Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Fruit Match
Materials: index cards
Before class write the following on cards, one item per card: Apple Tree, Grape Vine, Christian. On 5 cards write apples; on 5 cards write grapes. Write each of the fruit of the spirit on individual cards. Place the first three cards on the table. Shuffle the remaining cards. Guide the kids to take turns drawing one card from the stack and placing it with the correct base card. Explain to the kids that apple trees produce apples, grape vines produce grapes and with the help of the Holy Spirit, Christians produce love, joy, peace, and so on.
Live It Out
Game – Act It Out
Materials: none
Create nine groups of kids. Review the nine fruits of the Spirit and secretly assign one to each group of kids. Give kids five minutes to come up with a skit pantomiming the fruit you gave them. The other groups need to guess what fruit they were portraying. If you don’t have enough kids to create nine groups, create four and give groups multiple fruits. If you have a small group, let pairs of kids choose cards with the words on them.
Craft – Tissue Paper Fruit
Materials: white paper, glue, various colors of tissue paper, black markers
Tell kids print Fruit of the Spirit across the tops of their papers; then they can draw a large piece of fruit on the paper. Kids can then tear pieces of tissue paper of various colors and glue them into their fruit. Since the fruit of the Spirit isn’t literal fruit, tell kids to get creative! After that, kids can write love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control in the blank space on their papers. Remind them that the fruit of the Spirit is all these traits, not just one!
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity—Musical Chairs
Materials: enough chairs for all the kids but one, fruit of the Spirit song
Find a fruit of the Spirit song online and play a game of musical chairs with that song. After the game is over, see if the last person left can name all the fruit of the Spirit, and tell kids they’ll be learning how the Holy Spirit helps kids grow in their relationship with God!
Live It Out
Game – Spirit Charades
Materials: each fruit of the Spirit written on small pieces of paper, stopwatch or timer
Create two teams of kids, or if you have a small group, just play all together. Assign one kid to come up to the front at pick out a piece of paper. She should pantomime the fruit she drew without using words. Time her for one minute. Her team has twenty seconds to discuss and guess what the fruit is, but they cannot call out more than one guess. If they guess correctly, they get two points. If they guess incorrectly, the other group can guess and will receive one point if correct. Play until you get through all the fruit or as time allows!
Craft – Hanging Life Point
Materials: paper plates, scissors, hole punches, yarn, markers
Review the Bible story. Talk about the Life Point. Tell kids that it is important to remember that the Holy Spirit helps Christians grow in their relationship with God. Lead a kid to cut paper plates into pieces. He can punch a hole in the top and bottom of each piece and use lengths of yarn to tie the pieces together; leave space between each word as you tie them together. Tie a length of yarn in the top hole for a hanger. Tell kids to hang their hangers from the ceiling in their rooms. They can be reminded t be guided by the Holy Spirit.
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