Unit 15 / Lesson 2
When In Trouble
Click for slides
Teacher's Prep
Games
Balloons Up
Materials:
one balloon for each child
Have several balloons inflated before the lesson, so that they are ready to be deployed for the game.
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, to serve as the fishing rods. One can buy broomstick shafts 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 making fish cutouts, use multicolor paper clips, and ask the children to target just one color, e.g. the red 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:
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 (about 300 paper clips would be a good ballpark number).
Pantyhose Bowling
Watch this video to see the game concept
Note, to make the game more sanitary and more ergonomically friendly, the children will not be putting the pantyhose on their heads for this game, but they will use their hands to hold the pantyhose up to their heads for the same effect.
Materials:
1 pantyhose (women's nylon) per group of five
1 tennis ball per group of five
Plastic water bottles -- three water bottles per group of five
Before the lesson, you will want to put a tennis ball into the bottom of each pantyhose, as you see in the video.
Main Activity (Clothespin Sharks):
See this video for the concept of the craft:
Craft #24-Clothespin Sharks
Materials (for each child):
White glue or a hot glue
Pencil
Black marker
A wooden clothespin
Gray or blue paper
Orange paper
Scissors
Make a sample craft before the lesson. You may want to make your craft as simple as possible.
With younger students, you may want to pre-cut the shark as well as the second fish so that they don't need to handle the scissors at all.
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
How was your week?
SLIDE 2
Intro Game: Balloons Up
Instructions
Let's start our lesson with a game!
We'll call it "Balloons up." It's a pretty simple game. We'll start in a circle, and I'll toss a balloon in. Our job as a group is to try to keep the balloon from touching the ground by hitting it. You're free to move around, so you don't have to stay in the circle. The only catch is, you can't hit the balloon twice in a row before someone else hits it. You all need to work together to keep the balloon up.
When there's only one balloon, you'll probably find it pretty easy. So, I'll keep adding balloons and we'll see what happens. Remember, you want to keep all the balloons up, and you can't hit a balloon twice in a row.
If a balloon touches the ground, we'll stop, and then start again with one balloon. We'll see how many balloons we can manage at the same time.
Teacher: Call out the number of balloons as you introduce new balloons, as a way of keeping score. Also, you may want to discuss strategy between rounds -- for example, you may want to break them into sub-groups, and each sub-group can handle their own balloons. Or, you may want to spread them out across the floor for a kind of zone coverage. Play as long as time and interest allows.
Debrief
We played this game because it reminds us we can get into trouble when things get really complicated. The game might start off simple and easy, but sooner or later, it gets complicated and hard.
Relevance
And life is like that too. Sometimes life is simple and easy, but it's not always easy.
SLIDE 3
Sometimes life gets complicated and hard. We all get into trouble sooner or later, and we all need to find a way out of trouble.
SLIDE 4
Big Question
Our big question today is:
How should we handle trouble?
Big Idea
Our big idea today is:
When we are in trouble, we can:
1. Try to improve our chances, and
2. Try to get advice.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 5
That's what we'll see in our Bible story today.
Our Bible story today is from the life of Esther. If you remember from last week, the king of Persia was looking for a new queen, so he got young women from all over the country to compete in a big beauty contest. The woman he liked the most would become his new queen.
SLIDE 6
But, this wasn't a normal beauty contest where people went home afterwards. All of the women in the contest would be stuck in the palace for the rest of their lives. They would never be able to go back to their families and have a normal life. Esther was one of those women who was stuck in the palace. She knew there were only two things she could do with the rest of her life. She could either become the queen, or she could become one of those forgotten women who were stuck in the palace.
Esther didn't know it at the time, but she needed to become the next queen, because later on in the story she had to use her powers as queen to save thousands of lives. At this point in the story, she was just a young woman who was in trouble. But, what she did next is so wise that we should learn from her.
Let's read now from the Bible.
SLIDE 7
Esther 2:8-17 (CEV)
8 When the king ordered the search for beautiful women, many were taken to the king’s palace in Susa, and Esther was one of them.
Hegai was put in charge of all the women, 9 and from the first day, Esther was his favorite. He began her beauty treatments at once. He also gave her plenty of food and seven special maids from the king’s palace, and they had the best rooms.
SLIDE 8
10 Mordecai had warned Esther not to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him. 11 He was anxious to see how Esther was getting along and to learn what had happened to her. So each day he would walk back and forth in front of the court where the women lived.
SLIDE 9
12 The young women were given beauty treatments for one whole year. The first six months their skin was rubbed with olive oil and myrrh, and the last six months it was treated with perfumes and cosmetics. Then each of them spent the night alone with King Xerxes. 13 When a young woman went to the king, she could wear whatever clothes or jewelry she chose from the women’s living quarters. 14 In the evening she would go to the king, and the following morning she would go to the place where his wives stayed after being with him. There a man named Shaashgaz was in charge of the king’s wives. Only the ones the king wanted and asked for by name could go back to the king.
SLIDE 10
15-16 Xerxes had been king for seven years when Esther’s turn came to go to him during Tebeth, the tenth month of the year. Everyone liked Esther. The king’s personal servant Hegai was in charge of the women, and Esther trusted Hegai and asked him what she ought to take with her.
