Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity—Beach Ball Spell
Materials: large blanket, beach ball
Once at least four kids arrive, give each one a corner of the blanket. Place the beach ball on top and encourage them to bounce the beach ball on the blanket while spelling the name Jesus. If the ball falls off, they should start over. As more kids arrive, allow them to join in by holding part of the blanket. If practicing social distancing, bring multiple clean blankets so there are only four kids to each blanket. Tell kids that today they will hear about someone who told about Jesus.
Live It Out
Game—Bubble Wrap Attack
Materials: 2–3 12-by-12-inch squares of bubble wrap per child
Lay out bubble wrap for each child. Kids should stand behind the bubble wrap and put their hands behind their backs. Kids will stomp on the bubble wrap with just one foot and say today’s Bible verse as they stomp all the bubbles out. Then they should race to stack it at the front of the room. Once all the bubble wrap is stacked, remind the kids that John the Baptist knew exactly who Jesus was.
Craft—Make a Megaphone
Materials: paper, tape, markers or colored pencils
Show kids how to form a normal piece of paper into a cone with an opening on the smaller end. Help kids tape the cone together, then decorate it. After they are finished, teach them to talk into the smaller side and allow the paper to amplify their voices. Remind kids that like John, they can boldly and loudly tell others about Jesus, too.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity—Never Have I Ever
Materials: no materials needed
Encourage kids to hold out 5 fingers (or ten if time allows). Go around the circle and one at a time, each kid should announce something he has never done, starting the sentence with “Never have I ever…” A kid might say, “Never have I ever traveled out of the country.” For each statement, all the other kids drop a finger if they have done what was said. So, if three other people have been to Europe before, those three people must put down a finger over and over again until they have none remaining. Tell kids that today’s Bible story is about a man who did something new!
Live It Out
Game—Go, Go, Share
Materials: no materials needed
This game is a variation of duck, duck, goose! Instruct kids to sit in a circle, and appoint one kid to walk around and tap each kid’s head. He must say “Go” until he wants to tag someone in. Whoever he tags, he says, “Share.” That child runs around the circle and tries to tag the one who was It. If It sits down in his spot, he then becomes It. Remind kids that they can tell others that Jesus is God’s Son.
Craft―Camel Hair Clothes
Materials: copy paper, tan yarn cut into 1-inch pieces, scissors, markers, tacky glue
Instruct kids to draw a picture of John the Baptist. Instead of coloring in his clothing, glue on small pieces of tan yarn to look like camel hair. Kids can then color in the rest of the picture. Remind kids that John didn’t have a fancy life or even fancy clothes, but he confidently shared that Jesus is the Son of God.
I am a teacher for small group time with 5th and 6th graders. I want help in driving home the Bible truths my kids have just heard in large group, but quite often the activities are very lacking in meaningful content and I end up spending a lot of time coming up with ideas on my own. This unit for March is going to be even more challenging from what I see; the “Kizmet Game” is one of the options for all four sessions, and though it looks fun, it has nothing to do with any of the content, so I have even less to choose from. I hate to be negative, but it’s discouraging that the writers of this material don’t appear to realize the impact they could be having on kids’ lives by giving teachers the help they need in sharing God’s word.
Thanks for letting me vent! Interested in doing anything about your content?
Hello Linda. Thank you for reaching out to us. We always appreciate the opportunity to hear from and interact directly with the churches we serve. I’m sorry to hear that you have found the leader guide disappointing. We always hope that our resources meet the needs of churches. I can certainly give this feedback to our team.
I wanted to make sure you knew that we provide Extra ideas on this page for your use. I teach preteens at my church as well. Yesterday we played the Go, Go, Share game on the Extras as an intro activity. They loved it and it was fun to add kids to the game as kids arrived. I do encourage you to use the Kids Activity Pages during class. We completed the Mark It! activity yesterday in class. We had great discussion with the girls especially on the Main Motion and Main Memory. I loved hearing their ideas on how to apply the lesson. We encouraged them to take this sheet and post it somewhere where they see it daily as a reminder on the action to follow.
We love to hear feedback from churches so we can continue to improve. Thank you again for taking the time to share your experience with us that I will pass onto our team. We are thankful for the work you are doing to share Jesus with kids in your church and community.