Homemade Bread and Jam

day:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Footsteps of Service (Epaphroditus and the Shunemmite)
Memory Verse:	Philippians 2:4
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Elisha and the Shunnemite: Helping Others

Key Item: Homemade Bread

Serve cornbread or other obviously homemade bread and apple butter or homemade jam. Don't buy them at the store: the fact that these items are home-made is part of the lesson tie-in.

Snack Lesson:

[Take a bite of the bread.] Mmm. Did you know, this bread is homemade?
Someone made this bread by hand, just for us.

Has your family ever taken food to someone else, to another family maybe, when they needed help?
Maybe they were sick, or had some kind of other trouble, or you just wanted to help them?
We do that sometimes.

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a time when someone brought
food to the prophet Elisha to help him, and another time when the Apostle Paul was in trouble,
and someone from the church brought him food and other things to help him.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served fruit and ice cream
alongside the bread and jam. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Baby Shower Cookies

Thursday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Hannah's Prayer
Memory Verse:	from James 5:16
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Hannah Prays

Key Item: It's a Boy Baby-Shower Cookies

Make cookies like you would serve at a baby shower for a baby boy,
such as cutout cookies in some baby-related shape, with baby blue icing. If
possible, have It's a Boy! signs posted around the snack area.

Snack Lesson:

[Hold up a cookie.]
Who knows what kind of cookies these are? What kind of event would people have and serve cookies like this?
[Accept some answers.] Sometimes, we serve these kinds of cookies at a baby shower, when we celebrate a
baby being born. These ones are decorated blue, for a baby boy.

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a woman who wanted a baby very badly,
and when she prayed, God gave her one, a boy named Samuel.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served french fries and cheese slices,
alongside the cookies. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Gummy Snakes on Sticks

Wednesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Look and Live: The Bronze Snake and the Son of Man
Memory Verse:	John 3:14-15
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Snakes in the Desert: Trusting God

Key Item: Gummy Snakes on Sticks

Take gummy worms (but call them snakes), and place them on the ends of kebab skewers or large toothpicks.

Snack Lesson:

[Hold up a gummy snake by itself first, with no stick.]
What do snakes make you think of? Do you know anyone who is afraid of snakes?
Lots of people are. Why would people be afraid of snakes? (They bite.) What
happens, if a snake bites someone? Well, it depends on what kind of snake it
is, but some snakes are poisonous. You can get sick from a snake bite, or even die.

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a time when some people
did get bit by snakes, and they were poisonous snakes, and the people were dying.

[Hold up one of the skewers, with the snake at the top.]
What's this? A snake on a stick? Why would anyone put a snake on a stick?
Of course, it's not a real snake. This one is made of gummy candy.

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a time when somebody put a snake
up on a big stick, for an entire community of people to see. It wasn't a real snake
either, but it wasn't candy. (It was made of bronze, which is a kind of metal.)

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served hot dogs and carrot sticks
alongside the gummy snakes. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Kool-Aid: Instructions on the Packet

Tuesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Do What It Says (Ezra and Nehemiah and the Feast of Booths)
Memory Verse:	James 1:22
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Ezra Reads the Bible

Key Item: Kool-Aid

Serve Kool-Aid to drink with the snack.

Snack Lesson:

[Hold up a dry Kool-Aid packet, front side facing the kids.]
Have you ever made Kool-Aid to drink, or watched anybody make Kool-Aid? How do people know how to make it?
You know, it doesn't taste right if you don't do it right. If you don't put in the sugar, for example, it's very sour.

[Flip over the packet and show the back.]
Of course, the packet has instructions on it, right here, that tell you how to do it.
If you follow these instructions, your Kool-Aid always comes out right.

Did you know, the Bible has instructions in it too? Not for making Kool-Aid.
But for other things. In the Bible lesson today we're going to learn about
some people who read some of the instructions in the Bible and followed them.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served
Spaghetti, garlic bread, and pudding, in addition to the Kool-Aid.

Grape Clusters and Pretzel Rods

Monday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Two Obedient Men (Caleb and Joshua): We should trust and obey God.
Memory Verse:	1st John 2:5
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Caleb and Joshua Obey: We should trust and obey God.

Key Items:

Serve clusters of grapes and large pretzel rods.

Snack Lesson:

[Point to a cluster of grapes.] What are these? [Grapes.]
Have you ever seen grapes growing? They grow on a vine, in clusters, just
like this. Then people pick them.

