Globe-trotting Games
Playing is what this age group does best! While they’re playing, they’re learning. These games are an important part of the teaching process because they help to cement the lessons into the kids’ minds in a fun way. 
Consider having an outdoor play time if you have a good space for it. It’s nice to break up the day and have a new location to explore. The outdoor location should be enclosed so no one wanders off. If you don’t have a safe area, use tarped hay bales or snow fencing to create one. Ask church families to bring in plastic slides, big wheel riding toys, and other age-appropriate outdoor equipment. Make sure they’re labeled so they can easily be returned after VBS. 
You may also want to consider having wading pools with a small amount of water for outdoor playtime. (Supervise carefully.) Make sure parents are notified ahead of time to bring swim floats, a swimsuit, a towel, and extra clothes for their child. Ask if it’s okay to put sunscreen on their child, and apply it at least 10 minutes before going outside. If possible, place the pools in a shady area.
For game time, use the following suggestions or other games from the game guide. Any of these ideas may be repeated throughout the week as time allows. 
Thematic Game Ideas
Day 1
Slither, Slither
Before class, set up simple obstacles in the play area, such as cones, pool noodles on the ground, and a stack of large boxes. During game time, share the teaching tie-in first, then play the game by forming a line with the whole group holding hands or all holding onto a jump rope. This connected group acts as the “snake.” Have the leader be the head. Try to stay connected (holding hands) as the “snake” wiggles around the various obstacles.
Teaching Tie-In 
Bo the anaconda snake is our animal pal today. God made the anaconda the biggest snake in the world. It lives on land and in water. An anaconda can stretch out very long or curl up. We’re going to play a game to pretend we’re a big anaconda like Bo.
Kick It!
Before class, gather some additional obstacles (besides the Slither, Slither ones) and some balls that are soft to kick. Children should be able to kick the balls over, under, around, and through the obstacles. Possibilities for obstacles include a net (or nets) and a play pop-up tunnel. Share the teaching tie-in first, then play the game by giving the kids time to kick the balls over, under, around, and through the obstacles. Take time to show them any skills you may know.
Teaching Tie-In 
Today we’re going to a special place in the world called South America. Can you say “South America”? Pause. In South America, kids like to play soccer. Have you ever played soccer? Take responses. Soccer is called “fútbol” in South America. Isn’t it fun to think that children in South America like to play the same game we’re playing? God made them and loves them, and God made us and loves us, too!
Day 2
Stop and Go
Before class, find a picture of a camel or a stuffed animal camel. Share the teaching tie-in first, then have everyone line up at the start line to play.
Round 1: Every time you say “Go,” hold up the camel. Everyone should move around on “Go.” When you say “Stop,” put the camel down. Everyone should freeze and crouch down like a camel that has stopped.
Round 2: Continue as before, except now a leader is “It” and tries to tag any child who is stopping when he should be going, or vice versa. Later, you can see if any children want to be “It.” If tagged, the tagged child becomes the new “It.”
Teaching Tie-In 
Today’s animal pal is Jamal the camel. Camels live in Asia, the place we’re visiting today. Asia is where the tower of Babel was built. When the people 
moved away from the tower because they had not obeyed God, they may have ridden on camels like Jamal to move to new homes far away. Let’s pretend we’re moving as we play Stop and Go.
Build a Tower
Before class, collect small blocks, boxes, or other safe materials to use for building towers. The kids will work together as a group to build the highest tower they can. If the class is large, divide into two or more smaller building teams. Collect pictures of tall towers and skyscrapers around the world today. Share the teaching tie-in first, then work together to build the tall towers.
Teaching Tie-In 
Let’s stand and stretch as tall as we can. Do so. Wow, look how high you stretched! 
