Rotation.org Writing Team

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

"The Good Samaritan Games"
Bible Skills and Games Workshop

Summary of Activities

Students will play through a sequence of Good Samaritan-themed games, each of which tells part of the story and explores its meaning. Each challenge includes an "easy setup" version for those with less time or fewer resources. Afterward, there's an optional Great Commandment memory game.

Note: The Games can also be played separately across two or more lesson times about the parable and made more elaborate. We have made them simple in this lesson to reduce time, setup, and supplies.

Scripture for the Lesson

Luke 10:25-37 (NRSVUE)

Memory Verses:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27

"Go and do likewise." Luke 10:37

Lesson Objectives

See the Good Samaritan Bible Background at Rotation.org for insights on this story and this set's complete list of objectives.

Preparation and Materials

• Read the Bible Background and scripture.
• Choose and prepare games using the game descriptions below.
• Game Supplies:
  • Four colors of paper, about 8 sheets of each (8.5x11)
  • Markers
  • Blue masking tape
  • 2 chairs or 2 carpet squares
  • A scooterboard or skateboard
  • Rope to attach to scooter/skateboard (optional)
  • A basket
  • Handful of coins
  • Action figure or doll
  • Spinner or color selector for Game 3 (see suggestions below)
  • Print the list of excuses for Game 2
  • For the optional take-home Memory Card: 3x5 colored cards or card stock, a hole punch, and some twine

Workshop Rotation Gaming Concept

The games in this Rotation Model lesson are a series of challenges that use actions and props from the story to reinforce memory and meaning. As each game is set up, explained, and played, the teacher continues to retell the story, add appropriate Bible background, share insights, ask questions, and emphasize life application.

Lesson Plan

Opening

Welcome students and explain what they'll be doing today and what you hope they will learn—that helping people who have been hurt or are in need, without ignoring them or making excuses, is how God wants us to live our lives.

Introduce the story, its characters, and themes with this series of fun "voting" questions and responses. For each question, those who raise their hand to vote "yes" are given the instructions shown below. (In theory, everyone should raise their hand for each question!)

QUESTION 1: Raise your hand if you've ever been hit by someone so hard it made you cry.
Instruction: Bonk yourself on the head and (safely) drop to the floor.
Follow up: Why do you think some kids hit other kids? (It's unfortunately very common among younger children, but less so, and less tolerated, as kids get older.) In today's story, Jesus is going to tell us a story about a man who was beaten up and robbed.

QUESTION 2: (While they're still on the floor...) Raise your hand if you've ever had something stolen from you.
Follow-up: Invite a few to share what they've had stolen, then ask if a person's sense of safety and dignity can be "stolen" by someone? (Yes, a person's dignity can be stolen from them when people call them names, threaten them, or make fun of them.)
QUESTION 2b: Raise your hand if you've ever had your sense of safety or dignity stolen from you.
Follow-up: In today's story, the beaten and robbed man isn't the only person who is going to lose something. Someone is going to lose respect.

QUESTION 3: Raise your hand if you've ever seen someone who was crying or hurt and you CHOSE not to comfort them, didn't have the time to help them, or didn't want to get involved.
Instruction: Try to walk quickly to the other side of the room with your eyes covered and without bumping into anything.
Follow up: Ask students to tell you about the time they didn't help someone.  What excuses did they make? How did it make them feel inside? (Mention a couple of ways children can "give help," such as alerting an adult, stopping those who are doing the hurting, being kind, offering comfort.)

CONCLUDE by saying: In today's Bible story, Jesus tells a story about a man who gets beaten by robbers, and two religious people don't stop to help him. Instead, a person that a lot of religious people didn't like, a person from Samaria, becomes the hero of God's story because he stops to show compassion and help the beaten man. You are going to "play through" the story using a set of games I'll set up for you!

The Good Samaritan Games

Game 1: The "Jericho Road Rough Terrain" Game

1. Gather students on the "Jericho Road" floor area with two chairs, and a start and finish line marked on the floor about 12 feet apart.

2. Read Luke 10:25-30, ending on "leaving him half dead."

Ask: What does Jesus want the expert in the law to do?  (love God, love neighbor)  Point out that it's not always easy to love other people, especially if you don't know them.

3. Play the Jericho Road Game:

Students come up with 7 or 8 "Do Goods"—things God wants us to do in life such as "Be Kind," "Comfort the Sick," "Reach out to the lonely," and "Help the Poor," which the teacher writes on individual pieces of paper and scatters across the ”Jericho Road.”

Two students must work together to move two chairs (or two carpet squares) across the floor while standing on them without touching the actual floor, pick up as many “Do Goods” as they can, and get to the end of the road within 3 minutes. (Expect that the first pair to go will show others what to do and what not to do!) Adjust time and size of the playing area as needed. Point out that "it isn't always easy to do good on the road we're on," "sometimes it’s hard to help others," and "what can help us do good as we travel down this road?"

Game 2: The "Excuses Are Lava ~ Wheel of Excuses" Game

1. Gather students in the middle of the "road" and announce that the Jericho Road will become "lava" in this next game, "lava for those who make excuses for not doing the right thing to help their neighbor."

2. Read Luke 10:29-32, ending on "passed by on the other side." (And yes, you are reading verses 29 and 30 a second time for context.)

