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Dealing with Differences

Unit 2 / Lesson 2

Dealing with Differences

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Teacher's Prep

  • Games

    • Pass the Water (Beginning of Point 1):

      • Read the rules before the lesson:

      • Materials:

        • One plastic cup for each child (clear plastic works best, but opaque plastic cups will do)

        • Several identical pitchers or identical large bowls -- one for every group of three children. The point of the pitchers is to hold the water that the children transport across the room. The height of the water in the pitcher is a way of keeping score.

        • A basin full of water. Several basins would be even better, so that each team can have their own basin. The point of this basin is just to provide a ready source of water for teams to start their journey across the room.

    • Cereal Box Puzzle (Beginning of Point 2):

      • See this YouTube video to see how the game works

      • Find one cereal box per 8-10 children. Note: one cereal box normally has two useable sides, those being the largest faces of the box with pictures on them.

      • Cut up each side into a reasonable number of rectangles, e.g. a 6x6 grid.

      • Set up tables so that each table can have 4-5 children working on a single puzzle. In the absence of tables, this game can also be played on the floor.

  • Main Activity (Games) (Note: these games are highly customizable and optional. The point is to give them some practice playing together and enjoying each other despite their differences):


    Intro 

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro activity: Sorting people

    • Instructions

      • We'll start our time with a game! It's really simple -- we just have to form a line. But everyone in the line has to be in the right order. For example, if I tell you to line up by how old you are, then one end of the line will have the oldest people, and the other end of the line will have the youngest people.

      • So we'll all try it as a big group, and then maybe we'll split into two groups after we get really good at it.

      • To start, let's all line up by how old we are.

    • Other Suggestions:

      • Alphabetical order by first letter of your name

      • Height

      • Number of letters in names

      • Teacher: if you like, you can split the group into two, and the two groups can see which is faster

      • How long your ears are

      • Alphabetical order by last letter of your name

      • How thick your eyebrows are

      • How long your hair is

      • How far you can stick your tongue out

    SLIDE 3

    • Debrief

      • Alright, let's sit down and face the front!

    SLIDE 4

    • We played this game because it reminds us that we're all different. There's nothing wrong with being different, but sometimes when people are different from each other, it causes problems.

  • Relevance

    • For example, if you're at school, maybe some people are really smart, maybe some people are really strong, and maybe some people have a lot of friends.

    • If you have a lot of these things, it's easy to feel great about yourself. You might even feel like you're a better person than everyone else.

    • If you don't have a lot of things, you might feel terrible about yourself. The Bible teaches us ways to handle our differences.

  • Big Question

    SLIDE 5

    • Our big question today is, what should we do with our differences?

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea is, we need to make a choice:

      • 1. We could follow the wisdom from below, OR

      • 2. We could follow the wisdom from above.

  • Bible Reference

    • Our Bible passage today will teach us about the two kinds of wisdom. 

    SLIDE 6

    • James 3:13-17 (CEV)

      • 13  Are any of you wise or sensible? Then show it by living right and by being humble and wise in everything you do. 14 But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and selfishness, don't brag or lie to cover up the truth. 15 This kind of wisdom doesn't come from above. It is earthly and selfish and comes from the devil himself. 16 Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things. 17 But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere.


    SLIDE  7

    Point 1

  • Our first point is that when we are different, we could follow the wisdom from below

    SLIDE 8

  • Activity: Dump the Cup and Pass the Water Game

    • Instructions

      • Teacher: put a basin (or several basins) full of water on one side of the room, and several empty pitchers on the other side of the  room.

      • We'll start this point with a game! We'll call it, "Pass the Water." Here's how it works.

      • We will have teams of three. Three is the best number.

      • One person on your team will fill up their cup with water from the basin. 

      • From there, your goal is to pass a cup full of water across the room. BUT if you have water in your cup, you can't move, and you can't look to the other side of the room. The only thing you can do is pour the water BEHIND you, and your teammate behind you needs to catch as much as they can.

