Free Children's Ministry Curriculum Written by Sheryl Coats
Bugs Bugs and More Bugs
Hillbilly Days
Wonderfair
The Wacky Worship Workshop
The Celebration Medical Centre
The Celebration City Courthouse
Growing in God's Garden
The Armour of God
The Wild Wild West
Thanksgiving
Welcome to the wacky worship workshop...where we learn about building our relationship with Jesus.
The set: set up the room like a workshop with all kind of wacky inventions. The weirder it looks the better. Try obtaining some old science equipment or old computer components that can be taken apart to make the room look like a crazy inventor inhabits the room.
This week: We will learn that thankfulness is an important ingredient in prayer and our relationship with Christ.
To teach the children that:
Characters needed: The crazy inventor, his faithful assistant, smudge (who always tries to wreck stuff) one or two workshop workers and Einstein the puppet and Bobo the puppet.
Rules are a necessary part of life. Be sure to enforce the rules on a consistent basis. Kids need consistency and they need rules.
Sometimes we get caught up in our daily lives and we neglect to take time to seek God's anointing for our service. Be sure to take time this week to seek God, to pray for the children you will minister to, and to pray for God's presence in our service.
Preservice activity: Before service starts, circulate among the kids and give each one a small candy bar. Don't say much, just hand them one and remind them to throw their wrappers in the trash. Take note of how many actually say thank you. Later in the lesson bring to the kids attention how many remembered to say thank you. If you have a normal bunch of kids many will have neglected to say thank you.
String a clothes line across the room. Ask children to tell you things they like to complain about. Write each item on a note card and allow the child to pin it to the clothes line with a clothes pin. Once the line is full begin to wrap the kids up in the line of complaining until they are totally tangled up. Have them sit down and ask them how it feels to be tangled up in all those complaints. Tell the children that today you are going to be learning about thankfulness and complaining. Have each person pin their card to their shirt complaint side down and go back to their seats.
MEMORY VERSE: Ephesians 5:20 "Always give thanks to God for everything"
(you will need a large plate of cookies or candy)
(Bobo is back stage stuffing his mouth with candy to the point of gorging and the noise can be heard in class)
Leader: I wonder what Bobo is doing back there today. That is really a strange noise.
Bobo: (his mouth is stuffed with candy and he is trying to talk so it sounds muffled) Did you call me? What do you want?
Leader: (who didn't understand a word he said) Say what??
Bobo: (repeating himself with his mouth still full) I said, did you call me?? What do you want?
Leader: (who still doesn't understand) Bobo, what is in your mouth?
Bobo: (proceeds to stuff more candy in his mouth) Um it's just candy...(he begins to groan) Oh my tummy hurts...(stuffs more candy in his mouth)
Leader: Have you been eating too many sweets again?
Bobo: Oh no, I could never eat too many sweets.
Leader: Well, what did you eat?
Bobo: Oh just a little ice cream
Leader: Ice cream shouldn't give you a tummy ache unless you ate an awful lot of it.
Bobo: Well, I only et fifteen gallons. Maybe it was the seven boxes of cookies that I ate.
Leader: Bobo, you didn't
Bobo: Well yes I do believe I did et seven boxes of cookies.
Leader: ATE
Bobo:Well, maybe it was eight, but who's counting.
Leader: It's I ate seven boxes of cookies Bobo.
Bobo: You ate seven boxes of cookies? No wonder you are so fat!
Leader: Bobo! That is very rude. And NO I did not eat seven boxes of cookies. I was correcting your grammar.
Bobo: My grammas not here. And you don't need to correct her. She is always good.
Leader: Oh Bobo. You said you et seven boxes of cookies and you should have said you ate seven boxes of cookies. Why in the world did you eat so many sweets?
Bobo: Cause I love sweets! And I wanted to make sure I got it all to myself. Do you have any more candy? (Groaning) Oh my tummy.....
