Zacchaeus Goes Out On A Limb Group
Group Activities

EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT!: An activity written by La Juanna Kotis to help the children review what they have learned in the lesson about Zacchaeus. The children will enjoy moving around the room and making some noise, but the activity will also reinforce what they have learned. CLICK HERE for complete instructions.

FOOTBALL BOARD GAME: A board game activity created by La Juanna Kotis. Here are COMPLETE INSTRUCTIONS for the game.

SCAVENGER HUNT: The teacher will HIDE pictures around a designated area with objects about our story today. Ex: picture or plastic little tree, a plastic little man, a plastic little group of people (from dollar store); play money, parade items, etc. Bring items back to classroom and talk about the lesson of Zacchaeus.

LITTLE MAN PICTURE: Draw a "little man" in lower left corner of a poster board and the word SIN in the upper right corner in BIG letters. Let children write words about our story in various colors around the poster picture and discuss SIN and FORGIVENESS. (Words such as sin, forgiveness, Zacchaeus, parade, tree; cheating, Jesus, etc)

SIN & FORGIVENESS CHART: On a chart or chalkboard, write SIN in big letters with "BIG PROBLEM" (in red marker) written underneath and on the other side of the chart, write FORGIVENESS with BIG ANSWER (in red marker) written underneath. (SIN - BIG Problem; FORGIVENESS - Big Answer). Have children write or give ideas to put under the SIN column and other answers to write under the FORGIVENESS column - such as what we do to SIN or displease God and ways that we are FORGIVEN when we confess our sin!

LEAVES HUNT: If possible, let the children go outside and dig through a pile of leaves during class. The teacher can HIDE 2 cards in the leaves.... one with the word SIN on it and the other with the word FORGIVENESS. Let the children hunt until they find the cards and then have a class discussion about the two words they found. If time allows, children could each pick two good leaves and bring back into the classroom to put UNDER a piece of white paper and color over the top to get the shape/form of the leaf and then write SIN on one colored leaf and FORGIVENESS on the other leaf to take home as a reminder of today's lesson.

COINS PAY BACK: Give half of the class 2 coins each. The other half of the class can PAY BACK times 2 and then switch players and PAY BACK times 4, as in the story. Discussion about Zacchaeus and his confession and forgiveness.

ZACCHAEUS TREE ART: The teacher will have a very LARGE tree and branches and round green swirls colored on the poster board. Children can have fun writing ONE word each from the Bible verse around the green part of the tree and write the Bible verse on the trunk of the tree! Then the children can take turns pointing to the words on the tree in the correct order to learn the Bible verse together! The FIRST child who can point and recite the Bible verse by memory will be allowed to draw a LITTLE "Zacchaeus" sitting in the tree!

PIN ZACCHAEUS ON THE TREE: Have the children draw branches on a wall or very large poster boards taped together. Use sponges to add painted leaves to the branches of the tree. The children can then play PIN ZACCHAEUS ON THE TREE to see how close they can get (blindfolded) to putting the little man on a tree branch. There don't have to be any winners but children will enjoy seeing where Zacchaeus is sitting. The large tree and leaves can left on the wall to be enjoyed by the class for weeks to come, if teacher desires!

ZACCHAEUS HAND AND ARM TREE: Provide the children with a long piece of construction paper and trace the child's arm and opened hand onto the paper. Have the children color or paint the arm and hand brown and use a green ink pad to use their fingers to print leaves on their tree. The teacher wll give each child a picture of Zacchaeus sitting so that the children can glue the little man to a tree branch (their outstretched thumb).

Song:  "Zacchaeus Was A Wee Little Man"

Song Sheet (PDF)

Piano Accompaniment MP3