Kindergarten-2nd. Samson. August 29-30, Judges 13-16; Proverbs 3:5-6. God gives us special abilities to serve him.

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1 Kindergarten-2nd August 29-30, 2015 Samson Judges 13-16; Proverbs 3:5-6 God gives us special abilities to serve him. Connect Time (15 minutes): Five minutes after the service begins, split kids into groups and begin their activity. When kids arrive, welcome them by name. Tell them you re happy to see them and ask them to play a game with you. Large Group (30 minutes): Begin 20 minutes after the service starts. Model what it looks like to be engaged in large group. Small Group (15 minutes): Keep kids in small groups until parents arrive. If you all have extra time at the end, you can review the video and songs together. As kids leave, see if they can explain their new hair to their parents. Today s story has many parts that are hard for kids (or adults) to understand. What we do know for sure is that God uses unlikely people, and he used Samson to deliver his family and be part of his story. He wants to use each of us as a part of his story, too!

2 GOAL: Connect Time is all about engaging kids in an activity that allows them to connect with each other right away while simultaneously piquing their curiosity for Large Group and preparing their minds for what they re going to hear. FIND HIDDEN TALENTS *Break kids into small groups if possible. Tell kids you re looking for their hidden talents. List off the following skills/traits and let kids see if they can do them: o Roll their tongue o Wiggle their ears o Raise one eyebrow at a time o Touch their nose with their tongue o Wink o Wiggle their nose o Do the splits o Do a backbend o Pat their head and rub their belly o Let kids share other talents and have the group try it out! Debrief: o o What other talents has God given you? How do you think you could use those talents to honor God? (This might be tough since you ve talked a lot about silly talents. Share a personal example from your life so kids at least hear one example.) Before you go to Large Group, you can also remind kids of the expectations for Large Group behavior: (1) be kind, (2) listen when somebody speaks, and (3) follow the leader s instructions.

3 Goal: Kids will (1) retell the story of Samson, (2) understand that God gives each of us abilities to be used for him. Why? Samson can be a tough story to understand. But God was serious about saving his family from the Philistines and he gave Samson the tools to do it. He gives each of us the tools to serve him! Tip: You could use scissors if you have a small enough group. But if you don t have enough to go around, just have all the kids rip to complete the craft! REVIEW THE STORY 1. What was Samson s special ability? (strength) 2. What special job did God give Samson before he was born? (save God s family from the Philistines) 3. What did Samson have to do to keep his strength? (Samson had to eat and drink certain things and couldn t cut his hair) 4. Why did Samson lose all of his strength? (Delilah cut his hair) 5. Why did God give Samson back his strength at the end of his life? (so he could save the Israelites from the Philistines) MAKE IT PERSONAL Give each kid two strips of brown paper and two sheets of black construction paper. Have kids glue the construction paper to the brown strip (leave some room on each end so you can attach them to make a headband) Then rip strips of hair into the construction paper like the picture below: As kids are ripping hair, go around and measure their heads, securing the brown strips to fit around their forehead (use tape). Once kids are wearing their hair, ask them to share: What s one ability God gave YOU? How can you use it for him?

4 2 (Continue on the following page.) *Pray together, thanking God for all the abilities he gave the kids. Then give kids a coloring page. If you still have extra time, review the verse using the motions below. They ll learn a new one next week, so take this week to help them really cement what they ve heard. You can also try out some more silly talents (from Connect Time). Hand motions for verse review: Proverbs 3:5-6 (hold up 3 fingers, then 5, then 6) Trust in the LORD (point up) with all your heart; (put your hand over your heart) do not depend (shake your finger no ) on your own understanding. (point to your head) Seek his will in all you do, (fold your hands as if in prayer) and he will show you which path to take. (spread hands out, palms up)

5 1 You have an opportunity to share a personal story this week. Pray about it beforehand and really consider what God may want you to share with kids. Your life has a huge impact on them. When reviewing the verse with kids, use the motions provided so that it s consistent with what they ve been doing in small group thus far. WELCOME AND INTRO (5 min.) Hi everybody! Welcome to Kids Club. It s great to see you here. I saw LOTS of talents in you guys. And I think we all want to see some of them. Can I have a few volunteers to show us some of the skills we ve got in here? (Choose 3-5 kids and let them come up and demonstrate. Like in Connect Time, after each one, everybody try it out! Feel free to share your own secret talent as well.) Wow, incredible. Thanks, guys. Now have a seat. You know, God gives all of us talents or abilities. He has special jobs for us to do. And today, we re going to hear about one guy who had an ability that s pretty amazing. BELIEVE IT OR NOT! (2 min.) But you know what? Just like some of the stories we ve been hearing this month, this guy s ability is kind of hard to believe even though it s true. So to start, we re going to watch a video about another guy who has a crazy talent. Let s take a look: Video: Man Who Creates Gum Sculptures (about 1 min.) Oh wow, when I chew gum, it looks all wadded up and gross. In fact, we should always keep gum in our mouths. That guy has a pretty crazy skill that I bet nobody else in the world has! SAMSON IS STRONG (1 min.) Remember, we ve been hearing some stories where God did amazing things like make a donkey talk, tear down walls with trumpets, make the sun stand still and help an army win a war without any weapons! And in today s story, God gave an amazing skill to a guy named Samson. Can you guys say, Samson? (Let kids say: Samson.) Great job. Samson s talent was strength. He was stronger than everybody else. Can I see your muscles? (Let kids show you.) That looks pretty good but it was nothing compared to Samson!

