3PK January 16-17, 2016 Luke 3 First 10 minutes of the service hour: Engage kids in cooperative play activities to help them connect to other kids Next 5 minutes: Connect Time Next 25 minutes: Large Group Jesus was baptized. People followed Jesus. When a kid is disruptive during Large Group, take the opportunity to connect with the kid yourself instead of leaving discipline to the presenter. Redirect the kid s attention by sitting next to them, or ask them to do something quiet with their hands or feet. Last 25 minutes: Snack and Small Group Ask kids how they practiced following a leader today! Today is about the story of Jesus being baptized! It s an opportunity to help kids understand what baptism truly means, and how God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
GOAL: Connect time is all about engaging kids in a short, interactive game to prepare them for Large Group. Clean up! (10 minutes after the service start time, when you get the 5-minute warning from the presenter) Line kids up. Say: We re going to talk about following Jesus today. Do you want to follow Jesus? (Let kids answer.) Tell kids that we re going to play follow the leader. They have to do everything you do, and follow behind you. Have kids follow you in line around the room. Here s some examples: o Skip o March o Walk sideways o Pretend to swim o Pretend that there are bugs on the floor and you re trying not to squish them o Pretend you re an animal o Dance o Pretend to fly o Hop o Walk on your tip-toes o Stomp o Wiggle your arms o Walk on one leg o Make up your own! As you walk into Large Group, encourage kids to put on their listening ears! Remind them that HOPS will be showing us how we should act in Large Group, so we have to listen!
Goal: Kids will (1) understand why Jesus was baptized and (2) recognize what it means to follow Jesus. Why? Preschoolers are learning all kinds of rules to follow in school and at home, but we want them to understand that the most person to follow is Jesus, and they can do it right now! Tip: Kids this age may not fully grasp the concept of baptism, but it s still a good opportunity to introduce them to something they ll hopefully do down the road! REVIEW THE STORY 1. What strange things did John the Baptist do? (Wore camel hair clothes and ate bugs) 2. What did John the Baptist do for Jesus? (He baptized Jesus) 3. When we get baptized, who are we choosing to follow? (Jesus) 4. Can we follow Jesus right now? (Yes) 5. Here are some ways we can follow Jesus right now (Let kids respond and demonstrate the corresponding motion): a. Can we help our friends? (Yes; pretend to give a toy to someone) b. Can we talk to God? (Yes; fold your hands and bow your head) c. Can we obey our grownups? (Yes; give a thumbs up) d. Can we sing and dance to worship Jesus? (Yes: do some dance moves) FOLLOW-THE-LEADER BEANBAG TOSS Line kids up (split them into two groups if you have a large group) Choose a leader and an object somewhere in the room. o The leader tosses the beanbag toward that object. o Wherever the beanbag lands becomes the NEW target. (Leave it there.) o Each kid following takes turns trying to hit the leader s beanbag! After all kids have gone, start over with a new leader. Give everyone a chance. Since there aren t enough beanbags for every kid, gather up beanbags after they ve all been thrown and redistribute them to kids. *Pray for kids before they leave. Ask him to help us follow Jesus no matter what. Extra time? Have kids do a coloring sheet. After that, play Animal Party. Have everyone gather together, and let kids take turns pretending to be a different animal. Everyone else has to follow the leader and pretend to be that animal too
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1 We have a new song today! It s called Be Strong Take Courage. Go to this link to watch and familiarize yourself with the motions so you can help kids do them! Here s a video we ll watching today about John the Baptist: https://vimeo.com/57088532 https://vimeo.com/144037020 Hi Friends! Welcome to Kids Club. I'm and I'm really glad you're here today. Before we get started, I want you to meet my friend HOPS. Video: HOPS: Put your listening ears on! (Holding up the Bible for kids to see) This is God s story. Out of all the stories in the world, this story is the most important. Do you know what it s called? (Let kids respond the Bible.) That s right, the Bible! It s God s Rescue plan. In the beginning, God made the whole world and everything in it. And it was all GOOD. Give me a big thumbs up! (Let kids respond. Then change your tone.) But THEN, something bad happened. Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and all the wrong things came into the world. Things like sadness and death. Show me your sad face. (Let kids respond.) Even though Adam and Eve disobeyed God, God loved them anyway! He planned a great rescue so that Adam and Eve and you and me could be close to God again! Do you know who the rescuer is? (Let kids say: Jesus!) That s right! Jesus! INTRO: JOHN THE BAPTIST One man named John lived his whole life to tell everybody to follow Jesus. His name was John the Baptist. Can you say John the Baptist? (Let kids respond.) John was very different from other people. He wore clothes made of camel hair. (Click to show picture of camel.) Would you want to wear a shirt made of camel hair? (Let kids respond.) Guess what he ate for his meals? (Click to show picture of bugs and honey.) What are these? (Let kids respond.) Yep, bugs! He ate bugs dipped in honey! Yuuuck!
Even though John was strange, God had a VERY special job for him. John taught people to follow Jesus! Do you think that a pretty cool job to have? (Let kids respond.) We re going to watch a video about John. Since John followed Jesus, he got to do something really, really special for him. As you watch, see if you can figure out what John did for Jesus. Video: God s Story / John the Baptist So what did John get to do for Jesus? (Let kids respond.) That s right, he baptized Jesus! Baptism is what we do when we want to tell everybody, I follow Jesus! But guess what? We can all follow Jesus right now! All we have to do is act like Him. WE CAN FOLLOW JESUS TOO Let s stand up and practice what it means to follow. Following means you do what somebody else does. So everybody follow me! Ready? (Model the following actions first and let kids respond.) Reach to the ceiling Touch your toes Give a friend a high five Spin around Take a giant step back Take two hops forward Sit on the ground Wow, you guys are good followers! Now, I don t know if Jesus did the silly things we just did, but he DID do other things that we can follow. Since Jesus helped people, can we help people? (Let kids respond, Yes! ) Since Jesus loves God, can we love God? (Let kids respond, Yes! ) Jesus obeyed his parents, so can we obey our parents? (Let kids respond, Yes! ) Jesus prayed to God, so can we pray to God too? (Let kids respond, Yes! ) Good job, you re all right! Jesus loves it when we act like him. PRAY (Break it down into small, repeatable phrases) Dear Jesus. We love you. We want to follow you. Amen! WORSHIP There s one way we can follow Jesus right NOW. We can worship him, and focus on just him while we sing and dance. Today we ve got a new music video we re going to watch, and we can follow the motions on the screen! So go ahead and stand up. Music Video: Be Strong Take Courage Music Video: Come With Me Song: Deep and Wide (extra song if you have time left over) Dismiss kids to small groups. (Be creative as you dismiss them. Ask them to come give you a high five first, or maybe tiptoe or hop to their groups.)
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"Follow the Leader" game - no supplies needed Per group: 5 beanbags markers Per kid: Coloring page Per Group: Bible 1. Song slide: for when kids enter the room (All that You Need instrumental; mp3 only; can be downloaded on website) 2. Video: HOPS: Put your listening ears on! (https://vimeo.com/67408013) 3. Image: Camel 4. Image: Locust / Bugs & Honey 5. Video: God s Story / John the Baptist (https://vimeo.com/57088532) 6. Music Video: Be Strong Take Courage (https://vimeo.com/144037020) 7. Music Video: Come With Me (motions) (https://vimeo.com/49923933) 8. Song: Deep and Wide (KC & SM media videos songs>songs>songs with slides) Who was John the Baptist? How can we follow Jesus?