Thank you Coaches and Volunteers for serving!

Transcription

1 Thank you Coaches and Volunteers for serving!

2 Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction (Small Groups, 15 minutes) Activities that encourage preschoolers to enter the classroom and begin engaging with peers and Small Group Leaders by providing age appropriate and hands on fun while introducing new concepts they will hear in the day s Bible story. Prepare to offer one or more of the following activities as your 3-, 4-, or 5-year-olds arrive. Let one or two teachers lead activities in different areas of the room while another teacher greets parents and kids at the door. 1. Red Search Made to Move: an activity that uses a preschooler s natural desire to move to help them learn What You Need: Red items from around the room What You Do: Before the Activity: Gather several red items from around the room (red dishes and foods from the play kitchen, red paper, red toys, etc.) and hide them in easily found places around the room. Count how many items you ve hidden so you can make sure the children find them all. During the Activity: Gather the children in an open area of the room. Explain that you ve hidden a certain number of red items around the room for them to find. Once they find something red, they should return to the center of the room with their item(s). What You Say: Before the Activity: Today we re going on a red hunt! I ve hidden [number] red things around the room. Do you think you can find them all? Let s work together and go on a red search! After the Activity: Great job, friends! You found all the red things on our red search. I love the color red, don t you? Today we ll hear about something red in our Bible story. I can t wait!

3 2. Animal Match Made to Play: an activity that encourages preschoolers to follow guidelines while having fun and learning new concepts What You Need: Animal Matching Cards Activity Page, white cardstock, and scissors What You Do: Before the Activity: Copy Animal Matching Cards on cardstock and cut on dotted lines. For larger groups, make multiple sets of cards. During the Activity: Show the animal cards and their matches to the children and identify each animal. Then, place the cards in a grid pattern three rows of four cards. Let the children take turns turning over two cards at a time to find a match. If they find one, that child may turn over two more cards. If the child doesn t find the match, play moves to the next child. Continue until all matches have been found. Turn cards back over, face down in the grid pattern, and play as long as time and interest allow. What You Say: Before the Activity: Let s play a matching game. During the Activity: Let s take a look at some animals and you tell me what you see. (Pause as you show the cards to the children.) Yes, there are two elephants, two lions, two sheep, two birds, two alligators, and two giraffes. Now I m going to lay these out face down. Remember, there are TWO of each animal. We ll take turns. Each of you will have a chance to turn over two cards to find the animal match. If you DO find a match, you can turn over two more cards and play again! If not, we ll let the next friend have a turn. Let s get matching! After the Activity: Great job, friends. You found all the matches! These animals are in pairs two by two! We ll hear about some other animals who traveled in pairs two by two in our TRUE Bible story today. Let s go! Transition: Move to Worship and Story by calling out an animal for the children to mimic. Some options are: an elephant waving his trunk, a lion with a BIG roar, a flamingo standing up on one leg, a bald eagle soaring through the sky, a frog making a big RIBBIT, etc.

4 Connecting: Making the Story Apply to Them (Small Groups, 25 minutes) Create a safe place to connect through activities that are written to reach every learning style while reinforcing the Bottom Line that was introduced during the Bible Story and applying it to real life experiences. In addition, these activities provide preschoolers with an opportunity to build relationships with their Small Group Leader. 1. Two by Two Verse Hear from God Memory Verse Review Made to Move: An activity that uses a preschooler s natural desire to move to help them learn What You Need: No supplies needed What You Do: Before the Activity: Encourage the children to find a partner and hold hands. If they need help, assign partners for them. During the Activity: Have the pairs hold hands and line up. Move about five feet away from the line of children. Then encourage each pair of children to walk toward you, still holding hands as they repeat this month s memory verse. Continue with each pair until everyone has a turn saying the verse. What You Say: Before the Activity: We re learning a GREAT verse this month that says: Trust the LORD with all your heart, Proverbs 3:5. Since the animals entered the ark two by two, I thought it would be fun to say our verse two by two. After the Activity: I want everyone to find a friend and hold hands. (Pause as they follow directions, and be prepared to help if needed.) Great! Now, everyone line up here (point) in your pairs, still holding hands. I m going to stand over here. Each pair will take a turn walking toward me while saying the verse and still holding hands. Are you ready? (Pause.) Okay, first pair of friends, let s hear you. (Repeat with remaining pairs.) After the Activity: Wow, friends! You ve done a great job learning our memory verse. We CAN trust the Lord with all our heart because God keeps His promises. Who keeps His promises? (Pause.) God keeps His promises.

5 2. Into the Boat Live for God Application Activity Made to Move: An activity that uses a preschooler s natural desire to move to help them learn What You Need: Floor tape What You Do: Before the Activity: Use the floor tape to make a boat shape on the floor in the activity area. During the Activity: Ask the children to pretend to be the following animals and do the following movements to get in the boat. Repeat as desired. 1. Bunny: Hop 2. Elephant: Hold arm from face like a trunk 3. Giraffe: Stretch neck up tall 4. Penguin: Hold arms by sides and waddle What You Say: Before the Activity: Let s pretend that we are animals and get into the boat. (Point.) During the Activity: First, let s pretend to be bunnies. Let s hop onto the boat. (Do activity.) Great job, bunnies! Now let s pretend to be elephants. (Continue and finish activity.) After the Activity: You are awesome animals! Noah knew that God always keeps His promises, and He always keeps His promises to us too. Who keeps His promises? God keeps His promises!

