*************************************************************** Title: Kindergarten Sabbath School Program, February 5, 2000 From: NAD Children's Ministries (author: Lisa Seeders) Date Completed: December 15, 1999 Abstract: Activities to use as a supplement to help teach the lesson, THE BOY CAME BACK *************************************************************** Lesson Aim: God's love never changes; it keeps calling us to Him. Memory Verse: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins........." I John 1:9, NIV GETTING THEIR ATTENTION -THE "I WISH" GAME (A multi-sensory activity) Materials needed: Red hot cinnamon hearts Small styrofoam ball Straight pin with head Piece of yarn (6"); Elmer's glue WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Glue the red hot cinnamon hearts all over the styrofoam ball until it is covered. Fold the piece of yarn in half making a loop. Pin the loop to the top of the ball making a pretty hanging ball decoration. Allow to dry overnight. WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: Show the children the pretty hanging ball. Comment on how pretty it is. Let the children touch it and smell it. Tell the children they're going to play the "I wish" game. Start the game by saying something you wish you had, or somewhere you wish you were or something you wish you didn't have to do. (For example: I wish I didn't have to get up every morning and go to work.) After you make your "I wish" statement pluck one of the red cinnamon hearts off the ball. Encourage the children to think of things they wish. Each time a child thinks of something they pluck a cinnamon heart off the ball. Continue the activity until all the hearts are removed from the ball and all that is left is the plain styrofoam ball. Follow-up the activity with the following questions: 1. Did we get to enjoy any of our "wishes" or candy hearts? (No because they had glue on them.) 2. Now that we're done wishing everything was different do we have anything left that is pretty to look at? (No, it has been destroyed by all our wishing) 3. What's wrong with always wishing for something different? (You're unhappy most of the time; You can't enjoy what you have etc.) In our lesson today Jesus tells a story about a boy who wished for different things. He wished he didn't have to live at home and work. He wished he could be out having a good time like his friends. He wished he had lots of money to spend on himself. Let's see how his wishing turned out. GO STRAIGHT INTO THE BIBLE STORY. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - BIBLE JOURNEY (A multi-sensory activity) Materials needed: Roll of contact paper Scissors Box with dress-up clothes in it Sock with 5 coins in it (one sock for each child) Long sticks (one for each child) Picnic basket with food inside Toy catalogs, magazines or advertisements Bag of trash (preferably smelly kitchen trash) WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Tie the socks to the ends of the sticks. Place the sticks in one area of the room. Continuing around in a circle place the box of dress-up clothes in another area of the room. Continuing on around in a circle place the picnic basket in a third area of the room, the toy catalogs in a fourth area and the trash bag in the fifth area completing the circle. Cut out footprints from the roll of contact paper. Stick the footprints between the areas going around the circle. The children will follow the footprints as they "journey" as a prodigal son from spot to spot. WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: The children are going to pretend they are prodigal sons. They are going to "journey" with the prodigal son through the Bible story. As you tell the story have them follow the footprints to each area and do the activity assigned there. 1. Area one - Go to the sticks. Each child takes a stick, removes the sock, counts his/her money and ties the sock back on the stick. They learn why the son wanted to leave home, how the father felt, what he took with him and what he expected. 2. Area two - Go to the box of dress-up clothes. Children choose an item to put on. They leave two of their coins at this area. They learn the kinds of friends the son hooked up with, how he may have spent some of his money, how he felt at this point in the story. 3. Area three - Follow the footprints to the picnic basket. (It's up to you whether or not you choose to eat any of the items out of the basket). The children leave two more coins at this area. They learn about other choices the son made and more ways he chose to spend his money. Call their attention to how much of their money is left. 4. Area four - Follow the footprints to the toy catalogs. Give the children scissors. Have them cut out one or two pictures of things they would like to have. Instruct them to leave their last coin at this area. 5. Area five - Follow the footprints to the trash bag. Here the children discover they are out of money. They leave their sticks and socks here. They remove their dress-up clothes, put their cut- outs in the trash and sit around the trash bag. They learn here the importance of discovering they have made wrong choices. They help the son make the decision to return home and they learn about forgiveness. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - MEMORY VERSE GAME (A primarily auditory & kinesthetic activity) Materials needed: Write-on/wipe-off board and markers OR blackboard, chalk and eraser Bible WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) There are no advance preparations necessary WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: Show the children where the memory verse is found in the Bible. Read and repeat it several times together. Have the children make sixteen large dots all over the board with the markers or chalk. Explain that each dot represents sin. There are so many on the board. Our memory verse tells us that only Jesus can forgive our sins. For each word of the memory verse that is repeated have a child erase one of the dots. The object of the activity is to recall the total memory verse and erase all the dots on the board. Repeat the activity as often as desired. ACTING ON SCRIPTURE - JESUS' LOVE SONG (An auditory & kinesthetic activity) Materials needed: Cassette tape with music to Mary Had a Little Lamb pre- recorded on it OR a piano player WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) There are no advance preparations except to prepare the music and learn the song. WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: Have the children stand in a small cluster in the center of the room. Sing the following words to the tune of Mary Had a Little Lamb. As you sing it the first time circle around the children until your done singing. Then choose a child to come out of the cluster in the center and sing and circle around with you as you repeat the song. That child then chooses someone from the cluster who comes out takes hands and circles with you. Continue in this manner until all the children who were in the center cluster are now within the large circle holding hands and going around. Explain to the children that God's love is like this circle. It can never be broken by the things we do. He will always love us no matter what! Jesus' love is never gone never gone never gone Even when I do bad things His love goes on and on