Who Gets 1st Place?
Run some different races to see who wins first place. (An optional idea is to buy 1st place ribbons, which can be found at a dollar store in the party section.)
Some ideas:
- Who can toss the most pennies (or marshmallows) into a bowl in a minute?
- Who can throw a paper plate the longest distance?
- Who can stand on one foot the longest?
- Who can blow the biggest bubble?
- Who can draw the best beach scene (without looking at the page)?
- Who can sing the ABC’s the fastest?
- Who can run to a designated spot first carrying a full bucket of water?
Cheer for the winners. To get first place means that you were the best! God deserves first place and He is the only one to be worshipped.
The Israelites pressured Aaron into helping them make an idol to worship even though they knew it was wrong. A false god could never help anyone! Only the one true God deserves to be worshiped. Only the one true God is real and could care for us.
The Real Thing
Send the kids on a search for fake and real stuff. (Fake/real fruit; food; money; flower; etc.)
What’s the difference between fake and real? (Fake is an imitation of the real thing—some fake things look very real, but they are not.)
What is an idol? (It is an imitation of the true God. An idol can be made from gold, silver, wood, or just about anything.)
What’s the difference between an idol and the one true God? (The one true God made the heavens and the earth; an idol is something people make to represent a god they worship.)
There are people in many countries (many even in the US) that worship idols. They worship a false god because they do not know the one true God. Aaron made a golden calf for the Israelites to worship even though he knew that was wrong. God is the only one who deserves to be worshiped.
Seek and Jump
Elementary students are learning Mark 12:30-31 this month. Read the verses together. Grab the sidewalk chalk and go outside to draw a grid (tic-tac-toe) on the sidewalk or driveway. Then assign kids different words or phrases to write in the squares of the grid. (They will need to write more than one word in each grid to complete the entire verse. Also, don’t write the words in succession, but scramble them so kids will have to jump from one word to the next.)
Take turns jumping and saying the verses. The “jumper” should seek (intentionally look for) and start on the first word(s) of the verse then jump to the next word(s), and continue jumping until he has completed the verse. (Onlookers can say the words as the “jumper” jumps on them.)
What does this verse tell us to do? Love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind. Love our neighbor. God should have first place and we should only worship Him.