Three Men Find a Baby

252 GroupsJanuary 2017, Week 1

Small Group, 2-3

Three Men Find a Baby

Bible Story: Three Men Find a Baby (Wise men discover Jesus)•Matthew 2:1-12

Bottom Line:Discovering what God says helps you know Jesus.

Memory Verse:“Your word is like a lamp that shows me the way. It is like a light that guides me.”Psalm 119:105 (NIrV)

Life App:Knowledge—learning something new so you can be better at whatever you do.

Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.

GET READY

Prepare ahead of time for 2nd–3rdgrade Small Groups this week:

Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction(Choose one or both of these activities.)

Early Arriver

An offering container

Whatever You Want

Paper
Pens

Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect(Choose as many of these activities as you like.)

* If you don’t have time to do all these activities, be sure to do activity #1.

* 1. Gifts for a King(application activity / review the Bible story)

Markers
Sheets of white cardstock; 1 per kid
Scissors
Print “Gifts for a King” Activity Page 1 and cut apart; 1 cutout for each kid

2. What Is It?(application activity)

Masking or painter’s tape
Print the “What Is It?” Activity Page 2 and cut apart; 1 set for each small group

3. Illuminated Words(memory verse activity)

Clear plastic cups; 1 for each kid
Permanent markers
Flameless tea lights; 1 for each kid; a good option can be found at save a couple to be used during prayer in Week 5

Prayer

Flashlight

Three Men Find a Baby

Bible Story: Three Men Find a Baby (Wise men discover Jesus)•Matthew 2:1-12

Bottom Line:Discovering what God says helps you know Jesus.

Memory Verse:“Your word is like a lamp that shows me the way. It is like a light that guides me.”Psalm 119:105 (NIrV)

Life App:Knowledge—learning something new so you can be better at whatever you do.

Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.

Social: Providing Time for Fun Interaction(Small Groups, 15 minutes)

Welcome kids and spend time engaging in conversation and catching up. Get ready to experience today’s story.

Before kids arrive, pray for each regular attendee by name. Pray for those who might visit your group for the first time. Pray that each kid would take away something specific today, that they would each leave encouraged to get to know Jesus better, and that they would have some ideas about how to do that.

1. Early Arriver Idea

What You Need: Offering container

What You Do:

As kids arrive, invite them to put their offerings in the container.
Ask kids how they find out things they want to know.
How would they find something out about someone new they just met?
Ask kids to tell you about when they met someone new—how did they find out what that person likes and who they are?

2. Whatever You Want

What You Need: Paper, pens

What You Do:

Give each kid a paper and pen and instruct them to draw two columns on their paper.
At the top of the first column, have them write a good friend’s name.
At the top of the second column, have them write the name of a famous person.
Ask kids to list everything they know about their friend in the first column.
After a few minutes, instruct them to list everything they know about that famous person in the next column.

What You Say:

“You guys knew a lot about both of those people! It’s easy to get to know people when we read about them in the news, like we do with famous people, but the best way to get to know someone is meet them in person or talk to someone who knows them well.[Transition]Today in Large Group, we are going to hear about a group of men who wanted to meet the most famous person in the world.”

Groups: Creating a Safe Place to Connect (Small Groups, 25 minutes)

Create a safe place to connect and learn how the Bible story applies to real life experiences, through interactive activities and discussion questions.

* 1. Gifts for a King(application activity / review the Bible story)

What You Need: “Gifts for a King” Activity Pagecutouts, markers, cardstock, scissors

What You Do:

Do a quick review of the story today. Ask who brought gifts to Jesus and see if anyone can remember what gifts were brought.
Then ask kids to think of their three favorite things. What would they have wanted to bring to Jesus if they had followed a star in the sky to find Him?
Hand out the cardstock and markers, and instruct kids to draw their three favorite things.
When they’re finished, they can cut out their pictures.
Next, give each kid one Jesus cutout from the Activity Page and theninstruct kids to partner up.
One partner in each pairshould close his or her eyes (or let them leave the room, if your environment allows) while the other partner hides the Jesus cutoutsomewhere in the room.
Once the cutout is hidden, the first partner can open his eyes. Then he shouldstand in the middle of the room—holding his three items—and take a step in any direction.
The partner who hid the cutout should tell the first partner “hot” if he takes a step in the right direction and “cold” if he moves away from the Jesus cutout.
As the searching partner gets closer and closer to the cutout, the other partner should keep updating his hints with “hot” or “cold” until the cutout is found.
Once the cutout is found, let the kid who found it pretend to “give” his favorite things to Jesus.
Then let kids switch roles and hide their cutout again.

Adaptation: If you have multiple groups in each room, have all groups do this activity at the same time. To minimize confusion, give each group a designated section of the room in which to hide their cutouts. More than 1 group can be in each designated section, but dividing the room up will make this activity less of a “free for all.”

