WEEK 2 - RECREATION DAY ONE: Obstacle Course Relay MATERIALS: recreation equipment (two of each) hula-hoop, jump rope, basketball, anything really- you can have as many or as few as you like. You don’t need more than three or four but have at least two. OBJECT: To be the first team to have all of their team members to complete the obstacle course and sit down in their lines. SET UP: Before recreation, choose two or three things that you would like to use in an obstacle course. Each thing that you choose, you should have one for each team to make the game equal. Have them do something with each of the things that you put in the way. For example: Jump rope three times, hula-hoop three times, run around the chair and come back. You could add in some things like bounce a basketball five times, jump over something, using a racket of some kind - bounce the ball in the air twice, if you are playing outside or have a small basketball goal you could have it end with shooting the basketball to make a basket. Whatever you create! This game could be different every time you play! Divide the children into their two teams. Have them start standing in a line. When they return, tell them to sit down in the line, so that you know which children are finished already. TO PLAY: Tell the children that when they are in their lines, they can start. Have one staff person watching each of the team to make sure they are doing each of their “events” along the way. Also the staff person should be available to retrieve any thing that might roll away or get misplaced during the course. The winner is the team that completes the course and is seated in their lines first. DISCUSSION Watch to see which children are encouraging their teammates on one of the things that might be harder for them. How do you see children not giving up? What did you like most about this game? Is it hard to think of something that you liked when your team lost? Why? If your team tried their best and didn’t give up, were spirited, won the spirit points for the day, but lost the game, do you think loosing would matter as much? Why? you like to be on a team that doesn’t give up? Why?
WEEK 4 - PRACTICAL LIVING � A Real Life Example of Perseverance MATERIALS: a guest speaker or a book about someone who persevered OBJECT: We want the children to get a chance to see perseverance applied in someone’s life. If they see an example of it applied, then maybe they can see how they can apply it in their own life, making this very practical for learning how we are to live! This week, find someone in your church or community who you know has had to go through something very difficult. This could be someone who has survived cancer, someone who has been in a serious accident and had to overcome or even someone who has had to endure through financial hardships. Have this person some of their feeling about the situation while they were in it and what they did to cope with their feelings. Have the person share what encouraged them during that time, so that if we know someone else who is going through a similar situation we might know a way to encourage them. Have this person share what some of the hardest parts were about the problem they had to endure. Maybe they couldn’t do something that they loved. Did they do something to try to overcome it? Have the person share what some of their greatest victories were. Did they become closer with the Lord? How was God there for them in the hard times? Allow the children to ask questions of the speaker. If the children don’t have questions, have a few that you like to ask that may get the children thinking about what they would like to ask. If you are not able to find a guest speaker, read the children a book about someone who persevered. In your local library, you can find many books on people who never gave up. Here are some people who you can look up: Joni Erickson Tada -paralyzed by a diving accident in her teens Owens -overcame crippling childhood disease Abraham Lincoln - lost many elections before he ever was elected president Jackie Robinson (in the Book of Virtues) who overcame racism to play in the major leagues