Here are some ideas that you could do with your children at home, that link the children’s everyday experiences to the Bible. As you play or create, you can talk about what happened in the story.

The Bible passages for today are Matthew 4:18-22, Luke 5:1-11, and Mark 1:16-20.

You could watch this video of the story:

TEACHING POINT

Jesus invites us to know him.

PROGRAMME

Let’s Pretend

Find a cardboard boat or washing up bowl or washing basket and enjoy going fishing.

Game: Worm Fishing

Source

To play this game you fill a fishbowl with pretzels or goldfish crackers, and use a fishing rod to get one out and eat it. The bait is gummy worms that are nice and sticky. If you don’t have a real fishing rod, use a stick and some string. You could even add a reel if you wanted to. If you don’t have a fishbowl handy, any clear, large bowl will do the trick.

Use lukewarm water to wet down a gummy worm and then pat it dry so that it’s nice and sticky. Tie the worm to the end of the string on the fishing rod. Players have one minute to use the wishing rod to “hook” a pretzel/goldfish from the fishbowl by getting it to stick to the ooey-gooey gummy worm. No hands allowed. Then, once one is “caught,” it must be brought back to the player’s mouth and they must eat it before the timer runs out in order to win the game.

To make it more difficult, increase the distance to the fishbowl. If a pretzel/goldfish falls off the gummy worm it must be abandoned and another one “caught” on the gummy worm. If a player touches the string or gummy worm while a pretzel is attached, that pretzel won’t count. String may not be wound around the finger during an attempt.

The player(s) with the most pretzels at the end of the 60-seconds wins.

Craft

Make some colourful fish, out of paper plates, card or paper. Decorate your fish. Then as Jesus makes us fishers of men, go fishing. Put some paper clips on the end of the fish, find a magnet and catch your fish 😊 How many did you catch?

Prayer

Little ones could fill this with playdough as they pray…

Older ones could take this one step further and add the names of their friends and family who they are praying for to come to know Jesus.

Then ask Jesus to help you step out and be confident.

MESSAGE AND PRAYER TIME

Jesus invites us to know him.

Up to 3 years old (Fruitshoots)

Thank you Jesus that you had friends and that you want us to be your friend too. Thank you that you love us and help us to be a friend to others too.

From 3 years to Reception age (Acorns)

Thank you Jesus that you had friends and that you want us to be your friend too. Thank you that you love us and you want us to show other people how much you love them too. Help us to be a kind friend to others.

School years 1-6 (Hive)

A thought: Have you ever been fishing? What do you need to go fishing? Jesus has asked us to go fishing but to be fishers of men. What do you think we need to be fishers of men? What has Jesus already given us to help us?

Jesus never asks the world to go to church but he asks the church to go to the world. He led by example, he never waited for people to come to him. He went to the people and he asks us to do that too.

What can you do this week to be a fisher of men and to show Jesus’ love to others?

Pray!