      • Then it will be their turn to pour the water behind them (Remember if you have water in your cup you can't move your feet.), and someone on your team will catch the water. So that way, you can take turns moving the water across the room. And once the water gets all the way across the room, you'll dump it in a pitcher. And then you can go back to where you started, and you can try again, so you get more water into the pitcher. And after 8 minutes, we can see who put the most water into their pitcher.

      • Teacher: do a demonstration with a volunteer or two. Then, start a timer for eight minutes, and have the children try.

    SLIDE 9

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it gets a bit messy! Things probably didn't go the way you planned. Maybe someone spilled water, or they weren't doing things the way you like. That’s when it’s easy to get angry and frustrated, and we might have all kinds of bad feelings. 

    SLIDE 10

  • Bible Reference

    • That’s when we need our Bible passage. It says:

      • 14 But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and selfishness, don't brag or lie to cover up the truth. 15 This kind of wisdom doesn't come from above. It is earthly and selfish and comes from the devil himself. 16 Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things.

  • Explanation 

    SLIDE 11

    • These verses tell us there is a kind of thinking that doesn't come from God. Some people only think about themselves. Some people are angry that everyone else has a better life. The Bible says that kind of thinking leads to trouble, and it causes people to do cruel things.

  • Application

    • The Bible tells us that if we are thinking like that, we should talk to God about it instead of covering it up. He already knows that our attitude isn’t right. He will forgive us, and He will make our hearts clean.

    SLIDE 12

    • The Bible says:

      • 1 John 1:9 (CEV)

        • But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.

    • We can also go to a good friend for help. The Bible tells us:

    SLIDE 13

    • James 5:16 (CEV)

      • If you have sinned, you should tell each other what you have done. Then you can pray for one another and be healed. The prayer of an innocent person is powerful, and it can help a lot.

    • If you have bad thoughts, don’t keep them to yourself; talk to God about them. He will understand, and He won’t punish you for telling Him. If you have a friend who can listen to your problem and pray for you, that can really help too.

  • Discussion Question

    SLIDE 14

    • Let’s stop for a discussion question:

    • Can you think of a time when you told someone about your bad feelings? What happened?


    Point 2

    SLIDE 15

  • Our second point is that when we are different, we can follow the wisdom from above.

  • Activity: Breakfast Scramble

    SLIDE 16

    • Instructions

      • Teacher: you may want to set up tables so that each group of 4-5 can access their puzzle.

      • We'll start this point with a game! It's called Breakfast Scramble. We'll form teams of about 4 people, and your team will put a puzzle together. We'll see how quickly you can do the puzzle.

      • Teacher: you may want to play multiple rounds, having them switch stations each round so that they have a fresh picture to work with.

    • Debrief

    SLIDE 17

    • Let's all have a seat and face the front. In the puzzle game, we started with a bunch of pieces, and we had to figure out what was going on. We could only see the whole picture at the end, when we were done.

    • In the beginning, you only had an idea, and you could only trust that it was all going to work.

    • At times, that's how it's like being a Christian. God has a plan for us, but usually we can only see a little bit of His plan at a time. If we work with Him, we will eventually see the big picture, and we’ll see He was really wise.

  • Bible Reference

    SLIDE 18

    • Let’s go back to the Bible again.

    • James 3:17 (CEV)

      • But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere.

  • Explanation

    • There are a lot of good words to understand here! Let’s take a moment to look at them one by one.

    SLIDE 19

    • PURE means God wants our hearts to be full of goodness, with nothing bad mixed in.

    SLIDE 20

    • God wants us to be FRIENDLY and GENTLE -- we all know what it means to be friendly and gentle.

    SLIDE 21

    • SENSIBLE, meaning we do what makes good sense.

    SLIDE 22

    • He wants us to be KIND and HELPFUL.

    SLIDE 23

    • He wants us to be GENUINE and SINCERE, which means we need to try to tell the truth and not pretend.

