The first thing we did was a "sin" bean bag toss. I didn't tell the children what they were doing had a meaning at first; we just took turns tossing a bean bag at a mark, giving a certain number of attempts per child, moving farther and farther back each time. If they missed we just let them finish their tosses. At the end, I explained the connection between "missing" (the mark) and sin.
Next, I had a clear jar with a lid. I talked about our hearts and how when we do something that is unloving or wrong, how our heart changes. I got ideas from the children, and with each idea we added a dark bit of fabric to the jar. Eventually it was full. I talked about how we could get rid of the darkness and sin, and explained about God's offer of forgiveness and we exchanged a white cross for all the darkness.
Then we told the story. I used some summary pages to keep myself to the point and not get into explaining, only telling. At this point, the preparatory activities were worth it, because it made more sense to the children. We moved into craft time.
I gave them a coloring sheet (not this one, but this one is good), and then this activity page pictured just above. (Note as of 2015: I cannot find either the coloring or activity page I used in any online search. They are copyrighted to Sadlier's Coming to Faith, which is a curriculum for purchase, but you may wish to make something similar for yourself.)
There was no tie-in for snack. :(
I was truly unimpressed with what is available online for this very important parable of Jesus. I will need to research further for better resources the next time I plan to go through the parables.
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