Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Christmas Plans
Materials: paper, crayons or markers
Tell kids to use the materials to draw out their plans for Christmastime. They can draw things they would like to do to prepare for Christmas or things they do on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Encourage kids to show their drawings and talk about their plans. Say: “God planned for Jesus to be born. We will talk about some of that plan today.”
Live It Out
Game – Body Spelling
Materials: white board and marker or computer to display words (optional)
Form groups of about five kids. Call out a word or name from the Bible story: Mary. Guide the groups to lay on the floor and form the letters to spell the word. (You may want to display the word on a screen or white board.) All team members should be a part of the word. Suggest that two groups work together, if they choose. After all groups have formed the word, talk about how that word or name was important in the Bible story. Ask all teams to stand and prepare for the next word. Words to use could include angel, Joseph, Nazareth, dream, baby, Jesus. Recall other parts of the Bible story after you have spelled all the words. Tell kids that God planned to send Jesus to be the Savior.
Craft – Angel Ornament
Materials: peg clothespins, white paper, scissors, tape or glue, fine-line markers
Talk about the messengers that spoke to Mary and Joseph. Kids can use the materials to create ornaments to remind them of God’s plan to send Jesus as the Savior. Kids can use the markers to draw faces on the peg clothespins. Guide them to cut “clothing” from the white paper; they can write the Unit Verse on the paper and glue the clothing on the clothespins. Tell kids they can hang their ornaments by sliding the clothespins onto tree branches. Say the Bible verse together.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Head Lines
Materials: paper plates, markers
Distribute markers and plates to the kids, one of each. Tell kids to hold the plates flat on the tops of their heads. Say that they will be drawing on the plates on top of their heads. Tell them to follow your instructions to draw a house. Tell them that the plates must remain on top of their heads as they draw. They are not to look at the plates while drawing.
Give simple steps like these:
–Draw a line to be the ground or grass.
–Draw a square for the house.
–Draw a triangle for the house roof.
–Draw a chimney on the roof.
–Draw a door on the house.
–Draw two windows on the house.
–Draw a sun above the house.
Lay the drawings on the floor and take a gallery walk, looking at all the houses. Tell kids that today they will hear a story about Mary and who visited her at her home in Nazareth.
Live It Out
Game – Broken Ornament
Materials: 20 construction paper circles (all the same color), pencil, tape
On 5 paper circles, write X. On the rest of the circles, write a numeral from 1 to 5. Tape the circles to the wall, blank side out.
Group the kids into two teams. Sit near the wall of ornaments (circles). Tell kids that some of the ornaments are broken and some have numbers/points. Teams will take turns choosing ornaments; they want to avoid choosing a broken ornament. If a player chooses a numeral ornament, ask a review question for the team to answer. (You could also ask the team to say the Unit Verse or Life Point.) If the answer is correct, the team keeps the ornament. If the answer is incorrect, the ornament goes back on the wall. If the player chooses a broken ornament, all the ornaments that the team has collected go back on the wall. Continue for a specified time. Add up the collected points of each team.
Craft – Verse Reminder “Tree”
Materials: green construction paper, white paper, scissors, markers, glue
Cut the green paper into 2-by-9-inch strips. Give each kid 4-5 paper strips. Lead them to cut strips into graduated lengths. For example, a child may have strips that measure 3 inches, 5 inches, 7 inches, and 9 inches. (Exact measurements do not matter; the strips only need to be graduated in size.) Tell kids to write the words of the Unit Verse on the strips; each strip can have one or several words on it. Start writeing on the shortest strip and move through the strips in order of length. Then the preteen can glue the shortest strip at the top of a piece of white paper. She can add the other strips in order, creating a pine tree shape or triangle shape with the strips. The kids may want to add other details to the verse “trees” they created (trunk, additional leaves, ornaments). Talk about the verse and how it connects to today’s story.
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