To God Be the Glory
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "To God Be the Glory"

Scripture Reading: John 9:1-13

Note:

After each of these activities, discuss the blind man and what JESUS did. Also discuss that JESUS can help us with anything that we might be facing:

BLIND TESTIMONY:

If the teacher or pastor knows of someone who is blind, this would be a great time to have that person come in to the class to share their testimony about being blind and answer some questions from the children, if desired.

BLIND WALK:

Have children hold on to one another's waists and walk around a designated area with the teacher at the head of the BLIND WALK. To make the BLIND WALK a little more active and more fun, the teacher could skip, jump, run, hop, etc, and tell children if they let go of the person's waist in front of them, they will drop out and watch the fun as it continues and can be a helper in seeing who else will let go of someone's waist!

BLIND ART:

Have children draw one BIG closed eye on the top of the paper and one BIG opened eye underneath. Draw or trace the words on the paper.... I WAS BLIND BUT NOW I CAN SEE and add our Bible verse today.

BLIND DRAWING:

Blindfold two children at a time (unless chalkboard is larger), and have the children draw a picture of the teacher's choosing. This will be fun for the children to SEE later what they drew while blindfolded, and it'll also be fun for the class to watch them draw the picture. This could also be done individually on a piece of paper, as children close their eyes and draw a heart or cross or their own house or church, etc.

BLIND BAG:

Let each child enjoy a "touch and feel bag" of goodies. With eyes closed, they can feel inside the bag and try to tell what the item is.

FINGERPAINTING FROLIC:

Give each child a small amount of chocolate pudding (to represent the mud on the blind man's eyes) on a piece of paper and let them finger paint a picture of their choice, or a cross (for Jesus) or a heart (for God's love), etc.

BLIND BALLOON HUGS:

Blindfold all children at once and tell them to "find" one of the balloons that are floating around in a designated area. When they get a balloon, give it a big HUG until it pops. This could be like a "blind relay race" to see who can hug and POP their balloon the quickest! There could be a small piece of candy inside each balloon so that as soon as the child hugs and pops the balloon, they can take off their blindfold and find their piece of candy (after picking up the pieces of the balloon and throwing those little pieces away!)

BLIND WANDERINGS:

Teacher can have a designated area with 3 or 4 main "attractions" that can be shown to the children before they become blindfolded. (This could be done with the whole class at once or with less children at a time). After being blindfolded (or tell children to close their eyes), the teacher will tell them to "wander" to one of the areas, such as ... to the piano... or to the coloring table... or to the big stuffed bear.... or to the fish tank, etc. Have the child or children "wander" back and forth from place to place, first as BLIND and then play the wandering game much faster with their 'sight'!

BLIND SHOE RELAY:

Have children take off their shoes and put them in a pile at the end of the playing area. Then blindfold one child at a time (or more if there are 2 teams) and have them run to the shoe pile and try to find their own shoes. For younger ages, in order to make a smaller pile of shoes, children could just remove ONE shoe instead of both shoes. That would also help them to feel of their own shoe to know which shoe to choose as their own.

SHARE A SNACK:

Let children walk around the room blindfolded and find a snack to eat... or dig in a bag with eyes closed to find a snack that they think their fingers would like to choose without knowing what the snack will be!

Song: "Open My Eyes. that I May See"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Piano accompaniment Track (right click to save to your computer)

Song: "To God Be the Glory"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Piano accompaniment Track (right click to save to your computer)

These songs are in the public domain and may be freely downloaded and reproduced for religious or educational use by churches, schools, home schoolers, and other non-profit organizations.