Dec 1^st Advent, Be Prepared

Game : Captains Daughter                          

List of instructions :

1. Port (run to left-hand wall)

2. Starboard (run to right-hand wall)

3. Fore (run to front)

4. Aft (run to back)

5. Climb the rigging (on the spot rope climbing actions)

6. Swab the decks (Mopping actions)

7. Cannon-ball coming (Lie flat on the floor)

8. Admiral's aboard (Stop dead, stand straight and salute at attention)

9. Captains Daughter (everybody stops and wolf whistles )

Explain that the children are all sailors on a ship, and the captain is expecting a visit from the admiral – so lots of preparations have to be made. Read out the instructions before the game begins and make sure that everyone understands what to do when each one is called.

One player is chosen as the captain and is given the list of instructions from which s/he can call at random. Once the captain calls "Admiral's aboard" the last person to obey the command is eliminated.

Play until one person is left and that person then becomes the captain & reads the list, in random order...

Question: What is Advent  

We showed the video below, then had a quick fire quiz

 

 

 

 

Questions:

1. Advent is a period lasting for how long… four Sundays
2. Advent the season of .. preparation
3. Advent the season of …. looking forward
4. Advent the season of… change
5. In the video that we saw, how many Candles did we see .. 20
6. Most common word displayed .. wait
7. Preparing for the celebration of… Jesus birth
8. In the video that we saw, how many SNOWFLAKEs did we see.. 25
9. Title of the song “I will wait for you”
10. We saw 2 people waiting and looking at a light shining down, what were they sitting on.. stairs
11. What am I waiting for?  Waiting for Jesus
12. What does advent means?  the coming of …. Something

CHRISTMAS TREE                   

Divide the children into small groups and ask them to read the Christmas story as recorded in Luke 2: 1-20.

Seek answers to the questions:

When was Jesus born (v 2)?

Why did Joseph travel to Bethlehem?(v4)

Where did Mary lay her baby? (v7)

What did the angels say to the shepherds? (v 10)

What was special about Jesus? (v 11)

Why were people amazed at what he shepherd's said ?(v 18)

What do you think Mary treasured? (v 19)

Why were the shepherds glorifying and praising God (v 19).

Ask the children to write on a blue bauble something that they have learned about Jesus' birth, that they want to remember this Christmas. If they wish they can copy a verse onto the bauble, or write something on their own. They can then go and hang their bauble on the tree.

Examples of baubles completed are below:

 

 

MEMORY VERSE  - Pass the Parcel

PASS THE PARCEL

Prep: A present with a word from the memory verse in every layer of paper & a sweet

Memory Verse: “They will call him Immanuel which means God with us" Matthew chapter 1 verse 23.”

We ran out of time for the following:

Reflection – Christmas Worship & Calendar drawing               

we were going to how the video below, the kids were then going to think  about how much God Loves them, not just at Christmas but all year. They drew a picture on some coloured card with a 2014 calendar on it.  

 

 

 

 

 

Prophesy - Deborah

May 5th 2013

Girl Power

Today is about a prophet, Deborah, we started by discussing if anybody knew about Deborah (and one of the kids said “is she the one that stabbed a tent peg in someone”, which of course is right, but not the focus of today!

Spoke about women in the bible.. led on to “Girl Power”, which led on to the Spice Girls (!)

For a bit of fun we all made simple masks of a spice girl, and (attempted to) danced to a Spice Girl Video (have to say, all but one of the children were boys, so this was a bit of fun!)

 

& some of the masks:

 

 

Origami

Spoke about Deborah being a prophet and making decisions so built a quick origami “choose”, some of the pictures used to guide the kids are below.

 

 

 

 

Word Association Brainstorm/Leadership

What is a judge, prophet, leader – that describes Deborah.

Played a quick game of “word association”, in groups of around 3, the kids wrote words that were associated with an initial word in 15+ seconds… words given are:

• TV,
• elephant,
• car,
• judge,
• prophet,
• leader

and we had some discussion about these...

Video – decisions

Showed a fun video about how to chose breakfast, discussed how we should make decisions and how Deborah did in her role.

Prediction Games

“it’s hard to make predictions”, so we played a few games, with the kids guessing who would win:

-          Running race (where only one person ran)

-          Running race (for all)

-          Throwing a die

 

Showed a card trick that amazed some of the kids, can’t write what I did here, will need to use it again! In short.. three piles of 3 cards, kids chose a pile, the  bottom card is shown to them, cards are shuffled, based on random things (eg kids name), and hey presto… the chosen card appears.

 

This led on to  a discussion about prophesy and messages people receive from God, how do they get them, do they happen now, some examples of messages received were given….

.. then we ran out of time, so final prayer and close..

 

However, a great Lego star wars version of the Deborah story (Judges 4) was planned to play, but timed out.. and is here….

(the day before was May the 4^th, Star Wars day, so this is so appropriate)