17 Xerxes liked Esther more than he did any of the other young women. None of them pleased him as much as she did, and right away he fell in love with her and crowned her queen in place of Vashti.
Point 1
Based on this story, our first point is: When we are in trouble, we can try to improve our chances
SLIDE 11
Game: Fishing with Magnets
Instructions
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. And, you’ll take turns using the fishing rod to get as many of the RED paper clips as you can.
Teacher's setup
See Teacher's Preparation section of the lesson above for preparation details.
Split them 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.
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, we had a job to do that we weren't really used to. We just had to figure it out as we went. And, we couldn't get everything we wanted. But, if we did our best, we could improve our chances of winning.
In our Bible story, Esther had to think like that.
Bible Reference
Let's go back to the beginning of our Bible story. Let’s read the beginning again.
SLIDE 12
Esther 2:8-9 (CEV)
8 When the king ordered the search for beautiful women, many were taken to the king’s palace in Susa, and Esther was one of them.
Hegai was put in charge of all the women, 9 and from the first day, Esther was his favorite. He began her beauty treatments at once. He also gave her plenty of food and seven special maids from the king’s palace, and they had the best rooms.
Explanation
These verses tell us that Esther was in a contest with lots of really beautiful women.
Esther was beautiful herself, but so was everyone else. If she was going to win the contest, she needed something more than just good looks. She needed to improve her chances.
SLIDE 13
So, Esther talked to the guy in charge of all the women, whose name was Hegai. Soon, Esther was Hegai’s favorite person. That was part of Esther’s plan! Esther actually wanted to be Hegai’s favorite person Esther gave Hegai every reason to treat her well -- and it worked! Hegai put Esther in the best room with the best service, because he wanted to help Esther win.
Application
Sometimes in life we have to be like Esther. God has put us on earth to help thousands of people. We have a very big job, so we need all the help we can get.
So, let's always look for little ways to improve our chances at doing well. Little improvements add up, until you can have a much better chance of doing well.
So, ask yourself, can you study one more hour? Can you brush your hair so it is not messy? Can you make one friend? Can you say please and thank-you? All kinds of good things happen when you do little things like that.
Discussion Question
SLIDE 14
Now let’s pause for a discussion question:
What is one small thing you can do this week to help you improve your chances of doing well?
Point 2
When we are in trouble, we should try to get advice
Game: Pantyhose Bowling
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game! This one's called Pantyhose Bowling. Let's watch this video to see what it's like:
SLIDE 15
PANTYHOSE BOWLING!!! (FUNNEST GAME EVER!!!), by Mr. Peace
SLIDE 16
Now to make it easier, we won’t need to put the pantyhose on our head, but we’ll be using our hands to hold the top end to our head.
Teacher: demonstrate how to knock over a water bottle with a pantyhose, using your hand to hold the top end of the pantyhose to your head.
Also this will be a relay race with teams of five people each.
So, when I'm done talking, we will split into teams of about five people each.
Each member on your team will have three water bottles to knock down.
After you knock down your three bottles, you can set up the bottles again for the next person, and then you pass the pantyhose on to the next person for them to try.
And then when you've all knocked down three bottles, you win!
Debrief
In this game we played, it really helped to learn from other people who had done the same thing before we did.
SLIDE 17
We could see their examples, and we could get their advice for what to do and what not to do.
So also in our Bible story, Esther was able to get advice from other people.
Bible Reference
SLIDE 18
Let's read two verses from our story again.
Esther 2:10 (CEV)
10 Mordecai had warned Esther not to tell anyone that she was a Jew, and she obeyed him.
Esther 2:16 (CEV)
The king’s personal servant Hegai was in charge of the women, and Esther trusted Hegai and asked him what she ought to take with her.
Explanation
Esther was very good at getting advice. Our story tells us she got advice from Mordecai. Mordecai was like her dad. Mordecai really loved Esther, and he taught her about God.
But, Esther also got advice from Hegai, the king’s servant. Hegai probably did not believe in the same God as we do. But Hegai knew the king and how the palace worked. So, Esther listened to his expert advice.
So, Esther had godly advice from Mordecai, and expert advice from the king’s servant.
Application
SLIDE 19
And, we need both kinds of advice too! We need to get godly advice from godly people who love us and love God.
SLIDE 20
But we also need to listen to other people even if they don't know God. Lots of people know things, and they can give us expert advice. Even if the experts don’t know God, we can use their advice to become the best Christians we can be!
SLIDE 21
Discussion Question
Now let’s pause for a discussion question:
What's one piece of advice you've heard recently (maybe from school or church)?
SLIDE 22
Conclusion
Let’s wrap up this lesson. We all get into trouble sometimes. But, the book of Esther tells us how to handle the trouble. No matter what kind of trouble we are in, we can always try to improve our chances, and we can try to get advice.
If we can keep improving our chances and keep getting advice, we'll be able to do some amazing things, just like Esther did.
SLIDE 23
Main Activity: Clothespin Sharks
Now it’s time for a craft! Our craft today is clothespin sharks! A clothespin shark has a mouth that opens and closes so it can eat things.
Teacher: play this video:
Craft #24-Clothespin Sharks
Some of us might find this craft pretty challenging. But we tackle this craft a lot like we tackle the rest of life's problems. We try to improve our chances, and we try to get advice.
Teacher: demonstrate your sample craft, and then lead the children in making the craft.