What's the biggest cluster of grapes you've ever seen?
Have you ever seen one so big, you couldn't carry it?

[Take a cluster of grapes, and hang it over a pretzel rod. Hold up the rod by the two ends.]
Imagine if you had to hang the cluster over a pole so that two men could carry it. Like this.

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a time when some people picked a cluster of grapes so large, they had to do just that. That's a lot of grapes!

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served cookies alongside the grapes and pretzel rods.
We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Fishing for Christ Snacks, Day 3: Fish Sticks

Wednesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Raised from the Dead
Memory Verse:	1st John 4:10
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Feeding the Big Crowd

Key Item: Fish Sticks

Fish sticks are easy to prepare and (at least theoretically) made out of fish. We provided ketchup and tartar sauce for dipping.

Snack Lesson:

[Hold up a fish stick.] What is this that we're eating?

Can you think of any times in the Bible when anybody ate fish? Did Jesus ever eat fish?

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a time when Jesus at fish, not because he was hungry, but because he wanted his disciples to see him eat and know he was really there.

Additional Snack Items (optional):

To make the snack more substantial, we served applesauce and homemade cookies alongside the fish sticks. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Fishing for Christ Snack Lesson: Day Two: Whale Cookies

Tuesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	The Sign of Jonah: Jesus died to pay the penalty for our sin.
Memory Verse:	Romans 6:23
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Jonah: Obey God

Key Item: whale^[1] cookies

Serve cut-out cookies shaped like whales or fish.

Snack Lesson:

[Hold up a cookie.] What shape is this?

Can anyone think of an account from the Bible that involves a whale, or some other really big fish? One bigger than a person? Perhaps even a fish big enough to swallow someone?

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a man named Jonah, who was swallowed by a large fish and was inside it for three days and three nights.

Additional Snack Items (optional):

To make the snack more substantial, we served tuna salad sandwiches and carrot sticks alongside the cookies. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

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Footnotes:

1. [1]: Is a whale a fish?
   

   In Bible times, yes, the word that we translate fish could refer to pretty much any animal that swims in water. The notion that the word fish should be used only for the ones with gills (and that whales and dolphins are not fish but mammals because they breathe air from the surface) is a modern idea. By the time this modern classification scheme was invented, there were already a number of translations of the Bible into English, all of which had used the word fish in the traditional way^{[2][3][4][5][6]}.

   Most modern translators continue to use the word fish, mostly because English doesn't really have another common, well-known word for anything that swims in the water.

   We don't know for sure whether the fish described in the book of Jonah was a whale. There are several other kinds of large fish that it potentially might have been; but traditional Bible scholars generally consider a whale (probably a baleen whale) to be the most likely (unless it was a special one-of-a-kind fish directly created by God just for Jonah).

   For Bible School purposes, we just use the words fish and whale interchangeably, and we used whatever cookie cutters were handy: some of our cookies looked like (cartoon) whales and others looked more like some other kind of fish. This difference is not important. The word used in Jonah (Hebrew: דָּג) can refer to either a whale or some other kind of fish. (The word in Matthew, κη̑τος, is somewhat more specific: it refers to something monstrous that lives in the sea. This could include whales, very large fish, and various other real or imagined sea monsters.) We aren't told which specific kind of sea creature it was, because that doesn't matter. Whatever it was, it was large enough to open up its mouth and take in a man whole.

Fishing for Christ Snack Lesson: Day One: Chocolate Coins

Monday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	The Fish with the Coin: Jesus is God
Memory Verse:	Matthew 16:16
Preschool Bible Lesson:	The Coin in the Fish's Mouth

Key Item: Chocolate Coins

Chocolate coins can be purchased at most large grocery stores and from many other sources. We got enough to give each child a couple of coins with their snack.

Snack Lesson:

[Hold up a chocolate coin.] What's this? Well, I mean, it's chocolate obviously, but what's it made to look like?

Where do you usually find money? At the bank, maybe? In a piggy bank, or safe?

Have you ever been fishing? Did you ever catch a fish? When you catch a fish, does it usually have money?

In the Bible lesson today, we're going to learn about a time when a man named Peter caught a fish and found a coin in it's mouth. That may sound unusual, but it wasn't surprising for Peter, because the coin was right where Jesus told Peter the it would be.

