Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Temple Construction
Materials: Lego® building bricks, wooden blocks, small boxes, other building materials
Encourage kids to build the temple using the materials. They can build the temple from what they remember; or you can provide a picture of the temple for them to use as a guide. (For larger groups of kids, provide more than one building area.) Tell kids that in today’s Bible story, the people were rebuilding the temple.
Live It Out
Game – Musical Hoops
Materials: plastic hoops, CD player and music CD
Lay the hoops on the floor around the game area. Play music and lead kids to walk around and among the hoops. Stop the music. Tell kids that everyone should stand in a hoop (at least one foot in a hoop). Ask a review question and choose one hoop of kids to answer. Restart the music to play again. Play a couple of rounds. Remove at least 2 hoops. Play a few more rounds. Remove more hoops. Continue until you have only 1-2 hoops for all the kids to use. Say the Life Point together. Talk about how your church worships through singing, prayer, and thanksgiving.
Craft – Jingle Sticks
Materials: small diameter dowels or unsharpened pencils; chenille craft stems, jingle bells
Give each child a dowel or pencil. Tell each child to thread a bell onto the middle of a chenille stem and twist the stem to secure the bell. Hold the bell on top of the dowel and twist the two ends around the dowel as tightly as possible. Invite kids to wrap more chenille stems around their dowels, threading on bells as they choose. They can work to cover at least half of the dowel. Talk about the Bible story and the Life Point. Tell kids they can shake their jingle sticks as you sing together. Sing a worship song and shake the sticks.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Doo You Know This Song?
Materials: paper strips with names of familiar songs
Print the titles of songs on paper
strips: “Happy Birthday,” “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” “God Is So Good,” “Jesus
Loves Me,” “ABC Song,” “Bingo,” “Old MacDonald.” (Use songs that will be
familiar to your group of kids.)
Tell kids that some will sing a song and the others will need to guess the
song. The singers will not sing the words. They will need to sing “Doo, doo,
doo” to the tune. Choose two kids to start the game. Show the two kids a song
title. They can start singing “Doo, doo, doo.” When kids guess the song, choose
two other kids to sing the next song. Tell kids that in today’s Bible story,
people sang.
Live It Out
Game – Verse Roundabout
Materials: verse printed on large piece of paper or a white board (optional)
Guide kids to stand in a circle. Choose a kid to start the game. That kid looks to her right and says the first word of the verse. The next kid looks right and says the second word. Continue around the circle. If a word is missed, the direction reverses and kids will look left as they continue the verse. Repeat the verse a few times. Talk about the Life Point and encourage kids to talk about how your church worships God (especially in ways through music).
Craft – Megaphone
Materials: colored paper cups, scissors, address labels, other stickers (optional), colored pens, chenille craft stems, colored tape, hole punch
Lead the kids to cut the bottoms out of their paper cups. They can print the Life Point on address labels and place on their cups/megaphones. They can draw other designs on address labels to add or use decorative stickers and colored tape to add to the megaphones. If kids want a handle for the megaphones, use the hole punch or scissors to make two holes. (For the hole punch, punch a hole from the top and a hole from the bottom, side by side when you hold the megaphone to speak into it.) Thread ends of a chenille stem into the two holes and twist the ends together inside. (Trim the chenille stem as needed. You can also tape the chenille stem inside the cup to secure if you choose.) Lead kids to repeat the Life Point through their megaphones.
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