Seeing Clearly
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "Steal the Sheep"

Scripture Reading: John 10:1-10

SHEPHERD'S VOICE GAME:

Take turns having children try to recognize someone else's voice behind a door. They could say the Bible verse in a disguised voice, or a sound or noise to see if the "sheep" can guess who's voice that is! Discussion about today's lesson with the shepherd and the sheep!

WWJD chart:

Have children write ideas about things in one column that they would like to do or are told or asked to do by their friends. Across the paper in the other column, have children write if JESUS would WANT them to do that or not (YES or NO)!

GATE BIBLE VERSE HUNT:

The teacher can build or construct a "gate" (anything to resemble a "gate" will be fun for the kids in this learning process) that the children can take turns going through, in order to pick ONE card up with a word from their Bible verse today. After all the words have been found behind the gate, then children will put them on a poster board in ORDER and recite the Bible verse together. Children can take turns SAYING the Bible verse and IF they are able to recite it alone, they can draw a "section" of the GATE over the top of the bible verse that is displayed on the poster board, and continue to recite the verse until all of the gate is completed over the Bible verse!

TOOTHPICK GATE:

Let children draw or trace sheep on a piece of paper OR use sheep stickers if available. Then have children paste toothpicks over the sheep pictures to look like a gate over the sheep!

CARD CHOICES:

Give each child a recipe-size card with JESUS/SHEPHERD (with happy face) written on one side and FALSE TEACHER (sad face), written on the other side. As the teacher says a phrase (examples such as harms us, keeps us from harm, climbs over the fence to get the sheep, steals the sheep, loves us, provides everything we need; watches over us, cares for us, tries to hurt us, leads us astray, tricks us, whats what is best for us, etc), have children hold up their card with either JESUS or FALSE TEACHER to show which things Jesus does and which things that False teacher will do!

"SHEEP IN THE GATE" ART:

Give each child a piece of construction paper and a small amount of a cotton ball. Children can tear apart the cotton ball and glue/paste little amounts of cotton on their page. Show children how to draw little legs and ears on the sheep and then let each child glue some craft sticks over the top of the sheep to form a gate! Write or trace the BIBLE VERSE at the top of the page or "in and around" the cotton sheep!

TRUTH OR LIE:

Teacher can tell something about the story or our Bible verse today and have children run to the TRUTH poster-side-of-the-room if they think it is TRUE; or if the teacher tells something about Jesus or our story about a shepherd, etc and if the children think it is a LIE, they'll run to the LIE poster-side-of-the-room! (This gets the "bugs" out of the children as well as helps them to listen very CAREFULLY for the truth or a lie!)

GATE TREATS:

At the end of class, let children go "through the gate" that the teacher had prepared above for a Bible verse game, to find a treat that the teacher has hidden after the game above.

Song: "Savior Like a Shepherd Lead Us" by William B. Bradbury

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Piano Accompaniment - Right click and save to your computer. (Two measures introduction and two times through.)

Song: "Lead Me, Lord" by Samuel S. Wesley

Words and Music (pdf)

MP3 Piano Accompaniment - Right click and save to your computer. (Four measures introduction and two times through.)

These songs may be freely downloaded and reproduced for religious or educational use by churches, schools, home schoolers, and other non-profit organizations.