There are towers and buildings in our world today that stretch very high into the sky. Look at these pictures. Show the pictures. But the Bible tells us of a time when some people built a tower that they used for bad purposes. A long time ago, the people on earth lived near each other. One day, they decided to build a city and a tall tower. In fact, they wanted to build the tower so high it would reach up to heaven. Do you think they could make a tower that tall? Take answers. I don’t either. But they were going to try, even though God told them to spread out all over the earth. Sadly, they stayed together and didn’t listen to God. Is it a good thing to listen to God? Take answers. Yes! We should always want to listen to God and obey him. One way we can obey God is to be kind to each other. 
Let’s be kind to each other and work together as we build towers. 
Day 3
Dashing Doggies
Before class, collect a variety of stuffed animal dogs. These represent the Pup Patrol. The kids will pretend they’re dog trainers. Set up an obstacle course with items to represent stations the trainers go through with the dogs. Possibilities include slides to go down, toy hoops or tunnels to go through, something to crawl under, a tricycle to ride on, objects to stack, or a 2x4 board to walk across. 
Share the teaching tie-in first, then begin. The stuffed dog and its child trainer will attempt to go through each obstacle together.  
Teaching Tie-In 
How many of you have a pet dog? Have them share pet names and their breeds of dogs. In Africa today, our animals are the Pup Patrol! They remind us that dogs can look a bit different, but they’re still dogs, and they’re each special. People can look a bit different too, but we’re still people, and each one of us is a special creation made by God. 
Let’s have fun playing with the Pup Patrol now as we take them through a race. When you go through a tunnel, your dog will go through the tunnel, too. When you walk across a board, you’ll carry your dog with you. Here we go! 
Four Corners
No pre-prep is needed. Before playing, share the teaching tie-in, then play the game. To do so, have a leader count to 10 slowly while his eyes are closed. As the leader counts, the kids go to one of the four corners of the room. The leader points to one of the corners, and the kids who are standing in that corner need to say, “Jesus loves the children in Africa!” to stay in. Continue playing this way, just changing what the kids say each time, such as, “Jesus loves the children in South America!” or “Jesus loves the children in Asia!” End with “Jesus loves all the children of the world!”
Teaching Tie-In 
Have you ever had to move? Take responses. When the people moved away from the tower of Babel, they went all over the world to live, and people have lived all over the world ever since. People live in every part (or “corner”) of the world, and they all need to know that Jesus loves them! Let’s pretend to go to the four corners of the earth and tell others about Jesus’ love. 
Day 4
Swan Call
Before class, get a parachute or a sheet to use as a parachute. If time, print a picture of a Polish mute swan and a trumpeter swan. 
Share the teaching tie-in first, then play the game.
Teaching Tie-In 
Today’s special animal pals are Agape and Phileo the mute swans. Mute swans are all white with an orange beak. Their necks curve and can make a heart when two are together. Hearts remind me of love. Can you think of someone who loves you? Take responses, and remind them that God loves them the most. 
Mute swans are quieter than other swans around the world, like trumpeter swans. Trumpeter swans are very loud. Let’s say “Hello!” very loudly, like a trumpeter swan. Do so. Now let’s say it quietly, like a mute swan. Do so. 

Our game today uses a parachute. We’ll all hold on to the parachute and shake it up and down. Then the leader will say “Mute” or “Trumpeter.” If you hear “Mute,” tiptoe quietly under the parachute to the opposite side. If you hear “Trumpeter,” run under the parachute, making as much noise as you can. 
Color Cross  
Before class, copy crosses on different brightly colored card stock so there is a set of yellow crosses, a set of blue crosses, etc. (enough for at least one set of crosses per child). Cut them out and hide them around the playing area.
Share the teaching tie-in first, then send the kids out to each find one yellow cross. After that, find the blue crosses. Continue on, asking them to find different colored crosses.
Teaching Tie-In 
Today, we’re going to be looking for some crosses. Do you know what a cross looks like? Take responses. What does a cross have to do with Jesus? Take responses, and explain about Jesus’ life, death, burial, and resurrection. On this first round, each person needs to find just one cross and it needs to be yellow. Hold up a sample yellow cross for everybody to see. Ready? On your mark, get set, go! 
