Unit 10 / Lesson 1
Optimism
Slides for the Lesson
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Teacher's Prep
Games
Bunny Tail Hunt
Materials needed:
Cotton balls (about 10 per child)
A bag of chocolate eggs or other similarly small prizes (enough for about three chocolate eggs per child)
A big basket to collect cotton balls at the end of the game.
Prep
This game is very similar to an Easter egg hunt, except that there is less chocolate and less mess. They will be finding cotton balls which will be redeemed for chocolate eggs at the end of the lesson.
Spread cotton balls generously over a wide area and multiple rooms which can be explored. If you have helpers, they can spread out the cotton balls during the first part of the lesson. Otherwise, you may want to do this task before the lesson begins.
Make some cotton balls easy to find, and some more challenging.
Not In My Backyard
Materials needed: about four sheets of paper per child. A class of 25 should have about 100 pieces of paper in total, split into two even piles (one per team). These will be made into paper snowballs to be thrown back and forth.
Fishing with Magnets
See this website for the basic concept of the game
Note: for this game, it would be good to have long sticks, like broomsticks. These can be purchased at the dollar store.
Magnets do not need to be ring shaped, though a ring shape would be ideal for attaching a string securely to the magnet. If you have a different shape, you will probably want to use tape to tie the magnet securely to the string that functions as a “fishing line.”
Instead of fish, you can save time by using multicolored paper clips.
You may want to attach some paper cutouts of fish to some paper clips, and say those special fish are worth extra points.
Materials needed
Broomsticks -- one per group of five
Strings -- one per broomstick, about one meter long each, so that the magnet will swing from side to side to make the game more challenging.
One magnet per broomstick (you can buy magnets at Home Depot, and maybe the dollar store)
Tape to attach string securely to the magnet.
A bag of multi-colored paper clips (100 - 200 paper clips would be good).
Bubble Tea (Main Activity)
Prepare supplies and ingredients for making bubble tea. Note: if your program is during the night time, you may want to avoid ingredients that are caffeinated.
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
How was your week?
Series Introduction
Today we are starting a new set of lessons about the things that all Christians believe.
As it turns out, almost all Christians believe in a list of things, called the Apostle’s Creed. Over the next several weeks, we'll be learning the Apostle's Creed a little bit at a time, and we'll be trying to memorize it.
The first line of the Apostle's Creed goes:
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
SLIDE 2
Big Question
Our big question today is: Why does it matter that God is our creator?
Maybe a game will help us to understand.
SLIDE 3
Intro Game: Bunny Tail Hunt
Instructions
Let's start our lesson with the Bunny tail hunt! It’s like an easter egg hunt but with cotton balls. We have a whole bunch of cotton balls which have been spread out over a big area.
In a moment, you'll all get a chance to look for them. If you find most of them, you'll get a prize at the end of the lesson.
Teacher: let the children know exactly how many cotton balls there are, and in which rooms they are hidden. Set some benchmarks for them. For example, if they can find half of the cotton balls, they can each get 1 chocolate egg. If they can find three quarters of the cotton balls, they can each get 2 chocolate eggs. If they can find almost all of the cotton balls, they can each get three chocolate eggs.
You will have five minutes to find as many as you can. After that, we will collect them in a basket, and we’ll see what kind of prize you’ll get.
Teacher: give the children about five minutes to find as many cotton balls as they can. Have them put all the cotton balls into a basket when they come back. At the end of the game: give them each one chocolate egg with the promise to give them the remainder at the end of the lesson.
Debrief
In this game we played, we started the game with some cotton balls, some instructions, and a promise. If there were no instructions and no promise, we would just have a bunch of cotton balls lying around, and you might not be very interested in finding them. But, because you had instructions and a promise, you had a reason to work together and you had a reason to get excited whenever you found more cotton balls.
It's like that in real life. Some people don't believe there is a God who made everything. They believe there's no God to give us instructions, and there's no God to give us a promise of great things to come.
SLIDE 4
If we really know God, we will want to work together because He has filled this world with treasures for us. And if we know Him, we can feel His power and His goodness.
Big Question (again)
To review, our big question is:
Why does it matter that God is our creator?
SLIDE 5
Big Idea
Our big idea is:
Since God is our creator, we can feel His power, and we can feel His goodness.
SLIDE 6
Bible Reference
We’ll see this when we read the very beginning of the Bible. Let’s read the first five verses in the whole Bible. These verses talk about the time God created the world.
Genesis 1:1-5
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day
Point 1
Our first point is, we can feel God's power.
SLIDE 7
Game: Not In My Backyard
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game! We'll call it, "Not In My Backyard." We're going to form two teams, and each team will stay on one side of the room. We'll split this room into two halves, divided by a fence made of chairs.
Teacher: make a "fence" out of chairs to split the room in half. On each side of the room, make a pile of paper for teams to make into paper snowballs.
