Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity—Four Corners
Materials: Paper, marker, tape
Label the four corners in your space 1, 2, 3, and 4. Choose one child to be It, and tell that child turn around and close his eyes. The remaining kids should take 5 seconds to choose a corner. With his eyes still closed, It calls out a number. Everyone in that corner sits in the middle while another round goes. Keep playing until there is only one child left. Play again with another kid as It as time allows. Gather kids and remind them that like they had lots of choices of where to go. In today’s story, some people made a choice to go to the temple and sin. They should have gone somewhere else and allowed God’s house to just be a place of worship.
Live It Out
Game—Who Am I?
Materials: Index cards, writing utensils, timer
Write down various Bible people we have studied this winter on index cards (see the list below). Make two sets of cards. Create two teams. Give each team a stack of cards face down, and set a timer for three to five minutes. Kids can go one at a time and place a card on their foreheads so they cannot see the names of the Bible people. Then, they should ask yes or no questions to attempt to guess each person. The team who guesses the most people wins! Remind kids how awesome it has been that they have been coming to church to learn about God and how he used these people in the Bible to teach people about worshiping Him.
Bible people ideas: Hezekiah, Joash, Mary (Jesus’ mother), Martha, Blind Man, Good Samaritan, Priest, Peter, Mary (Jesus’ friend), Prophets, Joseph, Shepherds in the field, Wise Men
Craft—Praying Hands
Materials: Construction paper, scissors, markers, crayons
Show kids how to fold their construction paper in half, then trace their closed hand onto the folded paper. The child’s pinky should be on the very edge of the paper. Kids should then cut the hand out, but they should not cut down the folded side. When they finish, the hands should be able to open and close. Encourage kids to decorate the hands and to write the Weekly Verse inside the hands.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity— Verse Clip Up
Materials: Clothespins, hanger (one per team), permanent marker
Print the words of the Weekly 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 what the church is 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 that church is a place of worship and prayer.
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