Day 5
Roadrunner Race
There’s no pre-prep needed for this game. Share the teaching tie-in first, then play the game, using the bulleted ideas or coming up with your own ideas to fit your situation.
Teaching Tie-In 
Our animal pal today is Racer the roadrunner. Roadrunners love to run around fast! Do you think God wants us to run around and tell others about Jesus? Take responses. Let’s play a game where we run here and there and tell people about Jesus. I’ll give directions, and you follow! Here we go! 
•Run to _____ (a leader’s name) and tell her Jesus loves her!
•Find people wearing red and tell them Jesus loves them!
•Find people with tennis shoes on and tell them Jesus loves them!
•Find people with brown hair and tell them Jesus loves them!
•Find people with blue eyes and tell them Jesus loves them!
•Find people wearing shorts and tell them Jesus loves them!
Sombrero Hat Game
Before class, collect a sombrero, small objects, and Latin American music to play. Place the small objects on the brim of the sombrero. (You may need to prop up the sombrero to keep it from tilting.) Children stand in a big circle around the hat about 3–5 feet away. Share the teaching tie-in first, then play the game.
Teaching Tie-In 
Today’s game is a game that many children who live in Mexico like to play. Do you see this large hat in the middle of our circle? It’s a Mexican hat called a sombrero. On the brim of the sombrero are lots of objects and toys. 
Round 1: First, I will call somebody’s name and the name of an object. If I call your name, run in and grab the object, then run back to the circle. Once everyone has had a turn, go to Round 2. 
Round 2: Now I’m going to call two kids to run in and grab two different objects. For example, you might say, “Kyle—apple. Rachel—ball.” 
Round 3: This last time, I’ll call two names, but only say one object. Whoever gets the object should run back to the outside of the circle to win that round.

World-class Crafts
Simple. Simple. Simple. Young children need simple crafts that are fun to touch and explore. More pre-prep needs to take place so the children are left with decorating, attaching stickers, and gluing. This hands-on fun time helps kids really connect with what they’re learning.
As with all other items used with the toddlers and young preschoolers, watch carefully that items are not choking hazards and that all items are nontoxic. Use chunky crayons. Remember to put names on all crafts as children work on them. 
Plan two craft times a day, but be prepared to skip one or both if the children need more rest time. Some of the crafts follow the “big kids” craft time but are simplified for this level. Some are designed only for the little ones, such as Session 2 ideas below that are about the animal pals. Toddlers will love these animal pal crafts!
Decide who will be in charge of preparing the craft materials (craft leaders, toddler teachers, or someone else). Whatever ideas you choose, have fun with them, and use them to reinforce the big themes of the week.
Thematic Craft Ideas
Day 1
Session 1—Traveler’s Suitcase
Gather the following supplies for each child: a file folder (colorful ones are fun!), travel stickers, and glue stick or tape. You also need colorful card stock (for the suitcase handles and straps) and washable markers. Optionally, you may want magazines and scissors. (See below.)
Ahead of time, cut a handle for each file folder from the card stock, along with two card stock straps to place vertically on the suitcase. Attach them. If you are going to use items from the magazines for the toddlers to glue into their suitcases, cut them out (food, clothes, shoes, etc.—items you would take on a trip). 
During class, toddlers color and sticker their “suitcases.” 
Teaching Tie-In 
What would you pack in your suitcase for a trip? Take responses. We’ve got God’s big, wonderful world to explore at VBS this week, filled with a world of special people! 
Session 2—Sneaky Serpent
Gather the following supplies for each child: one large white paper plate, crayons or markers, two paper snake eyes or wiggle eyes, and a glue stick or glue dots.
Ahead of time, cut straight through the plate through the outer rim and continue cutting as you follow the inside edge of the rim all the way around the plate until the rim is cut from the plate in one long piece. Cut one end of the rim in the general shape of a snake’s head. Cut the other end to a point for the snake’s tail. 
During class, the toddlers color the snake and add either paper or wiggle eyes. 
