Memory
Verse: “Do not be
afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.”–
Luke 2:10 (CEV)
Concepts:
Objectives:
1. Older children will locate the passage in their
Bibles. Younger children will learn that the story is in Luke.
2. The children will play a game to reinforce their
knowledge of the story.
3. The class will discuss angels as messengers from God,
how the shepherds responded to the angels’ message, and how they can be like
the shepherds.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions:
2. Greet the children and introduce yourself. Wear your name tag. Make sure the children
are wearing name tags. If not, ask the shepherd to supply a temporary badge.
Remember you are interacting with a different group of students each week who
may not know you.
3.
Open with a brief
prayer (optional, as they have just prayed in Great Hall).
4. Explain the purpose of this workshop. Today we’ll play a game to see how well you
know the story of the Shepherds and Angels.
Scripture/Bible Story:
1.
Grades 1-2 will not use Bibles, but do open
yours to show them where the story is located. For grades 3-5, make sure
everybody has a Bible. Extra Bibles are located in the room. Help the students to find the book of Luke.
(Get the shepherds to go around the room and help with this.)
2.
If necessary,
review the organization of the Bible: The Bible is divided into two big parts,
the Old and New Testaments. Each part is made up of books, which are divided
into chapters and verses. Remind them that the first four books of the NT are
the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John. Show them that if they open their Bible
in the middle, they’ll usually land in the book of Psalms in the OT. Point out
that the book name is at the top of each page. After finding Psalms, if they
then take the pages on the right side and divide them in half, they’ll land
somewhere near the beginning of the New Testament. From there they should be
able to find Luke. After they’ve found Luke,
help them find chapter 2. Some of the children will confuse chapters and
verses. Show them that chapter numbers are the big ones, and also are at top of
every page.
3.
Read the story from
the CEV or review it using the summary below as a guide. Either way, be
dramatic! Tell them that even though they’ve heard the story before, they need
to listen very carefully and remember the details in order to play the game
that’s coming up. Unless this is the first Sunday of the rotation, you might let
the children help you tell the story. This will give you an idea of how much
they already know. Other ideas for reviewing the story in later weeks:
Story Summary
It happened that the Roman
emperor, Augustus, gave orders for the names of all the people to be listed in
record books. Everyone had to go to their own hometown to be listed. So Joseph
had to leave
Mary was engaged to marry Joseph and traveled with him to
On the night when Jesus was born, some shepherds were
in the countryside nearby watching over their sheep. Suddenly they saw an angel
standing in front of them, and they were terrified. The angel said, “Don’t be
afraid. I’ve got good news that will bring great joy to all the people. A baby
has been born in
Suddenly a crowd of angels appeared, praising God and
saying “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace.”
After the angels left, the shepherds decided to go and
see for themselves what the angel was talking about. So they went to
Application:
1.
The
children are already divided into four teams, named for the four colors on the
buzzer box – Red,
2. Explain that you will call out a question and players
who think they know the answer should press their buzzer. The first to buzz
gets to give the answer. (If you don’t know who buzzed first, look for the
color with both lights on.) After each question, the player at the head of each
line moves to the end, and the next people in line take a turn. Make sure
everybody gets to play.
Questions:
See end of
lesson plan. Feel free to add some questions of your own.
Grades 1-2: Use the multiple-choice answers provided with the
questions.
Grades 3-5: Give the team a chance to answer the question, but
offer multiple choices if they’re stumped. If the class seems to already know
the story well, you can mix up the order of the questions.
Scoring:
Grades 1-2: Don’t keep score. Just keep the game moving. First graders
sometimes take a while to master the mechanics of operating the buzzers – they especially get confused about turning
off the sound. You can turn the sound off entirely if you prefer.
Grades 3-5: I prefer not to keep score, but if you want to, you
can do so with the older kids. Each line is a team. Ask the shepherd to keep
score on the white board. Award 5 points for a correct answer. No points for a
wrong answer; let anyone who knows the correct answer tell it. (You can use a
different scoring system if you prefer, but keep it simple.)
Tips:
Try
not to let one knowledgeable or fast-fingered child dominate the game. If one
child is answering every time he/she plays, mix the lines up so that player doesn’t
play against the same group every time. OR, announce that anybody who answers
three questions correctly will be retired as permanent champion (with a big
round of applause) to give everybody else a chance to compete. Also, don’t let
non-playing team members help the players; this in effect lets the fast kid
answer by proxy.
Be
sure they know the answer before
buzzing. If they are buzzing and then taking too long to think of the answer,
use the timer in the supply bin and give 5 seconds to answer after buzzing
(this has not been a problem in the past).
Reflection Time: (10:30)
Gather the children in a
circle and discuss:
Who told the shepherds about Jesus’ birth? An angel. An angel is a messenger from God.
I wonder what angels look like. We picture wings and haloes, but we really don’t know.
It seems like there
are a lot of angels in the Bible. I wonder if angels ever appear to people today.
Accept all reasonable answers, but point
out that God communicates with people in different ways. God might use ordinary
people — friends and relatives and teachers, to speak to us.
