If your group has a favourite competitive game then do use it, if not then here are some slightly less competitive suggestions.

 

What’s that sound – Find some free mp3 sound effects and download them. Try to quieten the children and get get them to identify the sounds you play. What emotions do they link with the sounds they are hearing?
 

Mug pieces – Using the image of a mug provided here. Cut the image into sections, to form a jigsaw. take all the pieces for one mug and then a few extra pieces and place them in a bag. Deliberately include too many pieces to complete the image. Get the children to reassemble the image. Talk about how sometimes we have more things than we need.
 
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God is always watching us, for some that is a scary thought but the comforting element is what we need to stress throughout this lesson

 

Hidden eyes – ideally you would use ping pong balls with the iris drawn on for this game which grosses hide the thimble with hide and seek, but in reality circles of paper or anything that could represent eyes will work.
 

Blind man’s buff – This traditional game links in more aptly than may seem at first glance, it opens the conversation to how secure you feel when you seem to be in some way alone.
 
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This a different sort of play post. This lesson is designed to be more theatrical and exploratory than the others and so here are a few free form play ideas for you to work with. These ideas are mostly designed to be used after the story.

 

Cornflour goo mixture – mix cornflour (sometimes known as corn powder, a very fine white powder) and warm water to create a colloid which you can use as a liquid and a solid. If you fill a seed tray with the mixture then you can walk on the ‘water’ (jumping is even easier) as long as you do so with conviction and speed, just like with Peter, walking knowing God’s supporting you means you can do it, when you stop you sink! Alternatively you can fill a baking dish and place it on a towel and let the children play using their fingers or if you have them – dolls. It’s a very safe mixture, often used in nurseries. If you want to you can dry it out after use for storage but it does tend to smell after a couple of uses.
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For this lesson I have 2 play posts. one is a specially modified game of eye spy. This one is the more usual collection of games. The games link with the themes; Vision, hiding, and sharing

 

Hide and seek – Traditionally it’s one of those games everyone knows, and if you have the space it’s great to play. I’d make sure you have a signal to say the game has ended. It ties in to the idea of Zacchaeus being hidden in the tree.
 

Boxed Limited view – you need a few cardboard boxes for this one. Punch a few small holes in the sides and then place a mystery object in the box. By shaking and peering through the holes the child has to identify the object.
 
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Smelly games and lots of liquids make this lesson on Mary one worth spending a bit of time on. There are not many lessons that allow us to use so many different sensory textures so do take advantage of the opportunity.

 

Smell bags – I love this game, it sounds like a lot of work but really it’s very simple. You need some kind of container, a cloth bag works the best but cardboard boxes with salt shaker holes are just as easy. You then need to find some familiar smells, shampoo’s, perfumes, soap, chopped vegetables, spices, cleaning products, candles, fruit, flavoured crisps, you’ll be amazed at home many you can find even in a sparsely equipped homestead. Either place ‘the smell’ inside the container or onto a tissue inside the container and get the kids to identify the it.

Bucket logic – this is a simple logic problem great for older kids and repeated on the worksheet. You need a large container of water and two different size containers – but not measuring jugs. You also need either scales or a measuring rod to determine the correct amount. Read the worksheet for more details. Don’t worry about being too exact with the measurements just add the capacity of the two containers together and divide by 2.
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If you have the game board (Giants Journey) from a couple of lessons ago then this is a good excuse to use it again. big games that involve a lot of movement are great openers and you can make it as challenging as possible for your age group.

 

spaghetti and marshmallows – using dry spaghetti with sticky marshmallows as building materials is a great way for older children to be set a simple challenge that also links into the very tangible obstacles that needed to be met in the stories. Generally the tallest that can stand unaided is deemed the winner.
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This passage is all about Rhoda, probably a young girl just doing her everyday stuff, but bursting with excitement at what she finds. The story also encompasses Peter’s escape, so there is a lot of scope to tie into journeys, being led, finding, dreams, and angels!

Who’s at the Door – simple listening game involving placing one child one side of a barrier and another child calls out ‘let me in’, the first child has to guess who is calling. as children get older they disguise their voice and it gets harder.

In Prison – kind of a variation of musical statues where when the music stops you need you wait to be released from the prison by the ‘angels’. Via Scripture union

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This passage is all about light and darkness, the light that blinds, the light that changes, the light of God. At a juxtaposition with the darkness of our own logic, our own self formed conclusions, the darkness of blindness, the darkness of being without God. The games therefore link into this idea of light and dark, it’s something more tangible to a child’s mind.

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Find the light– take a glow-stick and hide it in a room, turn off bight lights and let the children find it. As a minute game it works well, but if you want a longer version then use two sets and give each child a glow stick and ask them to find its matching pair. The darker the spot it is hidden in the easier it is to find. Talk to the children about how sometimes it’s when things are dark that we see the light of God most clearly.

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