Teaching Tie-In 
Look at our sneaky snake. Do you remember what our snake animal pal’s name is? Take responses. Yes, it’s Bo! Bo reminds us of that sneaky serpent who tempted Adam and Eve to sin in the garden of Eden. Do you remember what Adam and Eve did? Take responses. Do you know what sin is? Take responses. 
Day 2
Session 1—Tall Tower
Gather the following supplies for each child: a Tall Tower sheet (see Digital Resources for the pattern and print on light blue card stock), brown strips (details to follow), a strip of sand paper, two cotton balls, a glue stick, and (optional) an envelope. For the brown strips, use either brown construction paper or brown fun foam (preferred). Each child needs five brown pieces that are the same graduated lengths as the steps on the Tall Tower sheet. 
Ahead of time, cut the brown strips, along with the sand paper strips. 

Check Pinterest.com/AnswersVBS for colorful photos of the toddler crafts!
During class, toddlers glue on the sand paper base at the bottom of the page and the cotton ball “clouds” at the top of the page. They can then either glue on the brown strips in the right spots, or just keep it like a puzzle to play with over and over. If doing that, provide envelopes to put the five brown strips in and attach to the back of the light blue card stock sheet.
Teaching Tie-In 
Today, we talked about (will talk about) a tall tower that was built long ago. Does anybody know what we call that tower? Take responses. Yes, the tower of Babel. Does anybody know what happened there? Take responses, and share a brief overview of it. 
Session 2—Camel-oculars
Gather the following for each child: one paper towel tube, 30-in. piece of colored yarn, two paper clips, two-sided camel pattern (Digital Resources), two 7-mm wiggle eyes and (optional) camel stickers. You also need scissors, crayons, markers, glue sticks, craft glue, colored masking tape, and a 1/4-in. hole punch. 
Ahead of time, cut the paper towel tubes in half, cut the yarn into 30-in. pieces, and prepare the camel pattern by photocopying it onto white card stock, then cutting it out, making sure to NOT cut along the base line that would separate the two pieces that mirror each other. Also, decorate the two ends of each tube piece with colored masking tape and fasten the two tubes together temporarily with a paper clip at each end. 
During class, kids color the camel pattern and glue on the wiggle eyes. If you have camel stickers, they put those on the paper towel tubes. Have them glue stick the inside of the camel and fold the sides together. (Or leaders may want to do the folding.) Leaders can attach the camel by squeezing a bead of craft glue into the channel between the tube pieces and then pressing the camel into place. Add a strap by punching a hole on each side about 1/2 an inch from the end of the camel-oculars and tying on a piece of yarn. 
Teaching Tie-In 
Hey, what animal does that look like on your binoculars? Take responses. Yes, a camel, like Jamal our animal pal. Jamal is an Arabian camel who lives in the area near where the tower of Babel was built. The tower of Babel was a real place, and what happened there made a huge difference for all of us. Now we speak different languages and live in different places and even look somewhat different, all because of what happened at the tower of Babel!   
Day 3
Session 1—Kids Around the World Puppets
Gather the following supplies for each child: a copy of the Kids Around the World pattern (Digital Resources), crayons in various shades of brown, plus other colors as well, one paper towel tube, and tape (or glue sticks, or glue dots). You’ll also need a paper cutter for ahead of time prep. 
Ahead of time, photocopy and cut out the patterns. Using an office paper cutter, cut paper towel tubes into 3/4-inch sections, five per child.  
During class, kids color their people to have different skin shades and looks, then attach them to the cut-down paper towel tubes with tape or other adhesive.
Teaching Tie-In 
Point to your lightest paper person. Do so. Point to your darkest paper person. Do so. Isn’t it fun how God made every person have his or her own special look? I love that! Do you have any friends who have a different skin shade than you or who live in another country? Take responses. We have this whole big wide world of people to love and enjoy!
Session 2—Pup Mask
Gather the following for each child: a white paper plate, a glue stick, crayons or washable markers, a large craft stick, tape, and a Pup Mask Pattern (Digital Resources). 