What You Say:

“The things the wise men in our story today brought Jesus might not seem very special to us, but they were extremely special things in those days. The wise men brought Jesus these precious items because they knew how important He was, even though He was still only a little kid. They wanted to know Him better, so they looked for Him and walked miles and miles to see Him. Luckily, we don’t have to take a long journey to know Jesus better. All we have to do is open our Bibles because [Bottom Line]discovering what God says helps you know Jesus.”

[Make it Personal] (Tell kids how you discover what God says and get to know Jesus better. What are your favorite books to read in the Bible? What do you pray about after reading?)

2. What Is It?(application activity)

What You Need: “What Is It?” Activity Page, masking or painter’s tape

What You Do:

Make a tapeline on the floor and ask kids to stand side by side on it.
Hold up the stack of cards without letting anyone see what’s on them. Tell kids that the cards have things on them that represent well-known stories or people from the Bible.
Choose one kid to stand about 10 feet in front of the group.
Let her pick a card from the stack, but instruct her not to say what’s on the card.
The rest of the kids on the line should then take turnsraising their hands and asking yes or no questions to try to figure out what’s on their friend’s card.
Remind kids to wait to be called on before asking their question.
Each time someone asks a question or takes a guess, they take a step forward.
If an individual kid takes enough steps to make it to the person in front and no one has guessed what’s on the card, the kid who chose the card reveals what’s on it and then the person closest to him becomes the new leader.
If someone guessesthe card correctly, everyone goes back to the start and the kid who guessed gets to pick a new card.
Hint: If kids are repeatedly having trouble coming up with questions to ask or guessing the item on the card, give them some question-asking tips, such as “Is it a person, place, or thing?” “Is it from the Old Testament or New Testament?” “Is the person a boy or girl?”

What You Say:

“The best way to discover things about Jesus is to read your Bible and know what it says. In this game, you had to find things out by asking questions. If you want to know what the Bible says and you don’t know, you can always ask questions. It’s important to ask questions because[Bottom Line]discovering what God says helps you know Jesus.”

3. Illuminated Words(memory verse activity)

What You Need: Clear plastic cups, permanent markers, flameless tea lights

What You Do:

Hand out Bibles to kids.
As a group, look up the verse and recite it together.

Finding verses with 2nd and 3rd graders: Guide them to open their Bibles to the front and find the table of contents. (Hold up a Bible opened to the table of contents to show the kids what the page looks like.) When the kids find the table of contents, lead them to find Psalms in the list under “Old Testament.” When the kids find Psalms, lead them to look at the page number beside the word. Explain that the number tells them on what page they can find Psalms. Help the kids find the page. When they find Psalms, explain that the big numbers on the page are the chapter numbers. Help them find chapter 119. Explain that the small numbers are verse numbers. Help them find verse 105 in chapter 119.

Give each kid a clear plastic cup and a permanent marker.
Guide kids to turn the cups upside down andwrite the verse on the cups, fitting it wherever they can.
Then give each kid a flameless tea light to put under the cup and illuminate the verse.
If possible, turn the lights down or off for a cool, “glowing verse” experience!
If you don’t need to keep the tea lights, let kids keep them and “light up God’s Word” at home!

What You Say:

“What do you think this verse means when it says God’s Word is like a lamp that shows us the way? (Pause for responses.) If we know what God’s Word says, then we will know what we should do to be more like Jesus because [Bottom Line]discovering what God says helps you know Jesus.Memorizing verses is a great way to learn and remember what God’s Word says.This week, take home the cup you made and put it somewhere you will see it all week long so it can remind you that God’s Word is like a lamp.”

Pray and Dismiss

What You Need: Flashlight

What You Do:

With kids sitting in a circle, give one of them the flashlight. Ask kids to hand the flashlight around the circle.
Whoever is holding the flashlight should turn it on and say one thing they know about Jesus.
Use the prayer below to help kids thank God forsomething Jesus does for us or a characteristic of Jesus that they’re thankful for.

What You Say:

“Reading the Bible helps us to know things about Jesus. But we probably already know at least a few things about Him. What are some things you know about Jesus? (Pause for answers and to let kids pass the flashlight around the circle.) It’s important for us to learn as much as we can about what God says because[Bottom Line]discovering what God says helps you know Jesus. Everything about Jesus is good, so we can thank God for every part of Jesus. Let’s pray now and thank Him for all the things we know about Jesus.

“God, thank You for (have kids thank God for one thing they know about Jesus and then end with the prayer below).

“We know that everything about Jesus is good and that You have given us the Bible to teach us about Him. Help us to learn about Jesus through Your Word and through the people You have given us to teach us about Him,amen.”

As adults arrive to pick up, encourage kids to show them their memory verse cups and tea lights.

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