Into The Wilderness With Jesus Group
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "Into the Wilderness with Jesus"

Scripture Reading: Mark 1:12-15

WILDERNESS WANDERING: Divide the children into two teams for the wilderness trip. Provide an area with obstacles that the children can hide and run around. One team will represent the wild animals and one team will represent the angels (as in our Bible verse today). The teacher or a leader can represent Jesus in the wilderness and the wild animals will growl as they prowl around the area and the angels will circle around him to protect him from the wild animals.

SERVICE PANTOMIME: Divide the children into several groups to take turns performing a pantomime of a service that they might do for someone or some activity they might choose to give up during Lent while the other children try to guess what they are doing. The teacher might have a bag of ideas written on slips of paper for the children to draw from or the children can make up their own pantomime.

LENTEN BRAINSTORMING: Lead the children in brainstorming for ways we can make the season of Lent more meaningful. If the children have trouble getting started, the teacher might make suggestions such as spending time each day in prayer and Bible reading; performing good deeds such as washing someone's car windows, washing the nursery toys, cleaning up liter, reading a book to a small child or making a card for someone who is sick in the congregation.

HAND PRINTS: Provide the children with finger paints and paper to make their hand prints on a sheet of paper and then use a small brush or cotton swab to write in the paint, SERVING JESUS.

PIE PLATE: Give each child a paper plate and some colored markers. The children will use a ruler to draw lines in the plate give it the appearance of a pie that has been sliced. Fill each slice of the pie with a picture of a service to do for others or a picture of something a person might give up for Lent, as well.

40 DAY CALENDAR: Give the children a sheet of paper with lines drawn on it to form forty square to create a calendar for the 40 days of lent. Have the children write the dates in each square (excluding Sundays) leading up to Easter Sunday! Stickers or little drawings can be placed in each square with ideas from today's lesson. Hang their calendars on the classroom wall for children to mark off days each time they are in class by drawing a happy or placing a happy face sticker, if available.

SERVING GOD BUTTONS: Have the children cut out a large circle on card stock and color and decorate the "button" by writing, I AM SERVING GOD on their buttons. The teacher will hot glue a safety pin to the back of the button for children to wear as they serve others.

SWEET BIBLE SNACK: Give each child 2 graham cracker squares to frost with chocolate icing to look like a Bible. Use decorator gel to write the word BIBLE on the cracker. Talk to the children about how important it is to read our Bible each day to help keep us from temptation. After the discussion, the children may enjoy their SWEET BIBLE SNACK.

SING A SONG: FOOTSTEPS OF JESUS

Song:  "Footsteps of Jesus"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track