Read Psalms 100

This Psalm is only 5 verses long, you might want to give everyone in the group a chance to read the whole thing, or try reading it in a choral reading style (you read a verse and they repeat it back to you).

Take a few minutes to talk about what truths this Psalm teaches us about God. Have the kids point out the truths they see about God in the psalm…..He is God, He made us, He shepherds us, He is good, He is forever loving, He is faithful. As you go through the psalm looking at these truths about God, define each one and come up with examples from scripture where you see these attributes of God. Some will be simple, like He made us, or some like his faithfulness will have many examples.Ask the kids to tell you what the psalm says our reaction to God should be. Point out that it says that we should “shout for joy” and “worship the Lord with gladness” and sing “joyful songs.” Have kids notice that it doesn’t just say we should sing and shout to the Lord, but that we should be glad and joyful while doing it. Have kids demonstrate how you could sing joyfully and how you could sing without joy (or feeling).Divide the kids into 3 smaller groups and give groups 5 minutes to come up with a song or cheer based on one of the truths about God that we see in this psalm. If kids need an idea to get them started, you might want to suggest something like ( “The Bible tells us what God’s like, what God’s like, what God’s like. The Bible says that God is good. He is very good.”….. to the tune of “Mary had a little lamb.”). Give groups time to work and them have them sing their songs or do their cheers for the rest of the group.

Look back at Psalm 100:5. Have kids note what the verse says about God’s love and faithfulness. Ask the kids if we deserve God’s love or His faithfulness. Help them see (from Romans 6:23) that we don’t deserve His love; in fact we deserve death. Then, have them look at Romans 5:8 to see that God showed His love by having Jesus die for sinners. Then, have kids look at 1 John 4:9-10 for a definition of God’s love. Then, talk about God’s faithfulness. Point kids back to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12, that He would bless all peoples through him and remind the kids that God used His chosen people in the OT as the family that Jesus would be born into and that Jesus is the One who blessed all peoples by dying on the cross in our place. Help them kids to see that God kept this promise that He made to Abraham, even though His people didn’t keep their side of the covenant. Remind them of the law and how God gave the law to His people as a way for them to show that they were His people, but that they disobeyed and broke the law, but that God still remained faithful. We have to engage the kids they may ask questions like is God real? And we

have to give a clear answer the best we can.

Directions:

-Give each child a piece of white paper, a bowl full of cheerios, and a plate with some glue on it.

-Have the kids create a circle (but a wavy circle like the picture shows) for the sheeps outline. It should take up most of the paper.

-Give the kids a piece of black construction paper and have them cut out a sheep’s head and glue it in the middle of their circle.

-Have the kids pick up a cheerio, dip it in the glue, and place it on the sheep to fill up the sheep’s wool.

-Have them glue down their eyes.

Directions:

-Give the kids 4 pieces of construction paper of their choice.

-Have them trace and cut out their handprint 8 times and glue it all around the outside of the paper plate as seen in the photo.

-On each hand they are to write one thing they can give God thanks and praise for in their lives. In the middle of the plate have them write “I am thankful for…"

• Play traditional musical chairs!

Place balls on the floor and have a relay race to see which team can retrieve all the balls by picking them up with their chins and placing them in a bowl or bucket. First team done wins.