Explore and respond
Activities marked with an asterisk 
next to the activity title are in addition to the resources in the Ready to go sessions. Suggested timings for these activities are also shown. NB The inclusion of additional activities varies from week to week.
VERY YOUNG CHILDREN
Choices game
Play and explore making choices
Offer children a series of simple choices, e.g. would you rather be an ant or an elephant?
Hen collage
Create a symbol of one of Jesus’ values
On a large sheet of paper, create a group collage of a hen with its wings outspread, gluing feathers onto an outline. Ask the children to think about how it makes them feel.
FOR CHILDREN
Values bracelet E S A
A reminder to live according to our values
You will need: coloured beads, elastic, scissors.
- Ask the children to think of some values they would most like to have. How might those help them to behave?
- Invite the children to choose different-coloured beads to represent each value.
- Encourage everyone to use their beads to make a bracelet that they can wear, to help them remember the values they want to live by.
Sing
Preview song, then buy online and download.
0-5s song(s)
I’ve Got Peace Like a River (CHY 113)
5-11s
Solid Rock I Stand, New Life Worship on Counting On God (Live)
Alive, Hillsong, Young & Free on, We Are Young & Free
Make me a channel of your peace
12+
Yesterday Today And Forever, Vicky Beeching on Yesterday Today And Forever; Chords
Find more suggestions on the Hymns, songs & music page.
Talk together and talk to God
Use these questions to discuss the Bible passage and then bring your thoughts together by praying to God.
Talk together
- When have you helped other people? What did you do?
- What do you think about Jesus not running away? What would you have done?
- What were Jesus’ values?
Talk to God: What’s most important? W E S A
Pray about which values you want to live by
- Ask the children to place the values in the order of importance to them. There is no wrong answer!
- Spend time discussing these with the children. Ask: Which values would you like to adopt for this group to live by?
- Pray together that those values would guide the actions of the group this week.
Stuck in the mud E S
Play and think about how our values affect our behaviour
- Play a game of ‘stuck in the mud’. Choose one child to be ‘on’. The other children have to run from one side of the room to the other. The child who is ‘on’ has to ‘tag’ the children as they cross the room. If a child is tagged, they have to stand still. The other children, as the game continues, can free those stuck in the mud by running around them in a circle. Once they have been freed, the ‘stuck’ child can re-join the game.
- After a few goes, ask everyone to play the game while being guided by different values, i.e. the first could be ‘success’ (winning the game) and the second could be ‘kindness’ (helping others).
- After the game, ask the children whether they played differently each time? Were they looking out for themselves and trying to ‘win’, or willing to be generous and kind by ‘releasing’ others? What was more important to them?
Play it out 10 mins E
A game about responding with different values
- Give the group a scenario, e.g. a spider is crawling across the floor, other suggestions might include: a person who has fallen over, there’s not enough food to go round at a party.
- Ask everyone to work in small groups to role-play responding according to a certain value, e.g. a spider:
value 1 = fear: squash it;
value 2 = bravery: leave it;
value 3 = caring: find a way to get it out of the house safely.
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
How do you react? 10 mins W E A
Think about our how values inform our actions
You will need: scenarios (see below), printed out, folded and placed in a container.
- Ask the young people to each take a piece of paper from the container, one at a time, read it aloud and express how they would feel and what they would do.
- Invite others to comment on how they would react too. Discuss their reactions and what those tell us about the young people’s values. Ask: How could you react differently, perhaps showing a different value?
Scenarios
- You arrive at school in your uniform, only to discover that it’s a non-uniform day and you’re the only one who didn’t realise.
- You’re lying in bed and you see a spider crawling across the covers towards you.
- Your English teacher is so impressed with your writing that she asks you to read it out in front of the whole year group during assembly.
- During breaktime at school, you’re chatting with your friends about how mean you think one of your teachers is, only to discover that the teacher is standing right behind and has heard every word.
Stay focused 10 mins W E A
How we can help each other to focus
You will need: flipchart paper, sticky notes and pens.
- Ask for two volunteers. Simultaneously, one must say aloud numbers 1-10 in ascending order, while the other says the numbers in descending order.
- Ask: What makes it difficult?
- Jesus identifies and resists things that will distract him and remains completely focused. As a group, discuss ways that might help each other to stay focused.
- Write ideas on sticky notes and add them to the flipchart paper. Try to agree on the most important values shown in this behaviour, then place these in descending order.
Prayer web 5 mins E S
See how the group strengthens everyone
You will need: a ball of string.
- Invite everyone to stand in a circle. Hold onto the end of a ball of string, say the name of someone opposite you and throw the ball to them. Continue until everyone is holding some string, forming a web that connects the group.
- Ask everyone to pull slightly and feel the strength of the web. Pray that the group would be joined and strengthened by Jesus and the values of his kingdom, and that these values would hold you together even when you are apart.
Check-in: Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues
Chicken run 5 mins E
Play a game according to different values
You will need: bowls, two boxes of a dozen eggs, prize for winning team.
- Take the group outside, divide them into two teams and ask them to line up for a relay race. Place a bowl at an equal distance opposite but away from the teams and the egg boxes near the teams. Ask the players to take turns to collect an egg and carefully place the egg in the bowl opposite their team before returning to the line when the next player should then run. Play continues until all the eggs are transferred.
- Give the prize to the group that was most careful in looking after the eggs. Ask: What was most important as you were playing this game – being quickest, or being careful to look after the eggs?