virtuous Valentine’s is a Charlotte Mason-inspired curriculum designed with your whole family in mind. It’s an invitation to study the life-changing love of God in a hands-on way. Through Scripture readings, beauty subjects, picture books, hands-on activities, and a look into the history of Valentine’s Day, this study provides an invitation to delve into the profound depth of God’s love and how it shapes our relationships. We’ll explore how God’s love is unconditional, how love is expressed through acts of kindness and encouragement, how compassion and empathy can change hearts and lives, and how true love is demonstrated through selflessness and sacrifice. Your study will conclude by celebrating and creating memories together with a Valentine’s Day Tea Party.

An Expectant Easter

Use An Expectant Easter to focus on what Easter is all about through Bible stories, hymns, poetry, art studies, picture books, projects, baking, and more. Connect and focus on the newness of Spring, the sacrifice Jesus made, and the power of His resurrection.

Light the Way Scripture Memory Set

Light the Way includes 24 weeks of daily scripture memory activities. Children can recite, write, draw, or interact with character-building scriptures as they commit them to memory. This can be used alongside the devotional book Our 24 Family Ways by Clay Clarkson or independently as an intentional scripture memory tool.

Will you study the fruits of the Spirit with your children? Share your thoughts in the comments below.