Grades 1–3
Introductory Activity— Sticky Spider Web
Materials: masking tape, cotton balls
Use masking to create a spider web in the doorway of your room. Do this by taping random lines across the doorway. Be sure that the sticky side of the tape is facing inside the room. Tape a tossing line five feet from the door.
Create two teams of kids. Choose a child from each team, one at a time, to toss a cotton ball onto the web. If the cotton sticks, that team gets a point! Continue to play until every child has a turn. Remind kids that when God gives us the Holy Spirit, He sticks with us forever! Tell kids they will be learning another way the Spirit helps Christians today. Say the Life Point together.
Live It Out
Game—Review Toss
Materials: masking tape, paper squares, marker, beanbag
Use the tape to make a four-ring target on the floor. Write point values (increments of 5 or 10) on the paper squares and tape one in each ring. Group the kids into teams (or play as one group). Ask the kids (or a team) a review question from this week or any week in the past unit. If you need more, allow kids to fill-in-the-blank with this unit’s Life Points and Weekly Verses. If the answer is correct, toss the beanbag for points. The child or team with the most points wins!
Craft— Make a Prayer Ring
Materials: various colors of construction paper, scissors, markers or writing utensils, chenille stems, hole punch
Give kids multiple pieces of construction paper in various colors, and instruct them to trace both of their hands on one piece then cut them out. Next, kids should cut out squares of other colors of the construction paper roughly the same size as their hands. On the squares, kids should write things they want to pray for the Holy Spirit to help with. Kids can have as many “prayer squares” as they’d like! For the next step, either pass around a few hole punches for kids to make a hole at the bottom of their hands and squares or send adults around the room to use the hole punch if kids are too young. String a chenille stem through the holes with both hands on the outside and the squares in the middle of the hands. Twist the ends together to make a ring.
Grades 4–6
Introductory Activity—Missing Vowels
Materials: paper, markers
Print this message for kids. You could print and display one large message or make a copy of the message for each child:
“F_r th_ H_ly Sp_r_t w_ll t_ _ch y_ _ _t th_t v_ry h_ _r wh_t m_st b_ s_ _d.” L_k_ 12:12
Lead kids to work to figure out the message. Let them work for a little while, and if they are struggling, give them the hint that the vowels are missing. After kids fill in the message, tell them they will discover more about reading the Holy Spirit today. (The message is the Weekly Verse.)
Live It Out
Game—Collision Ball
Materials: tape, 2 balls of different colors (or mark one ball with a star)
Make a tape line at each end of the game area. Tape the midline of the game area, too. Designate the “scoring ball” by color or by marking a star with marker on masking tape. Set the scoring ball on the midline. Place the other ball (the kicking ball) on one end of the play area.
Group the kids into teams. Gather teams at the end of the game area with the kicking ball. Tell them that the far line is the goal line. Ask Team 1 a review question. If the team is correct, a player can kick the kicking ball and try to hit the scoring ball, making it roll over the goal line. If the scoring ball does not cross the goal line, both balls stay where they land. Ask Team 2 a review question. If the team is correct, a player kicks the kicking ball from where it stopped, trying to knock the scoring ball across the goal line. Award 1 point for each correct answer; award 5 points if the goal line is crossed. After the ball crosses the goal line, reset it on the midline and place the kicking ball back at the starting line to continue the game.
Craft— Prayer Jars
Materials: mason jars for each kid, decorating supplies (gems, buttons, ribbon, paper, markers, pom-poms, colored masking tape, and so on), scissors, hot glue guns (for adult use), craft sticks, markersGive each child a mason jar and 5-6 craft sticks. Place decorating supplies and markers in the middle of your space for kids to decide what they will use. Plug in hot glue guns, and put an adult leader by each one. Tell kids to spend some time decorating their jar, deciding which decorations they will put where. Somewhere on the jar should be the wordsPrayer Jar; kids can write the words on masking tape attached to the jar or on paper that will be glued eventually. Kids can then go to an adult with a glue gun and glue their decor to the jar. While they are waiting for the glue to dry or while they wait for a hot glue gun to be available, they should write prayer prompts on the craft sticks. The prompts will live in the jars, and kids can pull them out when they need ideas of what to pray. Some examples are: Pray for a family member in need. Thank God for 5 things. Take a moment of silence to sit in God’s goodness. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you someone who needs love today. Pray for a friend who isn’t a Christian. Pray for a prayer request you heard recently at church. Pray for the Holy Spirit to teach you something new today.
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