Grades 1–6: He is God — Session 1: Cain and Abel (October 3)

Grades 1-3

Introductory Activity – Line Up

Materials: none

Gather the kids to stand in an open area of the room. Then call out an order in which kids can re-line up. For example, you may say, “Everyone please line up in the order of your age—oldest in the front and youngest in the back.” Let kids chat among each other until they figure out the correct order. Continue playing with different categories each time (shortest to tallest, number of siblings, color of clothes by rainbow, and so forth). Tell kids that they may not have known all the facts they just learned about one another, but God does! He knows everything about us, even the bad things about us. Today, kids will learn about one time God knew about someone’s sin.

Live It Out

Game – I Went to Church and I Brought…

Materials: none

Gather kids into a circle and pick a person to start. The first player starts the game by saying, “I went to church, and I brought ____,” saying an item he might bring to church with him. The second player continues, “I went to church, and I brought (names the first child’s item) and ___ (adds a new item).” Kids continue going around the circle, trying to remember each item brought previously. Remind kids that our knowledge and memory is weak in comparison to God’s. While we have a hard time remembering a simple list, He knows all things!

Craft – Make a Self-Portrait

Materials: paper, coloring utensils

Tell kids to make a self-portrait! They can be as creative as possible. They can draw themselves, or they can draw pictures of things that make them who they are—their likes, dislikes, families, and so forth—anything that describes them. Remind kids that God knows more about them than they know about themselves. God knows all the things you do.

Grades 4-6

Introductory Activity – Where Do You Stand?

Materials: masking tape or chalk

Create a line in your play space using masking tape if you’re inside or chalk if you have outside space. Tell kids to stand on the line behind each other. Stand in front of the line and call out two different things, pointing to the right and left of the line for each one. Kids decide which one they prefer and go to the side of those things. For example, if you call out “Peter Pan or The Lion King,” you would point to the right side for the line for Peter Pan and the left of the line for The Lion King. Use the following examples and come up with some of your own: cats or dogs, city or country, hot dogs or hamburgers, math or English, pink or blue, and so forth. Remind kids that God knows all the things about them—every choice they would have made before they made it! Today, kids will learn about a very bad choice a man named Cain made and how God knew.

Live It Out

Game – Recall

Materials: dry erase board and marker, paper, writing utensils

Print the Weekly Verse on the board. Read it aloud with the kids several times. Erase the words and replace each word with a blank line. Call on individual kids to say one of the words they remember in the verse and let them write it in the correct blank. Continue until all the words are filled in. Remind kids that our knowledge and memory is weak in comparison to God’s. Say that God knows all things!

Craft – Make a Self-Portrait

Materials: paper, drawing utensils

Tell kids to make a self-portrait! They can be as creative as possible. They can draw themselves, or they can draw pictures of things that make them who they are—their likes, dislikes, families, and so forth—anything that describes them. Remind kids that God knows more about them than they know about themselves. God knows all the things you do.