Title: Primary Sabbath School Program, September 26, 1998 From: NAD Children's Ministries (author: Lisa Seeders) Date: August 1, 1998 Abstract: Activities to use in place of program helps to teach the lesson, CAUGHT STEALING ===================================================================== Lesson Aim: Jesus knows all about me. Memory Verse: "Be sure that your sin will find you out." Numbers 32:23, NIV GETTING THEIR ATTENTION - HIDE AND SEEK Materials needed: Wiggly eyes (Large size; 1 pair for each child) WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) There are no advance preparations necessary WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Give each child a pair of wiggly eyes. While you turn your back and count to twenty, each child hides their pair of wiggly eyes somewhere. The children then return to their seats and watch you "seek" the eyes. Each time you find a pair of eyes, return them to whoever "owned" them. If you get stuck, only the child whose eyes you cannot find, may give you clues where to look. After all eyes have been found, follow up this activity with the following questions or statements. 1. Why do you think that hide and seek is fun? 2. Do you like to be the hider or the seeker? These eyes remind me of God's eyes. His eyes can be everywhere seeing everything. In our story today, He sees a man hiding something. But this is not a game of hide and seek and there's trouble when the stuff is found. GO STRAIGHT INTO THE BIBLE STORY. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - MYSTERY MAKERS Materials needed: Cassette tape player Blank cassette tape Silverware (Pair of knives or knife and fork for each child) WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Prepare the recorder, and place a pair of table knives or fork and knife under each child's chair. Mark your quarterly with a star at each place where the children say the chant. Check directions below to know where. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: The children will help create the story by adding sound effects as you narrate the story onto the cassette tape. Before beginning the tape, teach the children the mystery tune they are to chant together. On the piano it is the notes C-D-Eflat-C (They say dum-de-dum-dum) (Have someone who knows notes on the piano show it to you ahead of time) Ask the children if they know what a mystery is. Explain that a mystery is something hidden or unknown. The Bible story contains a mystery. The Israelites are in trouble. They are unable to defeat their enemies living in Ai. Why? That's the mystery. After these sentences in your quarterly, make a * mark to signify that the children should chant the mystery tune. "The Mystery of Ai" * "So, without talking to God about his plans, Joshua sent 3,000 soldiers to fight Ai's army." * (Have the children clash their silverware together for the sound of fighting) "Why did you bring us across the river to be destroyed?" * "Then God told Joshua to draw lots to find the guilty person." * "First, the tribe of Judah was picked." * "Then a large family from that tribe." * "Then a small household." * "Finally Achan's name was picked." * "I wanted them, so I took them and hid them in the ground under my tent." * After completing the story on tape, play it back for the children to listen to again with their added sound effects. GETTING INTO SCRIPTURE - HIDDEN VERSE Materials needed: 10 disposable cups (Colored, so you can't see through them) Memory verse written on a slip of paper Bibles WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) There are no advance preparations necessary WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Have the children look up the memory verse in their Bibles. Read it together several times. Roll the slip of paper up that has the memory verse printed on it. Turn the ten cups upside down on a table in front of the children. Have them close their eyes. Hide the memory verse under one of the cups. The children take turns guessing where the memory verse is hidden. When a child selects a cup, before turning it over, they must repeat the memory verse. If the verse is under the cup, they're a winner, and they may help select which cup to put the verse under for the next child. If the verse is not under the cup they select, they wait for another turn to try again. The verse must always be repeated before turning a cup over. ACTING ON SCRIPTURE - HIDDEN SECRETS Materials needed: Cake mix Cupcake muffin tins Plastic Ziplock bags Knife Piece of rotten food (onion, potato etc.) WHAT THE TEACHER DOES: (To prepare ahead) Make one cupcake for each child in the class, plus one extra one. In the extra one include the piece of rotten food so it is baked right into the cupcake. WHAT THE STUDENTS DO: Display the rotten cupcake. (It should look delicious on the outside.) Ask the children who would like to share it with you. Begin to cut it apart. As the children make comments about how gross it is talk about how easy it was to hide the rotten part inside. Talk about how carefully you tried to disguise what you had done. Elicit response on how they feel about your deceit. We try to just as easily hide our sins from others. Often we are successful with those around us. But we can never hide our sins from God. Jesus knows all about each of us. Only by confessing our sins totally to God can He help us get rid of those sins. Give each child a fresh cupcake to take home in a bag. Instruct them to share it with their family and friends and explain what they've learned about hiding sins.