How Does Your Garden Grow Group
Group Activities

FLOWER POTS: Let each child plant a little flower in a ceramic pot or even a styrofoam cup and write or glue the Bible verse on the side of the pot, or children could paint or use markers to write "I WILL PLANT GOD'S WORD IN MY HEART".

SEED ART: Give children many types of seeds and let them glue the seeds on a piece of colored construction paper to form the words, GOD'S WORD! Remind children that the "seed" in our story today represents GOD'S WORD!

DIRT CUP DESSERTS: Decorate a small cup with words from the Bible lesson today. Let children put a small amount of chocolate pudding in the bottom and sprinkle with crushed up oreo cookies to look like the SOIL in today's lesson. Either gummy "worms" or some sunflowers "seeds" could be added to their "lesson dessert"!

"GOD'S WORD" Book: Give children paper and markers to draw and cut out a BIBLE and write GOD'S WORD on the front cover. They can then add pages with pictures or words from today's lesson. Each page could have a SEED drawn or glued onto each and then draw the TYPE of soil that the "seed" fell on (ex: rocky, weeds, good soil, etc).

SOIL AND SEED WALK: Give each child some seeds and take a WALK outside to place those seeds on the 'types' of soil that were discussed in the lesson. The children will NEVER forget this story after taking the WALK!

SEED MARKER: Let children make a colorful Bible Bookmarker with "I WILL HIDE GOD'S WORD IN MY HEART" and tape a seed to the bookmarker. Write in colorful letters today's Bible verse and try to memorize the verse before leaving class!

TISSUE PAPER FLOWERS: Let children "accordian style" folds in a piece of tissue paper and then pull the tissue layers apart and add a chenille wire for the stem. Let children add a strip of paper to the stem with today's Bible verse OR attach a seed packet to the "tissue flower arrangement" and tape a copy of the Bible verse on the packet.

SEED PLANTING: Let children as a class plant some seeds and "watch them grow" in GOOD SOIL for the next few weeks! Take a picture of the children in front of their NEW pots first and then a picture of the children in front of the pots of flowers after they have grown. Discuss how the seeds will grow in GOOD soil as in our Bible lesson today!

SEED DRAWINGS: Let children draw a few BIG flowers on their paper and then glue seeds in the MIDDLE of the flowers or to outline the flowers. Write today's Bible verse or words from today's lesson on the top of their drawings OR little words on the stem and leaves of the SEED drawing.

WEED PICS: The teacher can have real weeds of various types in class or just pictures of weeds and flowers and let children try to guess if each item is a WEED or a flower. Talk about the WEEDS in our story and the effect they have on the SEED!

Song:  "Thy Word" by E. O. Sellers

Words and music (pdf)