God’s Covenant With Abraham And Sarah Giant Game Workshop

Summary of Lesson Activities:

Students will play a room-sized board game to explore the story after hearing it, and also to practice some Bible skills.

Note: This workshop was written for younger elementary grades. If you have older kids visit this workshop then just add on to the “tougher” questions.

Scripture Reference:

Genesis 12:1-9; 15:1-6, 17:1–8, 15–17; 18:1–15; 21: 1-3, and 22: 1-18

Leader Preparation:

• Read the scripture for this lesson.
• Read and reflect on the overview material provided for this lesson.
• Gather the materials
• Cover the game wheel so it won’t distract the students.
• Write the key Bible verse on the whiteboard.
• Make sure the answers to the suggested game questions are in the story Bible adaptation you are reading. Make adjustments to the story or questions as needed.

Supplies List:

• Whiteboard with appropriate marker
• Story Bible; we used The Praise Bible
• Life-sized game board – canvas tarp with painted spaces (4 colors) - We made our game board out of two sheets of painters' drop cloth – the canvas type. They were painted with acrylic paint to look like a Candyland type of a board. For a pictures of game boards, see here.
• Game wheel or spinner with corresponding 4 colors (If you don't have a spinner, have kids pull pieces of paper that are one of the four colors out of a bag)
• Game wheel cover to convert it to a four color spinner

LESSON

Opening:
Greet your students warmly, welcoming them to the Games Workshop. Introduce yourself and any other adults.

Say: Let’s start with prayer.
Ask for any prayer requests. Ask if anyone would like to lead the group in prayer. Use the Lord’s Prayer as the ending. A suggestion: “Dear God, Thank you for your involvement in our lives. As we journey on our path to understanding you, help us to listen for your call, remember your promises, and follow you in trust and obedience. (End with everyone joining in on the Lord’s Prayer) Amen.”

Dig:
Say: We are going to be playing a game today that will see how well we know our Bible story. Let’s review our story before we play our game.

Ask: Where in the Bible did we find the story of Noah, that we learned about last month? (in first book of the Old Testament, Genesis)
Say: Our story from this month comes from the same place, the book of Genesis. Our story today is about two people, Abraham and Sarah. Before we read our lesson, let’s go out to the Bible timeline and look for our story in pictures.

Head out to the time line:
Take the copy of The Praise Bible. Remind students not to touch the art work.

Have them point out Noah, and Abraham and Sarah.
Have everyone sit down. Remind the students to listen carefully as you read them the story so that they will be able to answer the game questions.

On the first week of the Rotation, read them the story on pages 36-42 and 44, showing the pictures as you read. Be sure to include the words written in pen. (Note: by lesson-poster: I had added some words to one of the pages about Sarah laughing.)
Subsequent weeks, ask the students if they can tell you the story. Fill in any missing details.

Ask: Why do you suppose Sarah laughed at the news that she would have a baby?
(accept a couple of answers)
Say: Sarah was almost 90 years old when she heard this news. That is pretty old to be having a baby! As we go back to the classroom I want each of you to take a look at Sarah in the painting – see if you think that she is laughing as Abraham shows her the stars in the sky.
(NOTE: if you don't have a wonderful mural like 1st UMC, you can share a fine art depiction of Abraham and Sarah, or just look at the pictures in your picture Bible.)

Back in the classroom - Play the Game:
Ask: Did you think that Sarah was laughing in the painting?
Why was Abraham showing Sarah the stars in the sky? (if necessary show them the picture on page 40-41 in The Praise Bible)

Optional, with older students:
Distribute purple Adventure Bibles.
Say: These are the type of Bible that you received in church. I want to point out a neat feature of these Bibles.
Have the students find Genesis 12. Tell them that our story starts here. Have the students look at the “People in Bible Times” note at the top of page 15.
Say: Your Bibles have these wonderful study notes and resources to help you understand what you are reading. Sarah laughed because she thought that she was too old to have children.

For all students:
Explain that students will work in teams to move across the game board – squeezing onto spaces as needed. The object of the game is not to be first to reach the end, but for all teams to reach the end, or to get as far as time permits, and to have fun doing it.

Lay out the game board(s). Have everyone take off his/her shoes. Ask the assistant teacher to help you divide the class into teams of 2 or 3 players each. [Preferably in 2s but 3 is ok if needed]. Have the team with the person whose birthday is closest to today’s date go first.

One member of the team spins the wheel. While the wheel is spinning, ask the next question of the team. All the people on a team should confer/work on an answer. Checking Bibles is OK (for readers)! Remind the children that only the team in play should be talking. Take time for Discussion! If the team answers correctly they get to move to the color that was spun.
Note: it is OK to start groups of kids from different ends of the game board.

