BBC 2019: Joseph, Favorite Son

Here is week 5 in review:

The kids made a simple string (Joseph) puppet for craft this week.  It was fun seeing which yarn the children chose to make their puppets.  We did have some difficulty keeping some puppets from doing a headstand.  I finally solved the problem by running the puppet string through the clothing.  Still the kids seemed to enjoy the craft.

This week's Bible verse was Matthew 5:44.  I used a 2 person reader's theater skit to introduce the verse. The kids really are enjoying performing before their peers.  To practice the verse, a child chose a crazy card.  Whatever action the card said, is what we need to do while saying the verse.  

The Bible Lesson was taken from Genesis 37.  As the kids learned about Joseph and his brothers, they also saw how jealous can get WAY out of control.  We learned that when we are jealous we should. . . 1. Stop and Pray.  We need to ask God to help us not be jealous.  2.  Think.  We need to list all the things, talents, etc that God had given us.  3.  Love.  We need to show love to the person we are jealous of.  

After snack time, we played different versions of gaga ball:  Mayhem, Defender and Team Gaga.  My favorite is Defender, but Jonestown group voted for Team Gaga.  We also played Mennonite Madness with three of the groups.  In Newmanstown, I split the groups into a older and younger group to play.  It was funny to watch.  The older group, yelled, jumped, and just made a whole lot of noise while they played.  The younger group could hardly focus on their game because they were so curious over the older kids game.  

Then for our Bible review game, we played Joseph's Coat ZAP!  This was a fun game.  If you answer the question correctly, you team got 2,000 points AND you got to take a coat off the line  (you had to do what the coat said).  Some coats had the kids sing the Bible verse.  Other coats had them ZAP their score down to 0.  Other coats said to switch points or add/subtract points from their score.  It seems just when one team was getting WAY ahead, they would be ZAP! 





This past week's Contest was an art contest:  Draw a picture of Jacob wrestling with God.  Below are some of my favorites.  Enjoy! 

BBC 2019: Jacob Away from Home

This week marked the 1/2 way point of summer and of BBC.  This week the kids made the toy Jacob's ladder.  I MUST simplify this craft if I ever do it again!!!!  Yes, it was difficult.  I am hoping all the kid ladder's work, but came home with "extra" boards.  (And that is not a good sign). 

Most of the kids played Tenzie this week instead of using the Lego bag.  I love Tenzie.  It is easy to play and I can easily adapt it for younger and older kids. 

For the weekly challenge, I gave two teams a white board with the same line drawn on it.  Each person had to add a line to the drawing.  When the teams were finished they handed me the boards.  We then talked about how the drawings were very different from each other AND different from how they began.  This lead into the discussion about 2 Corinthians 5:17.  To practice the verse, we played a game that the kids begged to do again!  I divided the large white board into seven sections.  On each section, I wrote "only the boys", "only the girls", "only brown eyes," etc.  Then a kid got a suction ball to throw at the board.  Whatever section the ball stuck to, those were the people who had to stand and say the verse. 

Our Bible Lesson focused on Jacob while he was away from home.  We looked at how God was changing him from Jacob: the grabber/ thief/deceiver into Israel: prince of God.  I asked them "Is God changing you from a sinner into a saint?"  The first step in becoming a saint is to believe that Jesus died for you.  Then live in obedience to God. 

Because this was such a HOT week, we played a number of water relays.  We concluded with a yearly favorite: Left, Right, Self.  We pass a die around while we say the Bible Verse.  Whoever is left holding the die, rolls it, then dumps a cup of water where the die tells them. 

And then it was time to go home. 

Last week's newspaper had an opinion poll.  Twenty-seven kids answered it to earn 5 Bible Bucks.  "In your opinion, who should have gotten the blessing and birthright:  Jacob or Esau?"  Twenty-two said Esau, while only 5 said Jacob.  Britney said, "In my opinion, neither should get it, but if I had to choose I would choose Esau."  Brynn said, "Jacob because he obeyed his mom."  Lilly said, "Jacob because he made the family food."  Kathryn said, "Esau should have gotten the blessing because Jacob lied." 

BBC 2019: Birthright and Blessing

What an amazing week here at Backyard Bible club!  The kids got to make "Jacob's Famous Bean Soup Mix" for their craft.  I often heard, "Mmmmm.  Something smells good." as the kids arrived at the craft table. 

Since it was raining on Monday, I offered the kids a chance to play Tenzie or Legoes.  My other groups got the choice of Legoes and Gaga Ball.  Although I only played a round or two of Gaga Ball, I am sore.  I don't know how the kids play for hours! 

