Interactive Group Activities
by Carol Williams
Sermon Title: "Three Wishes"
Scripture Reading: Luke 15:11-32
BIBLE VERSE RELAY: Divide the children into teams. Each team will have a bag of
items from the Bible verse that they'll take turns running to the bag and putting one of
the items on - whether a ring, a robe, sandals; or a balloon to blow up for the
"celebration", etc. There can be more than one ring or robe, or sandals, etc for each
team to put on in their team bag.
BALLOON ART: Give children some balloons to write on (sharpee markers) with
WELCOME BACK SON; or I FORGIVE YOU SON; or MAKE GOOD CHOICES, NOT BAD.
Children can then blow up their balloons and have a CELEBRATION because God forgives
bad choices. SING "Amazing Grace" or "I have Decided to follow Jesus" together while
waving balloons.
PRODIGAL SON MAZE: Give each child a piece of paper and pencils or pens to draw big
squiggly lines and circles (don't use markers on this part). Give crayons or markers to
draw a Prodigal Son in the upper corner and a drawing of the Father in the lower opposite
corner. Then PASS the mazes to another child to use a MARKER on the squiggly lines to
follow and trace from the son to the father.
"GOD FORGIVES" OVER-THE-DOOR BANNER: Divide the class into two teams. Give
each team a large piece of poster board to decorate with their ideas of today's lesson on
forgiveness and bad choices, etc. When the time is up and the banners are completed
with words, pictures, balloons, etc -- hole punch the poster board and add long strings
and hang over the class room door. Let teams explain their drawings and talk about
today's Bible story.
PRODIGAL SON PUPPET: Give each child a brown or white paper lunch bag, as well as
markers, yarn for hair, eyes, and brown felt for the children to glue items on the paper
bag to make a "prodigal son". Sit in a circle after the bags are completed and have the
bag puppets take turns in telling what bad choices he made and what a celebration his
father had for him when he returned home. Teacher can ask the bag puppets questions if
the children have trouble telling a part of the story.
CELEBRATION AND FEAST TIME: Let children spread a fancy tablecloth on a long table
and decorate it with paper plates and balloons,bright colored napkins and small treats
that the teacher can have ready for the celebration. Children will LOVE decorating the
table together with streamers, confetti and Bible verse slips of paper about today's lesson
and God's forgiveness (these verses can be stuck on a toothpick and stuck into a small
piece of molding clay or play dough). Let the children sit around the table and THANK
GOD for HIS forgiveness when we make wrong choices and CELEBRATE God's love
together, while enjoying their snack foods, cupcakes, chips, ice cream, etc!!! (Feel free to
use your imagination, teachers, with little nut cups and brightly colored cups or whatever
will help the children to enjoy and realize the CELEBRATION!!!
"GOOD CHOICES/BAD CHOICES" MINUTE DRAWINGS: Divide the class into teams
and one child from each team can run to the chalk board and quickly draw a GOOD or a
BAD choice for the class to guess what it is and why it is good or bad. Then the next
player from each team will do the same. Player can only have 60 seconds to draw and
when the whistle blows or teacher says, STOP, they have to stop and let the class guess
the choice - whether good or bad and why.
TAKE HOME PAPER
Forgiveness
There are so many things that happen in our children’s lives and they are generally quite quick to forgive when they are little.
Around 3 years of age some children tend to use that heart breaking phrase: “I won’t ever play with you again…” when hurt or
upset by another. This is the best time to share this story of the prodigal son.
Draw your child’s attention to the way the Father forgave his son without a moments pause. You can also tell your child that we
often find it hard to forgive and love on our own but when the Lord Jesus is asked into our hearts, He comes in and makes all
the unforgiveness and sin go.
Demonstrate this with this prodigal son activity. You need to do this outdoors.
You will need: A glass, some garden soil and a jug of water.
Half fill the glass loosely with soil. Tell your child that this is like our hearts when we don’t know the Lord’s forgiveness or when
we hold unkind thoughts towards others. Then take the water and pour it into the glass explaining while you go that this is what
it is like when we ask the Father to forgive our sins and Jesus comes in and washes us clean.
Your child will see that the water begins to replace the soil…make sure you have enough water to continue pouring for a while
until the glass hold only clear water.
Unconditional love
God loves us with an unconditional love the same way that the father in this story shows unconditional love to his returning son.
Do this prodigal son craft with your toddler to teach them of Our Father’s love for us.
You will need: red card stock, scissors, glitter and glue or glitter glue tubes. Cut out a large heart from the red card. Write in the
centre “God Loves Me Always” with a black marker and then let your toddler sprinkle the glitter on.
Glitter Tip but glitter in shaker bottles or loose in a pack. Save your old spice shakers and put the glitter in there. This prevents
glitter going in eyes which is very painful.