Explore and respond
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UNDER 5s
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Magic Milk
- Pour whole milk onto a shallow plate or dish.
- Add drops of food colouring – red, yellow, blue, green.
- Use a cotton bud tip to add a drop of washing up liquid in the centre.
- Watch how the milk reacts to the soap, and the patterns it makes.
- Set up a few of these experiments and notice that every pattern is different, depending on where you choose to place the dye.
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What kind of King?
- Draw and cut out cardboard crown shapes and provide a selection of loose parts such as coloured-shapes, buttons, shiny pieces, blocks.
- Lay these out on a tray and encourage the children to decorate and redecorate the crown.
- Ask: What kind of king should Saul choose to be?
CHILDREN
Book making W A
Think about choices and consequences
You will need: ‘You Choose’ book, long roll of paper, pens.
- Look at a ‘You Choose’ book together. Lay out a long roll of paper and at one end write ‘Who would be a good footballer? – You Choose’ and invite the children to draw lots of options. Further along the paper roll do the same with ‘Who would be a good friend?’ and ‘Who would bake a great cake?’. Have fun drawing in lots of people and asking the children who they would choose.
- Then write ‘What makes a great teacher – You Choose’ and encourage the children to draw the things that make a great teacher. Finally, write ‘What makes a great leader – You Choose’. Talk together about what God would want in a great leader.
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Crossroads game E S
A game to explore choices and consequences
You will need: a selection of boxes, treats to go inside, string, chalk or a roll of paper to mark out the paths.
- Mark a number of paths round the room and include crossroads at different points. Use chalk, string or rolls of paper to make the paths. At the end of each, place a box – in some of these put a treat and leave others empty.
- Encourage the children to walk round and decide which way they will go at each crossroads.
- Once they reach a box, ask them to stand by it until everyone has finished.
- Open the boxes together.
What were the consequence of the choices made at each crossroads? Remind the children that whatever the choices and consequences are throughout life, God is always with us
Choose your own ending W E
Think about choice and consequence in Samuel and Saul's story
You will need: copies of the Bible story with the three points marked 
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- Ask the children if they have read a ‘Choose your own Adventure’ book or while gaming been able to choose where the story goes. Explain that they are going to choose an alternative to part of today’s story.
- Divide the children into groups and give each a copy of the story with the three points marked where a choice is made. Can they think of an alternative outcome and act it out for the rest of the group? What difference would this have made to the whole story?
- Tell the children that over the next few weeks they will discover what the consequences of the choices were.
Talk together and talk to God
Discuss the theme, then bring your thoughts together in prayer
- Can you think of a difficult choice you had to make? What happened when you made your choice?
- How do you think Samuel felt as he helped the people to make choices?
- How could you include God in the choices you make – just like Samuel did?
Dice prayer W E S A
A prayer activity with choices
- Allow the children to experience different ways of praying on the roll of a die.
- Ask everyone to roll a die and then follow these instructions. If you roll a…:
One: Thank God for something that has happened this week.
Two: Tell God about a choice you need to make.
Three: Chat with God about how you are feeling.
Four: Tell God about a choice or something you are
worried about.
Five: Tell God how great God is.
Six: Tell God about a choice you are looking forward to.
Click on the graphic to view this week's sheets.
YOUNG PEOPLE
Fruit surgery E
Consider consequences
You will need: range of fruits, knives, sticky tape, rubber bands and glue.
- Divide the young people into teams. Get each team to choose a fruit and then tell them they must cut their fruits into four or five pieces.
- Then, produce the glue, tape and rubber bands and explain that they now have to stick their fruits back together as best as possible. Decide which team did the best job.
- Talk about how uninformed decision-making can have bad consequences. Ask: How can obeying God help us make good choices? We won’t get every decision right, but we can learn from our mistakes and God can use them in unexpected ways.
Beautiful choices W E
A craft about choices
You will need: instructional video, straws, tape, coloured wool.
- Teach the young people how to weave with straws using the video and make a bracelet/bookmark.
- Discuss how when we involve God in our choices, they are woven together to make something beautiful.
Pursue S A
Failure isn't final
You will need: video and TV/screen for projection.
- Watch the poem about pursuing God’s call. Ask the young people if there is a difference between making good choices or being scared to fail.
- Can they think of examples of people who failed before finally achieving their goal?
- Discuss how following Jesus means making bold decisions
Choice map W E S
Hand our choices over to God in prayer
You will need: pens and paper.
- Ask the young people to think about the choices they’ve made at the beginning of the school year. These could include subjects, hobbies, friends, etc. Map out the outcomes those decisions have had through the year. They could use road symbols and different paths to indicate these choices and consequences.
- Pray, thanking God for the good decisions and consequences. If there are bad decisions or consequences, give thanks that with God our bad decisions are not full stops but commas – we always have second chances.
Check-in: Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues