Follow in His Footsteps

Mary-Ann said, I just want you to know that this activity day wasn't all only MY ideas, I just took from different activity days posted over the years and put it together that way with my own personal twist on it.

Tell Me The Stories of Jesus” (Scripture Blocks)

You'll need: Wooden blocks, sand paper, 6 different pictures of Jesus’ miracles
What to do: Set up tables with chairs. As children enter, distribute a Ziploc bag with sandpaper, stories, pictures and wooden block. Write their name on the bag. Have them sand the block, while telling them about Jesus being a carpenter. Color the pictures, cut and glue them unto the wooden block. This took about 20 minutes. The wooden blocks were modpodged at home and given to the children the following day.

Before they leave to go to the rest of the Carnival, set up in the gym, give them a lunch bag with their name. They can use that to put their earned tickets in. No tickets were needed to pay at the booths.

“I Will Make You Fishers of Men” (Matthew 4:19) (Fishing Booth)

You'll need: Fishing pole with magnet Plastic Rubbermaid container, made to look like an aquarium) 40 pieces of cardstock, laminated fish with questions on reverse side 40 paper clips to attach to tail of fish

What to do: Have each child use the fishing pole to catch a fish. Then read the question on the back and have him answer the question. Help the younger children with the answer if they don’t know it. If the question was answered correctly, give 1 ticket.

“The Widow's Mite” (Mark 12:41-44) (Penny Drop Booth)

You'll need: Big plastic bowl, filled with water one quarter or half-dollar coin, placed on bottom of bowl 10 pennies

What to do: Have child use one penny at the time, trying to drop it into the water ON TOP of the quarter. The hands cannot touch the water at any time.

“Keep the Commandments” (John 14:15) (Balloon Darts Booth)

You'll need: Big decorated board balloons (about 50-75), blown up, 1 ticket inside of each balloon darts (6)

What to do: Give participant 6 darts. Standing behind the line, if he pops a balloon give him the ticket from that balloon. TWO tickets (one from the inside of the balloon and one extra one) when the designated balloon inside the square “Always Remember Jesus - Love One Another” gets popped.

“The House Built Upon a Rock” (Matthew 7:24-27) (Building Booth)

You'll need: wooden block game (Jenga) with 57 blocks measurement ruler, to measure height of building timer (from board game, 1 minute) or watch with second hand 2 baking sheets covered with foil; one with stone tile, one with thin layer of dirt or sand

What to do: Tell participant he has a choice to either:

a) build his stack of wooden blocks on the stone tile - or - b) build it on the dirt (sand)

Use the timer to time the participant. One minute will be all the time he gets to build as high a house or tower or whatever as possible. When the time is up, use the measuring stick to see how high it it.

IMPORTANT: When the stone tile has been chosen to build on, include the height of the tile (3 inches) into the total height. Start measuring from the table top, right next to the stone tile.

“Parable of the Sower” (Matthew 13:1-9) (Pingpong Ball Toss Booth)

You'll need: Backboard, illustrated, taped and put together 8 plastic (cereal) bowls, taped to the bottom of board with 8 holes cut out. 6 ping pong balls cards to identify each hole (“good soil” 2x, “thorns” 2x, “stony places” 2x, “by the wayside” 2x)

What to do: Give participant 6 ping pong balls in a bowl. Standing behind the line have him try to throw the balls in the two holes marked “Good Soil”. Reward: 1 Ticket for each ball that makes it into a “Good Soil” hole. No tickets when the balls land in any of the other 6 holes. Any ball that doesn’t land in a hole can be tossed again.

“Jesus was tempted by Satan” (Matthew 4:1-11) (Can Toss Booth)

You'll need: 6 cans, spray painted and labeled:
    1x “Turn Stones Into Bread”
    2x “Jump Off The Temple”
    3x “Fall Down And Worship Satan”
3 or 4 black bean bags, tightly filled

What to do: Give the participant the bean bags. The purpose is to knock over as many cans as possible from behind a line. Reward: 1 Ticket when 1-5 cans are knocked over. 2 Tickets when every can is knocked over.

“Jesus' Life on Earth” (Matching Game Booth)

You'll need: 2 sets of 12 different pictures depicting events in Jesus’ life, magnetized and laminated cardstock “covers” for 1 set of pictures, taped on magnetic board titles for each picture, attached to the “covers” magnetic board.
What to do: Give participant the set of 12 pictures. After reading the titles on the red cardstock covers on the left, he places one of the pictures that matches the title next to that title onto the magnetic board. After all 12 pictures have been placed upon the board, open the “covers”, compare, and count the total of correct matches. Reward: 1 Ticket for 1-10 correct matches. 2 Tickets for 11-12 correct matches.

“Choose the Right” (Duck Game Booth)

You'll need: 10 plastic ducks (we could only find 5 mother ducks and 5 baby ducks in this case). Place matching numbers on the bottom of each mother and baby duck, so that there are 5 pairs of ducks. “pond” filled with water (Rubbermaid plastic container, made to look like a pond) fish net .
What to do: Give participant the fish net. He can only catch 2 ducks per turn, one baby duck and one mother duck. Reward: 1 Ticket when the caught ducks are not a match. (Check the numbers on the bottom of the ducks.) 2 tickets when the caught ducks have numbers that are a match!

“Count Your Blessings” (Guess-Jar-Contents Booth)

You'll need: Glass jar with lid, labeled "Count Your Many Blessings" filling for jar (we used Pepperidge Farm Gold Fish crackers, 480 of them) small slips of papers with “Name” and “Number” and pencils box to put filled out papers in.

What to do: Give each participant a piece of paper. They need to fill in their name and their guess of the number of crackers in the jar. Put the paper in the provided box. Close to the end of the Carnival check the papers and see who came closest to the actual number of fish (480 in this case), Closest one wins the jar with contents! Each person can only enter ONCE!

“I will follow in His footsteps” (Musical Walk, “Cake Walk” Booth)

This game was played at the end of the Carnival with the entire group.

You'll need: 40x “Follow In His Footsteps” fabric beanbags (5” x 5”) sidewalk chalk, to trace footstep template on sidewalk footprint template papers with numbers 1-30, or as many as the number of footprints on the sidewalk cassette player/music tape.
What to do: Trace footprint templates in a circle (about 20 or 30) on the sidewalk with chalk. Number each footprint. Put the same numbers in the bag as there are footprints. Play the music. Stop the tape. Pull a number (or 2 or 3 at the same time when the group of participants is large) from the bag. The person standing on the footprint with the selected number wins a “Follow In His Footsteps” bean bag. Play as many times as you want. After this game is over everyone gets a bean bag!

REFRESHMENTS: Popsicles, Popcorn, already in decorated paper lunch bags.

Each child could “buy” 1 popsicle and 1 bag of popcorn. The refreshments were 5 tickets each, so a total of 10 tickets was needed to buy these refreshments. (To tell the truth, we never counted the tickets. We just looked in the bags and if there were quite a few tickets we just assumed there were at least 10.......)

This Carnival was a great success!