Unit 5 / Lesson 4
Every Bible Story
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Teacher's Prep
Games
Bunny Tail Hunt
Materials:
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 put all the cotton balls in at the end of the game.
Instructions:
This game is very similar to an Easter egg hunt, except that there is less chocolate and less mess.
Spread cotton balls generously over a wide area and multiple rooms which can be explored. If you have helpers, perhaps 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.
Ball and Scoop Relay
Materials:
One ball per group of five. These can be made of scrunched up paper, or you can use ping pong balls for more challenge.
A wide variety of scoops and spoons of varying sizes.
Main Goal:
The point is for them to balance balls of paper on a scoop of some kind, and to move across the room while balancing the ball. The difficulty of the game will vary according to the size of the scoop.
Young kids should get a big ladle, and older kids should get a tiny spoon.
Jellyfish In A Bottle (Main Activity)
Watch this video: Cartesian Diver Science Experiment for Kids
Materials:
Drinking straws
Paper clips
Clear plastic water bottles
Ideally, the water bottles should have a very smooth shape to prevent distortion when looking in them.
Experiment with this craft beforehand to find the ideal length of straw, and how many paper clips you should chain together for weight.
Bring a demonstration of your craft to the class.
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
How was your week?
SLIDE 2
Intro Game: Reverse Charades
Instructions
Teacher: Reverse Charades is like normal charades, except the roles are reversed. In Reverse Charades, everyone is an actor except for the person guessing. 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 the guesser can leave the room temporarily. The version below will assume there is a whiteboard with the key word that everyone can see, and the person guessing will face away from the whiteboard.
We'll start our lesson 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 and will have to guess what everyone is trying to act out.
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 it out, and you'll have to guess.
Teacher: you may want to play a couple of practice rounds with animals like "giraffe" or "fish." 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 (pick some according to the ability of your group)
Easy
Boat
Butterfly
Dinosaur
Tree
Spider
Snail
Hard
Train
Cherry
Bounce
Motorcycle
SLIDE 3
Debrief and Relevance
We played this game because it's a bit like reading the Bible.
When we read the Bible, it can be complicated and hard to understand what each Bible story is about. But, every great character in the Bible is trying to teach us the same big idea.
It's like looking at all your friends here and they're all trying to show you the same thing in different ways. Maybe you can get a clue from one person, and combine it with a clue from another person.
That's what we can do when we read the Bible too.
SLIDE 4
Big Question
Our big question today is: What is every story in the Bible trying to teach us?
SLIDE 5
Big Idea
We’ll learn today that every story in the Bible is teaching us about faith. Every story teaches us that faith is like a race, in which we keep running and trying, because we know it’s worth it.
SLIDE 6
Bible Reference
Let’s watch this video that talks about all the Bible stories together. It’s the same video as last week, but it’s worth watching again because there’s so much good stuff in it.
YouTube: Hebrews 11 & 12: The great faith of God's people, by Rene Pfitzner
SLIDE 7
Now let's read our main Bible passage for today.
Hebrews 12:1-3 (International Children's Bible)
1 So we have many people of faith around us. Their lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way. And we should remove the sin that so easily catches us.
SLIDE 8
2 Let us look only to Jesus. He is the one who began our faith, and he makes our faith perfect. Jesus suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing. He did this because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. 3 Think about Jesus. He held on patiently while sinful men were doing evil things against him. Look at Jesus’ example so that you will not get tired and stop trying.
Point 1
SLIDE 9
Our first point is that the Christian life is like a race
SLIDE 10
Game: Bunny Tails (variation)
Instructions
We will start this point with a game!
It’s a bunny tail hunt! It’s like an easter egg hunt but with cotton balls. We have a whole bunch of cotton balls that 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! Bring them back here and put them in this basket, and then 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.
SLIDE 11
Debrief
We played this because it's a race against time. We've got a bit of time to make as much of a difference as we can. It's about doing our best and pushing ourselves to the limits of what we can do.
This game helps us understand our Bible passage when it tells us the Christian life is like a race.
SLIDE 12
Bible Reference
Let’s read the first verse of our Bible passage again:
Hebrews 12:1 (ICB)
1 So we have many people of faith around us. Their lives tell us what faith means. So let us run the race that is before us and never give up. We should remove from our lives anything that would get in the way. And we should remove the sin that so easily catches us.
SLIDE 13
Explanation
This verse comes after all the stories of all the great people in the Bible. Our verse tells us to learn from them what faith means. All the great characters in the Bible needed to do difficult things, so they needed to make things easier for themselves by getting rid of things that don’t matter. It’s almost like they were racing for something.
If you’re running a race, it takes a lot of effort, no matter how long it is. Imagine some runners having a big backpack on, or dragging a sled behind them, or running with a parachute. Nobody runs an actual race like that. A runner needs to get rid of the things that are slowing them down.
