Genesis 11:27-32 and 12:1-9
This lesson marks the beginning of the section on Abraham's life. We began with the summary pictures from the last section, then introduced Abram. We talked about God choosing him and how later God would change his name to Abraham. We gave a brief overview of his descendants, showing that he would have Isaac who would have Jacob who would give us the 12 tribes of Israel. After reading our Bible story, we found Waldo in our Binder Project (download here) and discussed the fact that God knows each of us personally even though there are so many people in the world. (The original link to the Waldo picture is here)
We chose to involve the children in an activity instead of a craft. Duck, Duck, Goose reinforces the concept of being chosen. For this game the children sit in a circle with enough space between them so they can easily get up and sit back down without knocking into each other. If you only have a handful of kids, sit them with plenty of space between them to make the circle larger. Choose a child to be the duck, or if noone volunteers an adult can be the duck to start. Duck then walks around the circle tapping each child gently on the head and saying "duck" each time, as if labeling each child as a duck. Eventually Duck taps a child on the head and says "goose," then runs as quickly as possible around the circle to reach Goose's seat before Goose can catch up and tag him/her. If Duck does make it to Goose's seat without being tagged by Goose, then Goose becomes the duck and the original duck becomes part of the circle. If Goose tags Duck before Duck can reach Goose's seat, then Goose returns to the circle and Duck must be "it" again.
To make the game more difficult for older children, replace the "duck" that is spoken each time with any other name except the child's actual name, and the name cannot be said more than once. Then instead of "goose" the child must same "Abram." For example, the person who is "it" will walk around the circle tapping children gently on the head while naming them "Steve," "Grant," "Isabel," "Frank," "Gertrude," (as long as those are not the children's actual names) and then finally the name "Abram." The child called "Abram" must realize they have been "called" and give chase.
