Love Is... Shepherd Guides. Love Is

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1 Shepherd Guides Love Is... Love Is

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3 SHEPHERD GUIDE Love Is... (1 Corinthians 13) Lower Elementary Welcome to the story of Love Is...! As the caring leader of your small group of kids, you are an important part of their Spark experience. You also support the other Rotation leaders by being a consistent and friendly presence with your group. Use these Small Group Builders, Conversation Sparks, and Transition Tips to generate conversation and build relationships with your kids. Have fun as you grow in faith together! Small Group Builders Try these tips to build relationships, trust, and friendship with your small group of kids when you have a few minutes at the beginning of Sunday school or between activities. Baby Talk Have a discussion about babies using only baby talk. See if you can figure out what each person is saying. (1 Corinthians 13:11) Too Much Noise Gongs and cymbals make a lot of noise. Start a group list of all the really noisy things you can name. How many can you name? (1 Corinthians 13:1) Mirror, Mirror Divide the group into pairs of partners one to be the player and the other to be the mirror. The player will try to communicate something without talking. The mirror must do exactly what his or her partner is doing. (1 Corinthians 13:12) Conversation Sparks Spark some faith-filled conversation during time you wait for activities to start or between activities. Use these questions with the kids in your group whenever you have a minute or two. What do you hope for? How do you feel when someone tells (or doesn t tell) the truth? Do you know what your first words were? How many loving things can we name together? What s important to you? Why doesn t love ever end? Love Is

4 Transition Tips As your group moves from one place to another, keep things fun and story-focused! Try these tips as you transition. Rejoice in the Truth Love is happy with the truth. As you move along, rejoice with your words and with your body. Be sure everyone you pass knows how happy you are. Know-it-all If we don t know about love, we have nothing. Do these motions to illustrate this statement as you move along: tap your head twice and shake your head no, and tap your heart twice and nod your head yes. The movements show that if we know it all but have no love, we have nothing. Moving Mountains If you have faith to move mountains but not love, you have nothing. Stretch as tall as a mountain. Reach to the sky. Move your mountain with faith, but know that you still need love. Give It Away Even if you give all your things away, if you still don t have love, you have nothing. Pretend to throw away all your stuff while you are passing to the next location. 146 Shepherd Guides

5 SHEPHERD GUIDE Love Is... (1 Corinthians 13) Upper Elementary Welcome to the story of Love Is...! As the caring leader of your small group of kids, you are an important part of their Spark experience. You also support the other Rotation leaders by being a consistent and friendly presence with your group. Use these Small Group Builders, Conversation Sparks, and Transition Tips to generate conversation and build relationships with your kids. Have fun as you grow in faith together! Small Group Builders Try these tips to build relationships, trust, and friendship with your small group of kids when you have a few minutes at the beginning of Sunday school or between activities. Better than You Love is not boastful. Boasting means thinking we are better than everyone else. Practice boasting to see how ridiculous it can be. Sit in a circle. One person starts by saying, I can do. Now go around the circle as each kid says one thing he or she can do better. For instance, I can hit a single, I can hit a double, I can hit a homerun, and so on. When you are all finished, say together, Love is not boastful. (1 Corinthians 13:4) Part and Whole When the complete comes, the partial will end. The complete is love. Divide the group into partners. One pair in each group says something complete, such as, an apple pie. The other person says something that is only part of the whole such as, a slice of apple. Love is complete, not partial. (1 Corinthians 13:10) Temper Tantrum Sometimes we insist on our own way. Share times you have insisted that you get to do what you want. How have those times worked out? Do temper tantrums work? Why or why not? (1 Corinthians 13:5) Conversation Sparks Spark some faith-filled conversation during time you wait for activities to start or between activities. Use these questions with the kids in your group whenever you have a minute or two. How are kids rude? How about grown-ups? How does God help us love others? When have you had to be patient? What have you hoped for that you received?... didn t receive? What can you name that never ends? When is it hard to tell the truth? Love Is

6 Transition Tips As your group moves from one place to another, keep things fun and story-focused! Try these tips as you transition. Love Moves Make your group into a heart shape with your bodies. Walk together to the next place keeping your bodies in the shape of a heart. Love is moving. Marching Noises Pretend your group is a marching band. What instrument will you play? Make the sound of the instrument and march as you relocate. Love Is Kind Think of ways that love is kind. Open doors for others, be polite, and show that you are kind. As you move to the next activity, be kind to all you meet. Face-to-Face Make two lines facing each other. Walk sideways, keeping the two lines face-to-face. When you have love, you can truly see the faces of others. 148 Shepherd Guides

7 SHEPHERD GUIDE Love Is... (1 Corinthians 13) All Kids Welcome to the story of Love Is...! As the caring leader of your small group of kids, you are an important part of their Spark experience. You also support the other Rotation leaders by being a consistent and friendly presence with your group. Use these Small Group Builders, Conversation Sparks, and Transition Tips to generate conversation and build relationships with your kids. Have fun as you grow in faith together! Small Group Builders Try these tips to build relationships, trust, and friendship with your small group of kids when you have a few minutes at the beginning of Sunday school or between activities. Body Band Noisy gongs and cymbals do not give you love. Make a body band to remind you that love is more than noise. Clap your hands, tap your foot, slap your thigh, or snap your fingers. Everyone should make a different sound in your Body Band. (1 Corinthians 13:1) Love Bears Love bears all things. As a group, think of all the things others ignore because they love you. (1 Corinthians 13:7) Faith, Hope, Love Scripture tells us that love is the greatest. But what about faith and hope? Divide into three groups. Each group will be identified as faith, hope, or love. Pass a ball, a beanbag, or anything else from one group to the next. When kids catch the item, they yell the name of their group. (1 Corinthians 13:13) Conversation Sparks Spark some faith-filled conversation during time you wait for activities to start or between activities. Use these questions with the kids in your group whenever you have a minute or two. What do you have that would be hard to give away? Can you think of something you only understand part of? Name all the things that love is. What is the kindest thing you can think of? How can you tell someone loves you? Why is it important to tell the truth? Love Is

8 Transition Tips As your group moves from one place to another, keep things fun and story-focused! Try these tips as you transition. Crawl to It Begin your trip by walking on your haunches. Then the leader yells, grow, and you can walk. When the leader yells, grow again, you can skip or jump or hop to your destination. L-O-V-E Spell love together as you hop to the next activity. Remember that love never ends. Temper, Temper Love does not insist on it own way. Pantomime a temper tantrum (stomp your feet, silently cry, pound your hands) as you move. Remember that a mime makes no sound. Passing Love On God loves us so we can love everyone else. Pass love to everyone you meet by drawing pretend hearts on their palms. If you don t meet anyone, pass the heart on the palms of the kids in your group, going from the front of the line to the back. Keep passing on love. 150 Shepherd Guide