Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Gideon Says
Materials: no materials needed
Stand at the front of the room and direct your kids to stand up. Tell them you will give them a series of commands they are to follow if you start your command with the phrase, “Gideon says…” However, they are not to move if you do not say that phrase. If they move, then they must sit down. The last person standing wins and becomes Gideon for the next round. Explain that in today’s lesson, they will learn about Gideon, who followed God’s commands to lead a small group of men against a large army.
Live It Out
Game – Popcorn Verse
Materials: paper, marker, play parachute or flat bed sheet
Print the words of the Weekly Verse on paper, one or two words per page. Wad the paper into balls. (For more of a challenge, wad a few blank piece of paper, too.) Guide kids to all hold a side of the parachute or sheet. Toss the paper wads onto the parachute. Guide kids to move the parachute up and down until a few paper wads fall off. Check the words that fell off the parachute. Find the first word of the verse. Wad up the words that are not the first word and put back on the parachute. Continue to pop off the words to find each word in order. Say the verse together. Talk about how God was in control of all that Gideon.
Craft – Suncatcher
Materials: clear contact plastic, tissue paper (in shades of yellow, gold, and orange), paper, marker
Talk about the Bible story. Note that God was in control of all the things Gideon did. Gideon and his few men defeated a larger army with torches and trumpets. Give kids a piece of paper; tell them to draw a simple trumpet or torch shape. They then can remove the backing from a piece of contact plastic and lay it, sticky side UP, over the simple drawing. Tell them to arrange tissue paper on the sticky plastic, using the shape they drew as a guide. They may want to print the words of the Life Point on a small piece of paper and attach to the plastic, too. When they have completed sticking tissue paper on the plastic, they can remove the backing from another piece of clear contact plastic and stick over their design. Suggest they trim away the excess plastic. Tell kids to tape the suncatcher to a window as a reminder that God is in control of all things.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Move the Cup Relays
Materials: 9 blue cups and 1 yellow cup for each team (Note: Color of cups does not matter; you will need 9 of one color and 1 of another color for each team.)
Stack the 10 cups with the yellow cup on the bottom. Group kids into teams. Tell kids that their team members will take turns moving the yellow cup through the stack and back to the bottom. On your signal, a player will hold the stack of cups and move a cup from the top to the bottom of the stack. The player must keep holding the stack in his hand while moving the cups. When the yellow cup is moved from the top to the bottom, the player will hand the stack to the next player on his team. That player will repeat moving all the cups from top to bottom. The team that completes the task with all players is the winning team. Tell kids that the teams had to work together and encourage one another to complete the task. Today they will hear about a group of men who worked together to accomplish the task God gave them.
Live It Out
Game – Unscramble Rumble
Materials: paper, 2 bells (or other “ring in” items)
Beforehand, print these scrambled words related to the story on pieces of paper: doiGen; chort; uttrpem; tieisiMdan; mary; trcephi. (Unscrambled words: Gideon; torch; trumpet; Midianites; army; pitcher) Add other words as you choose.
Group kids into two teams. Guide a player from each team to stand at a table with a bell. Show the first scrambled word. Players have 15 seconds to ring in and say the correct word. If a player guesses the wrong word, the other player has a chance to say it. If both teams say the wrong word, the scrambled word goes back in the stack. Talk about the Bible story and how God was in control of everything that happened.
Option: Scramble the letters of each word of the Life Point. After teams unscramble these words, challenge them to put the words in order and read the Life Point.
Craft – Gideon’s Torch
Materials: small cardboard tubes, construction paper (yellow, orange, red), scissors, markers, tape
Give every child a cardboard tube and ensure they have access to the other supplies. Direct them to write the Life Point on the tube. Tell them to decorate the tube as a handle for a torch. Instruct them to cut out flames from their construction paper and tape the flames inside to resemble a torch. Suggest that kids put the torches in their rooms to remind them that God is in control of all things.
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