Grades 1–3
Introductory Activity—Mirror, Mirror
Materials: music
As kids arrive, appoint a leader. Start playing a song and instruct the leader to dance any way she’d like. The other kids should copy the leader’s moves exactly. The leader can yell at any point “Free dance,” and let everyone freestyle. She can then say “Mirror,” so everyone goes back to copying. Periodically, point out a different leader. Kids can join in as they arrive. After the introductory time is over, tell kids that they had to follow a leader throughout this game or else it didn’t work for everyone else. Say that they will hear about one man had the choice to follow God as his leader, and they will see if he made the right choice or not.
Live It Out
Game—True or False
Materials: True and False written on a separate sheet of paper, tape
Attach each paper to opposite sides of your space. Point out the sign on each wall. When you read a review statement from below, Kids should walk to the correct side of the room to answer the question. If a statement is false, encourage the kids to give the correct statement. After all the statements are answered, say the Life Point together.
• Saul was chosen by God to be the king of Canaan (False, it was Israel.)
• Saul always chose to obey God perfectly. (False)
• God made the right choice to make Saul king. (True, God’s choices are always right.)
• Saul gave the sacrifice to the priest who made the sacrifice to God. (False, Saul made the sacrifice when he wasn’t supposed to.)
• God rejected Saul as King. (True)
•. Saul’s sin only affected himself. (False, it affected his family and the nation. Our sin always affects other people.)
•. When we don’t follow God with our choices, we are sinning. (True)
Craft—Make a King’s Crown
Materials: yellow cardstock, scissors, stick on gems, coloring utensils, glue sticks
Show kids how to make a crown out of yellow cardstock. Draw a zigzag shape about one-third of the way up the horizontal side of the paper and cut it out. If kids want to wear the crowns, they may need to cut two lines of paper out and glue them together. Tell kids to write the Weekly Verse, Psalm 86:9 on the crown to remind them of God’s authority. Kids can then decorate the crowns as they like and glue the ends together to make it into a hat they can wear or just something they can keep in a special place to remind them of the one true King.
Grades 4–6
Grades 4–6
Introductory Activity—Scrap Paper Toss
Materials: enough scrap paper for each kid, two boxes
Set up two trash empty trash boxes side-by-side. As kids arrive, give each child two pieces of scrap paper and allow them to crumple it up, sending every other kid to the opposite box. Kids can stand a distance away from the trash bin before attempting to throw the paper in. Everyone can have one chance. After the first chance, ask kids each child to name a favorite book of the Bible and toss his paper. When all the paper is in the bin, ask kids what the hardest part of the game was. Ask them if they could change one rule, what would it be? Remind them that if they had just not followed the rules, the game wouldn’t have had much of a point. Tell kids that today, they will learn about God and his authority.
Live It Out
Game—Match the Person to the Book
Materials: sticky notes, pen
On separate sticky notes, write the following words: Paul, Romans, Jesus, Matthew, Woman at the Well, John, Isaiah, Isaiah, Jonah, Jonah, Noah, Genesis, Adam and Eve, Genesis, Moses, Exodus, Daniel, Daniel, Peter, Mark, Silas, Acts, Barnabas, Acts. You may add or remove some of these based on the number of kids you have. Give each child a sticky note and when you say go, allow them to look at their character or book and find the match. There are some similar books, so remind kids that there are multiple characters in some books of the Bible. Talk about the people mentioned and how, though they weren’t perfect, they ultimately chose to follow God and obey his authority. Help kids know that God gives people in the Bible to follow the example of and people like Saul who set an example we should not follow.
Craft—All the Earth
Materials: paper plates, blue and green watercolors, paintbrushes, cups of water, black marker, blue construction paper, glue sticks
Give each kid the supplies listed above. Tell kids to draw the outlines of land on their paper plates to look like the earth. Kids should then paint the land green and waters blue. After they have created a picture of the earth on their plates, they can glue those to the blue paper, and around the paper write the Weekly Verse. Remind the kids that Saul did not respect God’s authority, and that caused him problems. Pray with the kids and ask God to help them obey and respect God’s authority.
Please tell me how to get to the coloring sheets.
Hello. I am glad to help. Go to: https://biblestudiesforlife.lifeway.com/leader-extras-kids/
Click on Enhanced CD Printables. Then click on any age group. The general teaching resources have the coloring pages, missions, etc. Each age group has specific printables that are referred to in the Leader Guide in the separate pdf. The general teaching resources have resources for all age groups including the coloring sheets. You can print the pages you need from the pdf.