Opening Activity
An icebreaker or something to get people focused as you begin.
OPTION 1: THUMB WAR
Most people have played this simple hand game in the past. It fits this week’s
lesson, "Struggle by a Stream," very well.
Here are the instructions for playing Thumb War. Have your participants team up in groups of two. Have them curl the fingers of their right hand forward with their thumb pointing up, then hook their cupped hand around their partner’s. Both people’s thumbs should be free.
The partners then say together, "One, two three, four, I declare a thumb war." As they say each word, they alternate tapping their thumbs on the right and left sides of their cupped hands. Once the thumb war starts, the goal is for them to pin their thumb down on top of their partner’s before the other person can do it to them. Both partners must keep their fingers cupped the whole time.
The person who manages to pin down the other’s thumb is the winner. You can do a single elimination or make the winner the person who wins two out of three attempts.
When everyone is done, have the people who won against their partners then compete against each other. Continue eliminating people until you end up with a single champion for the day.
If you don’t know how to do a thumb war check out the video below.
OPTION 2: DON’T CLOSE ME IN
Instead of doing a physical activity like wrestling or a thumb war, you can also have your participants match wits with each other. There are many types of games that allow for this. The age-old Tic-Tac-Toe is one possibility, although by their teen years most participants will end it with a "cat’s game," with neither person winning. Another way to match wits is by having one participant face off with another on a page filled with dots. The two take turns drawing a straight line between any two dots on the page, with the object being to enclose as many complete boxes as possible. Whenever someone is able to draw four sides and form a box, they put their initials inside and take another turn. This can continue until the person has drawn a whole series of boxes. When the two have connected all the dots and the entire page is full of boxes, whoever has more the most initialed wins.
This activity can take a lot of time depending on how many dots you have at the start. We have a basic version and an advanced version with a lot more dots as well as a completed example below.
TRANSITION: As you consider our lesson, "Struggle by a Stream," today, think about what little face-offs or competitions you come across in your day-to-day lives, and compare them to what it would be like to be in a big, major showdown with life-or-death consequences. That level of intensity is what today’s lesson is about. The opening activity is kids’ stuff in comparison to the Bible story we’re going to look at today.
