Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Coin Drop
Materials: cups, coins
Stand a cup on the floor at a child’s feet. Give the child a coin. Challenge her to hold the coin at her nose and drop the coin into the cup. Allow three tries. Then another kid can attempt to do it. (Provide several cups and coins so several kids can do the activity at once.) Tell kids that they will hear about people dropping offerings in offering boxes.
Live It Out
Game – Verse Tower Stack
Materials: plastic cups (approximately 12-15 per team), labels, markers
Write the words of the verse on labels (2 or more words per label). Make a set of labels for each team. Attach the labels to cups. Alternate the orientation of the cup for each label (right side up for the first label, upside down for the second label, right side up for the third label, and so forth). Mix and stack the cups for each team.
Group the kids into two or more teams. Give each team a stack of verse cups. On your signal, players from each team should stack the cups in order. Teams will set the first word on the floor (right side up). Then they will stack the second cup on the first one (upside down) so the words can be read. The team to complete the stack first wins. Say the verse together and talk about the Bible story and the Life Point.
Option: Challenge teams to stack the cups with the first word at the top of the stack and reading the verse from top to bottom.
Craft – Foil Coins
Materials: craft foam, aluminum foil tape, scissors, dull pencils
Guide kids to cut circles from the craft foam. Help kids cut lengths of foil tape and carefully wrap the tape around the foam circles. Talk about the Bible story and say the Bible verse. When a kid completes wrapping his coin, guide him to use a pencil to engrave designs around the edge of the circle. He can add the word give to the middle of his “coin.” Say the Life Point and talk about Jesus’ teachings about giving.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – How Many?
Materials: 5-7 clear containers, coins, pencils, paper
In one container, drop two coins. In the rest of the containers, put a handful or more. Set each of the containers on a table. Lead the preteens to look at the containers and guess how many are in each one. They may want to write down their guesses. Comment that in today’s Bible story, Jesus was watching people drop coins into the offering boxes in the temple.
Note: You may want to count and note the number of coins in each container. Your preteens will probably want to know how close their guesses are.
Live It Out
Game – Timer Review
Materials: paper strips, marker, gift bag, timer
Write review questions on paper squares, one question per strip. Fold the strips and drop them in the gift bag.
Guide kids to sit in a circle. Set the timer for 15 seconds. Tell kids to pass the bag quickly around the group. When the timer sounds, the child holding the bag should pull out a review question. Read the question and lead the group to answer it. Reset the timer and pass the bag again Continue playing until all review questions are answered. Say the Life Point.
Option: Set the timer to a different length each time you play a round.
Craft – Coin Pouch
Materials: snack size ziplock bags, colored duct tape, scissors, paper, gel pens
Give each preteen a ziplock bag. Guide kids to use the colored tape to cover both sides of the bag up to the zipper closure. As they work, talk about the Bible story. Say the Life Point and talk about what Jesus said about the offerings. Lead kids to cut a piece of paper to fit the front of the ziplock bag. They can write the Bible verse (or part of the verse) on their pieces of paper and tape it to their bags. Tell kids to use the bags/coin pouches to hold their money. Tell them to think about how they want to use the money they have.
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