Recipe For Happiness Group
Group Activities

HAPPY BUBBLES: Have the children sit on the floor with a paper plate and a straw. Put a few drops of dish soap in the middle of each plate and add a little water. Tell the children to make HAPPY BUBBLES by blowing through their straws into the soapy mixture.

HAPPY FREEZE: The children will gather in an open space and the teacher will play or sing, IF YOU'RE HAPPY AND YOU KNOW IT, while the children move and dance around in a HAPPY way. When the music stops, the children are to FREEZE with a happy look on their face (the bigger the smile the better), until the music starts to play again.

HAPPY RECIPE CARD: Each child can be given a colorful recipe card with the letters for HAPPY as an acrostic down the left side. Children can write a word next to each letter that helps them be happy in Jesus. (Ex - H - Hands (to serve Jesus); A - Always (tell people Jesus loves them); P - Prayer; P - Pleased; Y - YES (to Jesus), etc.

BEATITUDE PUZZLES: Give each an envelope with one of the beatitudes written on a slip of paper and then cut into pieces. The child will arrange the pieces of paper in the correct order and read the beatitude to the class.

HAPPY BOOKLET: Give the children pieces of construction paper with circles drawn on them to be cut out (already drawn for children so all circles are the same size). The circles can be placed together to form a booklet and hole punched and tied together with a piece of string or yarn through the hole to hold the circles together. Each page can be a HAPPY page -- with Happy stickers of all kinds, or drawings of various type of HAPPY faces. Encourage them to use words from our lesson today that make us happy in Jesus. Encourage children to take their books home and look at their HAPPY BOOKLET throughout the week!

HAPPY HEART: Give the supplies needed to make a happy heart to each child — a piece of construction paper and a heart to decorate with stickers and glitter, then glue it to the sheet of construction paper. BLESSED means HAPPY or other words from our lesson today may then be written on the paper in colorful markers.

HAPPY HEARTS POSTER: The children can pick at least 15 various sizes and colors of hearts that the teacher will provided to the class. They can be cut out hearts or stickers. The poster will have HAPPY ARE THE PURE IN HEART written in large letters in the center. All the various colorful hearts and stickers will then be placed around the edge of the poster to form a heart border!

HAPPY HUNTING: Before class, the teacher will write the Beatitudes on slips of paper and hide them around the room for the children to search for after the lesson is finished. When a child finds one, it will be taped to a poster board at the front of the room. If children are older or have a helper, they may try to put the beatitudes in the correct order. If they need additional help, they could look up Matthew 5:1-12 and use that to put them in the correct order.

SNACK TIME: Today's snack will be the trail mix that was prepared during the lesson.

Song:  "I'm Happy All the Time"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track (right click to save to your computer)

Song:  "If You're Happy"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track