Jesus - who do you say he is? 24 April 2014

(mid week group, 8 -11 )

Intro game – Uno Spin

Opening Activity –

Pictures of famous people, covered with post its, the kids have to try and guess who they are

Q: in our day to day lives, how can we tell who people are? Seeing their face is most obvious, but we also know people by their voices, mannerisms… etc etc

my choice was... Kate & Will ; Hacker T Dog & Little Mix - they all got them pretty quickly!

Bible Story-

Kids construct a boat out of big cardboard boxes beforehand 

And given jobs to do to act out the story – Jesus , disciples, storm (making noises)

Practise storm noises/sounds.. Show Simple signs to raise volume of storm, lower it… stop completely

Luke 8:22-25

In summary – Jesus was very powerful, but the friends didn't understand who he was…

Video clip – “who was Jesus”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKo4Hsbti1E

& discussion

Sit and think

Who was Jesus, play Larry Norman, The Outlaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKjCOOF7MMc&feature=youtu.be

(we discussed who Jesus was, looked at the lyrics below, and thought about our personal choice of what we thought he was to us.. some great conversations) 

Larry Norman - the Outlaw

Some say he was an outlaw that he roamed across the land
With a band of unschooled ruffians and few old fishermen
No one knew just where he came from or exactly what he'd done
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run

Some say he was a poet that he'd stand upon the hill
That his voice could calm an angry crowd and make the waves stand still
That he spoke in many parables that few could understand
But the people sat for hours just to listen to this man

Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery
He could walk upon the water, he could make a blind man see
That he conjured wine at weddings and did tricks with fish and bread
That he talked of being born again and raised people from the dead

Some say a politician, who spoke of being free
He was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee
He spoke out against corruption and he bowed to no decree
And they feared his strength and power so they nailed him to a tree

Some say he was the Son of God, a man above all men
That he came to be a servant and to set us free from sin
And that's who I believe he is 'cause that's what I believe
And I think we should get ready 'cause it's time for us to leave

13th April 2014 - Palm Sunday

Game- hit me

One child in the middle of a big circle

One child has the sponge ball. He counts loudly to 10. As he counts the rest of the children run around the room as far away as they can.

When the player with the ball reaches ten everyone has to stay where they are.

The player with the ball then chooses one of the children to throw the ball at, aiming to hit them on or below the knee. If he hits that child then the child has the ball for the next go. If he doesn't hit anyone he keeps the ball again for another try.

Growing words

Kids sit in a circle

Each child has to say a word of a certain number of letters, starting from 3. 1^st says a word starting with A, 2^nd with B etc…

If Z is ever made, increase number of letters to 4..

(this was popular!)

Enter the King

Shrek 2

Summary:

In Shrek 1 Fiona (who is an ogre by night and a princess by day) has been rescued from a tower by the ogre Shrek. She has made the choice to become an ogre like her husband. Her parents, who still think that she was rescued by Prince Charming and is a Princess 24/ 7, have invited her and her husband for a visit. In this clip Fiona and Shrek arrive ...

Start time: 11:56 - the carriage enters the castle precincts

End time: 14:13 "And this is my husband, Shrek!"

Length of clip: 2:57

Play the clip and discuss these questions:

· How were Shrek and Fiona supposed to be welcomed?

· Who was involved in the ceremony?

· What happened when Shrek got out of the carriage?

· Why did everyone stop cheering?

· What sort of people get royal welcomes today - how many can you think of?

· Why do we go out of our way to line the streets to watch royalty or pop stars go past?

· What sort of thing would make us stop welcoming people this way?

· If a large crowd welcomes someone what do we think about that person?

Puppet Palms

Equipment required: Paper, pens, scissors, glue, Bibles.

Ask the children to make the props you will need to tell the story by puppet show.

Disciples

Donkey

Colt

Jesus

Big leaves and trees

Religious leaders

Coats to be thrown onto the ground

“crowds”

Some of the children need to make disciples. Two should cut out the donkey and the colt. One child needs to make Jesus, who should have a cut between his legs so he can mount the colt later on!

Some children need to make long leaves attached to kitchen roll tube to be trees, some need to make religious leaders - dress them in robes - and some should make coats to be thrown onto the ground.

If you have a large group some can make "crowd" - a piece of paper with lots of small people drawn on them.

When the props are ready tell the story using a table as the stage.

Read it from Mark 11:1-10 and John 12:19.

On the first reading, after each verse talk about which puppets will need to be on stage and agree who is going to hold them and where they might move.

Then read the story a second time with the children moving the puppets around without prompting.

You may like to video the children's puppet show so that they can watch it a third time!!!

Ask the children why they think Jesus came into Jerusalem like that?

Do you think he wanted everyone to notice that he had arrived? Why?

Elijah – March 9th 2014

1.     Game – Busy Bees

Ask each child to find a partner and to space themselves out in the room.

The leader calls out various commands which the children are to obey, such as "Stand side to side", "Back to back", "Link Elbows","Join a the knees" etc.

However when the leader calls "Busy Bees", each player has to try to find a new partner. The leader also joins in and finds a partner. The one who has no partner becomes the leader for the next round.

 

2.     Game – Handover

Select a player to be the King.

This person faces the wall and the other players stand behind the King without moving.

The King throws the ball over their head to the players behind.

If the ball is caught the catcher becomes the new king.

Often the ball is not caught and players scramble to get it. Once the ball is recovered by someone it is hidden behind the back of one of the players. When they are ready,   The King then turns round and has to guess who has the ball.

This game can be continued as long as necessary.

Once you have finished the game sit down with the children and discuss handovers.

-          What did you have to do in the game to become the new King?

-          Ask the children how people might feel once they have to move on from a situation.

-          Can they think of any examples when they have had to move on

 

 

Introduced  Elijah and who he was. we spoke about how cool he was.. and that he was taken up in to heaven (never died), showed a quick picture to introduce Elisha...

 

 

3.     Drama

Before you begin divide the children into the following groups

-          Elijah ;

-          Prophets of Baal;

-          people;

-          Ahab.

Give the children a brief description of what each group was like

-          Elijah the prophet was a man of God, trusting in God for what was about to happen, keen to get it right.

-          The prophets of Baal believed in rituals, in dancing and shouting - in putting on a good show for the people.

-          The people were easily led, supposedly supporting the prophets of Baal at the beginning but then possibly changing sides if it looks as though they were supporting the wrong side.

-          Ahab was a worshipper of Baal - a hen pecked husband,  a man who did not like to be contradicted. He hated Elijah.

Read the story from the bible - from 1 Kings 18:16-40. Let the children have fun and act out the story as you read it - this means that it will tend to be fresh and spontaneous.

 

At the end ask the different groups how they felt. Provide a "hot seat" (chair), and ask one of the children who played Elijah to explain how they felt as the story progressed.

-          Were they confident all the way through?

-          Were they frightened by the noise and shouting of the prophets of Baal?

-          Did they feel intimidated because there was one of them and 450 of the prophets?

Help the children see that Elijah acted in faith - he believed God and did what he believed God was

telling him to do. He was obedient and trusted God in spite of other people, in spite of the fact he was the only one, in spite of the fact that everyone else seemed to be against him.

Do we trust God in the same way that Elijah did.

Are they willing to do what they think is right regardless?

 Are they willing to trust God for the outcome - sometimes we want to know what will happen before we begin work.

The example of Elijah reminds us to trust and obey. 

4.     Quiz (after reading 1 Kings 19:1-18)

kids split in to teams, if they answer a question right, they select a picture of an item of food stuck on the wall, on the reverse of each picture is a number = points won.

