Skip to main content

Editor's Note:

This game helps students consider how to BEHAVE around each other using the Fruits of the Spirit text.


Fruits of the Spirit Behavior Covenant

 A "Getting to Know You" Game

Purpose:

  • Create a class covenant of behavior based on the Fruits of the Spirit
  • Demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit in action
  • Main idea: the Fruits of the Spirit are the qualities that help us know when we are showing love toward other people the way Jesus did.


Supplies:

  • Bibles
  • 9 slips of paper each with one quality: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
  • Fruit candy such as Starbursts or fruit shaped candy from bulk candy bins.
  • Polaroid, traditional or Digital Camera
  • Covenant Behavior Poster Information Sheet
  • Poster board and markers
  • Glue or Spray Mount for taking up the photographs.


Playing the Game:

  1. Set up the game by giving some background about Paul and the Fruits of the Spirit.
  2. Read Galatians 5:22-23 aloud. Ask the kids to note the different qualities of the fruits of the Spirit.
  3. Divide the kids into 9 groups of twos or threes. If you have fewer than 18 kids, ask the first team(s) to go twice. Let kids work at least in pairs.
  4. Let each group pull a slip of folded paper from a hat. They are to huddle together for 2 minutes and decide how to act out this quality WITHOUT using the actual word. Encourage the kids to draw from their own experiences and problems in everyday life in producing (or not producing) these qualities.
  5. Each group must decide upon a fruit to represent their quality. Think of some way to remember the quality by the fruit they choose eg. love – lime or kindness - kiwi (same letter), or joy - bananas ( a banana on its side looks like a smile). The goofier, the better they will remember the Fruits of the Spirit.
  6.  Give the kids 2 minutes to figure out what fruit and how they will act it out.
  7. Gather the class together. Ask a group to come forward.
  8. The group performs a skit to demonstrate their fruit of the spirit. They must not use the actual word. Let them act for a minute and then ask the class to guess the quality. Do not shout out answers before called on the respond. Give each group an opportunity to act out their fruit. When the group is finished, ask the class what quality was represented. Ask what fruit they have chosen to represent their quality. Subsequent groups cannot repeat a fruit. It must be unique. Write the name of the fruit on the whiteboard with the quality it represents. Record this info also on the behavior covenant poster information sheet.
  9. Take a photo of each group in action. These photos will be used in creating a Covenant Behavior poster.
  10. Continue for the rest of the groups.
  11. Record the fruit names on the Covenant poster information sheet.
  12. When all groups are done, handout Starbursts or some other fruity candy.


Discussion Questions:

  • Which quality was hard to enact?
  • Which qualities are hard to do in their everyday lives? Why?
  • Which qualities are easy to put into action?
    God’s spirit living in us makes us loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle and self-controlled. When we act in ways that produce the Fruits of the Holy Spirit, we show that God lives in our hearts.
  • Can we agree to behave in ways that produce these qualities in Sunday school? Discuss a covenant of behavior.


Make a Behavior Covenant Poster wink

  • Using the ideas developed during the skits, draw or paste on the poster board: the fruits that the children chose to represent the qualities, write the names of the qualities and paste the pictures you took of each skit to create a Behavior Covenant poster. All kids will then sign the poster as agreement to the behaviors for Sunday school.
  • If you need to develop the pictures later, make outlines on the posterboard for each photo. Don't write in these spaces. Mount the photos on the poster board later and present the finished product to the kids next week.
Last edited by Luanne Payne
Original Post

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Here is another Getting to Know You activity that we use to try and place the Bible stories into chronological sequence.

 

Time Line Trivia

Purpose:

  1. Review the concept of the timeline in our workshop rooms.
  2. Put Bible facts into time perspectives

Supplies:

  • Bible facts, one per page
  • traffic cones
  • 2 blindfolds
  • Bibles, concordance (optional)
  • Whistle and some other noise-maker

Preparation in Advance:

  • Write one historical fact or scripture quote on each piece of paper and tape each one to a traffic cone.
  • Prepare two sets for two teams. They may be the same facts for each team or a different set.
  • This game is best played outside or in a large area.

Playing Timeline Trivia:

  1. The objective of the game is to place the Bible events in the order they occurred before the other team can do it.

  2. Divide the group into 2 teams.

    Older children:
    Each team chooses one person to be blindfolded. The idea is for the rest of the team to verbally assist the blindfolded person in placing the cones in the proper order before the other team can do it.

    Younger children
    Work as a team altogether. It requires teamwork to complete the task.

  3. Older children When a team thinks they have it right, one sighted person can ask the coach for a reading. If the order is correct, the coach blows a whistle and that team is finished. If the order is not correct, the coach uses the noisemaker. A team can only get one false reading without penalty. Subsequent false readings require the team to sit on their hands (or some other time-out) for 5 seconds before they can resume again.

  4. When both teams have their events in correct order, gather to discuss.

Discussion:

Was it hard to put these events in order?
What strategy did you use? (look up in Bible, concordance, work together as a team, decide who would look up what)
What was it like for the blindfolded person?
Why might it be important to understand the order in which events occurred in the Bible?
Who or what might the blindfolded person represent?

Facts:

Make up your own.
We used scripture quotes.

  • “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.”
  • “And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done.”
  • “Abram took his wife Sarai . . . and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan.”
  • “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. The Lord drove the sea back . . .and turned the sea into dry land.”
  • “They anointed David King over Israel . . . and he reigned for forty years.”
  • “A servant of the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem . . . and carried into exile the rest of the people.”
  • “Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea.”
  • “I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised.”
  • “Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them. . . . All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”
  • “As Saul was approaching Damascus, a light from heaven flashed around him and a voice said, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’”

Sources

(Adapted from: Gigantic Book of Games for Youth Ministry, Group Publishing)

Last edited by Luanne Payne
Another Getting to Know You activity: Prayer Chains

Creating a Prayer Chain
Purpose:

A prayer chain is a way to gather as a community to pray and worship God. At the beginning and end of each workshop, the kids will gather around the prayer chain to offer prayer requests, prayer joys and prayers for wisdom in the lessons and the coming week.

What is it? A prayer chain is a rope, braided into a circle. The kids gather around the chain for beginning and ending prayers. They don't have to hold hands!! -- yet they are brought together in a class or community of faith. Each youth makes a macrame prayer tale (they tell tales of prayers) to attach to the prayer chain by a carabineer.

At the end of the year they can take their prayer tale home. (they double as book bag decorations or key chains. You’ll need macramé supplies (cord, beads, etc) and carabineers. The prayer chain is made of 3 colors of rope, braided and bound into a circle.
I like your timeline game!! We just put up a large timeline on one of our bulletin boards and plan on keeping it up as long as it will last. It spans from 3000 BC through today, including our own churches milestones. I believe timelines are wonderful tools for "getting the whole picture" and helping kids remember who did what, when. I would love to put up a permanent (painted on the wall) one - but.....

Thanks for your great ideas!!!! wink

Add Reply

Post a New Topic
Lesson or Resource
Rotation.org Inc. is a volunteer-run, 100% member supported, 501(c)3 non-profit Sunday School lesson ministry. You are welcome to borrow and adapt content for non-commercial teaching purposes --as long as both the site and author are referenced. Rotation.org Inc reserves the right to manage, move, condense, delete, and otherwise improve all content posted to the site. Read our Terms of Service. Get a free Registered Membership or become a Supporting Member for full access to all site resources.
Rotation.org is rated 5 stars on Google based on 51 reviews. Serving a global community including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, S. Africa, and more!
×
×
×
×
Link copied to your clipboard.
×
×