Born Again!
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "Born Again!" and "The Butterfly"

Scripture Reading: John 3:1-17

CATERPILLAR CRAWL:

Run a relay with two teams with children crawling like a squiggly caterpillar. If time allows and if there is grass or clean carpet, let children crawl like caterpillars back to their classroom area!!

BUTTERFLY MUSICAL CHAIRS:

Chairs can be placed around the room in no certain pattern. Tell children to run with arms out and waving like butterflies while the music plays and when the music stops, the "butterflies" must find a chair. There should always be one less chair than there are children! Continue the game as time allows.

OLD AND NEW CREATIONS:

Divide the class up into two teams. At the teacher's whistle to begin, Team 1 will run to the OLD CLOTHES PILE to put on all the old clothes in the pile. Team 2 will run to the NEW CLOTHES PILE and quickly put on all the new clothes and see which team gets all the clothes on first. While children sit in a circle with these clothes on, let the teacher tell today's Bible story.

NEW CREATIONS:

Give children a large piece of paper to draw themselves in the colors and clothes that they are wearing today. Write I AM A NEW CREATION on the shirts or socks or at the top of the paper. Give children some buttons or ribbons or sequins to glue on to their creation picture.

TISSUE BUTTERFLY:

Give children a large tracing of a butterfly for the child to cut out and then take various colors of tissue paper for children to make into tiny "wads" to glue on to the butterfly to decorate. Save an open area on both butterfly wings to write NEW LIFE IN JESUS, etc. (Fewer tissue paper "wads" will be needed if the teacher just encourages the children to use the tissue paper around the outside edges of the butterfly.)

BUTTERFLY MOBILE:

Let children draw, cut out and color large butterflies. Write NEW LIFE IN JESUS or other ideas from our lesson today about NEW CREATIONS. Hang the butterflies from a hoop that has been wrapped with tissue paper and hang from a tree outside the classroom or in their own front yards. The teacher can have pieces of construction paper cut in various shapes for the children to glue onto their butterflies.

CATERPILLAR CRAWLER:

Provide children with a piece of ribbon and some tiny fuzzy craft balls (about 5 for each child) to glue onto the ribbon. Children will enjoy having a longer piece of ribbon so they can pull the caterpillar across the table or floor. After the caterpillars are completed, let children "crawl" their caterpillar across the room to a piece of paper that has butterfly stickers on it (prepared ahead of time by the teacher), and tape their caterpillar to that paper. One sheet of paper for each child with a butterfly sticker or more on each one. Write NEW LIFE IN CHRIST, or NEW CREATION, etc on the Butterfly sheet.

BORN AGAIN CREATION:

Let children color a large cross on a piece of paper and use different colors to write YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN (each word a different color). Let children draw butterflies around the picture or use butterfly stickers. For older children, suggest that they put each word in a small outline of a butterfly and trace the butterfly with different colored markers.

BUTTERFLY SNACKS:

Give each child an empty toilet paper roll and a piece of construction paper that will roll around the tp roll just once. Let them add butterfly stickers to the paper and tape to the roll. Give small snacks for the children to put into their "snack roll" and as they share a snack with someone after class, encourage children to tell about being a NEW CREATION IN JESUS!

Song: "Ye Must Be Born Again

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Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track (right click to save to your computer

This song is in the public domain and may be freely downloaded and reproduced for religious or educational use by churches, schools, home schoolers, and other non-profit organizations.