Ask: What kind of excuses do you think the priest and Levite made for NOT helping their neighbor in need?  (Accept answers and zero bin on the possibility that they were either "too busy," "didn't think the beaten man was their neighbor," and/or "may have believed that the man's blood would make them ritually unclean" (which would have interrupted their plans to perform their priestly duties in the Jerusalem Temple).

3. Play the Excuses are Lava ~ Wheel of Excuses Game:

Create a four- or five-row grid of colored sheets of paper on the floor, with each row having one sheet of each color in it. At the top of the grid (the goal), place a doll or action figure. See the attached handout for game directions and excuses.

Here's a sample of some of the excuses from the attached handout that you will announce. See the attachment for all of them. Note that each excuse you announce is also an opportunity for the teacher to address that excuse!

• You are too focused on your own needs to see the needs of your friends and neighbors.
• You are afraid to speak up when you see someone being mistreated.

TIPS: You can make your own spinner, use one from a Twister game, or roll a box that has a sheet of each of the four colors of paper glued to it.
You may wish to fix the colored sheets to the floor with masking tape loops.

Game 3: The "Go and Do Likewise" Scooter/Skateboard Game

1. Have students move the colored sheets of paper from Game 2 into two rows about 3 feet apart to form a 10-foot-long corridor or lane from the start to finish line. Hand out markers and have them write as many "excuses" as they can remember from Game 2 onto the sheets of paper forming the corridor. Place a basket to represent the "inn" across the finish line.

2. Read Luke 10:33-37—the description of the Samaritan helping the beaten man and Jesus' response to the expert to "go and do likewise."

Ask: According to Jesus, who is our neighbor? (those who show and need mercy)

3. Play the Go and Do Likewise Game

One at a time, students sit on the scooter or skateboard and the other students "launch" the "Good Samaritan on wheels" towards the "inn" at the end of the corridor of paper excuses. The Good Samaritan is holding a doll or action figure in one hand and coins in the other hand; the Good Samaritan must try to dump the coins and action figure into the "inn's" basket. They cannot touch the floor at any time. If they stop short, they can try to toss the coins and doll into the basket. If their scooter/board touches an excuse or their hands touch the floor their turn is over and someone else can try. Play until everyone has become a successful "Good Samaritan."

*Adjust the width and length of the corridor per your age group to make the game challenging but not impossible. Do a few test runs. Have one or two students stand behind the basket as "innkeepers" to catch any tossed coins and the action figure/doll from a scooter player who has come up short.

Point out that the innkeeper is a Good Samaritan too, because although they are paid for the room and possible supplies, they could have rejected the injured man as "too much trouble" and refused the Samaritan's promise to return and pay them because he might not really return.

Ask where the "inns" are in the lives of your students—where and who can they turn to when they are in need, or see someone that needs to be helped?

Optional Reflection Memory Verse Scooter/Skateboard Game

Write the six memory verse snippets on separate sheets of paper big enough to be read from a distance, and place them about 1 foot apart in an arc about 8 to 10 feet from a starting line. Working together or in teams, one student sits on the skateboard or scooter and has their teammates "LAUNCH" them to collect the correct verse snippet (in the correct order). They can only collect and bring back the verse snippet if their scooter actually touches the correct one. If they miss the correct target, they or another student can try again. Continue until all six snippets have been claimed, then have the team assemble them in order and read the verse.

• You can attach a rope to the scooter or board so that teammates can retrieve the student on the board without their touching the floor, and then launch another.
• Adjust the distances and game play for different abilities and to maximize fun.

The six verse snippets are
love the Lord your God | with all your heart | with all your soul | with all your strength | with all your mind | and your neighbor as yourself

Simpler Non-Scooter Version:
Write each verse snippet on two sets of 5 x7 cards or sheets of paper, place the cards face down on a table and scramble them, then play a simple "concentration-matching" game. Each student takes a turn to turn over two cards. If they match, they are placed face-up on the table. When all of the cards are revealed, split them into two groups and have students put them into the correct order. You can time this ordering event for a little bit of fun competition.

Non-reader Version:
Write the verse snippets on each card and also include a simple illustration for each. When a card is claimed by the student on the scooter or turned over on the table, read the verse snippet aloud so that the students learn the verse associated with the illustration.

If time:
Have each student write the memory verse on an index card or a piece of cardstock to take home. Punch a hole in the cardstock and attach a piece of twine to create a reminder of the game and its scripture that they can hang in a visible place at home.

Adaptations

For younger and older students:

See each game's adjustment suggestions. Typically, you'll make the game "field" easier for younger students and harder for older students.

For those with more class time:

Spend more time debriefing the games. For example, in the "Do Likewise" Game, discuss where we can go to "get help" for those in need. Discuss the role of the innkeeper—who in our society typically takes on the role of a healer? Who are the caregivers in your life?

For  a shorter/simpler lesson plan:

Have the games set up in advance. Eliminate Game 2 Excuses are Lava and bring those ideas into the sheets of paper that line the corridor that the Samaritan is launched down toward the inn in Game 3. Include Game 2's scripture reading in Game 3.

For at-home use:

Give families the instructions for the three games and encourage them to work together and play the games as they explore the parable.

Written by Neil MacQueen and the Rotation.org Writing Team
Copyright Rotation.org Inc.