A Neighbor's a Neighbor!
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "A Neighbor's a Neighbor!"

Scripture Reading: Luke 10:25-37

DRINK OF WATER RELAY:

Divide the class into teams. Each child must take his turn to run to the water table and drink a small paper cup of water or juice and then run back to the team for the next player to make the drink run. Continue until all the team has had a chance to drink the small cup of water or juice.

BAND-AID RELAY:

Divide the class into teams. Each team will take turns for each player to run to the FIRST AID TABLE and will grab a Band-Aid, unwrap it, and place it on the arm or leg and then run back to the team for the next player to do the same! (Children's Band-Aids with pictures on them will make the game more fun.)

WORD SCRAMBLE:

Before classtime, the teacher will hide pieces of paper with a scrambled word from today's lesson on each paper. (Suggestions: Samaritan, parable, neighbor, priest, Levite, lawyer, robbers, love.) The children will run to find a hidden word and bring it back to the table and try to UNSCRAMBLE the word. When the word is unscrambled, the child can write the correct word on the back side of the paper and quickly run to the GOOD SAMARITAN poster board and tape the word to the board. (The teacher may have children work separately or in groups of 2 if desired.)

GOOD SAMARITAN WORD LIST:

Children can work together as a class or in groups of 2 or 3 or even alone for older children. See how many words the children can make from the letters found in GOOD SAMARITAN within a given time limit. When the time limit is up, let the children share their list of words with the rest of the class.

L-O-V-E BRACELETS:

Children can make a bracelet out of letter beads and plastic string to remind them to LOVE others as Jesus loves them.

SAMARITAN SKIT:

Choose a narrator and have the children act out today's Good Samaritan story with the man traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and being attacked by robbers. Some children could be the robbers. One child can be the priest who crossed over to the other side of the road and continued on his way, as well as one child being the Levite who ignored the hurt man. One child can be the GOOD SAMARITAN and one could be the innkeeper if there are enough children. One person can be Jesus telling the story and asking the final question. (You might like to use your smart phone to make a video of the skit or take some still photos of the children.)

FIRST AID SAMARITAN BOXES:

Give each child a small box (A children's shoe box would do nicely.) Provide a small sponge and some paints. Have the children sponge-paint their box and allow it to dry. At the end of class, let children put some bandaids, cotton balls, q-tips, gauze, and a small sucker or a candy inside their box and write "FIRST AID TO HELP OTHERS" on the top of their box lid. Encourage children to help someone who may get hurt and to share the sucker to make them happy.

BANDAID PEOPLE:

Give the children a several inexpensive band-aids to stick onto a piece of construction paper in the form of a stick person. The children will draw a head at the top of the vertical bandaid, hands at the end of the horizontal bandaid that form the arms, and feet at the bottom of the band-aids that form the legs. Tell children to write words from today's lesson around the bandaid people, such as caring, loving, kind, eternal life, heart, love, Jesus.

SING A SONG:

LOVE ONE ANOTHER; TO BE LIKE JESUS

SNACK TIME: Children could go to a table with small glasses or fruit juice, crackers, cookies or cupcakes. Have the children serve the person sitting to their right and continue around the table until everyone has been served a snack today. Make sure one children "serves" the teacher with a snack as well. Encourage the children to watch for others who may have a need that they can help with during this coming week.

Song: "Love One Another

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Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track

Song: "To Be Like Jesus"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track