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This week's theme: Thinking of others/kindness
Goals: To teach the children that:
1.The Bible is our guide for living
2.God wants each of us to think of others.
3.The way that we treat others is a reflection of Christ in us.
Opening object lesson:
You will need an assortment of small items with matching large items, like a Barbie shoe and an adult shoe, a tiny play
fork and a big fork, etc.
Place the large items in the puppet stage for the someone to throw out at the appropriate time. Place the small items
on a table visible to the kids.
As you begin the lesson, notice the small items and draw the kid's attention to them. Comment on the fact that somebody
left their stuff laying around. Wonder aloud what you are going to do with it. Decide that you will give it to the Swedish
fish. Throw the first small item into the puppet stage. Immediately the large matching item should come flying out of the
puppet stage. Repeat with the remaining items, each time waiting for the matching large item to come flying out. Notice
that whatever you put in comes back out larger! It's kind of like what happens when we are kind and think of others first,
when we give to others, God gives back to us in abundance. God wants us to think about others and show kindness to them instead
of thinking about ourselves only. Throw in a mini candy bar and wait to see what is going to come out.
As you are explaining the idea of thinking of others first, the Swedish fish comes up with a large candy bar which he
says just appeared in his dish. The leader suggests that he share the candy bar with the moose. He says he would rather eat
it all himself. The leader finally convinces him that he needs to think about the moose's feelings too and he needs to share.
The Swedish fish tells the leader to wait while he goes and cuts the candy bar in half. He comes back up with a teensy tiny
piece of candy bar and shows the leader the piece that he has cut for the moose. The leader can use this action to talk about
kindness and putting others first. The Swedish fish finally gets the point and goes off to give the moose his fair share
of the candy bar.
Chef Skit:
The Swedish chef comes in to the room in his crazy manner, singing and flinging his utensils around. He runs around the
room dancing and singing. He is very excited because he is making his favorite desert. When the leader asks if she can try
some of his desert he is very mean and he makes comments about her weight and says she shouldn't have any. He is very mean
to the leader and doesn't think about her feelings at all. As the dialog between the chef and the leader progresses the chef
gets more and more agitated as he thinks only of himself. He suddenly takes a can of whipping cream and sprays it in the
leader's face and then runs off to eat his desert all alone.
The leader explains to the children that God is concerned about the way that we treat others. He wants us to think of
others first and treat them with kindness and concern.
The Bible is full of stories that tell us how to live and what to do. And it is full of stories of people who chose to
do just that.
Crazy Moose story: Cocoa the crazy moose pops out in the puppet stage. He tells the leader that he knows all about those
stories. He has a great one to tell. He says he will be right back and comes up with a dunce cap that says Fool on it.
He says that he knows a story about a city who had a shortage of fools, everyone was very smart and knew they needed to be
kind. The leader explains that today's story is about a city that had a shortage of food. She explains that there was such
a shortage that people were selling dove poop for 2 ounces of silver. The moose says he knows what comes next and he leaves
to retrieve another prop. He comes back up with a toy leopard and explains that there were some leopards sitting outside
the city. The leader corrects him and tells him that there were lepers, people with a skin disease. She explains that because
of the skin disease they were outcasts and nobody wanted them around. The moose brings out a rose and says that that is why
they are sitting around waiting for a date. The leader explains they were sitting around the city GATE. The moose comes
back with an egg and says "ah they were sitting at the gate waiting to fry eggs." The leader says they were sitting
around waiting to die. The leader explains that the disease was deadly and they felt like no matter what they did they were
going to die so they decided to go to the enemy camp and see if they could get food. The moose thinks this is a good idea
and he thinks it is a good idea for the leader to finish telling the story. The leader finishes telling the story found in
2 Kings 7. Emphasize the fact that the lepers thought of others and showed kindness in spite of the fact that others treated
them poorly.
Cool Clyde's death defying double dare:
Cool Clyde comes out to teach the memory verse. After teaching the verse he challenges the kids to his death defying
double dare. This dare involves eating something really gross that he has cooked up. One child from each team comes up and
takes the item out of Clyde's lunch bag, put it in their mouth and eat it and then recite the verse.
This week Cool Clyde has peanut butter cups with mushrooms on them.
Matthew 19:19 Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Game Pudding Share Pairs: You will need a pudding cup for each contestant. Select two pairs of contestants.
Tell the teams that the object of the game is to be the first team to get all of their pudding eaten. Tie the hands of
one contestant from each team behind their back. Give each team two pudding cups and two spoons. Tell them that on go they
can begin eating their pudding. They can do it any way they want as long as the player whose hands are tied remain tied.
(hopefully the teams will figure out that if the player with free hands feeds the other child they can get the pudding eaten
quickly.)
After playing the game discuss the following:
1.How did the teams handle the eating of the pudding? Were there other options?
2.How does this tie into the lesson? (they had to think about their partner, they had to be kind, they had to be helpful,
etc.)
Closing object lesson:
Two 1x4 foot pieces of cardboard and one 2x4 pieces of cardboard.
Begin by talking about sickness. Then describe a terrible disease called I-itiis. It is a terrible disease where by
people think only about themselves. Everything becomes I, I, I! I want it, I need it, I won't, I don't… everything
revolves around them. As you speak arrange the cardboard pieces in the shape of an I with tape on the wall.
There is a cure for this disease, but you can’t get it at the pharmacy. A doctor can't prescribe it. It's
not found in a bottle. (rearrange the cardboard pieces to form a cross). Jesus is the only cure. When we think about what
Jesus did for us on the cross and we allow him to control our hearts then I-itiis will go away. Jesus can help us remember
that we need to think about others first.
You see the cross has two parts. The part that goes up and down remind us that God sent his son from heaven to earth
because he was thinking about us. The piece that goes across reminds us that Jesus has his arms open wide reaching out to
us in his love because he is thinking of us. We need to learn to think like Jesus and we need to open our arms to others
in love too.
Tie the above object lesson int o your closing as you challenge kids to obey God in all they do.
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