Unit 14 / Lesson 3
Recess And Lunch
Slides for the Lesson
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Teacher's Prep
Games
Penne Noodle Pickup
Watch this YouTube video for the concept of the game:
Materials:
Spaghetti
Penne pasta
Trays for the penne pasta
Bowls -- one bowl per group of four.
Note: children with a gluten allergy normally cannot have noodles in their mouths.
You will want to have this game ready to play when the lesson starts.
Reverse Charades
Please visualize beforehand how you will run this game. Reverse Charades is like normal charades, except the roles are reversed. In Reverse Charades, everyone is an actor except for one person, who guesses. The tricky part is telling everyone the secret word while not allowing the guesser to know. This can be done with a whiteboard behind the guesser, or (less ideally), the guesser can leave the room temporarily. The version in this lesson will assume there is a whiteboard with the key word that everyone can see, and the person guessing will face away from the whiteboard.
Three Legged Race
Materials:
A roll of duct tape and a roll of toilet paper (the toilet paper can act as a barrier to prevent the duct tape from damaging clothing or skin)
Scissors to cut the duct tape at the end of the race
If you have a bigger budget, you may want to buy special velcro bands for three legged races.
If unfamiliar with the game, you can watch this video to see what it is like:
Banana Popsicles (Main Activity)
See this website for inspiration:
Materials (for every group of eight)
4 bananas
12 ounces chocolate chips (about 2 cups)
3 tablespoons oil (melted coconut oil, canola oil or vegetable oil)
8 popsicle sticks or skewers
Baking sheet
Parchment paper
Toppings, e.g. White chocolate or colorful candy melts, Shredded coconut, Granola, Mini M&M’s, Crushed oreo, cookies, Small dried fruits or crushed freeze-dried fruits
Note, to save on costs, you may want to make only one or two varieties of banana popsicle, instead of the many varieties in the website which would take a lot more separate ingredients.
You will want to dedicate a volunteer to set up the main activity during the lesson, so that the ingredients are neatly arranged, and the chocolate is already melted, and the sheets are lined with parchment paper.
In the absence of a volunteer, you will want to do a significant amount of preparation before the lesson.
The recipe for banana popsicles calls for ten minutes of freezing in a freezer. If you are in a hurry, you can probably shorten this step or skip this step, though the project would be significantly more messy if you skip the freezing part.
Alternatively, you may want to substitute this food project for a simpler activity. For example, a less labor-intensive option would be to make a banana split, or an ice cream float with toppings. Those options would serve the purposes of the lesson just fine.
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
How was your week?
Intro Game: Penne Noodle Pickup
Instructions
Teacher: set up trays of penne noodles, and some bowls. You may want to provide one tray for every four people, and one bowl for every two people.
We'll start our lesson with a game! It's called the Penne Noodle Pickup. Let's watch how it works.
SLIDE 2
Teacher: Watch this YouTube video together:
SLIDE 3
Here are the rules: you'll all have a noodle to put in your mouth, and your goal is to pick up the other pasta and put it into a bowl. You'll do this as a team, so everyone around your bowl is one team. We'll do this for three minutes.
Debrief
We played this game because it makes us work together, and help each other out. And there's also food in the game.
And all these things help us to start thinking about our lesson.
Relevance
Nowadays we're talking about how we can think in every part of our day. A couple weeks ago, we had a lesson on waking up with good attitudes. Then, we had a lesson about why we go to school and what's so great about the things we are studying.
SLIDE 4
Our lesson today is about what to do during recess and lunch. As it turns out, recess and lunch give us a chance to do some really neat things.
SLIDE 5
Big Question
Our big question today is:
What should we do during recess and lunch?
Big Idea
Our big idea today is:
We should try to do good, and we should try to make friends.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 6
That's what we'll see in our Bible verses today. Let's read two verses from the Bible:
Galatians 6:10 (CEV)
We should help people whenever we can, especially if they are followers of the Lord.
Luke 16:9 (NIV)
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. "
Point 1
Our first point is: We should try to do good
SLIDE 7
Game: Reverse Charades
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game of Reverse Charades! For those who haven't played Reverse Charades before, it's an acting game. I'll write something on the whiteboard, and everyone will have to act it out. One person won't know what the word is, and that person will have to guess what everyone else is trying to act out.
Now we need a volunteer to guess. If you're guessing, you’ll face away from the whiteboard so you can’t see the answer. Everyone else will be acting, and you'll have to guess.
Teacher: you may want to play a couple of practice rounds with easier words. For children who can't yet read, you'll want to assist them (draw a picture beside the word, or whisper the word to them)
Suggested words
Easier words
Piano
Dinosaur
Flower
Computer
Frog
Harder words
Cake
Taxi
Bicycle
Helicopter
Debrief
We played this game because it's about doing what we can for someone who needs help. We might not be very good at acting, and it might make you feel a bit silly.
