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
Theme: We will be in the wild west discovering Godly Character traits for kids.
The Set: Set up the class room to look like a town in the wild west. Decorate with cardboard cactus, stick horses, a jail house, a place to park horses, a hotel, wanted posters, etc.
Sheriff Sam - a good guy, the sharpest shooter in the west. Deputy Do Good - a dumb deputy who is good at heart and always tries to do good. Reckless Rex - a mean outlaw Pauly Peddler - a traveling saleswoman who always has something for sale she thinks will save the day. Miss Daisy - the waitress at the local restaurant One Eyed Will - a puppet who has only one eye. He is the memory verse bandit and is always lurking around waiting to steal the memory verse. Bobo - a big hairy puppet that is always getting himself into trouble.
This week: Kids will discover the importance of being loving and compassionate.
Kids will learn that:
Have kids spend 1-2 minutes at their seats in prayer and then allow Deputy Do good to open in group prayer. This time is very important as it teaches the kids not only how to pray but also that they can pray.
Add a western spin to the rules this week. The sheriff can come out and explain the rules.
Start the worship with a cowboy puppet song. Encourage the kids to sing along with the puppets. Worship is a special time. Encourage the kids to worship with their hands, hearts, and voices.
Miss Daisy comes running out screaming that she has just seen Reckless Rex and he is angrier than a wild horse with burs in his hind end. Everyone scrambles to hide. Reckless Rex comes riding into town. He is huffing and puffing and fuming mad. He is hollering about hating the sheriff and everybody in Dry Gulch! He is going to get everybody. He boasts about being the fasted draw in the west. He yells that if the sheriff doesn't come out for a shoot out he's going to draw. The sheriff comes out. They stand back to back and walk ten paces then draw (a picture of a horse). Reckless Rex draws a picture but not quite as fast as the sheriff draws his picture. This makes Rex even madder. He is now stomping and storming around. The peddler tries to sell Reckless Rex a love potion. She tells him that if he takes two m&m's in the morning and 2 in the evening he will get rid of all of the hate and anger he has and it will be replaced with love. Rex takes two and still feels angry and hateful so he starts yelling at the peddler. The deputy comes out of hiding with a large mirror. He tells Reckless Rex that the way he is treating everybody is terrible. He is pushing and yelling and saying mean things. That is very unloving. He holds up the mirror in front of Rex and asks him what he sees. Reckless Rex's demeanour softens and he says he sees the most handsome wonderful outlaw he ever did see. The deputy tries to explain that he ought to love others as much as he loves himself. If he treated everybody else like he wanted to be treated then everyone would be more happy. Rex snorts and laughs at such a silly thought and rides out of town.
After all that work the sheriff and deputy are real tired and ready for a break. The deputy comes out with two pitchers of lemonade (one with sugar and one without) and some lemons. He tells the sheriff that this lemonade reminds him of love and hate. He hands the sheriff a lemon and has him taste it. It is very sour and bitter. He tells the sheriff that hate makes people unhappy and sour like a lemon. Hate is like Lemonade without sugar; simply no good. Having love is like adding sugar to the lemonade. Love is sweet and pleasant. God can give us that love if we ask for it. As Christians we need to be sweet and loving like lemonade and not sour and unloving like lemons.
The Christmas story. Miss Daisy volunteers to tell them a story while they finish their break. Using a nativity set she tells the Christmas story emphasizing God's love for us. Be sure to explain that God SHOWED his love to us.
1 John 3:18 The pony express (a horse puppet) delivers the memory verse written on brown paper wrapped around a brick and tied with twine. The deputy unwraps it and teaches it to the children. As he is teaching it the memory verse bandit, One Eyed Will, sneaks up and steals it. The deputy freaks out and the sheriff comes running. The deputy doesn't know what to do. How will the kids learn the verse? Thankfully the sheriff just happens to know this verse and finishes up teaching it to the kids.
You will need a dart gun and a target. On the center bull's-eye write the word love. On the other circles write words like unkind, selfish, mean, etc.
Pauli peddler has a dart gun for sale on her cart. She wants to see if it is in working order before she sells it.
Have several kids volunteer to come up and shoot the gun to earn points for their team.
Read 1 John 3:18 "Dear children, let us not love with words but with actions" Tell the children that our aim in life should be to love others as God loves us. Our actions should show our love. Allow kids to shoot at the target. Talk about how sometimes we all miss the target. We all act unloving sometimes, but still our aim should always be to show love! When we fail, we don't give up. We say we are sorry and we try again just like we try again when we miss the bulls eye on the target. It is easy to say we love, but much harder to show it.
You will need a balloon that has been inflated and has a face drawn on it. Stick some clear packing tape on several spots on the balloon. Add a cowboy hat to add to the theme. Introduce the balloon head as cowboy Clyde.
I have a pin (use a long hat pin) which is like the words that I say to Clyde. First stick Clyde with some kind and loving words. (Stick the pin through the packing tape and pull it back out each time you say something nice. The balloon will not pop when you do this.) The kind and loving words did not hurt Clyde at all. After several times of this say something mean to Clyde. (This time stick the pin through the portion of the balloon that doesn't have tape on it. Clyde will pop now.) Explain to the children that even if we are loving sometimes to someone, if we turn around and are unloving we hurt them. We need to show our love with our words and our actions.
You will need a lump of clay and a small candle for each child and a large candle for the pod leader. Have each child shape their clay into a heart shape and press the candle into the middle of it to make a candle holder. Spend a few minutes talking about God's love and how because of that love He sent His son to earth to die for us. Tell the children that God wants us to spread that love to others. Light the large candle. Carefully light one of the children's candles with the large candle. Then help the child light the next child's candle with their candle, etc.. As you are helping the children light the candles talk about the importance of spreading God's love.
Sermon/alter: 1 John 4:7-11
Copyright 1999, Sheryl Coats
