What Kids are Learning Sunday September 6, 2020

Following Worship in the park...

The basics:

Today’s Bible Story: Ephesians 1: 1-12
Today’s Bottom Line: God chooses us. He has good plans for us.

The Goal:

Give kids an opportunity to socialize with each other and their small group leaders while allowing them to be physically active and reinforce the scripture message from service as much as possible.

Ideas:

Red Light/Green Light

Duck Duck Goose

Any game of tag, relay race ect.

When you choose teams for the relay race, you could number them off 1,2,1,2 etc. and afterwards talk about how it would have felt if you'd chosen teams. Relate it back to the sermon and how God always chooses us and He chose us first.

Here is the kid's bulletin. If you are able to divide into small groups, go over the questions with your kids.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday August 30 at the Park for SGLs

Plans for the park

Today’s Bible Story: With a Little Help from My Friends (Four Friends Who Helped)  Mark 2:1-12
Today’s Bottom Line: God created you to work with others.
Monthly Memory Verse: LORD, you are great. You are really worthy of praise. No one can completely understand how great you are. Psalm 145:3 (NIrV)

It's difficult to plan when I don't know for certain who will be there. If my SGLs are there I will split you into your small groups.

I'm bringing the parachute, so that could be our large group time. For a quick lesson/activity related to today's story/bottom line. We will have one kid try and catapult the ball off the parachute. When that fails, we will have them all try and then say:

“When you combined your efforts and worked together, you were able to catapult the ball. [Bottom Line] God created you to work with others, and when we combine our resources and our creativity, we can do more TOGETHER than we could alone. What if you got hurt on the playground? It would be great to have a group of your friends work together to help you. One friend could stay with you while another friend got the teacher. What about cleaning up the classroom after a big art project? If you had to do it by yourself, it would take a long time. If the whole class worked together, you could get the job done so much quicker.”

As small groups, I encourage you to spread out to shaded areas. If there are two of you in a group, you can go anywhere. If it's only one adult, try to stay near another group, but again, take your chairs and go sit in the shade somewhere! There are a lot of picnic tables around the park in shade.

What You Do:

Bring your Bible and read Mark 2:1-12
• Sit in a circle.
• Challenge kids to go around the circle and name the people who made it possible for them to have breakfast that day, without repeating any of the previous people mentioned.
o Their answers might include such people as their mom, dad, relative, a dairy farmer, grocery store checkout person, doughnut shop baker, and so on.
• Continue until someone is unable to come up with a unique answer within five seconds.
• Repeat with other areas of life in which we rely on others.
• Kids can make suggestions or use ideas from the list below:
o Who made it possible for you to . . .
watch a YouTube demonstration of how to decorate a cake
wear the shoes you have on
turn on a light
text a friend
eat a pizza

What You Say:
“It’s crazy how many people are involved in making it possible for us to do something as simple as eating breakfast. Imagine what it would be like if any one of those people you mentioned decided they weren’t going to do their job or work together. We’d all be sitting here very hungry! Imagine if the paralyzed man in the story today didn't have his friends to help him?"

 

What Kids are Learning August 16, 2020

What Kids are Learning Sunday August 9, 2020

At the Park!

Today’s Bible Story: Place in This World (We Are God’s Creation)  Ephesians 2:10
Today’s Key Question: How are you creative?
Today’s Bottom Line: God created you, so you can be creative.
Monthly Memory Verse: LORD, you are great. You are really worthy of praise. No one can completely understand how great you are. Psalm 145:3 (NIrV)
Monthly Life App: Creativity—Imagining what you could do because you’re made in God’s image.
Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.

Parachute Games

Direction change
Players run with the parachute in a circle – at the signal, the direction is changed.

The catapult
A ball lying on a parachute is catapulted as high as possible.

Fleas
Several small balls (plastic balls, tennis balls, table tennis balls) are placed on a parachute and the players try to get the fleas to jump higher and higher. The fleas are gotten rid of at the end of the game and land outside of the parachute.

Create your own
Encourage kids to come up with their own games.
Rules:
We can’t switch places.
We can’t sit under the parachute.
We can’t tag each other or capture each other.
You know – we have to stay distanced.

Wrap Up and Say:
Way to be creative! God has given each person their own special brand of creativity. You may already know what some of your talents are, or maybe you have gifts just waiting to be discovered. Pay attention to the things you enjoy doing. What are you good at—without even trying? Or maybe you don’t feel like you’re good at much. Ask some people who know you best to suggest things they feel you’re good at. Sometimes family members, teachers, coaches, or Small Group leaders can see things in us that we don’t see. It’s exciting to keep discovering and developing our creativity. Keep trying new things to find out what you’re good at then ask God to show you ways to use those skills for Him. There’s no limit to the different opportunities you’ll find. So, get creative!”

Just for fun – divide into two teams. Give each kid on each team a squirt bottle and small plastic ball. They use the squirt bottle to move their ball across the other team’s finish line.

First Lights at Home Sunday August 2, 2020

Story and Worship Experiences!

Elementary

Today’s Bible Story: Everywhere You Look (Creation)

Genesis 1–2:3 (supporting: Genesis 2:7, 21-22)

Today’s Bottom Line: There’s no limit to God's creativity.
Monthly Memory Verse: LORD, you are great. You are really worthy of praise. No one can completely understand how great you are. Psalm 145:3 (NIrV)

For Official Orange Videos and Follow-up Guides