John The Baptist - Matthew 3:1-10
Idea 1
Get the kids to make a road, or an entrance for a king. What would it look like to greet a king? How would you want the entrance to look? How would you want to look if you were to greet a king?
Idea 2
Get a real locust and talk about what it would be like to eat it.
Idea 3
Do relay races where kids need to put on some John the Baptist clothes (something itchy, fake animal fur) run to the other side, eat some honey and come back.
Idea 4
Read “Heaven Breaks Through” on page 200 in the Jesus Storybook Bible.
Idea 5
Read “John the Baptist” on page 234 in The Spark Bible.
Idea 6
Talk about the word repent. What does it mean? Give some examples of kids who have done something wrong and have a chance to repent - what could they do to show that they have repented?
Idea 7
People were lining up in the desert because the knew the King was coming. We know that Jesus is coming again, what can we do to get ourselves ready?
Idea 8
Make a locust out of paper.
This activity would work well for older kids, or you could partner up a younger kid with an older one.
Give each of the kids a green piece of paper and teach them how to make a locust. You can use this video.
Once the locusts are made you can have a locust parade, or have a race of getting them to hop from one side of the room to the other. Or see which one can make the biggest jump.
Have a conversation with the kids about John eating locusts and honey, and how he was so different from the other priests of the day. The other priests would eat the meat from sacrifices, and wear robes. John ate locusts and honey and wore a robe made out of camel hair.
Idea 9
Hide plastic bugs all around the room.
See if the kids will notice the bugs and if they do, then see if they can collect them all.
Try to name as many of the bugs as you can.
Pick out the locust and talk about a guy named John in the bible who used to eat them.
Tell them this guy was there to announce Jesus and get everyone ready for Him.
Lessons - please click on the lessons below