A seven day wedding may seem crazy or completely normal, depending on your culture, but trying to work out how much drink for such an event must have been a challenge. These games look at the event as a whole, the joy of the party, the planers preparation and the way Jesus, together with the servants, stopped it being memorable for the wrong reasons.
Water Table – a play water table is something usually reserved for the preschool or infants, but playing with water is a great way into this story. If you can’t access one then use the largest flat container you can find. Add in cups, scoops funnels and various strainers, simple bath toys tubes especially. You can also extend to colour mixing with a drop of water based food colouring or cordials. Add in challenges for older kids, eg. “Can you find a way of filling the sieve?” or “how far can you get the water to travel?”
Dressing up – There is something special about putting yourself in the shoes of the people in the story. This story with it’s special wedding outfits is a great opportunity to grab the costumes. Act out the story with a tray full of cups and the biggest tubs you can find. You could fill them with tissue paper balls, blue on top and red underneath?
Prepared – Sit the youngsters in a circle and have them play this ‘grandma’s suitcase’ variant. Say “I went to the wedding with Jesus and I was prepared because I took (insert object plus reason)” For example “an oil lamp for after dark”. Have the next person repeat your sentence adding on a new object eg: “I went to the wedding with Jesus and I was prepared because I took an oil lamp and a gift for the newly weds.” Continue adding items as you go round the circle.
He Said – “Do whatever he tells you to” said Mary to the servant – what a great prompt for playing ‘Simon says’. Use ‘He said’ not ‘Jesus said’ and get the kids following commands. How did it feel to do things you wouldn’t normally do? Do you think the servants felt foolish in the story?
Many Hands Race – Draw a line on the floor and a dot as far away as the room allows. Repeat this is the group is large. The children need to make a path to the dot, round it and back to the line to finish the race using their hands. have the first child lay their hand flat on the line, the next person must then place their hand touching the first child’s to move them closer to the dot. Repeat with the rest of the children in the group, only once everyone has their hands on the floor can the first person stand and run to place their hand again in the line.
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OR General Party games – The wedding party went on for 7 days, Think about your favourite party games. Grab some supplies and have the kids vote on their favourite. Crank up the music and dance, pass the parcel, musical chairs, whatever your supplies allow.