Additional Snack Items (optional):

To make the snack more substantial, we served spaghetti and fresh fruit alongside the chocolate coins. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Prison Cupcakes

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Friday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Prayer Warrior
Memory Verse:	1st Thessalonians 5:16-18
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Peter in Prison

Key Item:

cupcakes, frosted white with dark stripes

Snack Lesson:

What do the decorations on the top of this cupcake remind you of? Stripes? Hmm... what if we imagine that the dark parts are solid, and the white parts are empty space? What would it be then? Bars?

Where would there be bars? On a gate, perhaps, to keep animals out? Maybe on a prison, to keep the prisoners in? Does that work? Do prison bars always keep the prisoners in jail?

Tonight's Bible lesson is about a man who was in prison, but an angel came and let him out.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served chips and sloppy joe alongside the cupcakes. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Mud Pudding

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Thursday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Good Soldier: Jeremiah and the Cistern (non-interactive version)
Memory Verse:	Romans 1:16
Preschool Bible Lesson:	The Blind Army

Key Item:

Dirt Pudding (e.g., this recipe will work fine, or this one)

Snack Lesson:

What does this pudding remind you of? Dirt? Mud? Would you find something like this maybe in the bottom of a pit, where there used to be water?

Our Bible lesson tonight is about a man named Jeremiah, who was thrown into a pit like that, because people didn't like what he was saying. But he was telling them what God told him to say.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served nachos and hot dogs alongside the pudding. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Shield Cookies

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Wednesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Armor of God
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 6:11
Preschool Bible Lesson:	David and Goliath

Key Item:

Shield cookies (cut-out cookies decorated to look like shields)

Snack Lesson:

What's this cookie shaped like? And what kind of person might use something that looks like this? What are shields used for anyway?

A shield protects a soldier, but a shield is just one piece of a soldier's armor. A real soldier has other pieces of armor besides just the shield: boots, a helmet, body armor, ...

Tonight's Bible lesson talks about what kinds of armor we can have to protect us in life.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served fruit and pizza alongside the cookies. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches: bread overtop, and bread underneath.

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Tuesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Obey Your Commander
Memory Verse:	1st John 5:3-4
Preschool Bible Lesson:	The Centurion's Servant

Key Item:

Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

Snack Lesson:

Did you notice that the cheese on these sandwiches has bread above it and also bread under it? It's kind of in layers, with a top, a middle, and a bottom. That's what makes it a sandwich.

Tonight your Bible teacher is going to tell you a story about a man who was like the cheese in this sandwich: he had other people who were above him (his bosses, like the bread on top), and people who were under him, like the bread on bottom – he had to tell them what to do.

Because he was in the middle, this man knew how authority works. He believed Jesus could make something happen just by saying it.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served Jell-O and carrot sticks alongside the sandwiches. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Twizzlers: The Red Rope

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Monday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Red Cord of Salvation
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 2:8-9
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Joshua and the Walls

Key Item:

Twizzlers

Snack Lesson:

Hey, have you ever noticed the way these Twizzlers are shaped? They're not just straight on the sides, like a pencil. Actually, they kind of look braided, almost like a rope.

But they're red. Have you ever seen a red rope?

Did you know there's a red rope in the Bible? There sure is. Rahab hung a rope from her window, on the wall of Jericho, to let the Israelite spies down to safety, and later she hung a red rope from her window so that God would save her family when the wall fell down.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served popcorn and mini-burgers alongside the Twizzlers. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Updated: Little Lamb Lessons, God's Sheep Snacks

The Little Lamb auxiliary lessons for preschool have been significantly improved and updated:

• Day 1: We All Sin
• Day 2: Thanking the Creator
• Day 3: Obey the Shepherd
• Day 4: The Shepherd Knows His Sheep
• Day 5: Jesus Wants to Be Your Shepherd

We've also enhanced and updated the God's Sheep snacks. All five days now have a scripted lesson tie-in:

• Day 1: Popcorn
• Day 2: Cross/Sheep Cookies
• Day 3: Donuts
• Day 4: Jell-O Jigglers
• Day 5: Salad

Snacks for God's Sheep, Improved: Day Five

Friday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Shepherded Sheep (Leading and Following)
Memory Verse:	Ephesians 2:10
Preschool Bible Lesson:	God Loves Us (The 99 and the 1)

Key Item: Salad

The salad should be made of stuff that both human children and sheep will willingly eat: lettuce, carrot, maybe cucumber, ...

Explain to the children that while sheep mostly eat grass, they can also eat other vegetables, like lettuce or carrots – whatever the shepherd finds for them. If we are God's sheep, we need to be fed too. What does it mean to feed God's sheep? That's what tonight's lesson is about.

Snack Lesson:

Real sheep mostly eat grass, but they can also eat salad (lettuce, carrots, etc.) – whatever the shepherd finds for them.

If we are God's sheep, we need to be fed too. That's what our Bible lesson tonight is about.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served macaroni and cheese and ice cream floats, alongside the salad. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Snacks for God's Sheep, Improved: Day Four

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Thursday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Sheep Security: The Good Shepherd
Memory Verse:	John 10:28
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Jesus Loves Children (Let the Children Come)

Key Item: Jello-O Jigglers

Serve thick, jiggly gelatin dessert (recipe available from Kraft) in the shape of shepherd crooks (like a candy-cane shape) and sheep. The shepherd's crook should remind the children that Jesus is the good shepherd who takes care of his sheep.

Snack Lesson:

What's our theme this week? [Hold up a shepherd's crook Jiggler.] What does this shape remind us of? What does that have to do with sheep? How might a shepherd use something like this?

In our Bible lesson we're going to learn about the Good Shepherd, who always takes care of his sheep.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served pizza and cupcakes, alongside the Jell-O. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Snacks for God's Sheep, Improved: Day Three

Wednesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Stolen Sheep (Saul and the Spoils) (See also: skit.)
Memory Verse:	1st Samuel 15:22
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Baa, baa, baa! (Saul and the Sheep)

Key Item: Donuts

Serve traditional O-shaped donuts. Tell the children that the O stands for Obey, because we should obey God's instruction. Today's Bible lesson is about a time when King Saul didn't obey – and that didn't turn out so well for him.

Snack Lesson:

Donuts are shaped like an O. Do you know any words that start with O?

I know an important word that starts with O, that has to do with our Bible lesson tonight. The O stands for Obey. We are supposed to obey God.

Tonight we're going to learn about a King named Saul who didn't obey God, and we'll find out how that worked out for him.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served hot dogs and fruit alongside the donuts. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Snacks for God's Sheep, Improved: Day Two

Tuesday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Lamb of God (Isaac and the Ram)
Memory Verse:	Romans 4:25
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Praising God (David the Shepherd)

Key Item: Cutout Cookies

Serve homemade cutout cookies in the shape of crosses (frosted red or brown) and sheep (frosted white, optionally with black detail, e.g. hooves and an eye). Explain that today's Bible lesson is about a time when a sheep took Isaac's place. Also, Jesus died on a cross to take our place.

Snack Lesson:

[Hold up a cross cookie.] What shape is this cookie? What does this shape remind you of? That's right, Jesus died on a cross, to take our place.

[Hold up a sheep cookie.] What about this other cookie? What's this shape? Right, a sheep. Did you know that a sheep once took Isaac's place, just like Jesus took our place? We're going to learn about that in our Bible lesson tonight.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served tacos and chips alongside the cookies. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.

Snacks for God's Sheep, Improved: Day One

Monday:	Snack
Elementary Bible Lesson:	Going Astray (Moses and the Rock)
Memory Verse:	Isaiah 53:6
Preschool Bible Lesson:	Obey God (Moses and the Rock)

Key Item: Popcorn

Air-pop the popcorn in full view of the kids and serve it warm, if possible. Butter, if desired, can be melted in a saucepan on the stove.

Popcorn is white and fluffy, like sheep, and when air-popped, sometimes a piece of popcorn comes flying out of the popper and flies across the room, like a lost sheep. Tell the children that, like sheep, we wander astray sometimes. Today's Bible lesson is about that.

Snack Lesson:

Hey, look at that popcorn as it comes flying out of the popper. Sometimes it lands in the bowl. Sometimes it gets lost. Some of the pieces of popcorn don't go where they're supposed to go.

Look at how white and fluffy it is. What else is white and fluffy and wanders off where it isn't supposed to go? Can you think of anything?

In our Bible lesson tonight we'll learn about how sheep sometimes wander off.

Additional Snack Items:

To make the snack more substantial, we served sandwiches (choice of ham and cheese or PB&J) and homemade chocolate chip cookies alongside the popcorn. We also provided Kool-Aid to drink.