John the Baptist Prepares the Way
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "Preparing the Way"

Scripture Reading: Mark 1:1-8

UNDER CONSTRUCTION BLOCK BUILDING:

Give children blocks to build things as they enter the classroom Make comments about their building projects and let children know that our lesson today is about making crooked ways straight and make the rough places smooth and preparing our HEARTS too, to receive Jesus!

HIGHWAY BANNER:

Give children long pieces of paper to draw highways and roads and mountains and valleys on. After the highway banner is drawn, encourage children to write today's Bible verse on the roads and up and over the mountains, etc.

"CROOKED PATHS" WALK:

Follow the leader/teacher up and down and around and on a crooked path walk to look for HEARTS along the pathway. Each heart will have sections of the Bible verse on it. As children reach the end of their walk, they'll put the hearts in order to learn their Bible verse by memory.

SANDPAPER BLOCK ART:

Give each child a piece of rough wood or a little block and a small piece of sandpaper to sand the block of wood and make it smooth. Paint or use a marker to write on each block of wood, "Make our crooked ways straight and our rough places smooth."

MOUNTAIN AND VALLEY'S GAME:

Divide children into groups of 2. One will draw a mountain and the other will try to make the mountain look like a valley. The other children will draw a valley and their partner will draw a mountain over the valley, or draw some rough ground and the other child will try to make it look level! This can be done in turns like tic-tac-toe until the teacher says STOP! Then have discussion about our Bible verse today and see how many children remember the parts of the verse. It will be fun for the children to remember different parts of the verse and to just say THEIR own part and then put it all together!

"BIBLE VERSE" ROUND:

Each child reads one word of the Bible verse (from the chalkboard) and then the next child will say the next word and keep going, faster and faster. If someone says the wrong word, they sit down until the last one is standing. The final child standing will shout out – PREPARE THE WAY – JESUS IS COMING!!!

BROWNIE BLOCKS:

For a snack today, children can have small pieces of brownies or small pieces of candy bar with a Hershey kiss at the top, to stack and build and then eat! Before the child eats the snack, have him/her tell the teacher how WE are all under construction in today's lesson.

Song: "Prepare the Way of the Lord"

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Accompaniment Track (right click to save to your computer)

This song is copyright Sermons4Kids, Inc. and may be freely downloaded and reproduced for religious or educational use by churches, schools, home schools, and other non-profit organizations.