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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Armor of God- Draw Your Sword Game

I am gearing up for a new CCD year, and planning activities for this years' theme.  Last year's theme of "My Soul Magnifies the Lord" was lots of fun, but although Mary is all of our Mother, it definitely felt like some (most) of our decorations and activities were more girl friendly than boy friendly.  So, I may be over compensating a little in the opposite direction, but the theme this year is "Put on the Whole Armor of God" and our patron Saint is St. Michael the Archangel.   I am planning decorations and ways to incorporate the theme into our year long activities, but I am also working on a Boys' Retreat to go along with the same theme.  I'll be sharing some of the games and activities that we use for that event.

First up: Draw Your Sword.

Every now and then in one of my college Bible Studies, we would play a "lame" game called Draw Your Sword.  The idea was to improve memorization of where to find things in the Bible and speed in looking things up.  Someone in the group would call out a book, chapter, and verse, and the first to find it and start reading was the winner and would get to call out the next verse.  A little friendly competition made it entertaining.

The name "Draw Your Sword" comes from Hebrews 4:12- "For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two edged sword."  Knowing the Word of God is the best weapon we can arm ourselves with against the world.

To make the idea of familiarizing them with the Bible and looking up references a little more fun, I made this game.
Starting with an empty small coffee can, I colored and attached the Draw Your Sword printable, (link below).
Then buy different colors of plastic knives (swords) and write a Book, Chapter, and Verse on the end of the knife with a Sharpie.  (Note- if you are working with really little kids, or kids prone to violence :) I don't recommend plastic knives- those suckers can still hurt.  I have a knife-free option below. I went ahead and used knives because I knew that my older students could handle it.)
There is a list below of verses, at least one from each book of the Bible, and a lot of them connect to the theme of the Armor of God.

Here is the finished jar.  Now, arm each kid with a Bible, have one draw out a sword, and race to see who can find it first.  The first one to read the verse gets to pull the next sword.  I made plenty of swords so they could even be split into cups for use with smaller groups.


Click here for a printable label to wrap around a jar or container:
Click here for a two page printable with Scripture verses from the entire Bible if you would rather use paper instead of plastic knives. You could cut these out and put them in a jar or envelope for the same kind of game.

19 comments:

  1. Love this idea to help them get used to navigating around the Bible.

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  2. Katie, I love your blog, and I love this Sword Drill game idea. We'll use this in our homeschool and at Awana. Thank you! When I was a kid, CCD was never like this, thank you for your ideas. Have a blessed day.

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    1. Glad you can use it! God Bless your ministry :)

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  3. Thanks for the idea. I think my middle schoolers are going to love it.

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  4. how do you think this would work as a sunday school craft? do a lesson on armor of God and do this as a craft?

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    1. Hi! I have used this as an activity in two main ways. First, it was a game at a boys' retreat. I had already created it, and we had it as an activity station for a small group of boys to participate in (directions as listed above in the post). I also have just had this in a classroom and used it as an early finisher activity where groups of two or more students can play. It also can be used as an individual student for practice in looking up Scripture references. If you wanted to make the paper version (printable above) each student could create their own, take it home, and use it for practice looking up references, as a game, or for Scripture memorization.

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  5. I love this idea! Thank you so much!

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  6. What bible version is being used?

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    1. Because the cards only have Scripture references, you can use any Bible version with this game. If there are some Book names that are unfamiliar to you, your Bible might not have the Deuterocanonical books(sometimes called Apocrypha in Protestant Bibles).

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  7. God bless you for this inspirational game.

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  8. Thank you for this! I am creating one for the new children's ministry starting tonight!!! Awesome!!!

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  9. popsicle /paddlepop sticks would be a great option for younger children instead of plastic knives.

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  10. I was reading your post about Draw Your Swords Bible game. You mentioned that the game would help familiarize children with the Bible. The best way to familiarize them and yourself with the Word of God is to use a King Jame Bible. I know it is said to be "archaic" but it is the best and the only version that has God's blessings on it.

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  11. Love this game. Play it at my church with a group called 2050 AD. The children are mostly from grades 6 through 9th. They enjoy the competition. I love the spin you have with them giving the next Scripture when they win.

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  12. This is awesome!

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