252 Groupsoctober 2016, Week 1

252 GroupsOctober 2016, Week 1

Small Groups Grades 1-4

Basket Case

Bible Story:Basket Case (Moses in the Basket) •Exodus 2:1-10 (supporting: Exodus 1)

Bottom Line:You can do what you should, even when you don’t know what will happen next.

Memory Verse:“Be strong and brave. Do not be afraid. Do not lose hope. I am the Lord your God. I will be with you everywhere you go.” Joshua 1:9b, NIrV

Life App:Courage—Being brave enough to do what you should do, even when you’re afraid.

Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.

Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction(Small Groups, 15 minutes)

Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience today’s story.

Before kids arrive, pray for each regular attendee by name. Pray for those who might visit your group for the first time. Some kids are in situations like divorce or foster care where they’re not sure what will happen next. Pray for those kids not to give in to the temptation to shrink back in fear, but to move forward in courage.

1. Early Arriver Idea

What You Need:Anoffering container, a ball, beanbag, small pillow, or balloon.

What You Do:

Greet kids as they arrive and encourage them to place their offering in the container.
Talk about surprises: good ones, bad ones, the little surprise of a treat in their lunch box, and the big surprise of a present on their birthday. Surprises are unexpected.
With the ball/other object, play a few quick rounds of Hot Potato.
Kids circle up and pass the ball around the circle while you sing or play a song on your phone and then pause the song abruptly.
When the song stops, the person holding the ball is “out”.
Play continues until there is one winner.
Discuss why each round was different or if there was a way to plan ahead to win.

2. What’s in the Box?

What You Need:A large opaque box or gift bag, paper; 1 for each kid, pencils

What You Do:

Ask kids to write down a guess as to what’s in the box.
Ask them other questions as well, such as “what should we do with what’s in the box?,” “who should get what’s in the box?,” and “where should we keep what’s in the box?’”.
If you have mostly younger kids, let them draw a picture of what’s in the box, and let them verbally respond to the other questions.
At the end of your Social time, you can reveal the empty box/bag.

What You Say:

“Sometimes we can anticipate what will happen or what a surprise might turn out to be. Sometimes we can’t, and that brings out a lot of feelings, just like you all had about the empty box! [Transition] Let’s go to Large Group to hear about someone whose story turned out very different than expected!”

Lead your group to the Large Group area.

Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (Small Groups, 25 minutes)

Create a safe place to connect and learn howthe Bible story applies to real life experiences, through interactive activities and discussion questions.

1. Rivers and Reeds (application activity / review the Bible story)

What You Need: No supplies needed

What You Do:

Divide the group into two teams: Rivers and Reeds, and line them up shoulder to shoulder on one side of your environment.
Stand at the far side. When you call “Rivers flood”, the Rivers can move forward three steps towards you; when you call “Reeds grow”, the Reeds can move forward three steps towards you. (The size of the steps can and will vary amongst the kids in your group).
At any point, you can yell, “Drought!” and everyone has to run back to the beginning.
Whoever reaches you first gets to be the next caller, and their team gets a point.
Play until either team gets 4 points.

What You Say:

“Rivers and reeds flood and grow and shrink at times we can expect. Moses’ family would have been able to count on the floods and dry times of the Nile River and the growth of the reeds they could use to build their bricks. But what happened in those reeds and river in our story today was really unexpected! Did Moses’ mother know what would happen next when she put her baby in the basket on the river (No!) Did Miriam know what would happen next when she watched Moses drift downstream? (No!) Did either of them ever think that Moses would be rescued by a princess and that his own mom would be his babysitter? (No, definitely not!) These things were complete surprises to Moses’ mom and sister.

“They had the courage to do what they should, to take care of baby Moses, and make a plan that might keep him safe … and then God did something totally unexpected! Sometimes, when we’re brave and just start doing the right thing, God works in amazing ways, like He did with Moses. Like Jochebed and Miriam,[Bottom Line]you can do what you should even when you don’t know what will happen next.”

* 2. The Great Unknown (application activity)

What You Need: Blindfolds or bandanas; a variety of objects with different textures: soft, rough, gooey, wet, etc. to use as a blind guessing game.

What You Do:

Gather the group in a circle and blindfold one kid.
Place an object in the kid volunteer’s hand and let him/her guess what object you’ve placed in their outstretched hands.
Be sensitive and don’t force anyone to play.
For older kids, load up on the weird/strange/ick factor.
For younger kids, keep all the objects on the more familiar side.
In other words: for older kids, try silly putty/new toilet brush/open toothpaste tube. For younger kids, use small toys and household items for the guessing game.