SLIDE 8
But, the only way to help someone is to try.
And that's a good attitude to have during recess and lunch.
Bible Reference
The Bible tells us in Galatians 6:10 (CEV):
"We should help people whenever we can, especially if they are followers of the Lord."
Explanation
So, God's plan is for us to help people whenever we can.
We should especially help people if they follow Jesus. You might be wondering, why do Jesus-followers get special treatment?
SLIDE 9
You can think of it this way: Jesus-followers are supposed to help everyone. But, if a Jesus-follower needs help, you should help them first, so that they can help other people too. Then, everyone wins because now there are two of you helping other people.
Application
So, when you're at school, you should always ask, is there someone to help? If nobody looks like they need help, there are still things you can do.
SLIDE 10
You can rest to save energy so you can help people later, or you can develop skills and train yourself so that you can help people in the future. That way, you can see your homework as a way of helping people, because you are training your mind to be strong, and when your mind is strong, you will have endless opportunities to help people.
Discussion Question
Now let's pause for a discussion question!
SLIDE 11
What's one helpful thing you can do today or tomorrow?
Point 2
Our second point is, we should try to make friends
SLIDE 12
Game: Three Legged Race
Instructions
We'll start our point with the three-legged race!
Some of you have played this before.
All of you will have a partner, and one of your legs will be taped to your partner's leg, so that you can only move that leg together if you walk forward.
Your first job is to find a partner and then we'll tape your legs so you can walk together. You can practice a bit. Once we're all ready, we'll all try to walk across the room, and then we'll try to do another race where we go around the room.
Instructions for teacher:
Fasten legs together as seen in the video at the top of this lesson plan. In the absence of special velcro bands, you can use duct tape in multiple layers, and for sensitive clothing or skin, you can put tissue paper as a barrier to prevent damage. Give the kids some time to practice.
Line everyone up and have them race from one wall to the other.
Then, have them do a relay race around the room where they start off touching a chair, and their goal is to touch the three other chairs and come back to the chair where they started. For the relay race, you can start up to four pairs at a time in different corners, and they can all move in one direction around the room (clockwise, or counterclockwise)
At the end of the game, praise them for their efforts, cut up their duct tape bands and have them sit back in a circle.
Debrief
SLIDE 13
We played this game because it's about working together as a team. To do a three legged race, you need to think about your partner, and you need to encourage each other and do your best for each other. If you can work together really well, you can go really fast! But, if you can't get along, you'll both be stuck and frustrated.
And real life is like that too.
SLIDE 14
We need to think about other people, and encourage them, and do our best for other people. If we're bad at working with people, we'll be stuck and frustrated, and other people will be frustrated at us. But if we're good at working with other people, they'll always want to be our partners, and we can win together with them. That’s what friendship is about.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 15
Friendship is so important! So, Jesus taught us to make friends. Let's read what Jesus said to His followers:
Luke 16:9 (NIV)
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
Explanation
Jesus was saying to people, if you have money, one of the greatest ways to spend it is to make friends. Now, most of us here don't have a lot of money. We do have time though, and we have energy, which is a lot like money. Jesus’ point was that we should make friends even if they cost us something. If you have a friend, you will need to spend time with them. You will need to put effort into being a good friend. If you make good friends like that, some of your friendships will last forever, and they'll be friends with you even when you are in heaven.
Application
So, here are some ideas for how to make great friendships:
SLIDE 16
Idea #1: You can be helpful to everyone around you. You'll find that some people will take your help and not help you back. You probably can't be friends with people like that. But, other people will help you back, and they will go out of their way to be nice to you. Those people might become really good friends.
SLIDE 17
Idea #2: You can play games with people in which you are better together. Cooperative games are great, and team games are great.
SLIDE 18
Idea #3: You can become really good at something so that people will want you to help them. For example, if you are really good at soccer, people will want you to be on their soccer team.
SLIDE 19
Idea #4: You can try to figure out if you have habits that hurt others, you can try to fix those habits.
Discussion Question
SLIDE 20
Now let's pause for a discussion question!
What's your best idea for making friends?
SLIDE 21
Conclusion
Let's wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.
Our big question today was:
What should we do during recess and lunch?
And the answer we got from the Bible was:
1. We should try to do good, and
2. We should try to make friends.
Because, if we put our mind to it, we can help a lot of people, and we can make a lot of friends, and everyone will be better because we are doing things God's way.
SLIDE 22
Main Activity: Banana Popsicles
Teacher: all the ingredients should be in bowls that are easy to use before the main activity starts. Ideally, a volunteer should prepare all the ingredients during the lesson.
And now it's time for our main activity! Today we are making banana popsicles! Making popsicles together helps us to practice what we learned -- because there are a bunch of steps, and probably things will go wrong. But if we help each other out, and we try to make friends, we can all have a good time.
Teacher: lead the banana popsicle activity as described at this website:
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