SLIDE 14
Application
That’s what we need to do too. If we want to become great people of faith, we need to get rid of things that are slowing us down. Maybe some of us need to watch less TV and instead spend more time with people. Maybe some of us need to care less about what people think, and just focus on helping people. There are some people who are angry all the time, and they need to forgive people so they’re not always angry. That’s how we make it easier for ourselves to follow Jesus.
SLIDE 15
Discussion Question
Let's pause for a discussion question.
What is something you could do less of?
Point 2
SLIDE 16
Our second point is, we need to keep a prize in mind.
SLIDE 17
Activity: Ball and Scoop Relay
Instructions
We’ll start our point with a game. It’s called the Ball and Scoop Relay. We will have teams of about five people each (if your team has less people, some people need to do the relay twice). Your team will line up on this wall.
Teacher: pick a wall for them to line up on.
Once you’re on the wall, we’ll give you all a spoon or a scoop. If you’re older, you get a small spoon to make the game harder. If you’re younger, you get a big spoon or a scoop, to make it easier.
You will take turns carrying the paper ball in the scoop all the way to the far wall. You need to be touching the wall to start your run. Then, you’ll walk all across the room with the paper ball, touch the far wall, and come back and try to pass the ball to a teammate with just your scoop. When you are all done, you can sit down.
If you drop the ball, pick it up, put it back in your scoop, and keep going.
Let’s form groups of five and then line up on this wall!
Teacher: do a demonstration of the relay, then run the game with the children.
SLIDE 18
Debrief
We played this game because it takes concentration and it's challenging to transfer the ball around. But we do it anyway, because we want to help our team to win the game.
In this game, there is no real prize, just the satisfaction of your team doing well.
In real life there is a great prize for doing the right thing. We see this in the second half of our Bible passage.
SLIDE 19
Bible Reference
Let’s read it together.
Hebrews 12:2-3 (ICB)
2 Let us look only to Jesus. He is the one who began our faith, and he makes our faith perfect. Jesus suffered death on the cross. But he accepted the shame of the cross as if it were nothing. He did this because of the joy that God put before him. And now he is sitting at the right side of God’s throne. 3 Think about Jesus. He held on patiently while sinful men were doing evil things against him. Look at Jesus’ example so that you will not get tired and stop trying.
SLIDE 20
Explanation
These verses tell us why Jesus went to the cross and died for us: because He knew it was worth it. He knew if He saved us, there would be joy. There would be a kind of happiness that was worth all the pain in the world. We can seek after that kind of joy as well.
SLIDE 21
Application
God gives us things that are worth all the pain in the world. You might be wondering, what are those things?
Well, the most precious thing of all is God Himself. He gives us Himself, His friendship, His power, and His love, to name a few. He also gives us His joy, meaning we get to share in His happiness
If we do our job right, we will help other people to go to heaven and they will be our friends forever too. That is the great prize for every Christian who does things God's way, and it's worth all the pain in the world.
That is why we try our best, and we don't give up. This is why we study at school, honor our parents, and are kind to people even when they are not nice to us. It's because God will give us a prize that makes it all worth it.
SLIDE 22
Discussion Question
What is something God could give you that is worth more than all the pain in the world?
Conclusion
SLIDE 23
Let’s wrap up our lesson by talking about our big ideas again.
Our big question today was: What is every story in the Bible trying to teach us?
We learned today that every story in the Bible is teaching us about faith. Every story teaches us that faith is like a race in which we keep running and trying, because we know it’s worth it.
Main Activity: Jellyfish In A Bottle
SLIDE 24
We’ll end our lesson with a craft! We'll call this "jellyfish in a bottle." Let's play a video to see what it's like.
Teacher: Show this video: Cartesian Diver Science Experiment for Kids
Teacher: show the craft that you made before the lesson.
Here’s how we will make the craft:
We will cut a little length of straw, and fold it in half.
Then we will join the ends together with a paperclip.
We might need to chain two or three paper clips together.
Then we drop it into the water bottle, and put the cap back on the bottle.
We make the jellyfish dive by squeezing the bottle.
If it doesn't dive, it just means you need to add more paper clips to make the bottom heavier.
I want to tell you why it dives. It’s because when we squeeze the bottle, air in the straw gets squished into a smaller space. Some of the space in the straw gets taken up by water, which is heavy. So, when you squish the bottle, the jellyfish actually gets heavier, because it takes on water. That's why it sinks.
We can make a lot of these jellyfish in different colors. If you want, you can even attach little decorations on your crafts so they look fancy. So they might look different on the outside, but on the inside they will all work the same way.
All your jellyfish can remind you of our lesson, because they are a bit like the characters in the Bible. All of the Bible characters were different on the outside. But, inside, they had the same kind of faith which made them great.