    • Don’t we all want friends like that? Don’t we all want friends who are kind and helpful and truthful? God tells us to be like that for others.

  • Application

    SLIDE 24

    • Sometimes it’s really hard to be kind and helpful and truthful – especially when things aren’t going the way we want. It gets easier with practice, and it’s worth trying. Let’s always try to be kind, helpful and truthful. Even if you mess up one time, try again the next time, and never give up trying to be kind, helpful and truthful–because this is God’s wisdom for you, and He’s using this wisdom to give you the best life.

  • Discussion Question (optional)

    SLIDE 25

    • Time for a discussion question! Let’s go back to the last verse we looked at.

      • James 3:17 (CEV)

        • But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere.

    • If you were just to focus on one of these words this week, which word would you pick?


Conclusion

SLIDE 26

  • We'll end this lesson by going over the main points again.

  • Our big question today was, what should we do with our differences?

  • Our big idea was, we need to make a choice:

    • 1. We could follow the wisdom from below, OR

    • 2. We could follow the wisdom from above

  • If we follow the wisdom from below, we will be selfish and jealous, and we’ll be quick to fight with people, and we’ll get into all kinds of trouble. If we follow the wisdom from above, we will be kind and helpful and truthful even when it’s really hard. But, we’ll be like that because God told us to be like that. And eventually we’ll see that God was really wise.


    Main Activity: Team Games

    SLIDE 27

  • We'll end this lesson with some games! These games will remind us that we're different but it's okay. If we do what God likes, it will all make sense eventually. 

  • All of these are team games. Let's all find a partner with someone who is around your age, and can do the same kinds of things (Adult helpers can partner up with another helper; the class would probably enjoy seeing you play too)

  • In your pairs, one of you will go to Team 1 (Teacher: point to a place), and one of you will go to Team 2 (Teacher: point to a different place)

  • Teacher: these games below are suggestions for how to have a good time. The goal is to encourage friendly competition that will help children to practice having fun together despite their differences.

  • Bottle Flip Relay

    SLIDE 28

    • Our first game is the bottle flip relay! It's really simple. We're going to flip a bottle so that it lands the right way. Once you succeed in doing the bottle flip, run to the far wall, touch it, come back and tag the next person on your team, and then they can do a bottle flip. When everyone on your team is done, you win!

  • Water Jenga

    SLIDE 29

    • Our second game is called Water Jenga!

    • Let's watch a bit of this video to see how it works.

    • Teacher: play about 30 second of this video

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjqqQRBbwv4&ab_channel=Mr.T%27sChemistry

    • We'll have two teams. Each team will send someone to pour a drop of water into the cup, so the cup will become even more full. If it spills over the side of the cup, the other team wins, and we can start again.

  • Paper Bocce Ball

    SLIDE 30

    • Let's end with a game of Paper Bocce

    • Teacher: play this video which explains the rules of Bocce

    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmQVO2a9ZEI&ab_channel=MajorLeagueBocce

    • Teacher: you will be playing a modified version of Bocce, with paper balls of two colors (white and another color). Instead of a target ball, you will have an improvised target. ( (a bowling pin would work great). 

    • Teacher: after the video, pass both colors of paper out so that one team gets one color, and the other team gets the other color, and each child has one sheet of paper. Put the bowling pin in the middle of the room.

    • Let's go over the rules again. For this game, you'll all be standing at the edge of the room (so let's all go to the edge of the room and touch something at the edge of the room). 

    • You will all have a ball that is made out of paper, (so take a moment to scrunch up your paper into a nice tight ball). 

    • You will be throwing your ball at this target.

    • Teacher: show them the target in the middle of the room

    • We'll all take turns tossing our balls. If your team has the closest ball, you get one point. If your team has the two closest balls, you get two points. If your team has the three closest balls, you get three points – and so on.

  • Debrief

    • That's all the games for today. Hopefully you all had fun. These games remind us that we can all have fun together even when we're so different from each other. We just need to remember to follow the wisdom from above and always try to be kind, helpful and truthful.

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