Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Your Best Talent
Materials: none
As kids enter the space, encourage them to consider what is their best talent they might want to share with the group. It can be an activity they love to do (maybe a sport or an art-form) or it can even be something they do in front of the group. Once kids arrive, allow each one to share his talent. Once all the kids have shared, ask them if anyone has ever seen someone perform a miracle? Tell them that when Jesus walked on earth, he did lots of miracles, but it wasn’t just to “show off” in front of people. He wanted people to know that He was God’s Son!
Live It Out
Game – Undo-It Freeze Tag
Materials: mone
Assign one child the role of It and one child the role of Undo-It. Make sure you have a clear space free of tripping hazards for kids to run around. When you say “Go,” It chases and tags kids who then freeze. After a few seconds of the game, release Undo-It into the crowd of kids. Undo-It can tag frozen kids in order to unfreeze them. Play as long as time allows, changing who plays the roles as the game goes on. After the game, remind kids that though we can pretend to have the power to “unfreeze” people, Jesus has and showed His power to actually heal a paralyzed man. Help them remember that Jesus could do miracles because He is God’s Son.
Craft – Jesus’ Touch
Materials: colorful construction paper, scissors, coloring utensils
Allow kids to trace their handprints on construction paper and then cut out the shape of their hands. Encourage kids to decorate the hands with the words A touch of Jesus heals and whatever other decorations remind them of today’s Bible story. Encourage them to print the Weekly Verse or the Life Point on the back of their handprints.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Show a Magic Trick
Materials: materials to do a magic trick you know or a video of someone doing a magic trick
If you know a magic trick, bring materials to show the kids at the beginning of your time together. After you show them the trick, show them exactly how you did the trick. If you do not personally know how to do a magic trick, find an appropriate video to show kids of someone else doing a magic trick and then explaining how they did it. Ask kids if they know how to do any magic tricks and how they learned to do it. After your time of discussion, tell kids that Jesus performed what some people might have thought was magic while He was living on earth; however, Jesus wasn’t performing magic at all! He was doing miracles. There was no “trick” about it. Tell kids that today you will be learning about one of the miracles Jesus performed and that He could do it because He is the Son of God.
Live It Out
Game – Mat Carry
Materials: several beach towels (enough for every 5-6 kids in your group)
Create teams of five or six kids and give each team a beach towel. Lay the beach towels out on the ground and instruct one child from each team to lay down on the towel. The rest of the team can pick up the child using the corners of the beach towels. You may time kids to see how long they can carry their friend on the mats or create a start and finish line where teams can see who can (safely) get to one side of the room fastest. After spending some time playing with the beach towels, remind them that the friends of the paralytic man weren’t just carrying another child on the mat, they were carrying a grown adult! They had faith that Jesus could heal their friend, and they were right! Jesus could do miracles because He is the Son of God.
Craft – Make a Mat
Materials: craft sticks, 3-by-6-inch pieces of felt, quick drying glue, 2-by-4-inch pieces of paper
Using the pieces of felt, show kids how to glue one shorter side of the felt to one craft stick and the same on the other side. As the felt is drying, encourage kids to write Jesus heals and the Weekly Verse on the piece of paper and decorate it however they please. They can then glue the paper to the middle of the felt. Show them how they created a mat like the paralytic man might have been carried in on and encourage them to use it as a reminder of what they learned in the Bible story this week!
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