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 committed and persevering.
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.
Today is the day of the big western rodeo. The first competition is a lassoing competition. The contestants must lasso a cardboard cactus. Reckless Rex is one of the contestants. He is very awkward with the lasso. He gets himself all tangled up in the lasso. He starts ranting and raving about how hard it is and screaming about giving up. He stumbles off and sits down to pout. Miss Daisy tries explaining to him that we must persevere even when things are too hard. We learn to do things better by practicing. Quitters never succeed. She spends a few minutes talking about the importance of perseverance and finally convinces him that he should not give up. She then encourages him to participate in the next competition and he agrees.
The sheriff, the peddler, the deputy and Reckless Rex are all competing in a horse racing obstacle coarse. Miss daisy is in charge of the competition. The course is complicated (for Rex at least). She fires the start signal and the contestants begin the race. Reckless stumbles around and goofs up at every obstacle. This makes him very tired and he gives up. Miss Daisy keeps rushing to him to encourage him to get up and try again. Reckless starts to storm off without completing the race because he is just too tired. Miss Daisy tries to stop him and explain that if we want to succeed we need to persevere even if we are tired. Reckless grunts and groans and hollers about being tired and then storms off. The sheriff wins the race. Miss Daisy interviews him after the race and he explains to the children that if we want to do something we must work at it. If we want to be strong we exercise. At first it is very hard because our bodies aren't used to it, but we must not give up. Sometimes things seem too hard or sometimes we feel too tired to keep going, but we must still persevere. It is an important character trait for young Christians to learn. Sometimes is may even be scary....(this can tie into the Bible story that is to follow)
The peddler and the deputy volunteer to tell a bible story about some people who persevered even though they were tired, scared, and had a hard task to do. They tell the story of the battle of Jericho. They build a wall out of big marshmallows and stick people out of small marshmallows and toothpicks. They tell the story of how the Israelites persevered as they marched around the walls (the marshmallow people are marched around the marshmallow wall.) Emphasize the importance of keeping at it even when they were discouraged.
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.
There is a big parade scheduled for the end of the rodeo. The deputy wants to be in the parade but doesn't play an instrument. She decides that she will play in the parade anyway. She pulls out an instrument and shows the kids how "good" she is.. The outlaw puppets in jail stick their heads out and complain about the lousy conditions and torture being inflicted on them. Reckless Rex rides into town ready to stomp on the instrument. Pauley peddler intervenes on the argument between the deputy and reckless with a solution. She has a miracle cure for sale that will make the deputy and expert player instantaneously. She sells some to the deputy after a long and convincing speech about her product. The deputy takes some and tries playing again and sounds just as bad. Miss Daisy now enters the scene and explains to all of them that if you want to do something well, you must practice, practice, practice before you get good. There are no miracle cures! Just perseverance!
You will need a long two by four for each pod group. Have the kids practice walking on the board without falling off. After kids have each had an opportunity to walk the beam discuss with them the importance of persevering. See if the kids have any questions about what has been presented so far. Spend a few minutes asking God to help each child to persevere for God in the upcoming year.
Allow the kids to compete in the obstacle course that was set up for the opening skit. Award a small prize to each child who completes the race even if their team didn't win. Spend a few minutes talking about how God will reward everyone who perseveres in their commitment to him.
Talk about the new year being a time when people often make new years resolutions. They make commitments to do certain things.....
Copyright 1999, Sheryl Coats
