Details of the games suggested in the text, plus an extra game for Session 1
Journey 1: Extra game: I went on a journey
- One person begins by saying 'I went on a journey and I took…', adding an item they would take on a journey.
- The next person repeats the phrase including the first item and adding one of their own. Continue until everyone has had a go.
- Remind the group that there is a lot to think about before we set out on a journey. Moses gave very clear instructions to the Israelites on what they would need to get ready for leaving Egypt.
Journey 2: Game: Road signs
- Demonstrate the following road signs:
U turn (change direction); road bends (twist and turn); roundabout (run round in a circle); one-way street (all run in the direction the leader is pointing); men at work (mime digging the road); stop (stop); slow down (walk very slowly); reverse (go backwards – carefully); park (sit on the floor).
- Ask the group to run around the room. As they are doing so, shout out the road signs – the children should do the appropriate actions.
- At the end of the game remind the group that along any journey there will be lots of signs we need to look out for to tell us what the road ahead will be like.
Journey 3: Suggested parachute game
- Sit with the children around the parachute. Remind them that when we go on a journey we encounter lots of strange and different weather conditions just as Jonah experienced. You are going to use the parachute to show some of these.
- Can they make some calm weather?
- Now it's getting a bit windy. Can they make some stormy weather?
- What would the parachute look like in high winds? Can they make sudden flashes of lightning?
- Continue in this way, alternating the different weather conditions and adding ones of your own.
- Finish by making a tent with the parachute. Billow the parachute up and down. Tell the group (on your say) to pull the parachute over their heads and sit down on the edge so that it forms a tent with them inside. When you are all inside remind them that God is with us whatever happens on our journey, just as he was with Jonah.
Journey 4: Treasure hunt
- Before the session, devise a list of items the group will be able to find around the building or outside if you have a safe, accessible outside area.
- You could specify how many of each item they have to find. For example 'Find a twig. Find 3 things that are yellow. Find 2 stones. Find a Bible.'
- Give everyone a copy of the list and a bag to collect their items in. Divide people into small groups or pairs. Send them around the area to collect all the things you have listed.
- When everyone has collected all the items, sit together and look at what they have found. Talk about the fact that many journeys have a particular goal. In the Treasure hunt the goal was to find the treasure.
- The end of the journey sometimes comes when we have reached the goal we set.
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