| SHEPHERD AND SHEEP FROLIC: Divide the children into two teams - one team is the sheep and one team is the shepherds. The children will scatter around an open designated area. When the teacher calls out SHEPHERDS, that team will run and find a sheep and guide it back to their team, but when the teacher calls out SHEEP, the sheep will run away and hide or get to the place the farthest away, until the teacher calls out SHEPHERDS again. Continue to play as time allows. Make sure all the SHEEP are baa-baaaaaa,ing when they are running!
SHEEP RELAY: Children can be divided into teams to run a Sheep Relay. Each team will need a stuffed sheep and a long stick or a cane to push their sheep to the finish line and run back to their team for the next player to push the stuffed sheep to the finish line. When children return to their team with the stick, tell them to sit down while the other players continue. The first team with all their "shepherds" sitting down will be the winners.
BAA-BAA HIDE AND SEEK: Children will play this like hide and seek. One child will be chosen to be the "shepherd" and the other children will hide. The "shepherd" can be blindfolded to make the game a little more difficult for older youth. The children hiding will be the "sheep" and will baa-baa to help the Shepherd find them. When the shepherd finds the sheep, they will be put into a closed in area (sheep pen) until all the sheep have been found. Play again as time allows.
SHEEP TO WATER/FOOD: The children can be divided into teams and one child from each team can be blindfolded as a "sheep". Each team can give directions to their team's sheep to find a food or water bowl -- such as "go to your left 3 steps, or to your right 2 steps, or straight ahead about 5 baby steps", etc. When the team's sheep has found the food or water bowl, another child on the team can become the "sheep" and blindfold and then move the food or water bowl to another place and play the game again.
SHEEP WORD FIND: There are 5 questions in our lesson today to learn a few things about sheep. There are more ideas in the other part of the lesson as well. The teacher can write out the answers in big bright colors and tape around the room. When the teacher asks a question, children can raise their hands to volunteer to go and find the answer on the classroom wall and bring the correct answer paper and tape to a poster board beside the sheep picture with the question written inside the sheep body (the teacher will have the poster board with sheep and questions prepared before classtime.
IN THE SHEPHERD'S ARMS PICTURE: Provide children with construction paper and supplies to make a picture as the teacher tells the story over again. The children can be given green felt for green pastures, cotton ball for the sheep, blue plastic for water, brown cardboard for shelter, etc.
SHEEP BIBLE VERSE: Let children trace over the outline of a sheep. Glue a few wisps of cotton ball around the outer edges after tracing the outline with a bright colored wide marker. Then children can write today's Bible verse inside the sheep or the younger children can just cut out and tape today's verse that the teacher has written or typed out for children.
FOUR POINT BANNER: Children can work together in groups or individually to make a banner with poster board, markers and stickers. One one side of the banner, children can write four words or sentences, such as NEEDS, STRAYS, DANGER and FALL DOWN. On the other side of the banner, children can write, HELP, BRINGS US BACK, PROTECTS US, and PICKS US UP. Children can either write the correct response directly across from the left sided words (NEEDS, STRAYS, DANGER AND FALLS DOWN)... or can mix the right sided words up and then draw lines to match up each side.
SING A SONG: Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us. Children could also be given one phrase of this song and then each child could SPEAK their phrase and then sing the song together. If you have a way to show YouTube videos, there is a great one of "I Just Wanna Be a Sheep." Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/user/ButterflySongMusic
SHARE A SNACK: Cookies with fluffy white frosting, or little round cookies called Mexican wedding cakes, or a cupcake with fluffy white frosting to remind children of a sheep in today's story.
Song: "Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us"
Words and Music (pdf) 
MP3 Accompaniment Track
This songs is in the public domain and may be copied and reproduced for ministry purposes.
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