Option 1
What You Do:
· Welcome kids to the group by name.
· If a kid brought an offering, invite them to put their offering in the offering container.
· Compete in a singing challenge based on “Jingle Bells.”
· Instruct the kids to sing the chorus of “Jingle Bells” or play it on a phone or another device that plays music.
· Then, challenge the kids to see how long they can sing a nursery rhyme song to the tune of “Jingle Bells.”
· Here are some nursery rhyme song ideas:
o “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
o “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star”
o “Wheels on the Bus”
o “Frere Jacques”
· The winner is the kid who can sing the most lyrics of their song without going back to singing “Jingle Bells,” pausing for a long time, or laughing!
Hope Undercover
[Live for God | Application Activity]
Made to Play: an activity that encourages learning through following guidelines and/or working as a group
What You Need: Paper plates, marker, small items, spoons, and buckets
What You Do:
· Set the covered plates at one end of your small group area and the two buckets at the other end.
· Give each kid a spoon.
· Create two teams and line each team up behind a bucket.
o One at a time, each kid will run to their set of plates and scoop off some of the items on the plate.
o They will run their full spoon back to the other end of the room and dump the items in the bucket.
o If anything falls off their spoon while they’re running, they have to go back and place those things back on the plate—without losing more off their spoon!
o Once a kid has put an object in the bucket, the next kid can remove items from the plates.
o The team who empties their plates of items to reveal “HOPE” first, wins.
o Optional: If you’re using more plates with random letters for older kids, teams must play until they have a set of cleared-off “HOPE” plates.
· Make sure all of the small items are gathered up and put inside the buckets.
· Save the plates to use again during prayer time.
· If you used Christmas candy as your plate-covers, let kids have a piece while you talk together.
What You Say:
“Aha! At the end of our game, hope was revealed! This reminds me of how, as time passed, God’s people got more and more details about God’s big promise to send a Savior to rescue everyone. His promise got clearer and clearer.
“Way back in the beginning of God’s Story, when the first people broke their relationship with God, God promised to fix it. Then, later in God’s Story, God promised Abraham that the world would be blessed by his family. Later in God’s Story, God promised King David that one of his descendants would be King forever. Then in God’s Story, God promised, through the prophet Isaiah, that the Savior would pay for our sins. As time went on, God’s promise of a Savior got clearer and clearer. Then, God kept His big promise. He sent Jesus. We could see our hope! That’s what we celebrate at Christmas! All through the Bible, we see that God always keeps His promises. [Bottom Line] We can have hope because God keeps His promises.
“What promises of God do you have hope in?” (Invite kids to share. If the kids are having trouble remembering the promises God has made to them, remind them that God has promised to love us, to be with us, to forgive us, to give us strength and courage, to take care of us, etc.)
Optional Discussion Questions for Older Kids
If you lead 4th, 5th, or 6th graders, consider asking these discussion questions:
· God’s people waited a long time for a Savior to rescue them. What do you think kept God’s people watching for a Savior all those years? How would you have felt?
· What’s one of God’s promises that you have a hard time feeling is true?
· What are some ways you can help yourself remember that God will keep every single promise He has made to you?
· What would you say to a friend who struggles to have hope? How could you show them that [Bottom Line] we can have hope because God keeps His promises?
