What we did:
1. Game - Catch Challenge
Kids in a circle,
through a ball to each other… if they fail to catch it they have to put a hand
on the floor, and carry on… further drops = both hands on the floor, then 1
knee, then both knees
(Resulted in lots of
arguments about throwing the ball too fast…. That’s probably the trouble with
having 10 of the 11 children as boys! )2. Game – Can you fix it?
Introduced the
concept that God came to Earth at Christmas to fix a broken world…
Group was divided up in to 4 groups of 3-4 children, each
given some pictures that had been cut up
as jigsaws.. and winning group had to compile the picture quickest.
3.Discussion – Signs
I showed a number of signs, some of which are below, and for
each one, we discussed if the kids had seen it, what it meant,
Then on the final sign, we discussed why Jesus came at Christmas. Discussion was along the lines
that Jesus came to give us a Sign of how to get to Heaven, not by physical
movements (left here, right here), but to show us how to live. 
Some of the kids explained this really clearly, which was great.
Then I explained this
concept using the board & "trick" below (ignore the keyboard)
http://www.professorwonder.com/magic1.htm
http://www.professorwonder.com/magic1.htm
4. Video - 'The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe' (The
Chronicles of Narnia)
Clip played was from approx. 12:00 to 20:00 in the link, to
show that Nania was cold, and dark, and evil..
We then thought of our own world and how it was similar to
Nania (lots of bad in it).
5. Memory Verse
Showed a number of slides (some below) that had jumbled up
words, each time the slideshow progressed, the words were less jumbled up..
until they were all in order. Then, a
number of words were taken out.. until none were left.
Each time the kids tried to guess the memory verse or
remember it.
6. Action Song – “One Way Jesus”
With impromptu actions. Most kids joined in .
7. Game – Hear I sit
kids in a circle, on chairs, one chair is empty. One person (next to the empty chair) starts and says "here i sit, on this chair, with my friend xxxxx" and calls out the name of somebody else. That person sits next to them, the people either side of the new empty chair try and sit on that chair as quickly as possible. The first to do so is the winner, and says "here i sit....." repeat forever...
8. Final Prayer
Lessons Learnt:
The kids were lively, we had to wait several times for them
ALL to be quiet.
Some of the kids clearly knew why Jesus came to Earth.
However, they were easily argumentative between themselves!
