OVERVIEW CARD Key Question: Bottom Line: Memory Verse: Bible Story Focus: Coloring Page: Who gives you good friends? God gives me good friends. God wants friends to help each other. David helps Mephibosheth. 1 Samuel 20:14-17; 2 Samuel 9:1-13 David is kind to Mephibosheth. Music: Bible Lesson: Story: Together Great Big God My God is Number One Praise the Lord Everyday God s Story for Me Bible David Helps Mephibosheth Pages 186 to 190 Heartprints by P.K. Hallinan Service Time: 62 minutes (week 1) 67 minutes (week 2)
ACTIVITY 1 2 s/3 s only Food Match Have the children match up like foods and place them in a paper grocery bag. What You Need: Toy food (2 of each piece) and a paper grocery bag Before the Activity: Put the bag on the floor or table and place the food around it. During the Activity: Have kids find two of each food, identify them, and place them in the bag. Repeat as many times as desired. After the Activity: Review the Bible lesson. Before the Activity: Hello, friends. Come sit with me. Look at all the food! To play this game, you have to find two of each kind of food, tell us what the food is, and put them in the bag. Can you help me get all the food in the bag? During the Activity: Are you ready? (Pause.) Find two pieces of food that are the same. (Pause.) What food did you find? (Pause.) Good job! Put them in the bag. (Pause.) What other food can you find two of? (Pause.) Great job! Keep going! (Pause.) Way to go! You matched all the food! After the Activity: That was fun! Thank you for helping me put all the food away. Today in our Bible lesson we heard how David helped his friends and gave them food. Do you remember who David helped?
ACTIVITY 2 2 s/3 s only Time for Dinner Have the children set the table and prepare a special meal for their friends. What You Need: Toy food, plates, utensils, and toy story tablecloth Before the Activity: Place all the items in a box or container on a table in the room. During the Activity: Have kids set the table and prepare a meal. After the Activity: Review the Bible lesson. Before the Activity: Friends, who can help me set the table? (Pause.) Great! Let s make the table look really special! Do you ever help your parents set the table at home? (Pause.) It s really fun! During the Activity: You guys made the table look so nice! Now let s make a friendship meal! What food should we make? (Pause.) Yum! Let s start cooking! (Let kids role-play and have fun cooking and preparing food.) Now that the food is ready, let s place it on the table. (Pause.) Okay! Let s eat! (Sit down together and enjoy the meal.) That was so yummy! Thank you all for working together to make the meal so fun! Now let s clean up! After the Activity: It s fun to help friends and it s fun to help in the kitchen! Our Bible lesson today was about friends helping friends!
ACTIVITY 3 - ALL Verse with Friends Have the children pick a partner and hold hands as they walk, hop, skip and crawl around the room practicing their memory verse. What You Need: No supplies needed Before the Activity: Have the children pick a partner. Practice saying the verse together as a class. During the Activity: Have the children hold hands with their partners and walk around the room as they say the memory verse. Repeat several times but instead of just walking encourage the children to hop, skip, and crawl. After the Activity: Say the Bottom Line together. Before the Activity: Do you remember our memory verse for this month? (Pause.) Awesome! Let s say it together! Two people are better than one. They can help each other in everything they do, Ecclesiastes 4:9. Great job! Now everyone pick a friend to help you say the memory verse. During the Activity: Hold your friend s hand. Perfect! Let s walk with our friends as we say the verse together. Two people are better than one. They can help each other in everything they do, Ecclesiastes 4:9. Great job! Now let s hop with our friends as we say the verse together. (Hop while still holding hands.) Two people are better than one. They can help each other in everything they do, Ecclesiastes 4:9. Now let s skip! (Continue with activity.) After the Activity: Great job! Our memory verse tells us that it is better to have a friend so that they can help you. God loves us so much that he gives us good friends! Who gives you good friends? God gives me good friends.
ACTIVITY 4 4 s/5 s only Bowling with Friends Have the children play a fun game of bowling together. What You Need: 10 Pringles cans or bowling pins with pictures of Buzz, Woody, Jesse, Rex, Bo Peep, Army Men, Slink, Ham, Etch and Mr. Potato Head attached to the cans or pins and two playground balls. Before the activity: Arrange the cans or pins like bowling pins in an area of the room. During the activity: Help the kids bowl. Talk about all the friends Andy had and try to knock them down. When the pins have been knocked down, set them up again. Repeat as many times as desired. Before the activity: I have a fun game to play with you today! We are going to roll the ball and knock these cans/pins over. (Demonstrate.) Want to give it a try? (Pause.) Great job! You knocked over (say number) cans! Let s count all the cans/pins as we stand them back up. (Point to each on as you count.) One, two, three, four, five! Five cans/pins and they all have faces on them; these are Andy s friends! Okay, roll it again. Super! You knocked (say number) of Andy s friends over! (Continue as long as there s interest.) At the end of the activity: That was fun!
