Title: Primary Sabbath School Program, November 6, 1999 From: NAD Children’s Ministries (Author: Cyndi Long) Date: September 15, 1999 Abstract: Activities to use in place of program helps to teach the lesson, GOOD AND BAD SEEDS Lesson Aim: If I let Jesus work in me, He will help me be good. Memory Verse: “A man reaps what he sows.” Galatians 6:7, NIV. GETTING THEIR ATTENTION- EARTH GUESSING GAME Materials needed: A small sample of each of the following types of soil in baggies: Mud Clay Sand Potting soil Gravel WHAT THE TEACHER DOES (To Prepare Ahead) There are no advance preparations necessary. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Explain to the children that they are going to play a little guessing game. Have them all close their eyes. Now pass the soil samples around and let them feel the baggies and try to guess what’s inside. Once everyone has had a chance to guess have them open their eyes and see how close they were to being correct. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE- A WORMY STORY Materials needed: Fake fishing worms, one per child with a thread put through the end of it and tied off Two pages of heavy paper per child Scissors Pencils and markers Glue or glue stick WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To Prepare Ahead): Put the two pages together and staple the fold. Cut a hole in the bottom 1/3 of the first three pages in the same spot for each one. It should be large enough for the worm to fit through. Tie the thread onto the front of the book at the stapled edge. This is to keep the worm with the book. The string should be long enough to go through each opened page to the last one. Print all the following text onto one sheet of paper and xerox enough copies for each child to have the complete page. Cut the page texts apart. The front of the book is considered the first page. Text: Page 1-Willy (Wilhemina) Worms Adventures In The Field/by (child’s name) Page 2 (back of front page)-(blank) Page 3 -Willy the Worm was visiting a field one day when he saw quite a sight. The farmer had tossed out some seeds onto the pathway. A whole flock of birds came and cleaned up all the seeds. Boy, they didn’t leave a crumb! Willy was sure to stay out of the way. He didn’t want to be eaten too! Page 4-Willy decided to get out of there, so he moved onto another place in the field. It was really rocky there. The farmer had tossed some seeds there too. Some of the seeds had sprouted but the ground was too rocky and they couldn’t grow roots. The plants didn’t look too good. Then the sun came out and shone very hot. The poor plants just shriveled up and died. Page 5-Willy was looking for a place to eat his lunch and rest. He found where some seeds had sprouted and grown. He sat down to rest and....ow! He sat on a thorn. In fact there were thorny plants all around him. They were choking out the other good plants. He was sad. Page 6- Finally Willy came to some nice tall strong plants. They looked really healthy and strong and gave him some good shade. Ah! Willy sat down to enjoy the cool breeze and shade. These plants had grown in some good soil and were doing well. The farmer would get some nice grain from them when he harvested them. Page 7- (blank) WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Give each child a book and explain that they will be making a book with a boy or girl worm. It is their Bible story. They are to draw and color the pictures for each of the four scenes and add the appropriate text to the bottom of the page. When they are done go through the story together moving the worm from page to page through the hole. Encourage the children to share the book and tell the story to a younger child they know. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE- SEED COLLAGE Materials needed: Paper with the memory verse printed in large block letters and xeroxed , one per child Many different kinds of beans and seeds Glue WHAT THE TEACHER DOES (To prepare ahead): Print the memory verse in large blocked letters onto a piece of plain white paper. Xerox so each child has a copy. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Give each child a memory verse paper. Have them glue on the seeds filling up the block letters of the verse. ACTING ON SCRIPTURE- SOIL SCENARIOS Materials needed: None WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To Prepare Ahead) There are no advance preparations necessary. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Split the children into four groups. The number of children per group doesn’t matter. Neither does the evenness of the groups. One group will represent the hard path with the birds. These children will say “Tweet, Tweet, Tweet” when they believe the scenario talks about them. One group will be the rocky soil. These children will hit their fists together and say “Ouch!” when they believe the scenario talks about them. The third group of children represent the thorny soil. These children will grab their throats and make a choking noise when they believe the scenario talks about them. The last group is the good soil. They will say, “Yum, Yum” and rub their bellies when they believe the scenario talks about them. Read the description of what Jesus said the meanings of the soils where in the quarterly in the last five paragraphs. Make sure the children understand the meaning of the different soils. Read the scenarios listed below to the children. Ask them which group of soil the boy or girl is most like. That group responds with the correct noise and actions. If you wish, you may want to make up more scenarios. Scenarios: Gary got a paper in the mail for VBS. He had never gone before but he was too busy. He had too many things going on to try and go there too. So he decided it wasn’t for him. (Pathway with birds) Mary brought her friend Sarah to Sabbath School. Sarah really had fun learning about Jesus and liked hearing the stories. After a while, though, she found she had other things she wanted to do also. So she stopped coming. (Rocky ground) Carrie loved Jesus. She knew she should study her Sabbath School lesson to learn more about Him. She got a job babysitting to earn some money for things she wanted. She called all her friends every night to talk about how they were going to spend their earnings. Pretty soon she was too tired to read her lesson or pray before bed and Jesus was no longer first in her life. (Thorny) Mark loves Jesus and wants to be with Him. He has set aside a special time each day to learn more about Jesus and to pray. He hopes you will too. (Good Soil)