Grades 1–3
Introductory Activity—Off Your Head
Materials: paper plates, markers
Give each child a paper plate and a marker. Tell kids to hold their paper plates on top of their heads and hold the marker above it, ready to draw. Give simple instructions to draw a flower: Draw a line for the grass. Draw a stem. Draw the center of your flower. Draw petals around the center. Draw leaves on the stem. (You can choose to give directions to draw something else but make sure it is a simple drawing.) Tell everyone to lay their drawings on a table or the floor. Lead everyone to walk around and examine the drawings. Tell kids that it is difficult to do some things when you cannot see. Tell them that in today’s story, a man had never been able to see; he had been born blind.
Live It Out
Game—Life-Size Ring Toss
Materials: inflatable pool rings
Choose one or more kids to be the “stakes.” Guide other kids to take turns tossing the pool rings, trying to get the rings on the stakes. The “stakes” can lean and move their bodies to try to catch the rings but their feet must stay planted. When a ring lands on a stake, ask a review question or lead the kids to repeat the Life Point.
Craft—Eyes Wristband
Materials: cardboard tubes, colored masking tape and washi tape, large wiggle eyes, permanent markers, scissors
Say the Life Point with the kids. Talk about the blind man’s need and how Jesus met that need. Cut a slit down the length of a cardboard tube. Cut widths of cardboard tube for each child. (The cardboard will curl around a child’s wrist.) Guide kids to wrap the cardboard with colored tape to create designs. They can add eyes to the wristband to remind them of the Life Point. Suggest they print Jesus is powerful on the wristband, too.
Grades 4–6
Introductory Activity—Stick Puzzles
Materials: wide craft sticks, marker
Lay two craft sticks side by side so long edges are touching. Print the word Matthew on the sticks so that the letters extend across both sticks. Make additional pairs of sticks with words of other Gospels: Mark, Luke, John. Repeat names as you choose but use a different color marker for each set (so kids can tell the difference in pairs). Mix all the pairs of sticks. Place the sticks in a cup. Spill the sticks onto a table or the floor. On your signal, kids can find the pairs of sticks that go together and reassemble the names. Call the group together to read the names they formed. Ask kids to name what the names have in common. Tell the kids that the Gospels tell about Jesus’ life on earth. Tell them they will hear another story about Jesus’ power today.
Live It Out
Game—Face Off!
Materials: two tap lights or bells; white board and marker
Group kids into 2 teams. Print Team 1 on one side of the board and Team 2 on the other side. One player from each team can stand near a light or bell. Ask a review question; the first player to hit the light or bell answers the question. If the answer is correct, print a letter P under the team name. If the answer is incorrect, nothing is added to the board. New players step up to the light or bell. Continue asking questions until one team has spelled POWER on the board.
Craft—Folded Verse
Materials: heavyweight paper in different colors, gel pens, markers, clear tape, scissors
Cut the paper into strips about 4½-by-1½-inches. Each kid will need to cut at least 7 strips (or precut the strips before the session). Tell the kids to print the words of the verse on the strips, 1 or 2 words per strip. Talk about how Jesus showed power in the Bible story. Lead kids to think of other ways Jesus showed power. When all words have been printed, lead the kids to lay their verses in order, top to bottom. Then they can flip over the strips (in order). Tell them to tear short lengths of tape and attach the first two strips together, leaving a slight space between the strips as they tape them. Then they can use tape to attach the third strip to the second, and so on. When all the strips are taped, help them accordion-fold the strips. Tell them they have a pocket-sized verse to remember Jesus’ power. Thank God for Jesus and His power.
Is it possible to receive this material by e-mail, either weekly, monthly or quarterly? I love these additional resources for my class. Grades 1-3. Thank you.
Connie, we don’t have an email blast going out right now with these. However, our entire fall quarter is posted (September – November) if you want to download all three months’ worth of materials at the same time.