Reflection:
Say: For each Bible story we study as Sunday’s Cool Disciples, we try to learn a Bible verse. Let’s say our verse together. [Refer to the displayed Bible verse.]

Say the verse together once or twice.
“I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore.” Genesis 22:17a (NIV)

Choose a student to remove one of the cards from the display. See if students can repeat the verse with the card missing. Continue doing this until all of the cards are gone.

Game Questions:

• Where in the Bible is this story found? (Genesis)
• Is this story in the Old Testament or the New Testament? (Old)
• What is a covenant? (a promise or an agreement)
• What was Abraham’s name at the start of our story? (Abram)
• What was Sarai’s name changed to? (Sarah)
• What does God promise to Abram? (He will have more descendants than the number of stars; to leave this land and follow God; he will be blessed with a child and will be given land, which he will then give to his descendants). [Ask this question a number of times, looking for all possible answers.]
• How does Abram respond to God telling him to move to a new land? (He follows God, he goes)
• What was odd about Abraham and Sarah when God promised them that they would have so many children? (they were really old)
• God said that he would bless Abram. To bless means to give something. What blessings did God provide? (a child, Abram also was wealthy, had lots of sheep, animals)
• How has God blessed you?
• What did God promise Abraham that his children would be as many as? (the stars in the sky, the grains of sand on the seashore)
• Did Abraham and Sarah have any children? (Yes, eventually)
• What was the name of their child? (Isaac)
• What are ways that you can listen for God to call you? (prayer, reading the Bible, talking to people)
• If God called you to move away from home, how do you suppose you would react?
• What other stories do you know in the Bible that tell about a journey? (Mary and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem, Israelites traveling in the desert for 40 years)
• Who is it that is traveling with you on your journey of faith? (parents, friends, siblings, etc.)
• Did it seem to you to be totally impossible for God to keep his promises to Abraham (I mean Abraham and Sarah were old!)?
• Why did God have Abram look up and try to count the stars? (refer to key verse)
• Who were the three men who came to visit Abraham and Sarah? (three angels sent by God)
• Sarah laughed when she heard about her having a baby. What are some ways that God has brought laugher to your life?
• If you had been Sarah (almost 90 years old and without any children), how do you suppose that you would have reacted to the news from the three visitors?
• Why was Isaac given a name that means “laughter”? (his name was Isaac meaning laughter because Sarah laughed when she heard she’d have a baby. Genesis 18:10-15)
• Did God keep his promises to Abraham and Sarah? (yes)
• Do you suppose that God will keep his promises to you?
• God seems to talk with Abram/Abraham frequently. What are ways you can listen for God to talk to you? (prayer, listening in worship service, listening in Sunday school, reading the Bible, talking to people)
• Abram and Sarai had their names changed. A change in name signifies a change in relationship with God. What would you like your name to change to? How would it signify a different relationship with God?
• Our story included the words “Nothing is too hard for God.” What does this mean to you?

A few tougher questions for the older students

• Find Genesis 12 in the Bible.
• How long did Abraham and Sarah have to wait for God’s promise of a son to come true? (about 25 years. Genesis 21:5 says Abraham was 100 when Isaac was born; Genesis 12:4 says he was 75 when God spoke to him about making him a great nation.)
• Does Abraham ever get mentioned in the New Testament? (Yes, Romans 4:16-25 and Hebrews 11:8-12). Show the kids how to look up “Abraham” in the Dictionary-Concordance in the purple Bibles.

Resources:

Serendipity Bible for Groups. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1998. (some game questions adapted from this source)
This workshop was originally written in 2001 by Carol Hulbert, who at the time didn’t keep good notes on where she’d gotten materials from. Surely some of this comes from other postings at rotation.org. Unfortunately I don’t know which ones... Updated in October 2007.

Scripture quoted is taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

Why are we sending kids out to look at our timeline? Well, we are mighty proud of our time line! It is a work of art! For pictures view the artist's web site.

A lesson written by Carol Hulbert from: First UMC, Ann Arbor, MI
Copyright First United Methodist Church, Ann Arbor, MI.
Permission to copy materials granted for non-commercial use provided credit is given and all cited references remain with this material
If you use this material, even in a modified form, please include the following reference:
Hulbert, Carol. "God’s Covenant with Abraham and Sarah: Games Workshop ." Oct. 2007. Place URL where lesson found inside angle brackets<>.

A representative of Rotation.org reformatted this post to improve readability.