 

1. The name of the King was	8. What did the angel bring to Elijah?
a) Jeraboam.	a) A copy of the scriptures to read.
b) Ahab.	b) A list of things that needed doing.
c) Charles.	c) Some food and drink.
2. Jezebel the Kings’ wife promised to do something to Elijah. What was it?	9. Where did the angel tell Elijah to travel to?
a) Give him a slap up meal.	a) Mount Hore.
b) Invite him to the palace.	b) Mount Carmel.
c) Kill him.	c) Jerusalem.
3. How did Elijah react:	10. How long did it take Elijah to travel there?
a) He was frightened and ran away.	a) 5 months.
b) He went and had a party to celebrate God’s victory.	b) 3 days.
c) He couldn’t care less.	c) 40 days and 40 nights.
4. Where did Elijah run to?	11. What did God ask Elijah?
a) His friend’s house.	a) Have you had a good journey?
b) The nearest city.	b) Did you enjoy the food?
c) The desert.	c) What are you doing here?
5. What sort of a tree did Elijah sit under?	12. What did God promise He would do?
a) An oak tree.	a) Pass by.
b) A broom tree.	b) Bring him another meal.
c) A palm tree.	c) Send him back to sort out Ahab for God.
6. What did Elijah pray for?	13. How did God’s voice sound to Elijah – was it in:
a) That he could die.	a) An earthquake?
b) A miracle.	b) The wind?
c) Help.	c) A gentle whisper?
7. What did God send to help Elijah?	14. What did Elijah say when God asked him why he was there?
a) An angel.	a) He was sorry for himself and said the
b) A friend.	Israelites were trying to kill him.
c) Another prophet.	b) Pretended that everything was ok.
	c) Made out he had come on holiday.
	15. How did God reply to Elijah?
	a) He told him off for being afraid
	b) He told Elijah that Elijah had messed up
	and was no longer fit to be his prophet.
	c) He gave Elijah a new job to do.

 

 

 

At which point we ran out of time, final prayer and time to go…

 

2 Feb 2014: Faith: To Believe The Impossible

1         Wheelbarrow Race 

Not sure of the link, but the kids enjoyed it!

2 Quiz - blind faith

Ø  4 chairs, labelled A B C D

“Gonna read out some remedies for health problems. Historically correct, kids to chose which they think they would prefer. Gonna ask some folk why they have chosen, so listen well.”

Fever

A)     Take a spoon of treacle (made from 40 ingredients which took 12 days to make, including snake skin

B)      Have a cut made in your arm to let the bad blood out

C)      Wrap yourself in red cloth and tie red cloth to the bed you sleep in

D)     Take a cold bath several times a day

Nits

a)      Use dog shampoo, instead of normal shampoo

b)      Put Vaseline in your hair overnight, wrap it in a towel and wash it off in the morning

c)       Wash your hair with mayonnaise

d)      Shave all your hair off.

Headache

a)      Drill a hole in the skull to relieve pressure

b)      Massage your head with lavender oil

c)       Drink half a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in water

d)      Eat 2 tablespoons of honey after each meal

“each time we chose to put faith in one of these things, its putting your trust totally into someone or something”

“when we have faith in God we choose to trust him, and do what he says”

“David in todays story chose to have faith in what God said and now in what other people around him said”

3 Bible Study

“Who knows the story of David and Goliath?”

Each sentence below is in on  sheet of A4, kids have to get them in order,

Giant called Goliath challenges the Jews to  a fight.

Jews were all afraid

David, however, said he would fight and win!

Other Jews told David not to do it

David chose not to wear any armour

He took 5 small stones and a sling

1 stone hit Goliath on the head and he fell

David took his sword and cut his head off

 

Q:

a)      Why did they think that none of the rest of the Jews dared to fight Goliath

b)      What reasons would the soldiers have given for not fighting Goliath

c)       What reasons can you think of that David would have given to say he COULD fight Goliath

d)      Did others agree with David when he said he could fight Goliath

“Have any of us ever fought a giant?”

“what things do we find hard, that maybe could be represented by Goliath”?

“”
David had little faith, he had killed a lion and a bear, so the giant was the next step

And for us, if we continue to pray and know what God wants us to do, we can take little steps, but can do amazing things

4         Song: Faith as small as a mustard seed

 

 

5         Word Collage (10m)

Ø  Paper and pens out

Ø  Video set up

during this we listed/watched this animation

 

“what words come in to your mind when you think of having faith in God? What has God made, what can he do? How  big is God? What is he like?”

“write the words whilst the video is playing”

 

6         Video of what kids think  Faith is:

just to finish off we talked about Faith and what it is. Most of the kids had a good understanding, the discussin was quite wide.,,

final video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R5XYrlfx4w

 

finished off with some games