LEADERS HUB
Year 1, Term 2, Week 5: Ideas for Middle Group
Week 5: Loving Others - To Serve God
Lesson Objective:
By loving and serving others, we are showing our love for God.
Bible Passage:
Matthew 25:31-40
Memory Verse:
Matthew 25:40- The King will answer, ‘Whenever you did it for any of my people, no matter how unimportant they seemed, you did it for me.’
Story Idea: Game & Tell It!
Introductory Game:
- Lay a rope from the front to the back of the room and have the kids stand on the right side
- Flick through the sheep and goat powerpoint pictures on a projector (or print out and show)
- Have the kids stand on the right if they think the picture is of a sheep and the left if they think it's a goat (some look very similar!)
- If they are correct, they remain in the game, otherwise they are out and sit down
- The last players in are the winners!
Discuss:
- Can sheep and goats sometimes look the same? Yes
- How might you tell them apart? Their behaviour
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Show the kids a little of each of the following youtube videos to help them understand the difference in behaviour between sheep and goats:
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDQw21ntR64
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Have the kids read Matthew 25: 31-40
Quiz Questions:
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1. What are the animals being separated in the story? Sheep and Goats
2. Do sheep and goats look the same? Sometimes yes
3. How might you tell the difference between a sheep and a goat? The way they behave
4. Do sheep trust and follow their shepherd? Yes
5. Why? Because they know the shepherd cares for them and they will be safe
6. How could Jesus tell who were His followers in the story? They were loving towards others
7. What loving things were the people doing? Providing food, water, shelter, friendship etc.
8. How can we love others? Be kind, help those who are poor, hungry or sick, pray for people, show them Jesus etc.
9. Why should we love others? Because Jesus loves us
Game Idea: Sheep from Goats
- Before the lesson, Blow up a whole heap of white balloons, write an 'S' on some and a 'G' on others (or draw a sheep and goat face on them)
- Create two 'pens' (a square of chairs with sheets draped over, or trestle tables on their side work well)
- Split the kids into teams and let the baloons loose in the room (turn the fans on to make it more difficult if you like)
- Have the teams take turns racing (time them) to split the sheep and goat balloons into the two pens
Remind the kids that Jesus told the story about separating sheep and goats to help us understand that the way we love (or don't love) others is an indicator of whether we love God!
Craft Idea: Pom Pom Sheep
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Before the lesson:
- Cut strips of cardboard an inch thick and two four to five inches wide, lay a length of wool horizontally across the card so that it extends beyond the edges of the card and paperclip in place at either end (one per child)
- Cut small black sheep faces out of black foam sheets or card (1-1.5 inches wide is a good size
- Gather balls of wool, googley eyes, black pipe cleaners, tape and PVA glue
- Download and print the heart message template on red paper and cut out (one per child)
Have the kids:
- Wind wool around the cardboard (over and over the middle string) from one end of the cardboard to the other and back again a few times
- Unclip the centre string then tie it tightly around the gathering of wool (bending the cardboard is fine)
- Snip along the other side of the cardboard to make a pom pom, tie another string around the middle as tight as possible to hold it together well
- Cut a pipe cleaner in half and bend each piece in half to create two legs - slide both sets of legs through the wool that holds the pom pom together, then shape into feet
- Glue on their face and googley eyes
- Tape a piece of string to the back of the heart then tie it around one of the sheep legs
Prayer Idea: Jelly Bean Prayers
- Bring along some jelly beans in three colours
- Have each child choose a bean and pray according to the colour, eg:
Red = Thank God for something
Blue = Pray for someone else
Green = Ask God to help you with something