What did the angel tell the shepherds? A baby has been born in
What did the shepherds do? The
shepherds heard the message about Jesus, believed it, looked for and found
Jesus, praised God, and told people. We can learn from the shepherds about how
to respond to God.
I wonder how we can know if a message is from God. Accept
all reasonable answers but suggest if they are wondering about something they
hear, they can pray for wisdom, ask parents/teachers/pastors, think about
whether it’s consistent with what they know about God or what they’ve read in
the Bible.
Shepherds weren’t
considered to be very important people. I wonder why God would choose them to
hear the news of Jesus’ birth. God cares
equally for all people. People who are not important to other humans are
important to God. Maybe the shepherds were chosen to show the world that God
loves everyone.
Recite
the Bible memory verse learned in the Great Hall. “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for
all the people.”– Luke 2:10 (CEV).
Journals (10:35): Pass out the journal pages and ask the shepherds to
pass out pencils/markers. Optional: Give the children a sticker or some other
memento to paste onto their page as a reminder of the workshop. Read the prompt
out loud and if needed, help them think of ways to honor God by the way they
live at home, at school, or live peacefully with friends, brothers and sisters,
people they don’t like, etc. Remind them that being a peacemaker is a way to
honor God. If they don’t know how to spell a word, write it on the white board.
Those who finish early can turn the page over and do the activity on the back.
At 10:45 ask the students to put away pencils/markers and sit quietly.
Encourage the children to bring an offering next week. Remind them that
the offering from this rotation will go to the Joy Gift offering.
Prayer: Close with a brief prayer. Suggestion: Thank you, God, for the gift of Jesus, for
the angels and shepherds who shared the good news, and for all the people who
bring the message of God’s love to us today. Amen.
Tidy and Dismissal: Ask the children to help collect Bibles, pencils, etc.
When the room is tidy, dismiss the class.
Extra Activity if time
permits:
Grades 3-5:
1. Have the
children find Matthew 1:18-25. -- do
this in pairs if you wish. Then ask these questions:
In verse 20, who spoke to Joseph in a dream? (an
angel)
In verse 21, what did the angel tell Joseph?
In verse 23, what does “Emmanuel” mean? (God is with
us)
2. Now have
the children find Luke 1: 26-38. Ask
these questions:
In verse 26, where did God send an angel? (to
What was the angel’s name (Gabriel)
Whom did Gabriel come to see? (Mary)
From verse 28: What was the first thing the angel
said? (You are truly blessed! The Lord is with you.”)
From verse 29: What was the second thing the angel
said? (Don’t be afraid...)
The angel told Mary she would have a son. In verse 36,
who else did he say would have a son? (
Teacher preparation in
advance:
1. Attend the Faith Quest Leaders Bible Study.
2. Read Luke 2: 8-20 and familiarize yourself
with the details of the story. Be sure you know the meaning of unusual words.
For Grades 3-5, also read Matthew 1:18-25 and Luke 1:26-38. You won’t
dwell on these passages, but a few questions in the game refer to them.
3. Practice telling the story.
4. Prepare opening and closing prayers.
5. Room set-up (must wait until after
6. Optional: Bring a CD or taped music for background music while you are
gathering, meditative music for Reflection time. A boom box is located in the
Puppet workshop cabinet.
7.
Make four signs
designating Red,
8. Practice using the buzzer box and be sure you
understand how it works.
Supply List
Extra Bibles
Dry-erase marker (in supply
bin)
Timer (in supply bin)
Buzzer box and wires
Pencils (in supply bin; the
shepherds also have pencils)
Journal pages
References
St. Elmo’s Choir.
Rotation: “The Shepherds and the Angels.” Bible Skills and Games Workshop.
http://rotation.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x/a/tpc/f/4746088121/m/3456080441
Amy Crane,
Storytelling ideas:
http://www.dennisdewey.org/Dennis8.htm
Questions
for game
1. Who were Jesus' human
parents?
2. Where did Joseph and Mary
live?
3. In what town was Jesus
born?
4. Where did Mary put Jesus
after he was born?
5. Why did Mary and Joseph
not get a room in the inn?
6. Who was the first to hear
the news of Jesus’ birth?
7. What time of day was it
8. What were the shepherds
doing?
9. Who told the shepherds
about Jesus?
l0. When the shepherds first saw
the angel, how did they feel?
11. Why was the angel so
scary?
12. What was the first thing
the angel said?
13. What did the angel bring
the shepherds?
14. Who was the good news
for?
a. Everybody
b.
Just the
shepherds
c.
Just Mary and
Joseph
15. What was the good news?
16. The angel told the
shepherds how to recognize Jesus. How would they know they had found the right
baby?
17. After the angel told the
shepherds the good news, what suddenly appeared?
18. What did the angels say?
19. After the angels left,
what did the shepherds do?
a.
went to look for
sheep that the angels had scared away
b. went to
c.
collected gifts
to take to the baby
20. After they found the
baby, what did they do?
21. What did Mary do
afterwards?
a.
told everybody
what had happened.
b.
told an angel
what had happened.
c. kept quiet
and thought about everything that had happened
22. Which gospel tells the
story of the angels and shepherds?
a.
Matthew
b.
Mark
c. Luke
d.
John