Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Musical Crown
Materials: paper or plastic crown, music
Lead kids to sit in a circle. Show and talk about the crown. Comment that kings and queens often wear crowns. Say that today’s Bible story includes a king. Play music and lead kids to pass the crown around the circle. Stop the music and stop passing the crown. Lead the group to say: “_____ (name of child holding crown) came to worship today!” Restart the music and continue passing the crown. Tell kids that the king in the Bible story led people to worship God at the new temple.
Live It Out
Game – Build the Verse
Materials: interlocking plastic blocks, masking tape, permanent marker
Place a piece of tape on each block. Print the words of the verse on the tape on each block, one word per block. Make a set of blocks for each team. Say the Bible Verse together. Group the kids into two (or more) teams. Give each team a set of blocks. Tell teams that, on your signal, they should build the verse in order, from bottom up. Lead kids to say the verse when it is completed. Take the verse apart and race to put it together again. After a few times, take the verse apart. Call out a word and tell kids to start with that word and finish the verse with the blocks. Talk about the Bible story and how Solomon led the people to worship God. Talk about ways your church worships God.
Craft – Worship God Spin Art
Materials: heavyweight paper, old CDs, markers, tape
Push the end of a marker through the center of a CD. Secure the marker to the CD with tape. (Cap should be able to be removed and replaced on the marker.) Make several marker/CD spinners. Give each child a piece of paper. Offer markers (without CDs) for kids to write the Life Point. Tell them to write it large on the paper. After the words are written, tell kids to use the spinners to decorate their paper. Show them how to remove the cap and spin the spinner to make looping lines on the paper. Talk about ways your church worships God.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Verse Clip Up
Materials: clothespins, hanger (one per team), permanent marker
Print the words of the Bible verse on clothespins, one word per clothespin. Make a set of clothespin words for each team. Group kids into two (or more) teams. Give each team a hanger and a set of clothespins. On your signal, teams work to clip the verse in order on the hanger. Replay the game as time permits. Ask kids to tell you what place the verse is referring to. Talk about things your church does at the church building. Tell kids that they will think about the church today in the session.
Live It Out
Game – Life Point Scramble
Materials: sets of colored paper squares (1 color for each team), marker
Print the words of the Life Point on paper squares. Make a set of words for each color of squares. Mix all the words together. Group the kids into teams. Each team should stand at a different side of the game area; assign a color to each team. Stand in the middle of the play area and drop all the words on the floor. On your signal, teams should run to the middle, gather all the squares of their color, and run back to their starting point. Then the team should work together to put the Life Point in order. When the team finished their Life Point, they should stand and shout together: “Church!” Talk about the Bible story and the Life Point.
Craft – Worship Wheel
Materials: paper plates (two per child), brads, colored pencils, gel pens, scissors
Lead kids to cut a triangular wedge from one of their paper plates. Help a preteen align her plates on top of one another, wedge-cut plate on top. Tell kids to use brads to attach their plates together. Show them how to rotate the top plate and move the wedge around. Tell kids to write Worship God on the top plate. Guide them to print ways they can worship or find verses about worship and print those on the lower plate. They can turn the plate to show a blank space, write the words or verses, and then move the top plate to show another blank space for the next verse. Tell kids they can use these plates to help them remember about worshiping God with the church.
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