Herod the Grinch
Group Activities
Sermon Title: "Herod the Grinch"
Scripture Reading: Matthew 2:13-23
GRAB THE GIFT:
Children can be divided into two teams and assign each child a number. Play this game similar to the old game called "STEAL THE BACON". Children will line up facing each other about 10 feet apart. Place a wrapped gift (book or ball, etc) in the middle of the two lines. When the teacher says for "children with the number 5, GO!" The children that were #5 when they counted off in teams will both run to the middle and try to GRAB the GIFT and run back to his line without being caught or tapped by the opponent. The teacher will continue to call out numbers. The team that gets the gift to his own team line the most times during play time is the winner. (For extra fun toward the end, the teacher may call out 2 or more numbers at the same time for all those children to run to the middle and try to GRAB the GIFT to return to his own line).
CHRISTMAS DRESS UP:
Divide the children in teams. The teacher will have a bag of Christmas apparel items for the children to run to the DRESS UP LINE and grab one item, put it on and run back to the team, for the next player to do the same. Make sure to take pictures of each team or everyone all together wearing bells, Santa hats, red or green clothing, Christmas socks, ribbons and bows, etc.
WISE MEN GIVE GIFTS:
Let children wrap a gift that the teacher gives them (such as a Christian book, Bible verse on construction paper, Bible game, star, jingle bell, candle, Christmas song book, etc). While the children sing a Christmas song such as Away in a Manger or Silent Night, the children will gather around a "manger" made of wood or a cradle, and place their wrapped gifts in the manger.
JOY LETTERS:
Provide the children with construction paper, markers, glitter and sequins. The children will cut out large traced letters of J-O-Y. Let the children decorate the letters and glue them to another piece of construction paper. Pass the JOY lettered paper to the person to their right and SHARE THE JOY!
HAPPY HEARTS:
The teacher will have 4-5 hearts traced for children to cut out. Each heart will be a different size, ranging from small to large. Have the children can tape the hearts on top of each other from the largest to the smallest and attach a ribbon to hang as a decoration on a Christmas tree. Children can write words from our lesson today or SHARE CHRIST'S LOVE AT CHRISTMAS!
CHRISTMAS CHAIN LOOPS:
Let the children make a Christmas loop chain with green and red strips of cut out construction paper. On each loop, encourage the children to write an important word from today's lesson such as JOY, STAR, SHARE, HEART, WORSHIP, or JESUS on each loop before gluing each loop inside the next loop. When all the loops are completed, hook all the loops together and hang the chain on the classroom wall for decoration.
SNOWMAN LOVE:
Let the children cut out 3 white circles, each one bigger than the first. Glue the "snowballs" one above the other on a piece of red or green construction paper. Give the children a piece of cloth for a scarf, orange triangle for a carrot nose, black sticks cut out of construction paper for the arms, cut out colored hat to complete their snowman. Encourage children to write JESUS LOVES ME "SNOW" MUCH above or underneath the snowman.
SING A SONG:
"We Three Kings of Orient Are" and "Angels Watching Over Me"
SHARE A SNACK:
The teacher can wrap up a cupcake or a candy bar in Christmas wrapping paper for the children and give out as a gift as the children leave.
Song: "We Three Kings" - John H. Hopkins, Jr.
Song: "Angels Watching Over Me" - Black Spiritual
Lead Sheet (PDF) - Vocal part and text
