Unit 14 / Lesson 4
P.E. Class
Slides for the Lesson
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Teacher's Prep
Games
Face the Cookie
Get one package of Oreo cookies – so that each kid can have a cookie.
For the concept of the game, you may refer to this video:
Minute to Win It: Face the Cookie (Head-to-Head), by Outscord
Simon Says
There are no materials needed for this game, but it will really help if you are familiar with the script and if you practice. Delivery makes a big difference in this game.
Blind Man's Bluff with a Pool Noodle
Materials needed
A pool noodle
Blindfolds (disposable COVID masks make great blindfolds when they are worn over the eyes)
Main Activity (Making Armor)
The concept behind this craft is to:
Make a suit of armor out of cardstock,
take some group pictures of it, and
If there is time, to have a paper snowball fight to test out the armor
Materials:
Cardstock (65 lb paper) for armor. Regular paper could work too, but the stiffness of cardstock helps.
Masking tape -- one roll per three kids.
A bag to take home pieces of armor.
Many pairs of scissors to cut cardstock
Felt pens
At least 20 sheets of paper scrunched into tight balls for a paper snowball fight.
Optional: Pool noodles cut into thirds, to make swords. One segment per child.
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
How was your week?
SLIDE
Intro Game: Face the Cookie
Instructions
We’ll start this lesson with a game called Face the Cookie!
In a moment, you will all get an Oreo cookie. You play the game by tilting your head up and putting the Oreo cookie on your eye. Then you need to move the cookie into your mouth using just the muscles on your head and your face. If your cookie drops off your face, you need to put the cookie on your eye and try again.
Teacher: demonstrate how the game works. Alternatively, there is a video tutorial on YouTube which you can show to the children. Also, you may want them to play around a table so the cookies will drop onto the table instead of the ground.
Debrief and Series Context
SLIDE 3
We played this game because it's about controlling our body. And, our lesson today is about our body. Nowadays at Kids' Club we're learning about how a Christian thinks through the day. So, in the past few weeks, we talked about starting our day with the right attitudes, and we talked about going to school and learning wisdom, and making friends and helping people. But when you're at school, you also have P.E. class where you do games and exercises. And it's good to understand what you are doing in P.E. Class.
Big Question
SLIDE 4
Our big question today is: How should Christians think about their body?
Relevance
A lot of people don't know how to answer this question, and they have to learn the hard way.
SLIDE 5
Some people think their body doesn't matter, so they fill it with junk food and they don't take care of their health. Other people are super worried that their body doesn’t look good enough, and it makes them really unhappy that they don't look like someone else.
But if we know God's plan we won't have to wonder if our body is good enough.
SLIDE 6
Instead, we will become strong, and we'll take care of our bodies and train our bodies. And if we do that, we'll be able to do things that we never thought were possible.
Big Idea
SLIDE 7
Our big idea for this lesson is that we should AIM to be strong enough, and we should TRAIN to be strong enough.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 8
That's what we'll see from the Bible today. Let's read our Bible verses:
Proverbs 31:17 (ICB)
She does her work with energy. Her arms are strong
1 Timothy 4:7b-8
. . . train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come."
Point 1
Our first point is, We should AIM to be strong enough.
SLIDE 9
Game: Simon Says
Instructions
We'll start our point with a game of Simon Says!
The rules are pretty simple-you just have to do whatever Simon says. If I don't say “Simon Says” before telling you to do an action, don’t do what I say. If you end up doing the action, you need to go to the side and sit out until the next round.
Teacher: you'll want to do all the actions along with them even if they are the wrong actions, to help fool them. If most of the children get eliminated, you can start again. Play as long as time and interest allow; you don't need to finish all the items, but you can skip to the end to save time.
Suggested script for Simon Says (you don’t have to use all of these):
LET’S DO A PRACTICE ROUND
Simon says make a heart shape with your hands.
**Now put your hands on your head.
I didn’t say Simon says! So if you put your hands on your head, you’d be out, but this was just a practice round.
NOW LET’S PLAY FOR REAL:
Simon says lift your feet up as high as you can.
Simon says play an air guitar
Simon says make a sad face
**Now make a funny face
Simon says dance where you’re standing
Simon says rub your belly
Simon says pretend you are chopping onions
**Now rub your belly and pat your head at the same time
Simon says show us all your teeth
Simon says try wiggling your ears
Simon says pretend to climb a ladder
**Let's all be like a pair of scissors.
Simon says yawn.
Simon says hide your head in your shirt.
Simon says give everyone a thumbs up
**Now wink with your left eye.
Simon says smell your feet.
Simon says do ten jumping jacks.
Simon says show us the back of your hands.
**Now show us the front of your hands
Simon says scratch your head
Simon says spin around
Simon says face the back of the room
**Now face the front of the room again.
Simon says face the front of the room again.
Simon says blink five times
**Next lift up your feet as high you can
Simon says make a funny face
Simon says waddle like a penguin
Simon says pretend to climb a ladder
Simon says wink with your left eye
Simon says stand on one foot
**Now hop up and down on one foot
Simon says smell your feet
Simon says try wiggling your nose
Simon says stretch to the sky
Simon says let's all sit down.
Simon says it's game over and it's time to talk about why we played the game
Debrief
We played this game because it makes us use our body. We find that most of the time we don't always need our body to be super strong. Sometimes it needs to be strong, like when we are doing jumping jacks. Other times, we just need to be able to pay attention and follow along.