Each team will have a stack of paper which you can scrunch into a ball to throw.
Your goal is to get as much paper as you can on the other side of the fence by throwing it over. You want as little paper as possible on your side of the fence. You can't cross the fence, but you can throw the paper over the fence.
After two minutes, we'll see which side has less paper in their backyard!
Teacher: play two rounds of this game. In the second round, you may want to re-balance the teams (perhaps add an adult on one side), and you may want to give them a moment to discuss strategy. After you are finished with the game, put the fence away, and gather the students together for the next bit of teaching.
Debrief
We played this game because it makes us appreciate the people who are on our team. If we were all by ourselves and we had to play against hundreds of people who were throwing paper onto our side, we would have no chance to win. On the other hand, if you knew someone who was super fast at throwing paper, you would want them to be on your team.
That’s what it’s like in real life. As Christians we know God. God is on our side, and He is amazingly powerful.
SLIDE 8
He is like a great teammate who can help you. Our Bible passage helps us to understand how powerful God is.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 9
Genesis 1:1-5
1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. 3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light
Explanation
SLIDE 10
Our Bible passage tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. There was no heaven before God made it. There were no stars, no space, and no earth until God made them. Because things were dark, God created light. He didn't have to work hard to create the light; He just said "let there be light," and there was light. These verses tell us that God is really powerful, and nothing is too hard for God.
Application
That's good news for us, because God tells us that He is with us, He answers our prayers when we live His way, and He takes care of us so that we will always have everything we need. If we are on God's team, we will win for sure.
SLIDE 11
When we remember that God is our creator, we know that He has all the power to take care of us, and we don't have to worry about anything as long as we are following Him.
Discussion Question
SLIDE 12
Let’s pause for some discussion questions:
What is something you are afraid of?
How does knowing God help you when you are afraid?
Point 2
Our second point is, we can feel God's goodness.
SLIDE 13
Game: Fishing with Magnets
Instructions
Teacher’s Setup
Split the children into teams--as many teams as there are fishing rods.
Spread out paper clips so that one magnet can only pick up one or two at a time.
You may want to have some paper clips worth more than others (e.g. red paper clips are worth two points, or if you have some special paper clips that are attached to paper fish cutouts, they could be worth five points)
Let's start this point with a game! We will be fishing with magnets! It's a simple game. We'll split into teams, and each team will have a fishing rod. You’ll take turns using the fishing rod to get as many paper clips as you can. Once your fishing rod has caught a whole bunch of paper clips, you can empty them into a pile on your side so that it's easier to catch more. We’ll play a bunch of rounds so that everyone will have a chance to use the fishing rod.
Teacher: run several rounds so that each child gets a chance to use the fishing rods. You may consider keeping score, depending on how competitive you want the game to be.
Debrief
In this game, there were good options everywhere. There were paper clips all over the floor. They were all good, and they would all give you points. But in order for us to play the game, someone had to make the fishing rods, and someone had to get the paper clips. Someone had to prepare the game ahead of time so that you could enjoy it.
SLIDE 14
This game helps us to understand God. God has filled the world with good things, so that we have good options everywhere, and He prepared the world for us so we could enjoy it. That's what we see in the second half of our Bible passage. Let's read it.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 15
Genesis 1:4-5
4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day
Explanation
Notice in verse 4 that God created the light, and He saw that it was good. When we read the rest of the chapter, we find out that God made all kinds of other things. He made birds, fish, trees, and human beings. Everything He made was good. When He was all done, He saw that it was very good.
This chapter of the Bible reminds us that God made the whole world good. He made everything just right for us.
SLIDE 16
However, people started sinning and messed things up, so some things are broken, and not everything is good anymore. But even after we messed up, we still have good things all around us to enjoy, and we always have good things to do.
Application
When we understand how good the world is, we can live each day with a great attitude.
SLIDE 17
We can be thankful all the time, no matter what happens. We won't spend too much time complaining, because we know how much God has done for us. We can notice all the gifts that God has given us, and we can notice when God has prepared good work for us to do.
Discussion Question
SLIDE 18
Let's pause for a discussion question.
What's something you can be thankful for, even on a bad day?
Conclusion
Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.
Our big question today was: Why does it matter that God is our creator?
Our answer was: since God is our creator, we can feel His power, and we can feel His goodness.
SLIDE 19
We know that God is powerful and good, and He is with us every day. This means we can be confident and thankful, because every day God has prepared good things for us to enjoy and good things for us to do.
SLIDE 20
Main Activity: Bubble Tea
Now it's time for our main activity. Today we will be making bubble tea!
Bubble tea helps us to understand our lesson. When we go to the kitchen, we will see all these ingredients that we didn't make ourselves, but we get to put them together and make something delicious.
That's what God has done for us in every part of our life. God has prepared the world for us, so that we can put things together and make things great.
Teacher: lead the children in making bubble tea.
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