Loving God Loving Your Neighbor Group
Group Activities

LOVE BALLOONS: This can be played as a relay with 2 teams who run to the designated area and stomp and pop a balloon and retrieve the little slip inside the balloon that has words about LOVE inside, and then run back to the next team player; OR, each child can be given a balloon to pop and do the same as the relay, but all at one time. Children can take turns in a circle, reading what their paper says about LOVE and then tape or glue onto a LOVE poster board, with hearts all around the outside border.

HEART EXCHANGE: Divide the children into teams. Each team will have hearts taped to their side of a classroom wall. When the children begin the relay, they will take turns running to grab a heart from their heart box across the room or playing area and then will run back to their heart wall and tape their heart on to the MATCHING HEART. So when the teacher makes the hearts for this game, there will be two matching hearts of each heart for EACH team. In other words, the teacher will make FOUR matching hearts (TWO FOR EACH TEAM... and one of each heart will be on the team's wall and the other matching hearts will be in the heart box that the children take turns running to get!

HAND HEARTS: Provide the children will construction paper, pencils or markers and scissors. The children will trace their hands and then cut them out as much as possible. Then place the hands on another piece of construction paper with the thumbs and pointer fingers laying together. This should form a HEART. Glue the hands on the paper and let children write words on the fingers of the hands from today's lesson about showing love and GOD's love for us.

HAND PAINTING: Provide children with finger paints and painting paper. Children can spread their colors of paints around the paper and then lay their colored hands on the paper with the thumbs and pointer fingers together to form a HEART. Children could use a cotton swab or craft stick to write at the top of their hand painting - LOVING GOD, LOVING YOUR NEIGHBOR, or other words of choice.

LOVE HEART PERSON: Provide children with a piece of construction paper to cut out a very large heart. Children can be given strips of paper that the children can tape on their heart as arms and legs. Let children decorate and use glitter for children to spread around their heart with paint brushes. Children can write LOVING GOD on their heart person and hang around the room.

LOVE CARD: Children can be given a small piece of card stock or construction paper to fold in half. Write LOVE on the outside with a decorated heart and stickers, if available. Inside the card, the children can write words from today's Bible verse and stand on their kitchen tables at home to talk about God's Love and how to love others.

MATCHING HEARTS: Each child can use construction paper to make two identical hearts, decorated with the same details and a word from today's lesson on each heart. The teacher can give each child the word or a phrase from today's Bible verse to put on their own heart. After each child has made their own hearts, the teacher will hang one heart from each child on a classroom wall or door. Then the teacher can collect the other matching heart from each child and mix them up and place them in a pile. Then each child can be called on to pick a heart and to match that heart to the one on the wall. After all the children have matched the hearts, then they can take turns moving the hearts and placing them in the correct order to be able to recite the Bible verse today, using the words from the hearts.

SING A SONG: INTO MY HEART, PRAISE HIM ALL YE LITTLE CHILDREN

SHARE A SNACK: Heart shaped cookies with frosting and sprinkles for the children to decorate.