Faith Kids: Friends

Story

Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37)

Big Idea
A Jesus follower is everybody's friend.

Bible Verse
 John 15:13 - "No one has greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends." (NIrV)

What We Did
1. We acted out the story of the Good Samaritan. Evan was our traveller. He was "beaten up" slow-mo movie style, complete with movie-action music. We then had three people pass by (Kaleb the priest, Raven the Levite, and Carter the Samaritan). Although the priest and the Levite were supposed to be good guys, they walked right on by poor Evan. But Carter the Samaritan stopped and helped him up, tied bandages on his wounds, and dragged him to a hotel to stay.
   We discussed how the Samaritan was a good friend to the traveller, even though he didn't know him at all. If we want to be a good follower of Jesus, we need to be kind and a good friend to everyone, not just those we like.
2. Our verse was about the greatest act of friendship possible: giving your life for your friend. So, as we learned the verse, we pretended to save each other's lives. We had a giant blue ball which represented an oncoming truck. We had one child pretend to stand in the street, oblivious of the oncoming danger. We then had a third kid, as the "oncoming truck" came near, say "Watch out!" and push his/her friend out of danger, who went flying out of the way and landed on our stunt mattress (for a nice, soft landing).

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Contentment

Story

Jesus teaches a rich young ruler about loving God most. (Luke 18:18-27)

Big Idea
Love God more than your stuff.

Bible Verse
Philippians 4:11b - "I have learned to be content no matter what happens to me." (NIrV)

What We Did
1. We made a list of stuff we'd buy if money was no object. The list ranged from ice cream and Wii games to a rocket ship and the entire country of France!
2. We acted out the story with Brianna playing the story of Rich, the rich young ruler. When Jesus said that it was harder for a rich man to enter God's kindgom than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, we handed a stuffed animal to Brianna to represent our camel and had her try her best to get it to go through the eye of a needle.
3. As we worked on memorizing our big idea, we played a game where we tried to through a stuffed animal (representing the camel) through a hula hoop (representing the eye of the needle.) We kept backing the throwers up to the point that the kids said, "It's impossible to throw the stuffed animal that far!" I told them, "If you think that's tough, it's even tougher for us to enter God's kingdom if we love our stuff more than we love him!"
4. We realized that one way we can be content whatever the circumstances is to stop thinking about what we don't have. To do this, we took the list of stuff we'd buy if we had all the money in the world and ran it through a paper shredder. We then listed all the things that God's blessed us with (food, family, toys, etc.) and went around the room, praying and thanking God for them.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Anger

Story

King Saul becomes so angry with David that he eventually attacks him (1 Samuel 16:14-25, 17:1-18:11)

Big Idea
When you are angry, don't lose control.

Bible Verse
Ephesians 4:26 - "When you are angry, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." (NIrV)

What We Did
1. We described things that "pushed our buttons" while taking buttons and pushing them into playdough.
2. We acted out the story of Saul and David, with Brianna playing beautiful music on the harp (actually, a ukelele) and Kaleb throwing a spear (a foam swimming noodle).
3. As we learned our verse, we took turns throwing play darts at a dart board (with extreme adult supervision, rest assured!) This helped us remember our story, where Saul got so angry he started tossing spears at people. When we tallied up the points, Leiah was our dart throwing champion!
4. We discussed things we could do when we become angry to help us keep under control, including praying, going for a walk, and listening to music.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Obey All the Way

Story

Jesus tells a story about a father asking two sons to work in his vineyard (Matthew 21:28 - 32)

Big Idea
Obey all the way

Bible Verse
Matthew 22:17 - "Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." (NIrV)

Misc
1. To see how it's not a good idea to do things only halfway, we tried to say common nursery rhymes skipping every other word. We also created new names for ourselves by spelling our real names and skipping every other letter.
2. Since Jesus didn't give the names of the two sons in the story, we let the kids give them each a name to refer to them by as we told the story. Brianna A. called the first son, George, and Kaleb named the second son, Shilgur!
2. As we acted out the story, we had Brianna plant and water some real sunflower seeds to demonstrate how George obeyed his father and worked in the vineyard. Also, we had Kaleb relax on the floor with a pillow and blanket to show how Shilgur didn't obey his father and didn't work in the vineyard.
3. As we learned our verse, we played a game of Chutes and Ladders to help us remember that we need to obey completely. In the game, if you "disobey," you end up sliding down the game board, and away from the goal.
4. To remind us that all of God's rules for us are just pieces of everything we're supposed to do in order to obey God, we labeled blank puzzle pieces with different things God has asked us to do (tell the truth, pray, be kind) and fit the pieces together.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Stand Out (Matthew 5:13-16)

Story

Jesus teaches his followers to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:13-16)

Big Idea
When you follow God, you stand out.

Bible Verse
Matthew 5:16a - "In the same way, let your light shine in front of others." (NIrV)

Misc
1. We darkened the windows and told the story by candlelight. We paid special attention to how the candle stood out in the darkness, as it reminded us that we stand out when we follow God.

2. We played "One of these things is not like the Other," complete with musical cameos from Big Bird and Cookie Monster. Natalie was our contestant, and she had to, after viewing how three different people reacted to a situation, figure out which one stood out because they obeyed God. Natalie was three for three!

3. We lit a birthday candle for each word of our Bible verse as we learned it. In the end, we had Claire come up to blow them all out.

4. We used action figures and a digital camera to create scenes where people stood out because they decided to follow God. See the pictures below to see the results of this. (The first two were made by the K-2nd kids, the third was made by the 3rd-6th kids)

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Blessed are the Persecuted (Matthew 5:10)

Story

Sometimes people will be mean to us when we do the right thing. (Matthew 5:10)

Big Idea
Follow God, not the crowd.

Bible Verse
Matthew 5:10 - "Blessed are those who suffer for doing what is right. The kingdom of heaven belongs to them. " (NIrV)

Misc
1. We talked a lot about cool kids and the good and bad things they like to do. We talked about how sometimes the "cool" kids at school like to pick on and make fun of less cool kids. We acted out several situations and looked at how a "cool" kid and a God follower might respond.

2. To help us remember to follow God, not the cool kids, we did several activities with ice cubes. One thing we did, during our verse activity, was to see how fast we could melt an ice cube. In addition to helping us learn our verse, this helped us remember that being cool is something that doesn't last very long (like the ice cube melting), but obeying God is something that lasts forever. By the way, our fastest ice cube melter was Claire!

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Blessed are the Peacemakers (Matthew 5:9)

Story

Jesus is arrested. Peter cuts off a servant's ear, but Jesus fixes it. (John 18:1-12)

Big Idea
Be a peacemaker, not a peacebreaker.

Bible Verse
Matthew 5:8 - "Blessed are those who make peace. They will be called sons of God." (NIrV)

Misc
1. To understand the difference between a peacemaker and a peacebreaker, we listed all the superheroes and supervillains we could think of.

2. As we told the story, we had our "Peter" cut off our "servant's" ear with a foam sword, in super-slo-mo movie style. During the lesson, we learned that Jesus was a peacemaker, and allowed himself to be arrested because he trusted that God had a plan. Peter, on the other hand, decided to be a peacebreaker, and trust in his sword instead of God.

3. While learning our verse, we slowly dressed up Carter as a superhero. He wore super pajama pants, a super blue tank top, super fuzzy slippers, super sunglasses, a super winter cap, a super bandana, and a super bath towel cape.

4. We talked about situations we could find ourselves in at home and at school, and how we could choose to act as a peacemaker instead of a peacebreaker.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity