Sunday School Games About Friendship (cont.)
3. Name Freeze
This game helps kids learn that God knows each one of them by name.
Scripture: Psalm 147:4
Supplies:
- Bible
- beanbags (1 per child) (If you don’t have beanbags, use resealable snack-size bags filled loosely with dried beans.)
- book with pictures of stars or galaxies (optional)
Names and Beanbags
Open your Bible and read aloud Psalm 147:4: “He counts the stars and calls them by name.”
Say: Think about a time when you’ve looked at the sky at night. Think about how many stars there are. If you live in a large city, children may not have had the experience of stargazing. So if you brought a picture of stars, show it to children now.
Say: Do you think you could count all the stars? Or memorize all their names even if you could count them? None of us can do that because there are more stars than we can see, even if we had the world’s most powerful telescope! Yet the writer of this psalm wanted people to know that God knows everything—including how many stars there are. And he knows the name of each one! That’s because God made them all.
Guess what! God knows your name, too! And he knows everything about you. Let’s play a game to help us learn each other’s names.
Give each child a beanbag. Instruct students to balance the beanbags on their heads without touching them as they move around the room. When a beanbag falls off, that child should stop moving and remain frozen in place. Kids “unfreeze” each other by calling the frozen person by name and placing the beanbag back on his or her head. (If they don’t know someone’s name, they can ask.)
Vary the game by giving directions such as moving around the room by walking fast, twirling, skipping, or hopping (a hard one!).
Discussion
After playing this game, have kids sit in groups of three. Discuss:
- How do you feel when someone calls you by your name? Why?
- Why is it important for us to know each other’s names?
- Name one or two people whose names you didn’t know before.
- How does it feel to know that God knows you by name?
Say: It feels good to know that God knows us by name. And it makes others feel good when we know their names, too.
These befriending games are from The Encyclopedia of Bible Games for Children’s Ministry. This article on Sunday school games about friendship originally appeared here.
