Clean Hands Clean Heart Group
Group Activities

GLOVE RELAY: Divide the children into 2 teams and let the children run to a box of disposable gloves, put a glove on and run back and tag the next person on the team. The first team to have every team member with a disposable glove on is the winner.

"HAND IN HEART" HANGING: Provide the children with supplies to cut out a big construction paper HEART. Have the children write, "CLEAN HANDS OR A CLEAN HEART?" around the edge of the heart. Next, have the children trace their own hand in the center of the heart, add decorations of their choice using markers and stickers and add a ribbon for hanging their heart when it is completed.

DECORATED HAND: Give the children a sheet of construction paper to trace their own hands and cut them out. (If you choose, the teacher could have hand cutouts prepared before class.) Take 2 identical hand cutouts and tape them together to form a "glove" that the children could place on their hand. Have the children write something about today's lesson on each finger of the cut-out hand, such as clean hands, clean heart, Forgive us Father for unclean hearts, NO unclean thoughts or words, etc. Children will have their own good ideas after listening to today's lesson. This will encourage discussion as well.

CLEAN HEARTS: Provide the children with a very large colored heart. One side will be labeled CLEAN HEART and the other side will be labeled UNCLEAN HEART. Tell children to write or draw pictures representing CLEAN HEART ideas and on the other side, write or draw pictures representing UNCLEAN HEART actions. The children may enjoy gluing colorful yarn or ribbon around the edge of their CLEAN HEART side and black yarn around the edge of the UNCLEAN HEART side.

BAR SOAP HEART: If time permits, give the children a bar of soap and a plastic table knife and let them try to carve a HEART out of the soap bar. Tell children to mostly trim off the corners and then begin reshaping the soap to look like a heart.

CLEAN DISPLAY BOARD: Let children work as a class to make a LESSON board of today's Bible story. Give them supplies such as paper to draw pictures, disposal gloves to hang on the board, wipes to tape or tack on the board, pictures of hand sanitizers, and heart stickers and drawings. Title the Display Board with ideas from today's lesson and draw hearts around the Title!

BAR SOAP WRAPPING: Give each child a bar of soap and a piece of construction paper to wrap around and tape to the bar soap. Tell children to decorate the bar of soap with heart stickers and write HEAVENLY FATHER, FORGIVE US FOR UNCLEAN THOUGHTS. Suggest to the children that they might place the bar soap wrapping in their bathroom or kitchens to remind them of today's very important lesson.

THREE LAYERED HEART: Give the children cut out hearts in 3 different sizes so that the children can glue them one on top of another so that the edge of each heart will be seen. A small piece of foam can be glued between each heart so that each heart is separated from the other. Let children write the words on the top heart (or on the edges of hearts 2 and 3) of our prayer today - CREATE IN US CLEAN HEARTS TO HONOR YOU HEAVENLY FATHER.

CLEAN HANDS AND HEARTS SNACK: Provide a bottle of liquid hand sanitizer for the children to clean their hands before eating a heart-shaped cookie.

SING A SONG: INTO MY HEART; CLEANSE ME

Song:  "Cleanse Me"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track

Song:  "Into My Heart"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track