Movers and Shakers (1-3 gr)

Form pairs. In each pair, have the children decide who will be ther Mover and who will be the Shaker. Have the movers cover their eyes and the Shakers watch while you hide all of _______ objects around the room (can match whatever objects your lesson plans are using). Choose hiding places that make the objectss hard to find.

To begin the game, have the Movers search for the objects and look to their partners, the Skakers, for clues. Instruct the Shakers to stand still while the Movers are far from the chicks. As the Movers get closer to a hiding spot, tell the Shakers to begin to wiggle a hand or a foot to let their partner know that they are getting close. As the Movers get really close, the Shakers should wiggle all over or jump up and down, (no talking allowed).

When all the objects have been found, have the pairs reverse roles and play again.

Find My Sheep (1-3 gr)

Form a circle. Choose one child to be the Shepherd. The Shepherd will walk around the circle and describe one of the children by saying three things about the child: “My sheep has _____________, ______________ and _________________. Does anyone know who my sheep is?” For example, the Shepherd might say, ‘My sheep has curly hair, a red blouse and a blue barrette. Does anyone know who my sheep is?”

Then the Shepherd will stop behind someone, tap him or her on the shoulder, and ask, “Do you know who my sheep is?”

If the person answers incorrectly, the Shepherd will ask someone else. If that person answers correctly, the Shepherd will say, “Yes, that’s my sheep,” and start running around the circle. The child who was described as the sheep will chase the Shepherd and try to tag him or her. The shepherd must run completely around the circle at least once before taking the sheep’s place in the circle. The sheep will then become the new Shepherd. If the Shepherd is tagged, he or she must be the Shepherd again.

Human Robot

When we pray, God does not want us to be like human robots.

Materials: peanut butter; bread; paper plates/plastic knives

One adult will act like a human robot. Inform the kids that the object of this exercise is to get the robot to make a peanut butter sandwich. The robot cannot do anything on its own. The robot must get every instruction form the kids. To be successful, the children must give very specific instructions to the robot. For example, a specific command may be, “robot, pick up and hold the jar of peanut butter with your left hand. Grasp the lid of the peanut butter jar with your right hand and twist the lid counter clockwise. Let go of the lid with your right hand. Pick up the knife with your right hand and put it into the peanut butter in the peanut butter jar.” Vague commands such as “make a peanut better sandwich” will not work. The robot will look confused and shrug its shoulders. Vague commands such as “put the peanut better on the bread” may cause the robot to put the jar of p.b. on top of the bread. If too many kids talk at once, the robot will get confused. The other adult, if needed, may help the children with giving specific commands. Let the human robot ham it up, the kids will love it.

Afterwards, explain to the children that God does not want us to be like human robots. When we pray, he wants us to pray from deep within our hearts and talk to Him as our father, telling Him everything. We are not just to repeat prayers we have heard, as a robot would do. Robots may be funny at first, but they quickly become boring. A robot just does what you tell it to do; it cannot love you or befriend you.

Being Close to God

The closer you are to God, the stronger your relationship can be with him.

Materials: Popcorn

First, divide the children equally and have them stand in two lines, facing each other, about 10 feet apart. Each child will need to be facing another child. The children will be tossing a piece of popcorn back and forth to the person across from them. If you have an odd number of children, the extra child can count the number of successful catches. Give all the children in the first row, called row ‘a’, a piece of popcorn and tell then that on your signal they will toss the piece of popcorn 10 feet across to the person directly facing them in row ‘b’. Instruct the older children to only use one hand. Tell the kids that the popcorn in this activity represents our relationship with God. Give the signal and have the children toss the popcorn. many of the tosses will fall short since the children are so far apart. Record the number of successful throws.

Make sure each child in row ‘b’ has a piece of popcorn. Each child in row ‘b’ will take one-step towards row ‘a’. Then on your signal, have the children toss the popcorn again. Record the number of successful throws. Do this several more times, each time taking one step closer, until the two rows are together. Once together, the children can simply drop the popcorn into the hands of the other child, resulting in no misses.

Explain that our relationship with God is similar to what we just did. The further away from each other, the harder it was to catch the popcorn. Likewise, the further we are from God, the harder it is to have a relationship with God. On the other hand, the closer we are to God, the easier it will be to have a strong relationship with him. How do we get close to God? We can get closer to God by reading the Bible, praying, and fasting.