| PREPARE THE PATH MARCH: Give each child a small bell to ring as they march behind a leader through a "maze" of various objects that would be in their path way. The leader and children will clear the path while they march. The teacher or someone can be at the end of the marching line, to put things back in the path as the march continues and the PATH will have to be cleared each time they come to something in the way. Tell children that someone in today's lesson "prepared the way" for Jesus's coming!
SANDAL RELAY: Divide the class into teams. Have one person from each team at the SANDAL line. As teammates take turns during the relay running to the "sandal line" and their team leader, they'll take off their shoe and have their leader quickly put on the sandal and hook or tie the sandal. Then the team player will take it off again and put on their own shoe and run back to the line so the next team player can continue the game. Tell children that they will have sandals in our lesson today and to listen very carefully to what is said about sandals today and to JUMP up during the story time as SOON as they hear about sandals!
NEWSPAPER HUNT: Give children (separately or in groups), a newspaper to HUNT for words from today's lesson, cut out the individual words, and tape or glue the words to a piece of paper. Children could use their imagination for the words that they would like to HUNT for and glue to the paper about today's Bible story - -such as PREPARE THE WAY FOR THE LORD, or GOOD NEWS, or CELEBRATE JESUS, etc. (some words might have to be formed with separate large letters from the newspaper, such as L-O-R-D, etc).
BELL ART: Give children supplies to draw or cut out large bells and glitter glue around the edges. Children can tape the tops of the bells together and hang by a piece of yarn. On the bells, the children can write SHARE THE GOOD NEWS OF JESUS!
BELL NECKLACES: The teacher can purchase bell necklaces from a craft section of an inexpensive store, and give each child a bell necklace to wear during class. Whenever the teacher says, PREPARE THE WAY, the children can ring their bells. The teacher could have each child RECITE the Bible verse first today and then give them the bell necklace to wear.
BELL ROPE: Let children cut out many bells and hang on Christmas garland by yarn or ornament hangers and hang the BELL ROPE around their classroom. On the decorated bells, encourage children to write names on each bell that they cut out and hang, with names of people who need to hear about JESUS. Have a special prayer time to pray for all the names on their bells!
BELL BIBLE VERSE: Give each child a large bell to decorate and write today's Bible verse around the edges of the bell and PREPARE THE WAY in the middle of the bell. Hang the bells by Christmas ribbon around the room, or children can take them home to hang for decoration and a remembrance about sharing JESUS during this Christmas season!
SING A SONG: Sing RING THE BELLS, or GOSPEL BELLS (sung to the tune of Jingle Bells ,ie... Gospel bells, Gospel Bells, ring them all the day, ring them while you're at your work and while you're at your play! Hey! Gospel bells, Gospel bells, ring them all the day, ring-out-the-news that Jesus Christ is born on Christmas Day! )
Song: "Prepare the Way"
Words and Music (pdf) 
MP3 Accompaniment Track
This song is copyright Sermons4Kids, Inc. and may be copied and reproduced for ministry purposes.
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