Grades 1–6: A Powerful and Loving God — Session 4: The Tabernacle Was Built (January 26)

Grades 1-3

Introductory Activity – Build It!

Materials: chenille stems, pieces of foil

Guide children to use the chenille stems and foil to build a structure. They can work in one large group or in several smaller groups. Allow them to experiment with the materials to build. Tell kids that something was built or constructed in today’s Bible story.

Live It Out

Game – Crash!!

Materials: Small cards (about 2-inch squares), 4 colors of wide craft sticks (8 sticks each), marker or pen, large cup, tape

Print the Bible verse, in parts, on 6 cards. Make 4 sets of cards. On 8 cards, print Crash. Tape one set of verse cards to each color of sticks; tape 2 Crash cards to the other colored sticks. (You will have 8 sticks of each color with cards – 6 verse cards and 2 Crash cards.) Mix all the sticks together and place them in the cup, card side down.
Group the kids into 4 teams. Assign each team a color (that matches the sticks). Teams will take turns pulling sticks from the cup. Teams collect the verse cards. If a team pulls a Crash card, all the collected sticks must go back in the cup. The first team to collect all its verse cards wins. After a few games, give each team a set of verse cards. Lead teams to put their verse cards in order. Read the verse together. Talk about the Bible story and the Life Point.

Craft – Worship Quilt

Materials: paper squares, colored tape, markers

Invite kids to draw pictures and print words about worship, one picture or phrase per paper square. As they work, review the Bible story and talk about worship at your church. Lead a child to use tape to connect her squares in a paper “quilt.” (Butt the edges of the squares together and tape over both pieces with a piece of tape.) Tell kids to place their quilts in a place to remind them that God leads people to worship Him.

Grades 4-6

Introductory Activity – Worship Acrostic

Materials: paper, pencils

Give each preteen a piece of paper and a pencil. Guide kids to print WORSHIP down the left side of the paper. Lead kids to work alone or with partners to list words that begin with each letter that are related to worshiping God. Tell kids that they will discover more about worshiping God today.

Live It Out

Game – Ring Toss

Materials: chenille craft stems, cardboard tubes (or water bottles), permanent marker

Use three chenille stems to make a ring; twist ends together to make a long stem and bend the opposite ends to make a ring. Create several rings. Print these letters on cardboard tubes (or bottles): w, o, r, s, h, i, p. Add other letters to increase difficulty of the game. Stand the tubes/bottles, spaced apart, near a wall. Guide kids to take turns tossing the rings on the tubes. After several practice throws, guide kids to toss the rings and ring the letters in order to spell worship. Talk about the Life Point and the Bible story. Lead kids to understand how they worship God. Compare and contrast those ways with the ways people worshiped at the tabernacle.

Craft – Worship Gems

Materials: large clear floral gems, glue, paintbrushes, paper, gel pens, scissors

Talk about the Life Point. Talk about words that worship, praise, or glorify God. Guide kids to cut paper the same size as the bottom of the floral gems. They can create designed words that worship God on the paper shapes. When a preteen finishes her word, she can brush glue on the bottom of a floral gem and stick the word to it. (She should place the word side to the glue.) She should be able to see her word through the floral gem. Allow kids to make more than one gem as time allows. Talk about how and why they should worship God.