Leader: Bobo!!!! It looks to me like you have already gorged yourself with sweets this morning.
Bobo: But I want more!!
Leader: What happened to all the candy I gave you to pass out to the kids this morning?
Bobo: I ate it! I wanted it all to myself. I didn't want the other kids to have any. And I want more now!
Leader: you are being terribly selfish and stingy today.
Bobo: You never give me what I want. You are mean. I want more candy!! You only gave me a few pieces of candy and I want more! Give me more!
Leader: You are being very ungrateful Bobo. You are being a very bad example for the kids. We are trying to teach the kids how important it is to be thankful for what you have.
Bobo: I guess I just blew it huh? Instead of being so selfish I should be happy with what I have been given right?
Leader: That's right. It is important to be thankful for what we have instead of always demanding more and more.
Bobo: Boy have I learned a lesson today. I feel terrible. Will you please forgive me. I will try to be more thankful.
Leader: I forgive you Bobo.
The inventor will build a machine this week that he thinks will be a great asset to everyone. It is a grouchoverter. It takes grumbling and grouching and turns it into praise. All you have to do is put grouchy things in one side and praise will come out the other side. He builds the machine, puts in a complaint and really stinky garbage comes out the other end. He is confused. He tries to figure out why yucky stuff came out. He makes a few adjustments and tries again and more stinky garbage comes out. The leader then explains that if you grumble and complain to God, then grumbling and complaining is what he is going to receive. What you put in is what is going to come out. You cannot expect a machine to convert your complaining into praise. Praise and thankfulness has to come from the heart.
(you will need a popcorn popper and popcorn) The popcorn represents our praise and thanksgiving to God. As we give it to God He receives our praise and thanksgiving and is pleased. He then pours out his blessings on us...the popcorn should start popping by this time. His blessings are greater than we could ever imagine. What we put in is multiplied; we reap so much more than we give by being thankful. (In following with the theme, it might be nice to build an invention with a popcorn popper inside..perhaps the inventor tries to invent something new and useful that will help him make a fortune only to discover it has already been invented.)
Thankful musical chairs: set up enough chairs for each child to have a chair. Place a picture of a tool on each chair (use four-six different tools). When the music stops every child must find a seat. Then call out a tool. Each child sitting in a chair with that tool must tell something they are thankful for.
The inventors assistant has baked some delicious cookies (bake some cookies ahead of time but leave out the sugar) She is all excited about them and offers some to the kids. When the kids reject the cookies because of how bad they look she starts to cry. The leader can interact with her and lead the discussion to discover why the cookies look and taste bad. If you forget to put a certain ingredient in it can ruin the whole recipe. If we leave thanksgiving out of our prayer it can ruin the whole thing.
Tell the story of the Israelites in the desert and how they grumbled continually...about food, water, etc. Despite all the miracles that God had performed and all he had done for them they still complained.
(you will need a bag of common items which we often take for granted such as soap, toothbrush, a can of soda, a bible, shoes, etc and also five kernels of corn) Begin by telling a story about the pilgrims who suffered greatly when they first arrived in America. Times were so tough that often they only got five kernels of corn to eat for a meal each. They learned to thank God through tough times.
Next begin taking items out of the bag. Hold up the toothbrush and tell the children about the families in Ecuador who could only afford one toothbrush for the entire family. Hold up the shoes and tell about the children who have no shoes to wear and take out the soap and describe how many children all over the world have no place to bathe, no running water, and no soap. Continue to take out items and remind the children of the many things in life we take for granted. Finally take out the Bible. Tell the children about the countries where they do not have access to a Bible.
God has blessed us and yet we often walk around grumbling just like the Israelites did. We need to remember all that God has done for us. When we pray we need to take time to tell God thank you.
Have the children take their cards off and write something they are thankful for on the blank side of the card. Ask them to wear their card home and hook it to something in their room. Each day challenge them to add something to their card.
Copyright 1998, Sheryl Coats
