Dry Bones
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "Dry Bones"

Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

NOTE: For most of these crafts and activities, skeletons and skeleton bones and pictures of the same will be needed. These can be found at all or most retail stores, crafts and children toy areas, etc. ENJOY!!!

DRY BONES GAME:

Children can be encouraged to run or move around a designated area until the teacher says, FREEZE DRY BONES! And immediately the children will stop and freeze until the teacher tells the DRY BONES to come alive and children will continue to move around and continue to have children FREEZE, as time allows.

DRY BONE BALLOONS:

Divide the children into teams. The children will run a relay to run as a skeleton while bopping a balloon to the finish line and back to the team where the next "skeleton player" will do the same until all the children have had a chance to play. Children will enjoy using their imaginations on how a skeleton would look or act!

DRY BONE HUNT:

In preparation for a DRY BONES bulletin board, let the children go on a DRY BONES hunt around the room to find small pictures of bones printed from the computer or a book, and then quickly bring back a bone and put on bulletin board and continue to find bones to put in order to form a human body on the bulletin board. When all the bones have been found and placed on the bulletin board, children can talk about the words that the teacher has written on the bones to remind us of today's lesson. Words that the teacher can write on the various bones can be about hard times that we face and the HOPE that Jesus gives us.

HOPE BANNER:

Place a very long piece of paper on the wall and let all the children write the letters of JESUS BRINGS HOPE IN HARD TIMES, as well as other coloring and decorating of their classroom banner, as children desire. Each letter can be decorated or in a different color. Glitter or decorate the word.. HOPE.. more than the other words.

FINGER PAINTING HOPE:

Give each child a piece of paper and finger paints to smear all around their paper. Then encourage children to use their pointer finger and write, HOPE, and let the papers dry, to take home.

HAND PRINT HOPE:

Each child can be given paper and supplies to trace their own hand and then write a word on each finger, color and brightly color-outline their hand. Each finger can be 1 of 5 words or phrases, such as GOD (thumb); Brings (pointer finger); Dry (middle finger); Bones (ring finger), to Life (pinky finger); OR Trust (thumb), In (pointer finger), GOD (middle finger), Have (ring finger), HOPE (pinky finger), etc.

DYED OR PAINTED HOPE:

Before class, the teacher can dye or paint some macaroni and let children glue onto a piece of paper in the letter shapes of HOPE! Color or add stickers to the rest of the piece of construction paper.

BONE BOX:

Give each child a small box, such as an old check box, etc and children can decorate the outside of the box with construction paper and write today's Bible verse or GOD BRINGS DRY BONES TO LIFE, etc. Let children collect skeleton bones from the teacher as they answer questions about today's lesson or hard struggles and children will place their bones in their boxes.

PASTA SKELETON:

Provide the children with a bowl of many types, shapes and sizes of pasta. Children will then be given a piece of construction paper to glue their pasta onto, in order to form a picture of themselves... skeleton style! Write a title on the paper from today's lesson.

BONE JAR:

Have a jar filled with small skeleton bones. Children can see who guesses the closest number of bones that are in the jar!

CANDY BONE BAGS:

Give children a lunch bag to color and decorate with today's Bible verse or prayer, etc. Let children put some candy bones in their bags to take home and enjoy through out the week as they remember that Jesus gives HOPE during the hard times. (Candy bones can be purchased from retail or candy stores, etc).

BONES BIBLE VERSE HUNT:

Write words from today's Bible verse on pictures of skeleton bones and scatter around the room or another designated area. Children can find the skeleton pictures and place in order on the class bulletin board.

MACARONI WORDS:

Give children colored macaroni to form into a word from today's lesson, such as JESUS, HOPE, LIFE, etc. Glue the macaroni onto a piece of paper. Another option would be to to have fun forming words together, so each child would be given a small bowl of macaroni and the teacher will say a word such as HOPE and let the children form that word. When everyone is done forming one word, the teacher will give the children another short word to form with their macaroni such as LIFE, JESUS, GOSPEL, etc.

SING A SONG:

What a Friend We Have In Jesus; Jesus Loves Me

SHARE A SNACK:

Simple baked macaroni and cheese: In a 4 qt baking dish, melt 1/2 stick of butter, add 16 oz UNcooked macaroni (toss with melted butter) and 6 cups of milk and one 8 oz bag of grated cheese; add salt and pepper as desired and bake at 375 for about 45 - 60 minutes until bubbly. This is a delicious and easy snack that the teacher could bake before class and serve during snack time, if desired.

Song: "Breathe on Me, Breath of God"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Piano accompaniment Track (right click to save to your computer)

This song is in the public domain and may be freely downloaded and reproduced for religious or educational use by churches, schools, home schoolers, and other non-profit organizations.