6 3. Fill the Ark Live for God Application Activity Made to Create: an activity that allows preschoolers to review the Bible story, bottom line, or memory verse by creating a craft to take home What You Need: Noah s Ark Activity Page, white cardstock, animal stickers, cloud stickers, blue crayons/markers What You Do: Before the Activity: Copy the Noah s Ark Activity Page onto the cardstock. Place the blue crayons/markers where the kids can reach. During the Activity: Pass out a Noah s Ark Activity Page to each child. Give them each a few cloud stickers to place in the sky. Encourage them to use the blue crayons/markers to add rain coming from the clouds. Hand out animal stickers for them to add to their ark. What You Say: Before the Activity: (Hold up one of the Activity Pages.) Can anyone tell me what this is? (Pause.) Yes! It s the ark that Noah built. But what s missing? (Pause.) The animals and the rain! And this picture could also use some clouds! I thought it would be fun to add some clouds and rain in the sky, and some animals on the ark. Are you ready? After the Activity: Your pictures are BEAUTIFUL! I hope you will take these home and tell your family all about Noah and how God made a promise to him. Tell me, did God keep His promise to Noah? (Pause.) Yes! Can you believe God s promises? (Pause.) Yes! Who keeps His promises? God keeps His promises. Yes, he does. Always!

7 BIBLE STORY Choose an engaging adult to tell the Bible story. This person should be able to command the attention of preschoolers and control the group through animated storytelling. These scripts are written to be told and not read. Advanced preparation is necessary. WHAT YOU NEED: A Bible LEADER: Today s true story from the Bible (hold up Bible) is about a guy named Noah. What was his name? CHILDREN: Noah! LEADER: Awesome! One day, God told Noah to build a really, really, REALLY big boat called an ark. Everyone say, WHAAAT? CHILDREN: WHAAAT? LEADER: Yeah, that was how Noah felt because he had never seen a boat that big before. He was like, WHAAAT? but God said, Trust me, Noah! So Noah trusted God and built the ark just like God told him to. So let s pretend we re like Noah building that ark. Quick, everyone cut the wood like this. (Move your arm in a sawing motion.) (To the tune of Sailing, Sailing Over the Bounding Main) Sawing, sawing, sawing the logs in two. Great job! Now let s measure our boards. (Move your arms out to the sides as if measuring them.) Looks like it s about three feet. We re going to need a LOT more wood. Now let s hammer in some nails like this. (Move hand as if pounding in a nail.) Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap. Great job! There, Noah s all done building. Everyone clap for Noah! (Lead applause.) Great job, Noah! Look at how big that boat is! Everybody say, It s ginormous! CHILDREN: It s GINORMOUS!

8 LEADER: I wonder what God wants to put inside. Do you think God wants to fill it up with yellow and orange bouncy balls? CHILDREN: NO! LEADER: (Laughs.) Nope. What about green slime? CHILDREN: NO! LEADER: (Laughs.) No way. What about animals? CHILDREN: Yes! LEADER: You got it! God wanted Noah to fill the ark with two of every animal one boy and one girl. Hey, what s your favorite animal? (Pause for responses.) Mine walks around like this. (Walk like a penguin.) What am I? CHILDREN: A penguin! LEADER: Let s see, what about an animal with a trunk like this? (Wave arm from mouth like an elephant s trunk and make a trumpet sound.) CHILDREN: An elephant! LEADER: That s right. Okay, what about the one that has all the hair around its face and sounds like this. (Roar like a lion.) RAAAWWWWR! CHILDREN: A lion. LEADER: Boy, you really know your animals! Noah gathered two of every animal from the tall giraffes with the long necks to the slllllllithering snakes to the alligators (clap your hands together to show a big chomp ) to the cute little hopping bunnies. (Hop like a bunny.) So many animals. Okay, guys, can you help Noah get them on the boat? Everyone say, Animals on board! CHILDREN: Animals on board!

9 LEADER: Great job. After all the animals were on board the ark, God told Noah to get his family and to go inside the ark, and then God closed the door. And that was a good thing because it soon began to rain! Pat your hands on your legs like this (pat your legs) to make a rain sound. At first, it was just a few drops of rain. But there was more. (Pat legs faster.) And more and more. (Pat legs even faster.) Okay, you can stop patting. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights until the WHOLE world was covered in water. Noah and his family were kept safe on the ark because Noah believed God s promise. Even when we say, WHAAAT? We can believe that God keeps His promises. Tell me: Who keeps His promises? CHILDREN: God keeps His promises. LEADER: Yes, it s true! God keeps His promises. Noah trusted that God would keep his family safe in the ark, and we can trust Him too. Let s pray. PRAYER LEADER: God, thank You for the TRUE story of Noah and how he trusted You to keep his family safe by building the ark. Help us to trust You when You ask us to do something too. Thanks for loving us. We love You, God. Amen.