Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Clean Up
Materials: paper wads/balls, tape
Use masking tape to divide the play area into two or four areas. Scatter the paper balls evenly throughout the space.
Group the kids into two or four teams. Assign an area to each team. On your signal, kids should work to toss the paper balls from their area into the other areas. Teams try to completely clear their areas. After a few minutes, call for kids to stop. Compare the amount of paper balls in each area, if you want. Play several rounds as time permits. Tell kids that they will think about how to care for God’s world because God wants people to take care of His world.
Live It Out
Game – Verse Swat
Materials: index cards or pieces of paper, marker, flyswatters
Print the words of the verse on cards or paper, one word per card. Print cards with other words that are not in the verse. Scatter the words throughout the play area, face up.
On your signal, kids can take turns swatting the words of the verse. After a child swats a word, he can remove it from the play area. If a child swats a word not in the verse, the group must return all the words they have collected back to the play area. When all the words have been collected, put the verse in order and say it. Talk about ways that people today can care for God’s world.
Alternate Idea: Make two sets of verse words and group the kids into teams to play this game.
Craft – Diptych
Materials: heavyweight paper (two sheets per child), masking tape, markers, scissors
Give each child two pieces of paper. Lead them to print the Life Point on one of their pieces of paper. Talk about ways people can care for God’s world. Encourage kids to think of ways they themselves can care for God’s world. Tell kids to choose a way to care for God’s world and draw a picture of that on their other pieces of paper. When a child finishes his drawing, guide him to lay both of his pages facedown, side by side. Use tape to attach the pages together along a long side. Tape the entire length of the paper. Help the child fold on the tape and then stand up his diptych.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Creation Relay
Materials: paper (seven pages per team), marker
Before the session, print words or glue pictures to represent the seven days of creation: Light/Dark; Sky/Atmosphere; Land/Plants; Sun/Moon/Stars; Fish/Birds; Animals/People; Rested. Make a set of pages for each team.
Mix the pages and lay them facedown at one end of the play area. Group kids into teams (no more than 7 per team). Lead teams to line up at the opposite end of the play area. On your signal, one player from each team will run to the pages, pick up one page, and run it back to the team. Teams must work together to put the pages in order as they receive them. If a player brings back a page that the team has already collected, the next player must carry that page back down to the far end before picking up another page. The first team to complete the days of creation in order wins. Tell kids that today they will talk about caring for the world God created.
Live It Out
Game – Trash Basketball
Materials: ball of tape or large paper wad ball, trash can
Group the kids into two teams. Ask Team 1 a review question. If the team answers the question correctly, award 3 points. After a correct answer, give the ball to a team member to shoot into the trash can. If the ball goes into the can, award 2 more points to the team. Ask Team 2 a question. Continue to alternate between/among teams to review the story. Talk about ways that people can care for God’s world.
Craft – Flower Pots
Materials: craft sticks (both plain and colored); empty clean food cans or other containers with straight sides, rubber bands, ribbon, markers
Invite kids to make flower pots. They can draw or write on the craft sticks. Suggest they print the Life Point on some of the craft sticks. Show kids how to stand craft sticks on end along the sides of the container. Use a rubber band to hold the sticks in place as you add more sticks to completely surround the can. Tie a length of ribbon around the flower pot to conceal the ribbon. Talk about ways people can care for God’s world.
Note: You could use tacky glue, hot glue, or other strong adhesive to attach the craft sticks to the side of the can if you choose.
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