What You Say:

“Nice guessing! You had no idea what I was going to give you, did you? For some of you, it worked out great, and others of you had a harder time. But you trusted me and played the way I told you. The thing about courage, and just starting to do what’s right, is that it means you really have to trust God. Sometimes amazing things happen when you do what you should do, and sometimes very ordinary things happen; sometimes it feels like nothing happens at all! Maybe you sit next to the new kid at lunch and she turns out to become your best friend. Or maybe she doesn’t really talk to you because she’s scared of the unknown too.

“We can’t always know what will happen when we begin, but we know God is in charge and we can trust Him no matter what. [Make it Personal] (Share an age-appropriate story about a time when you had to have courage to do the right thing, and you didn’t know how it would turn out—like speaking up about a bully, or admitting to a mistake at work, or befriending someone new.) Doing what you should doesn’t always mean that things will be fantastic, but following God means He will always, always be with you. That’s why you can have courage and [Bottom Line] you can do what you should even when you don’t know what will happen next.”

3. Verse Hopscotch (memory verse activity)

What You Need: Masking tape,“Verse Hopscotch Squares”Activity Pages, Bibles, tokens or flat game pieces (optional)

What You Do:

Gather together and look up the verse (Joshua 1:9b) using the tips below if needed.

Finding verses with a multi-age group: Guide all kids to open their Bibles to the front and find the table of contents. (Hold up a Bible opened to the table of contents to show the kids what the page looks like.) When the kids find the table of contents, ask a middle elementary kid (2nd -3rd grade) to find Joshua in the list under “Old Testament.” When the kid finds Joshua, lead them to look at the page number beside the word and say it aloud, explaining that the number tells them on what page they can find Joshua. Ask older elementary kids (4th-5th grade) to help younger ones find the correct page in their own Bibles. When they all find Joshua, explain that the big numbers on the page are the chapter numbers. Ask a kindergartner or 1st grader to find chapter 1, and give time for all the kids to turn the pages to find it. Explain that the small numbers are verse numbers, and ask a middle elementary kid to find verse 9 in chapter 1. Then, read the verse aloud slowly, especially for your pre-readers or ask older elementary kids to read it to the group.

Set up a hopscotch grid with the masking tape and place the Verse Hopscotch Squares in the grids.
Let kids take turns hopping on the squares while saying the verse as they land on the squares.
If you have mostly younger kids, they can hop freely.
If you have older kids, gather some tokens to toss and play hopscotch the usual way, where kids toss a token and can’t step on the square where it landed. They must collect the token on their way back to the beginning.

What You Say:

“You hopped and skipped and jumped all over this game! An important part of this verse is that we can have courage when we take the first step to do what we should do, because God is with us everywhere we go. Where are some places God is with us? (Kids can literally name any place they go.) Out of those places we just named, what kinds of situations is God with us in those places? (God is with you on the bus when you stick up for a younger kid, God is with you when you go into the doctor’s office for a checkup, God is with you in school when you look at a hard test, God is with you when you have to apologize to your family when you’ve messed up)God is with you everywhere. It’s okay to feel scared when you decide to do what’s right, especially when you aren’t how it will all turn out. But when you know that God is with you [Bottom Line] you can do what you should even when you don’t know what will happen next.”

If you lead mostly older kids, consider asking these discussion questions:

What might have happened if Jochebed or Miriam hadn’t had courage and done what they should? What if Jochebed hadn’t sent Moses in the basket, or Miriam hadn’t watched over him? How might the story have been different?
Do you think you can anticipate situations where you might need God’s help in doing what you should do? What are those situations?
The next time you want to do what you should do, but you feel afraid, what would be a good way to remember that God is with you?

Pray and Dismiss

What You Need: Plastic spoons and permanent markers

What You Do:

Give each kid a plastic spoon and markers.
Ask kids to write on their spoon a place where they typically need help to show courage and do the right thing.
If you have younger kids, help them write so they have enough room on the spoon.
If you have older kids, or kids for whom this subject is very sensitive, have them write words from the memory verse on their spoons.
Then, circle up for prayer and ask each kid to hold up their spoon while you pray.

What You Say:

“Dear God, Thank You that You are always with us; that we can have courage because You never leave us. Please help (insert kids’ names) to do what they should do in each of these situations, especially when they need to be brave. Thank You, God, amen.”

“Let these spoons remind you that you don’t know what’s coming next, but God is in control. Keep these spoons and put them somewhere special so you can see them this week and remember [Bottom Line] you can do what you should do even when you don’t know what happens next.”

Make sure kids show parents/guardians their spoons. If time and space allow, invite parents to a hopscotch game.

Adapted by Julie Flanagan, First Church of Christ, August 2016.