Make and Assemble Take-Home Gratitude Game Kits
to Encourage Gratitude Discussion at Home

Plastic arrow spinners can be purchased in bulk quite inexpensively. They snap onto a paper plate or piece of paper on which you've written several "spinner" numbers.(see below).

Create a list of "Gratitude questions" and make copies for each kit, cutting them into a stack of "cards" that can go with each kit. The gameboard can be hand-drawn by the kids or copies and colored. Add instructions to the gameboard.

Players spin and advance across the gameboard -- answering a question from the stack each time they come to stop. It's okay to have questions repeat.

Make a fun spinner! Sunday School kids could decorate and number the plates and attach the spinners, as well as draw the gameboard (Lots of gameboard templates online too. Google "gameboard blank squares" or similar).

A Few Possible Questions Cards

1. What's one thing GOD is grateful for about the person on your left?
2. Who do you miss that's no longer alive and what are you grateful for about their life?
3. What daily things would Jesus tell you to be grateful for now and increase in the year ahead?
4. Gratefully name someone not with you right now who changed your life in a positive way.
5. What lesson have you learned about life this past year?
6. Move back 3 squares if you have been depressed or sad about something in the past month, then move forward 2 squares if you did something positive to respond to your sadness.
7. Move forward one square if you did something today that someone in the game is grateful to you for doing.
8. Move forward 3 squares if you gave thanks to God in prayer today for more than a minute (move forward 1 square if you forgot but take 30 seconds now to pray).
9. Move forward 1 square if the person on your right says something about you that they are grateful for.
10. Move forward one square is you say out loud the name of someone who inspires you to be a better person.

Tip: Ask the pastor to suggest questions. Perhaps they can even be part of the liturgy or sermon.

Free to Everyone: The Talents Stewardship software game

You can share this free downloadable software game about Stewardship this season with your families. Add some follow-up questions and instructions when you distribute it.

This game is a "flash" (swf) file pulled (with permission) from my Awesome Bible Stories software program. It will play in most any browser. Read more about it and download the Talents Stewardship Game. Supporting Members of Rotation.org can download the entire Awesome Bible Stories program which includes an interactive lesson about Matthew 25's Parable of the Talents and uses the Talents Stewardship game.

You could also run the game on your computer and share your game screen via ZOOM.  Here's an article about how to share a program on your screen with your Zoomers.

The point of this fun little game is to create discussion around the subject of what it means to 'invest' or 'bury' the talent that God has given you.

Visual Thanksgiving resources
from the pages of Rotation.org

Click to open and save full size.

Psalm 8 is a song of thanksgiving as well as a "song of creation" as it is traditional taught. Why? Because like thanksgiving, Ps 8 gets us looking up and seeing the blessings that surround us. The following music video was created for the Rotation.org Writing Team's Psalm 8 lesson set. It meshes dramatic Ps 8 scenes with one of Train's most popular songs, "When I Look to the Sky."

Psalm 8's "Secret" (from the Writing Team's Ps 8 Bible Background)

It is traditional to interpret Psalm 8 as a Psalm of "Creation," extolling God's majestic Creation and our place in it, and it certainly does that. But Psalm 8 has a secret.  And it's a secret you already know -if you've ever looked up to see the stars surrounding you at night.

A time-exposure photo of the Milky Way.

In Psalm 8, the Psalmist is making a visual comparison between how the heavens surround and shine on the earth, and how God surrounds and shines on us.  The Hebrew word we translate as "crowned," as in, "crowned us with glory...." actually means "surrounded." The Psalmist is in awe of the heavens that "surround" him, and makes the connection with how God's awesome glory surrounds us, even, "embraces" us. Throughout the lessons in this set we're going to make that point to help your students visualize this important insight.

Especially in a year like 2020, when you look around, blessings may be hard to spot.

But when you look up...

All thy works with joy surround thee,
earth and heaven reflect thy rays,
stars and angels sing around thee,
center of unbroken praise.
Field and forest, vale and mountain,
flowery meadow, flashing sea,
chanting bird and flowing fountain,
call us to rejoice in thee.

Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen,
since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:18

Two Gratitude Prayer Activities for Class or Home Use

It's super helpful to turn discussion into an activity rather than a speech. Here are two fun ways you can do that on the subject of thanksgiving and gratitude that give you plenty of opportunities to share insights.

1. Prayer Bowls

Label three bowls and place them on the table:

Bowl 1: Things I should or should not ask God for.  Write "should ask for" on one side of a card in the bowl, and "probably should not ask for" on the other side of the card. When it's your turn and you have to play this bowl, take the card out and flip it like a coin and answer the question that lands face up.

Bowl 2: Something in my life that I want to thank God for (to be shared aloud)

Bowl 3:  Something God has given us to do that we are thankful for. (whole group must come up with an answer)

Take turns rolling a dice to see "which bowl" to interact with.

See more Prayer activity and resources here at Rotation.org

2. Pantomime Prayer Head Bands:

"Things We Should Be Grateful to God For"

Write the following "gratitude clues" on small cards and place them face down on the table. Seated in a circle,  on their turn a "player" lifts one card to their forehead without looking at what's written on the card --and so that only the other players can see what it is.

One at a time, each of the other players PANTOMIMES what's on the card and the player tries to guess what's on the card.