6 Before Samson was even born, an angel appeared to his mother. The angel said that she would have a son who would save God s family, the Israelites, from a huge army that hated them called the Philistines. But Samson was special. He would be called a Nazirite. Can you guys say, Nazirite? (Let kids say it.) Being a Nazirite meant he was set apart for God. He could only eat and drink certain foods AND he could never cut his hair. He had to just let it grow. Raise your hand if you ve ever had a haircut (let kids respond). Yep, me too! But for Samson, he would lose all his strength if he cut his hair. Would you guys cut your hair if it meant becoming really weak? (Let kids vote.) Me neither! Well, we ll find out what Samson did in a second. SAMSON (5 min.) When Samson was alive, a group of people called the Philistines were living near God s family. Can you say, Philistines? (Let kids say it.) Great! They were causing the Israelites to disobey God by worshiping pretend gods and acting like they weren t a part of God s family at all. So God chose Samson to lead the people and get rid of the Philistines. The crazy thing is, even though Samson was the leader, he didn t need an army or any followers at all. He was strong enough to get rid of the Philistines all by himself! Samson actually made a lot of mistakes. In fact, he disobeyed God a lot. But God DID use Samson to rescue the Israelites from the Philistines. He had made him strong for a reason. Let s watch a video and see if Samson ever gave away the secret of his strength and how he saved God s family! Video: Samson (about 2 min.) Wow, can you believe that? Did Samson give away his secret? (Let kids say: yes.) Yes, he did. And he was weak for a long, long time. But at the end of his life, God gave him one more huge burst of strength, and what did he do? (Let kids respond.) That s right, he knocked down a huge building and got rid of lots and lots of Philistines. God used Samson s muscles to keep his family safe! TRUST IN THE LORD (6 min.) Guess what? God wants to use our abilities to care for his family, too. Some of our silly abilities like doing a backbend or making noises with our armpits might be just for fun. But maybe even those can be used to cheer people up when they re feeling sad. Or maybe you can sing or play music to use to worship God. Maybe you can play a sport and you ll get to tell your whole team about Jesus! One ability God gave me is and I get to (share one way God has gifted you and how you re using that to build his Kingdom). It s kind of like our verse, Proverbs 3:6-5: SLIDE: Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.

7 We don t know what God has planned, but if we trust that he made us who we are for a reason, and follow him, he ll show us what to do and he ll use us as part of his story! This is our last week to talk about this verse, so let s do some motions to help us remember it. Everybody, stand up! (Lead the kids in doing the following motions. If you have time, repeat them!) Proverbs 3:5-6 (hold up 3 fingers, then 5, then 6) Trust in the LORD (point up) with all your heart; - (put your hand over your heart) do not depend (shake your finger no ) on your own understanding. (point to your head) Seek his will in all you do, - (fold your hands as if in prayer) and he will show you which path to take. (spread hands out, palms up) Great job! Now have a seat. (Let kids sit.) RESPOND AND PRAY (4 min.) Now let s take time to ask God how he wants to use US and the talents he gave us. We re going to listen to a song. As you listen, say in your head, God, how do you want to use me? If you get an idea or picture in your head, it might be from God! Music Video: Who I Am Great worship, everybody! Now let s pray: (lead to model prayer for the kids) God, thank you for making us. Thank you that we can be part of your story, even if we mess up. Please help us to follow you and trust you with our whole hearts. WORSHIP (2 min.) Now let s worship God by telling him we ll stop and listen to him, and think about how we can use our abilities to follow him. Music Video: Before I Go *Dismiss kids to small groups.

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10 Per room None Per kid 2 strips of brown construction paper (3 wide x 12 long) 2 pieces of black construction paper Per group Markers 1 Bible roll of tape glue sticks Bible 1. Slide: Believe It or Not! loop 2. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 3. Video: Man Sculpting Gum ( 4. Video: Samson (in Keynote folder and on server in Videos>Miscellaneous) 5. SLIDE: Proverbs 3:5-6: Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. 6. Song: Who I Am ( 7. Song: Before I Go Tell me about Samson. How did God use Samson s ability?