Read a lesson, do a craft, play a little game, say a prayer...and repeat. Over and over. Are you tired of sending home crafts with your littles that just end up in the trash? Are you feeling bored with what you've been teaching? Here are some fun, UNIQUE activities I created that you can use to spice up your Sunday mornings (or anytime!) with your littles!
Change up your lesson by doing a short Escape room with them! Yes, littles can "escape" too! Here are 3 Escape rooms/Break out Boxes (and a bonus!) that I made that can be secular, or can be attached to a lesson that you are learning.
1. "Listening" Escape Room - this one would be great to do in conjunction with the Samuel story, Mary and Martha, or any other Bible story where "listening" is your theme. There are 3 activities your children must complete and all 3 require them to use their listening skills! This requires more set up by the teacher than the one below. It is geared towards kids ages prek-2nd grade.
2. "Lost" Break out box - This break out box is based on any of the "lost" parables - Parable of the Lost Coin, Lost Son, and Lost sheep (or any parable where you're searching for something or someone is lost). The children (ages prek-2nd grade) will be searching for the lost item just like in the story. This is an easy lesson with very little set up for the teacher - you just need a printer and painters tape (key lock with lock box is optional)! Depending on how many hints you give your kids, it could take them anywhere from 10 minutes to 20-30 minutes! Gauge their interest and energy level and give hints accordingly :)3. Jonah/Temple Tax Escape Room - Here is a 10-20 minute escape room also geared towards prek-2nd graders :) This could be done anytime, but I had two stories in mind when writing it - Jonah and/or the temple tax (Matthew 17 when peter gets a coin from inside a fish). All four puzzles are finding objects inside of other objects.
4. I also created a short Paul and Silas escape room to use during VBS - this is a freebie and doesn't cost anything :) It was designed to be finished in 10-15 minutes.
Another game I made for prek is Bible Zingo! It's Bingo with a twist!
5. Bible Zingo - Here are the basic rules...
It’s just like BINGO, but fast paced. You could play it different ways - click the link to read two ways.
Included in this powerpoint...
There are 50 Zingo cards so 50 kids can play at one time. Each card has six pictures. There are 48 different pictures of Bible stories and church. If you’d rather play with 4 pics per cards, then just cut two off. Slides 5 and 6 have all the pictures miniature size so they’re easy for you to see. You can use those as the playing cards, or, if you’d rather have bigger ones, slides 7-14 also contain all 48 pictures. You can use those as playing cards and as Zingo cards (so print them out twice).
I've also created 2 booklets that you can do over multiple Sundays with your kids, or all at once.
6. My 5 Senses Booklet - Bible Version - Using Scripture, teach your preschoolers (or kindergarteners) about their 5 senses!
Samuel - "Hear"
Psalms - "See"
Last Supper - "Taste"
Jacob and Esau - "Smell"
Jesus heals - "Touch"
Each page has a "sense" and a scripture verse. You can spend a Sunday morning/week on each page and read each story in its entirety in the Bible (and each page can be its own craft), or you can do it all in one sitting and just read the Scripture and not the entire story.
Included at the end for the teacher is a page of instructions on how they can illustrate each page (or do something on your own!).
7. ABC Religious Christmas Booklet - This is a printable ABC Christmas story book. Each page has the letter, a word, a scripture (or explanation), and a picture to draw or color (or activity). The activities are age appropriate for prek/K...maybe first grade as well.
For example, for "R" it says "Color in and decorate the bells. While you’re coloring, sing a Christmas song!"
If you're looking for a curriculum or something to do for 4-6 weeks, I have started writing a "Little Books of the Bible Series". Each book contains one book of the Bible (or various if the books are short). Included are major stories from the book, verses to memorize, short stories, and songs we sing from that book! In addition, there is a little game to play at the end - although they require reading skills.
Read the books together and illustrate them as a class or individually!
8. Mark
9. Matthew
10. Luke
11. Genesis
Are you looking for a fun activity to put in your worship bags? You could also do these during Sunday school as a group. These are 5 dice games where each number helps you complete a drawing. I am not an artist so they are basic figures/shapes - but the kids will enjoy filling them in. And the cool thing is, if each child is doing it on their own, they will all look different!
14. Journaling! - Have you ever thought about journaling with your prek or K classes? Here are some fun journal prompts!
Here is a craft idea I put together called the "Blessing Jar". You use it before mealtimes to say a blessing for the food. You can use it all year and can make it anytime as well (although Thanksgiving is a good time to start it :)
15. Meal Blessing Jar - print out the blessings, glue them onto popsicles sticks and pull one out before each meal. My kids LOVED doing this and we did it for almost 10 years as a family!
Lastly, I made some games that can be projected up on the wall that you can all play together! They are called "Reveal the Picture". As you review one of the following stories, you click on part of the picture to reveal. See if they can guess the story you are revealing before it's completely done! (please watch the instructional video so you know how to make the questions appear and disappear)
16. Beatitudes, 10 Commandments, and the Lord's Prayer
18. Spot the Item - Have you played the game Spot it! before? All they have to do is spot the same item on both cards. I made one that has items from the Bible. Each slide has one object that is the same. See if they can spot it! And then, we they do, talk about the object and where it is mentioned in the Bible. There is also a character version that is not Biblical.
Hopefully one of these ideas will help you get out of any rut you may be in :) Good luck and God bless! Thank you for all you do for your church and the littles you work with!
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