ACTIVITY 5 4 s/5 s only Musical Chairs Have the children play a fun game of Musical Chairs. What You Need: Toy Story stickers, Toy Story Pictures, Together from the Wherever I Go CD, a CD player music player, and chairs Before the Activity: Tape the Toy Story pictures to the seat bottoms of the chairs. Place chairs back to back in an open area in the room. Cue music. During the Activity: Play the music as kids walk around the chairs. When the music stops, kids sit down. Whoever is out gets a sticker and helps the leader. Remove a chair each time. Repeat as many times as desired. After the Activity: Say the Bottom Line together. Before the Activity: Hey, friends! Come stand around the chairs with me. We are going to play one of my favorite games: Musical Chairs! During the Activity: (Start music.) Start walking! (Stop the music.) Find a chair! Who didn t find a chair? (Pause.) You get to be my helper and you get a sticker. (Give child a sticker.) Here we go again! (Repeat as many times as desired. Let the children who get out help move chairs or start and stop the music.) After the Activity: Friends, that was so much fun! In our lesson, we heard how King David gave Jonathan s son, Mephibosheth, a special chair at his table! David was a good friend. Who gives you good friends? God gives me good friends.
CRAFT WEEK 1 My Friends Children will make a friendship sticker scene to take home. What You Need: Sticker scene During the Activity: Give each child a sticker scene and allow them to decorate their pages anyway they would like. After the Activity: Say the Bottom Line together. During the Activity: I love how David chose to help Mephibosheth and invite him to live with him and eat at his table. Today we re going to make a fun sticker scene with lots and lots of friends on it. You can put these stickers on your pages and decorate them any way you would like. After the Activity: David was such a good friend. He helped Mephibosheth. God wants us to help our friends. He gives us good friends who can help us when we need it. Who gives you good friends? God gives me good friends.
CRAFT WEEK 2 I Help My Friends Children will paint a hand to remind them of today s lesson. What You Need: Hands Activity Pages, watercolors, paintbrush, and a marker During the Activity: Give each child an Activity Page. Ask them to tell you a way that they help their friends. Write the answer in the space provided on the page. Give them a paintbrush and watercolors. Allow them to paint the hands on the page any way that they would like. Set the pages aside to dry. After the Activity: Say the Bottom Line together. Before the Activity: We can help our friends in so many different ways! Can you think of a way you can help your friends? During the Activity: (Give each child an Activity Page.) I want you to think of one way that you like to help your friends. I will come and ask you what it is so that I can write it for you on your page. (Write the answers on the pages.) Those are all wonderful ways to help! Now you may paint your pictures so that you can hang them up when you get home. This way everyone will see how you like to help your friends! (Set papers aside to dry.) After the Activity: God wants us to help our friends. He gives us good friends who can help us when we need it. Who gives you good friends? God gives me good friends.
SMALL GROUP Small Group Time What you Need: Parent Take Home Card, Playdoh, Rolling Pins, People Shaped Cookie Cutters and Sticker Roll SMALL GROUP LEADER (SGL): Raise your hand if you like Playdoh. (Pause and raise your own hand.) I do too! Today, I have some really special cookie cutters we can play with. Can you tell me what shape they are? (Pause.) You are right! They are shaped like people! They are shaped like friends! Good friends are the best! A good friend will look for ways to help their friends. David was a very good friend in our Bible lesson today. Do you remember David s good friend Jonathan? (Pause.) David looked and looked for anyone in Jonathan s family he could help. He did this because He was a good friend to Jonathan and wanted to show kindness to Jonathan s family. Today we re going to make a list of ways we can help our friends. When we pray we will use our list to ask God to help us be a good friend and help others. (Go around and let each child say one way they can help their friends.) God loves us so much that He gives you and me good friends. Who gives you good friends? (Pause.) God gives me good friends! Ok, it s time to review our lesson. I am going to ask you some questions and you will get a sticker for answering them. I have some really cool sticker today. Are you ready? (Pause) Great! (Ask the children the questions from the Parent Take Home Cards. You can also make up additional questions from our video lesson. Don t forget to ask them to say their memory verse for another sticker. You can repeat the same questions over and over as repetition is good for preschoolers.) You are such great listeners! Now I ll pray before it s time to say goodbye until next week. (Read the prayer on the back of the Parent Take Home Card. )