SLIDE 10
The important thing in this game is to be strong enough to do whatever you need to do. That's how it works in life too.
Bible Reference
The Bible teaches us that a wise person is strong enough to do whatever they need to do. We find a wise person at the end of the book of Proverbs, which is a book about wisdom. At the end of the book, all that wisdom comes together into a person, and we learn what a perfect person looks like.
SLIDE 11
She's not the strongest person around, and she's probably not the best looking person around, but she's strong enough to do whatever she needs to do. The Bible says:
She does her work with energy. Her arms are strong (Proverbs 31:17, International Children’s Bible)
Explanation
SLIDE 12
If you read the whole chapter, you’ll find that she's not a weightlifter or a soldier. She probably doesn't have huge muscles.
SLIDE 13
She is busy taking care of her home, running a business, doing charity work, and making clothes.
SLIDE 14
She has so much to do that she has to get up early before the sun rises, and she works late into the night. But, her body is strong enough to do everything she needs it to do.
If you read the end of the chapter, you’ll find that she probably isn't the most good-looking person. She dresses well, but she doesn't need to be the best looking person; she's fine just the way she is.
Application
The Bible is teaching us that we should try to be like that.
SLIDE 15
We don't have to have the biggest muscles, and we don't have to look like people in a magazine. If we aim for the wrong thing, we will feel really bad about ourselves.
Instead, we should dream big about the things we would like to do, especially the kinds of things that help other people.
Then, we will have a reason to be strong, which is really important if you want to get stronger.
Discussion Question
SLIDE 16
Now let’s pause for a discussion question:
If you want to help a lot of people when you grow up, what would you want to do?
Short Film Illustration
We'll end this first point with a short video! It's about the things people do to look good enough to be in a magazine or in the pictures everyone else looks at.
SLIDE 17
Teacher: play this video: "Dove Evolution" from 0:00 to 1:03
SLIDE 18
We played this video as a reminder that we probably shouldn't try to look like people in magazines because those people are getting a lot of help from makeup and computers. It’s actually impossible for most of us to look like that in real life, and if we try, we will just get really disappointed. Instead, if you have a dream of helping a lot of people rather than only looking good, that's worth trying for.
Point 2
SLIDE 19
Our second point is, We should TRAIN to be strong enough.
Game: Blind man's bluff with pool noodle
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game of Blind Man's Bluff!
It's a bit like “tag,” but the person who is "it" can't see. And they get a pool noodle to tag everyone with.
If you're "it" we'll blindfold you, and you can try to tag someone with the pool noodle. Once you tag someone, they will be “it” and will be blindfolded, and they will try to tag someone else.
Teacher: play for a while until several children have had a chance to be “it.”
Debrief
SLIDE 20
We played this game because it reminds us that our body can do some really neat things. It can run, and it can hear, and it can change directions really fast. And, the more you play, the better you get at those things. And, that’s how our body works in real life too. The more we practice, the better we get at the things we do.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 21
The Bible tells us:
. . . train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. (1 Timothy 4:7b-8).
Explanation
SLIDE 22
The point is, if we want to do God's work, we should train. The most important thing to train is our heart. But, it's also right to train our bodies, because we don't want our bodies to stop us from doing the things we need to do.
Application
You might think you are already strong enough to do anything you want. You’re probably right, for now. But, as we get older, our bodies get more difficult to take care of.
SLIDE 23
So we need to have good habits to stay strong.
SLIDE 24
To be really practical, you'll want to get some exercise, eat well, get enough sleep, and in general do things that are healthy. If you build some good habits, they will help you to be strong for a really long time.
SLIDE 25
Discussion Question
Let’s pause for a discussion question:
What's a habit you can pick up to get stronger?
Conclusion
SLIDE 26
Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.
Our big question today was: How should Christians think about their body?
Our big idea was that we should AIM to be strong enough, and we should TRAIN to be strong enough. We don't have to have the biggest muscles or be the best looking person around. But, we should have a dream of helping a lot of people, and we should train our bodies so that our bodies can keep up.
SLIDE 27
Main Activity: Making Armor
And now it's time for our main activity. Today we will be making suits of armor!
You've all seen pictures before of people in suits of armor. That armor was made to protect a soldier when they were fighting.
But, the armor took a lot of work to make. And a soldier had to practice fighting in the armor, and they had to take care of the armor and carry it around. It would be so much easier if they didn't have the armor most of the time.
But if they did the work, they could be twice as good when they were fighting.
And that's what it's like with our bodies as well. Training our bodies takes a lot of work. But, if we put in the work, we'll be able to do amazing things and help a lot of people.
Now it's time to make armor. The key to a good suit of armor is to cover as much of the body as you can. And the armor has to stick together with a lot of tape. So, I want to encourage you to cover the biggest parts of your body first, and wrap yourself up with lots of cardstock (or paper), and use tape to make it all stick together. And if you have time, you can start decorating each other's armor with patterns.
And if we have time in the end, we’ll test your armor by throwing paper balls at you and seeing if we can get you in one of those places that you didn’t cover with armor.
Teacher: distribute tape, cardstock, scissors, and felt pens. Help the kids as they make a suit of armor.
Teacher: At the end of the lesson, you may ask for volunteers among the kids to test their armor in a paper snowball fight. To play, make two teams, and give each team some paper balls, and whoever gets hit in a place not covered by armor has to sit out until the last person is eliminated.
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