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Games -- Seek sounds like a scavenger hunt to me. You could search for symbols of the kingdom of God. Depending on what's going on in your church, the search could be for real evidence of God working in your congregation -- an adult Bible study class, mission projects on the bulletin board, etc.
Drama -- Assign a word from the passage to student groups. Give them 5 minutes to come up with a PANTOMIME of actions that describe what Jesus is trying to say when he says, "ask, seek, knock."
Ask:
Ask who? Ask what?
Seek:
Seek what? Seek where?
Knock:
Knock on what? What do you want opened for you? Why would God want to open it for you?
After everyone has done it once, re-assign and challenge them to come up with something better and richer in detail.
Movies -- How about some scenes from the Wizard of Oz. Ask -- Dorothy asking the scarecrow which way to go. Seek -- yellow brick road. Knock -- knocking on the gates of the Emerald City and initially being denied access, but let in when the gatekeeper hears their sad stories. The scene at the end of the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy learns that she has always had the power to return home, she just didn't know it. (The idea being that we always have the opportunity to turn to the One who answers prayer.) Do we NOT ask because we think we won't receive?
Art -- Door Knocker?
Science -- How to make a home-made magnifying glass or telescope to "seek".
Peace, Lisa
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Here are instructions to a retractable telescope (not real, made from cardboard tubes) for kids. Looks like a lengthy, but not too difficult assembly. Might have them ready to assemble and decorate, or partially assembled before class. Certainly a younger to middle elementary idea.
It would be fairly easy to make miniature door knockers out of dangle-type earrings. But not much for the kids to do. However, if you had classroom Bibles (or the kids' personal Bibles if parents didn't mind), you COULD make knockers for their Bibles. Brainstorming here, but perhaps you could make foam ones and incorporate it in a Bible cover of some kind.
Perhaps a sign for the kids' doors would work. The kind that hang from their door knob. You can get nice ones made of wood that the kids could sand and paint and/or mod podge the verse on them, too.
The "Sand, Pebble, Rock" Stewardship or "Seek First the Kingdom Demonstration
The "Sand, Pebble, Rock" demonstration has been around for a long time. It is often used in a secular way to demonstrate how we can manage our time. It has also been used to visually demonstrate organizing your priorities.
There are several versions on YouTube. The following is a children's sermon version.
Main Point: Stewardship of priorities -- making sure you're taking care of the most important things first. Jesus says "seeking the Kingdom" is the big things.
Lesson Suggestion: After you do the basic demonstration, read Matthew 6:33 "Seek first," and ask "What are "the most important" things according to Jesus?" "What does it mean to "seek first the Kingdon? What IS the Kingdom?
Suggest that the students decide what some of the big rocks are, write on them. Then invite pairs of students to do the demonstration themselves as you videorecord them with your cellphone.
Scripture: "Seek First the Kingdom of God, and then all these (other) things are possible. Matthew 6:33
One negative is that the visual suggests you can "have it all," when in fact, there are things we that do and want that we should probably NOT do and want. I think the metaphor and demonstration could be adjusted to force students to consider "which things" they need to STOP making a priority, or filling up the space of the lives with.
"Empty" Space is also not a bad thing, rest, contemplation, etc. You could represent that by using clear glass marbles (or by simply NOT filling the jar to the top). In fact, you could use various types of colored rocks to represent different things we should be seeking and serving God.
Playing with the metaphor is something older kids, youth and adults can easily grapple with. For younger children, keep the metaphor simple and make sure they understand what the various rocks represent.
Memory work is easier with music. Matthew 6:33, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness...." (KJV) is a traditional song.
There are a number of versions available on YouTube, some better than others, some with motions to go with the words to further aid learning by adding a kinesthetic aspect.
Here are a few:
The traditional version:
A more up-tempo arrangement the children might enjoy more:
This one looks like it is using American Sign Language (ASL), but the video is a bit choppy:
Here is another that looks like it is using ASL. The lip-syncing is not perfect on this one. (One choice might be to watch the two ASL versions and learn the signs and teach the song without the video.)
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