This week's challenge was who could drink their bottle of cherry Kool-Aid first.  Unknown to my contestants the Kool-Aid was made with salt instead of sugar.  Some made a faces.  Others spit it out.  But E and L from Monday's group drank it and were politely going to sit down before I asked them, "so did you like the Kool-Aid?"  Then and only then did I get the response I was looking for.  I explained that I had deceived them into thinking they were getting wonderful, refreshing Kool-Aid, but really they were getting salt-water (Yuck!).  Then we looked at our verse of the week: Leviticus 19:11.  I hope the kids remember that God views deceit as sin. 

We had fun this week with the Bible Lesson.  I chose a volunteer to be Isaac.  Then we sang (to the tune: Farmer in the Dell), Isaac lived in Canaan.  Isaac lived in Canaan. High ho a derry oh!  Isaac lived in Canaan.  (vs 2) Issac got a wife.  (vs 3)  The wife's name was Rebekah.  (vs 4) Rebekah gave birth to Esau.  (vs 5) Easu was red and hairy.  (vs 6)  Jacob was Esau's brother.  (vs 7)  Jacob loved to cook.  In doing this, I got four volunteers to help act out the story of Esau and Jacob.  The kids did a wonderful job.  (In fact, I have a number of kids begging me to let them be Jacob, Rachel and Leah next week!) 

We played a number of games with Hula Hoops.  There favorite hoop games still is color hoops.  You play this kind of like Musical Chairs.  I am always amazing at what games end up being a favorite. 

For our review game, we played Checkmate.  If they answered a question correctly, they could pull checkers out of a bag.  Each black checker was worth 1,000 points.  They could pull until they pulled a red checker.  The team with the most points at the end wins.  I love review games, because it gives me an idea of who was listening, what they learned and if I need to correct a wrong assumption. 

 P.S. the kids earned 5 Bible bucks, if they handed in an essay to this question:  What do you think Isaac was thinking when his father put him on the altar?  I had many wonderful answers.  The kids really thought about this.  Here are some of my favorite answers. 

M.R said, "I think Isaac was thinking I'm scared, but God will help deliver me from this altar."

K S said, "He was sad in the beginning and happy when the angel saved him."

J W said, "I think Isaac was thinking his dad was crazy." 

E. S said, "Isaac felt confused.  I think this because he was probably thinking something along these lines.  "What is my father thinking?"  "Why are we building an altar with no sacrifice?"  "Why is my father being so secretive?"  and "why are we going to this exact spot?"  This is why I believe Isaac felt confused."

G.S said, "I think Isaac was thinking where is the animal to sacrifice.  When his dad tied him up, he was thinking, I'm going to die and my dad doesn't love me." 

BBC 2019: Abraham & Isaac

When the kids arrived this week, they could go to the craft table, LEGO Bag or play 4 square in the air.  I laughed to see the Newmanstown kids trying to bounce the ball as they attempted to play 4 square in the grass.  I guess they had never seen 4 square in the air.  Quickly, I explained the rules (it is like playing 4 square and volleyball).  It was fun to see how quickly they fell in love with the new game.  (Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures of them playing the game).  This week for a craft we made a small plague. 



Our Bible lesson was taken from Genesis 21-22.  God gave Abraham a hard test to see if he would obey Him even when it was hard (and didn't make sense).  God asked him to go to Mt Moriah and kill his beloved son Isaac as a gift to God.  This was the same son, who God had promised would be born to Abraham and Sarah.  God had told Abraham that Isaac would receive the same three amazing promised that Abraham received.  So, now God was asking Abraham to kill him?  Would Abraham obey?  Abraham packed his bags.  He and Isaac began the journey to Mt Moriah.  Abraham didn't know how God was going to keep His promise to him and Isaac if Isaac was dead, but he decided to trust God anyway.  Just when he was about to thrust the knife into his beloved son, God called out and told him to stop.  Abraham passed the test!  Not only that, but God provided a substitute, a ram, to be offered instead of Isaac.  Many years later, Jesus died on the same Mountain as our substitute.  We have an amazing God. 


To introduce our Bible Verse, I asked for three volunteers to act out a story while I read it.  The young prince rescued a young girl who had fallen into a pit full of deadly snakes.  Unfortunately, in the rescue the prince received a snake bite.  The girl was saved because the prince was willing to give up his life for her.  In this week's Bible verse, Jesus is like that prince.  For our Bible Verse Game, we played pass the gift as we quoted 1 John 4:14.  Whoever was holding the gift when we finished got to open one box.  We kept doing this until the last box was opened.  They kids enjoyed the candy that was in the last box. 

This week we played a number of water games!  Some got very wet.  Others not so much.  I surprisingly didn't get wet at all!  I am sure on the next water week, I will not be so fortunate.