Grades 1-3
Introductory Activity – Verse Up and Down
No materials needed.
Say the Bible Verse together. (Display the verse on a board or poster if needed.) Group the kids into two teams. Tell teams to stand and sit as they say each word of the verse. Tell Team 1 to stand on the first word and Team 2 to sit on the first word. Then Team 1 will sit on the second word and Team 2 will stand on the second word. Continue alternating standing and sitting as they say the words. Repeat a few times, increasing speed in saying the verse. Switch roles and do it again. Tell kids they will think about how churches help and serve others.
Live It Out
Game – Puzzle It Out
Materials: card stock, marker, scissors
Print the complete Life Point on two pieces of paper. Cut each into 8 pieces to make puzzles. Mix the two puzzles together.
Group the kids into two teams. Ask a team a review question. If the team answers correctly, give them 1-2 puzzle pieces. Give out the pieces randomly. Then ask the other team a review question. After all the puzzle pieces have been distributed, guide teams to try to put their puzzles together. (Make sure both teams have 8 pieces; if one team has more, they should give the extra pieces to the other team.) After a few minutes, if teams cannot complete their puzzles, they can choose 2 pieces to trade to the other team. Continue this for a few turns until both puzzles are completed. If teams cannot get the puzzles completed after a few turns, bring all the pieces to the middle of the room and guide children to work together to assemble both puzzles. Say the Life Point together. Talk about ways your church helps in times of need.
Craft – Chalk Posters
Materials: sturdy white paper, easy-release tape, chalk, cups of water, gel pens
Place the chalk in the cups of water to soak for a few minutes. Lead kids to print the Life Point on paper with pens, and use the tape to create a design on the paper. (Make sure the tape does not cover too much of the paper.) Kids can use the chalk to color around and over the tape; the wet chalk with move smoothly and create brighter colors on the paper. After the paper dries, carefully remove the tape to see the designs. Talk about ways your church helps people in need.
Grades 4-6
Introductory Activity – Name a Need
Materials: large pieces of paper, sticky notes, pencils or pens, marker, tape
On large pieces of paper, write the name of different groups of people (such as parents, friends, neighbors, church leaders, teachers, people groups, firefighters and other occupations, those in the hospital, and so forth). Write 1-2 names on each paper and tape the pages to the walls. Tell kids to walk around the room and look at the different groups of people. Ask them to think about needs each group of people may have. They can jot down some of their ideas, one need per sticky note, and stick the notes onto the group names. After a few minutes, review some of the ideas the preteens noted. Say that today kids will think about people in need and how the church helps meet the needs of people.
Live It Out
Game – Hit the Can
Materials: empty, clean food cans; table tennis balls (or paper wads)
Arrange the cans at one end of a table. (Use around 5-8 cans per game.) Ask a preteen to stand at the other end of the table and try to bounce a ball into a can. Give him 3 balls. (As an alternative, toss a paper wad to land in the cans.) After all 3 balls are bounced, ask a review question. If the question is answered correctly, award points equal to the number of balls in cans (1-3 points). Then choose another kid to play.
Note: You can play this game as teams or as one large group. If you have a large number of kids, you may want to set up several tables with the game so several kids can play at a time.
Craft – Story Strip
Materials: paper, pencils, thin-line markers
Lead kids to draw 3 panels (square frames) on their papers. Then they can draw situations in which someone has a need and people from a church meet that need. Encourage drawing in graphic novel style, with each panel showing part of the situation/story. (Some may want to use more than 3 frames to tell their stories.) Encourage kids to show their stories and tell about the situations they depicted. Talk about different ways your church helps meet needs of others.
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