*********************************************************** Title: Kindergarten Sabbath School Program, March 18, 2000 From: NAD Children's Ministries (author: Lisa Seeders) Date Completed: January 31, 2000 Abstract: Activities to use in place of program helps to teach the lesson, UNHAPPY WORKERS ********************************************************** Lesson Aim: Heaven is a free gift offered to everyone. Memory Verse: "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith....." Eph. 2:8,9, NIV GETTING THEIR ATTENTION - FAIR/NOT FAIR JUMP OFF Materials needed: Masking Tape WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Make a line on the floor using masking tape. Mark it long enough for each child to have about one foot of space. Make an "F" with the masking tape on one side of the line at one end and an "NF" with the masking tape on the other side of the line at the same end. (One side of the line represents "fair" the other side represents "not fair".) WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: Have the children all line up in a horizontal line on the "fair" side of the line. Tell them you will read situations to them, and they are to decide if it is fair or not. If it is fair, they remain where they are standing. (Explain that the "F" stands for fair. ) If they think it is not fair, they are to hop over the line to the unfair side. (The side marked "UF".) 1. Mom dishes up the ice-cream. Janie gets three scoops, Sara gets two. 2. Mrs. Smith punishes Joel for talking out loud in class, but she doesn't punish Sam who was also talking. 3. Every time dad comes home from a business trip he brings two gifts that are exactly the same for Ray and Tom. 4. Joy reads a book and wins $5.00. Sue reads the same book and wins $2.00. 5. Mom and dad make all the children go to bed at the same time every night. 6. Each child in the family gets paid the same allowance money each week. 7. The Little League coach makes all the players sit on the bench because one player fights with another team player. Tell the children: Sometimes we think being fair means everything being equal. Whatever one person gets another person should receive exactly the same thing. Actually being fair means being honest and clear. The workers in our story today learn a lesson about fairness. GO STRAIGHT INTO THE BIBLE STORY. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - BIBLE STORY WORKOUT Materials needed: Basket Cotton balls Pennies (one for each child) WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Place the basket filled with cotton balls at the front of the room. WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: As you narrate the story pretend to hire the children as workers for the vineyard. Promise to pay each one you hire one penny. Each child that is hired takes a handful of cotton balls and goes to an area of the room to tread on them like grapes being made into juice. The children who are hired first will undoubtedly become pretty tired before the last children are hired to work. By the end of the story the last children hired will have only treaded on the cotton balls for a few minutes. Have them each return to their seats and pay them one penny. Talk about the "fairness" of the pay. How do the first children called as workers feel? How do the last children called feel? Did each worker get what they were honestly promised? What does Jesus promise each of us about Heaven? It doesn't matter who we are or how long we've known and loved Jesus. He promises everyone a reward in Heaven. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - GIFT OF SALVATION Materials needed: Five colors of tissue paper (Black, red, white, blue, green) Wrapping paper ribbon An orange for each child A permanent marking pen (thin-line) for each child WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Cut the five colors of tissue paper large enough to wrap around the orange with some left sticking up. Wrap the orange with the tissue paper in the following layers: 1. First around the orange is the green. 2. Second around the orange is the blue. 3. Third around the orange is the white. 4. Fourth around the orange is the red. 5. Fifth around the orange is the black Tie it altogether at the top with the wrapping paper ribbon. WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: Tell the children you have a gift for them. It is free, there is no price. Nothing they have can pay for it, and they cannot earn it by doing anything special. You are simply giving this to them because you love them and want them to have it. Give each child a gift-wrapped orange. Have them untie the ribbon and carefully peel away the layers of tissue paper. Give each child a permanent marker and have them copy the words of thememory verse onto the outside of the orange. (You may want to have some of the verse pre-printed leaving out vowels or a few of the words.) Explain to the children that this is what grace from God is. Simply the gift of living forever given to us by Jesus because He loves us and wants us to have it. (Have the children keep their tissue paper intact. It will be used in the next activity. ACTING ON SCRIPTURE - LEARNING THE PLAN OF SALVATION Materials needed: Tissue paper wrapped gift from previous activity WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) There are no advance preparations necessary. WHAT THE CHILDREN DO: Help each child unwrap the orange layer by layer teaching them the following plan of salvation by color: 1. Black - The black layer means sin. Everyone in this world has sinned. Only Jesus has never sinned. The punishment for sin is death. Anyone who sins has to die. 2. Red - The red layer means blood. Because Jesus has such a big love for us He died for us on the cross, so we would not have to die for our sins. 3. White - The white layer means forgiveness. When we ask Jesus to forgive us for our sins, we look as clean to Him as this white tissue paper. All we have to do is ask. 4. Blue - The blue layer means believe. We can believe that all the promises Jesus says are true. He promises to help us change, He will. He promises to come back to get us, He will. He promises to be with us, He will. 5. Green - The green layer means grow. Everyday Jesus helps us grow up to be more and more like Him. That's one of those promises. Encourage the children to take the tissues home and find a gift they can wrap up in the tissues. Then they can share the plan of salvation with someone else. Optional activity - Have the children place all their tissues in a bag. Sit in a circle and have everyone close their eyes. Pass the bag around. When you say stop, whoever is holding the bag, draws a tissue out of it and says what it means.