After several attempts, the player holding the card can ask the entire group some questions. They can answer without using any of the words on the card.

Possible "Grateful for" cards:      Life, Love, Faith, Jesus, Salvation, Friends, Being Able to Talk With God, forgiveness, The Bible. People who love me, Laughter. After your first round, have each player come up with new cards.

Note: I'm not here to argue with Bible verses that say "ask for everything/anything" when you pray. To me, those verses are more about the closeness we should feel with God --that we can say anything even if it's "off" or unrealistic and open ourselves to a better way with God's leading. God wants to hear it all, but doesn't want us to stop there. God wants us to listen and learn, and figure out what NOT to pray about (see Luke 18 for one such example). My understanding of prayer is embodied in the great "Serenity Prayer" first published in 1932 by theologian Reihold Niebuhr:

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
courage to change the things I can,
and wisdom to know the difference.

This list of "thanksgiving related" lessons and Bible stories here at Rotation.org was originally put together for use during the COVID pandemic when Sunday Schools were closed.

The resources cited below are great any year at-home and in-class.

• The Beatitudes ("The Blessings") -- what should we really be thankful for this year?
  Writing Team's Beatitudes Lesson Set Forum | Public "Beatitudes" Lesson Forum
  
  
• A Thanksgiving Meal in the Kingdom of God --a fun experiential meal that could easily be done around the family dinner table. Lessons about  our "inter-dependence."
  
  

• The Thankful Leper: Luke 17:11-19, 10 are healed, only 1 returns to thank Jesus.
  --Nice short animated video for home use.
  --Powerful "Amazing Grace" mashup version of that animated video.
  --Public "Thankful Leper" forum
  --Writing Team Thankful Leper Lessons
  
  What attitudes or behaviors might Jesus want to heal people from today instead of leprosy? 

• Seven Signs You are Not Teaching About Stewardship - a provocative list.

• The Sand, Pebbles, and Rocks visual demonstration of ordering your priorities in a godly way. Easy to do at home, in class, or on Zoom.

Mark 12:41-44, The Widow's Mite, Offering

The story of the Widow's mite told by Jesus is one of the terrific presentations found in the SunScool Bible App for Kids.

Look for it in Level 4's selection of stories within the "Christian Life" part of the app's story menu:

• A8-4 : Giving to God
  Mark 12:41-44; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2; 2 Corinthians 8:1-9 & 9:1-15

Level 4 is for older kids, but you can use it (and skip what you want to) with younger children.

The App is free, ecumenical, and can be downloaded for use on tablets, smartphones, Windows, and Mac!    Get the download link and look up the story you need in our Outline of all 170+ stories in SunScool. That page also includes app helps.

A Video Discussion Starter about The Hand of Gratitude
...small ways to show it.

I started out wondering what this video was going to be about, helping little old ladies cross the street? But then it surprises you with a profound and simple idea -- how lending a hand is the easiest way to show gratitude, be gracious toward others. Watch it and I think you'll agree it's a powerful discussion starter (see some ideas below about that).

Discussion Starter Ideas:

1. What ways did the man use his hand to act in gracious ways?

2. How would you define 'grace' based on how the man acted after meeting the little old lady? Kindness? Helpfulness? 

3. How has God been "kind" to us? (gracious, grace upon grace, John 1:16)

4. In the video, what did it take for the man to become "gracious" (kind to others)?

5. At the end of the video, how did the man become someone who seeks to change others?

6. Let's list as many things we can simply do with ONE HAND to show small acts of grace toward others.

The video clip shows the man holding a door and grabbing a balloon, picking up trash, how about...

• Locating the hymn in worship for the person next to you?
• Waving hello to someone you sort of know next time you see them.
• Giving thumbs-up to a someone you see who's doing something nice for someone.
• Pick up something that someone drops, picking up trash.
• Putting your hands together to ask God for help with a problem in your life.
• Fist bumping someone who you see do a good deed.
• Giving someone a pat on the back.
• Using your hand to cover your mouth rather than say something you'll regret!

How do such simple acts of kindness show the kind of world God wants us to live in?

Gratitude Discussion Game

This is an old standby. You create a list of "questions to answer" about any subject, in this case, WHAT YOU ARE GRATEFUL FOR.  Then students take turns rolling the dice to determine what numbered item on the list they must answer. Put the more challenging questions next to the higher numbers. Give each student four or five rolls and keep track of their score. Easy and effective!

Here's a video of the game that someone posted on YouTube. Below the video is the closeup of their list which you would adapt to create your own for a Sunday School setting. I've also added some suggested "gratitude" questions.

Sunday School things you could put on the list:

• Name someone at our CHURCH you are grateful for.
• Name something about GOD that you are grateful for.
• Name something about YOURSELF that other people are grateful for.
• Name something nice or kind you recently did for someone that God is grateful for.

Questions for further reflection:

• What makes God happy? Micah 6:8 has an answer.
• What is the purpose of kindness and gratitude?  (Jesus wants God's Kingdom to appear on earth, and these acts and attitudes are ways in which it appears every day.)
• Should you be grateful for things you have when others don't have them? How should we handle that? (One of the things being grateful does is it makes us aware of the needs of others. If you're grateful for your safe home, it should make you more sensitive to the needs of others who don't have a safe home.)