Once the pictures are drawn and the lesson is over, the children of your ministry will be looking for something to do. Keep busy hands out of mischief by having activities for Sunday School read-to-go whenever you need them.
Activities for children don’t have to be expensive, but they should engage the young learner’s senses. These Sunday School activities for children can be “tweaked” for special holiday lessons or theme ideas.
Guess the Beans
Fill a clear glass jar with a variety of dried beans like pinto, northern and black-eyed peas. Estimate the legumes as you pour them into the jar. Write down the number of the beans in a private location. Show kids the jar and talk about how, like the beans, we are all different, but God loves us all. Ask the kids to guess how many beans are in the jar. Allow the kids to guess for a few weeks before choosing a winner that reaches the closest to your number. You might give a small prize or a sticker for winning. Remove or add some beans and start over the following week.
Bible Improvisation
Older kids like performing with dramatic arts. Provide kids with scenes from the Bible, a few props and give kids 3 minutes to come up with a scene to perform. For example, Peter, James and John at the Transfiguration or Jesus and the Centurion. Break your Sunday School class into pairs and ask kids to pick their favorite Bible stories and act them out.
Shoebox Walls
Activities for Sunday School can involve some help from parents. Ask parents to send empty shoeboxes to your classroom. Decorate the boxes to look like bricks. Tell kids the story of the Fall of Jericho, then together build a wall. Retell the story, highlighting the march around the wall. On the seventh march, instruct kids to knock down the wall like God did.
Parachute Play
Sunday School activities for children don’t always have to have a Bible theme. Sometimes, it’s fun to just play. If your class is large enough, give kids a small parachute for parachute play. Each child grasps the parachute by a specific color. Then the parachute is lifted up and the kids run under it swapping colors without allow the parachute to touch them.
Bible Bingo
Create Bible bingo cards using characters from your lessons or Bible verses. Call out the pictures as you draw them from a jar. Give kids cardboard circles to cover the bingo spots as the pictures are called out. Award the winner with a prize. Have the kids swap cards and play until everyone wins.
Puzzle Scramble
Before the Sunday School class begins, hide the pieces of a large puzzle around the classroom. During the lesson, send each student, one at a time or by pairs to find one piece of the puzzle. Assemble the puzzle once the pieces are gathered up.
Read more from Mimi at her website , Encouragement For Christians.
Sunday School Activities
New Sunday School Curriculum: Our Bible lessons are designed to keep the kids’ attention and show how God's Word makes a difference. Every series is flexible enough for a wide-age group and affordable enough for small churches. Download a free Bible lesson in pdf or view our latest Sunday School curriculum for small churches.