Object lessons

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Egg

Items needed:

1. one egg per child

2. t-shirt per child

3. plastic to cover floor

God protects the egg from the chicken. The hen lays the egg and then sits on it. If God didn’t make the egg so the 3 to 5 # hen wouldn’t crush it we wouldn’t have any more chickens. Put a T-shirt on the boy and girl, then give them a grade a egg instruct them; when you say "go" they will squeeze the egg but they need to hold it like it comes out of the hen. They need to put the oval side in their palm and the top of the egg on their fingers. Tell them God protects the egg from a 3 to 5 # chicken but we all know that we can crush the egg. Today we just want to see if the boys are strongest or the girls. Tell them we are going to see who can crush the egg the fastest. Say one, two, three go… go… go. Well, any time your ready squeeze the egg. (If it is a grade an egg, and they don’t dig their fingers into it, they won’t be able to crush it)

Candy chocolate

Items needed:

1. baker's unsweetend chocolate

2. drinking water

3. trashcan to spit chocolate into

Put a boundary up somewhere inside the classroom. Let the kids know that the boundary is a place that represents the worldly places. Like when you lie to people and go places you know God wants you to stay away from. If there is a particular place mention it, but get the kids to realize this is an action as lying or so forth.

God's protection will be with us if we follow his word. He may not keep us from harm but he will carry us to heaven and walk with us as we go through tough times. Let the kids know that even if something looks good in the World it may not be. Tell them to trust God's word and not what TV or other people tell them. Let them know they will only be "safe" inside the boundary. At snack time or whenever announce there is chocolate on the outside of the boundary. Tell the kids they can cross the boundary if they want "because God gives you freedom to make your own choice we will too."

When (if) they eat the chocolate let them rinse their mouth out with water and explain to them that sin is like the bitter chocolate. No matter how good it looks and what others are doing sin will leave a bitter life like the bitter taste the chocolate leaves in your mouth.

Is Jesus in your family?

What you need:

1. slush powder
2. two Styrofoam drinking glasses
3. a pitcher of water
4. two pencils
5. towels for cleanup

The "trick":

Pour water into both glasses and put holes in the glasses, with the pencils, and no water comes out of one but it does come out of the other. Turn the glass upside down and the water still doesn't come out.

Preparation:

Put a table spoon or more of slush powder into one of the glasses. Make sure you use a Styrofoam glass so the slush powder will be able to "grip" the cup. Try this first so you'll know your limits.

The lesson:

I use this lesson with my testimony. I was raised by an abusive step Dad that mostly took his anger out on my Mom. As I finish my testimony I pour water into two cups. I ask a leader to help me and I tell the kids we need Jesus in our families so events that seem bad to us don't destroy our family.

I ask the kids what things may cause someone in the family to become angry or upset. I then tell the leader to put a hole in the cup. (The leader knows to put the hole high and just let a little water come out.) I tell the kids " Without Jesus in our families the problem spreads with violence over all of the family members." Then I put a hole about the same location as the leader put in their cup. I tell the kids " with Jesus in our families our troubles are carried by him, and even though the troubles are hard they don't spill out on the others in the family through violence." I ask them to think of another problem and as they tell us we put holes in our cups.

The kids eventually tell me to put a hole in the bottom and when I do they ask me to turn it upside down and then they say there isn't any water in it. When I pour water into the cup and it still doesn't come out they ask me to turn it upside down again, and this goes on until the Slush powder is so saturated that it comes out some where. The kids usually laugh and I do too. When they almost get out of hand I get really serious, I say "YOU KNOW WHAT?" with a deep and serious voice.

I, then tell the kids that the cup with the slush powder in it is like our family with Jesus in it. The slush powder took all the water into it and kept the water from spilling all over the table. When we let Jesus in our lives and families, Jesus takes all of the burden on himself and keeps the violence from spilling onto our family.

Plumb Bob

What you need:

1. table
2. Plumb line (you can get these at any hardware store).
3. Tape (white medical tape works best)
4. White paper
5. pencils

Preparation:

Put the table in an area that won’t be disturbed, but where the kids can gather around. Place a white sheet of paper under the table and tape it to the floor. Put a small line on the edge of the table, vertical so you can see it from the floor.

What to do:

When the kids come in have them put a dot where they think the line from the table is in relationship to the floor (if you drew an imaginary line from the line on the table straight to the floor where would it be when it hit the paper?) Tell the kids the closest dot to the actual place where the line meets the paper wins a prize, so the kids need to initial the dot they mark, they may need to draw an arrow to the dot with a leaders help.

What to do and say:

Ask the kids how they can see exactly where the line would be on the paper when it comes straight from the edge of the table? What should they use to be sure the line is exactly where it should be? Show them the plumb line and tell them how it works and tell them many people use a plumb line to build things. Place the plumb line on the mark (put a book on the string to let it hang by itself) and when it quits moving announce the winner. Let the kids know we need a path to heaven that is as straight as possible. God knows that if we don’t have a straight path to heaven we won’t make it, so God gave us His book (hold up a Bible). This book shows us the only way to make it to heaven. God uses the Bible to build our faith and love just like a carpenter would use a plumb line to build a straight and sturdy wall.

Ask the kids if they think they can get the ball to stay in the seat of the chair. Say " see this line", then place your feet on the line and bounce the ball on the floor and see if you can get it to rest on the seat of the chair. Ask some kids to try it. If one of them cheats and doesn’t stand behind the line, ask the other kids if that was fair. If all are good sports, tell the kids your going to try it again. Ask them if they think you can get it to stay on the chair and not fall off. When you’ve got their attention walk up to the chair and place it on the seat. When the kids say you cheated, ask them what the rules said. (There is only one rule, get the ball to sit on the chair; you only said "see this line"). Tell them rules are so everyone has a chance to learn about Jesus. Then ask the kids what are some rules we should have about the classroom? We even wrote the rules down on a giant sheet of paper and put it on the wall. When a child breaks a rule ask the other kids what the rules are. Say "I’m sure no one would break the rules you all made" (make sure not to call down the kids that break the rules, the kids should not know you are pinpointing a certain rule because "Johnny" is breaking that rule).