Ahead of time, photocopy and cut out the Pup Mask Pattern. Cut out the coordinating spots on the paper plates where the eye holes should be. 
During class, have the kids line up the eye holes in the pattern with the eye holes in the plate. Glue the pattern to the plate and color. When completed, tape the large craft stick to the back.
Teaching Tie-In 
Look at these cool masks! They remind me of our Pup Patrol! What kind of animals are pups? Take responses. Right, they’re dogs! There are many different types of dogs and they may look different from each other, but they’re still dogs. People may look a little different from each other, like having different shades of skin color, but they’re still people. Each person is a special masterpiece made by God in his image. 
Day 4
Session 1—Mosaic Cross
For this craft, see the World-class Science and Crafts Guide and follow the directions for the Pre-Primary version of the Day 4 main craft.
Teaching Tie-In 
Today, you’re making a cross. Does anybody know anything about what happened on a cross? Take responses. Share about Jesus and why he died on the cross.  
Session 2—Swimming Swan
Gather the following: blue card stock or construction paper (one piece per child), white washable paint, one or more paper plates to put the paint on, black and orange permanent markers, one heart sticker or fun foam heart per child, one cotton swab per child, and wet wipes for cleanup. 
Ahead of time, pour some paint onto the plate. 
During class, each child will dip his hand into the paint and then press his hand down on the blue paper to make the body of the first swan. It helps to orient the paper vertically so the child doesn’t have to bend his hand. Repeat with the other hand to make another swan. Wipe their hands with a wet wipe to clean. 
Using a cotton swab, add a little white paint for the necks of the swans. They may want to daub a couple white clouds in the sky as well. After the paint has dried, the kids can use the markers to add a black eye and an orange beak to each swan. Put the heart sticker near the swans.
Teaching Tie-In 
Look at our swans here. Does anyone remember their names? Take responses. Their names are Agape and Phileo, which means “love” in another language. What shape in our picture has something to do with love? Take responses. God loved us so much he sent his Son to save us. 
Day 5
Session 1—Heart Headband
Gather the following supplies for each child: a page of eight hearts (photocopy and cut out ahead of time—check Digital Resources), a corrugated cardboard bulletin board border strip approximately 18 inches long, four pipe cleaners, and washable markers. You will also need tape. 
Ahead of time, cut out the eight hearts and cut the four pipe cleaners in half. Cut the bulletin border strip into 18-inch pieces.
During class, the toddlers color the hearts and tape them on the pipe cleaners (with help). Stick the pipe cleaners in the corrugated cardboard border strip. Leaders fit the headbands to their heads and tape. 
Teaching Tie-In 
Look at our cute heart headbands!  What do hearts remind you of? Take responses. God loves us so much, and we ought to love others, too. How can we show others we love them? Take responses. 
Session 2—Runnin’ “Tail” (Run and Tell)
Gather the following supplies: light brown sentence strips or bulletin border, one piece per child that will fit around the child’s waist, crayons, tape or glue dots for each child, and the brown tail feathers Pattern (Digital Resources).
Ahead of time, photocopy the brown tail feathers pattern and cut out one set of feathers per child. 
During class, have the kids tape or glue on the feathers and color both the sentence strip and feathers as desired.  
Teaching Tie-In 
Does anybody remember the name of our animal pal today? Take responses. Yes, it’s Racer. Racer is a kind of bird called a roadrunner because he runs all over the place. God wants us to run around and tell people about Jesus and his love!

Runway Café Snacks
Yum! Yum! Snack time is always a hit, no matter what the age. 
With this age group, it is especially important to check with parents about allergies, as little ones will not always be able to communicate such things. Also, make sure all food is safe and in bite-sized pieces.
If you are running a morning VBS, consider providing a breakfast snack shortly after arrival (e.g., mini-muffins, half a banana, or toasted oat cereal).
For the main snack, arrange with the Snack Coordinator to bring the snack in at the appropriate time and for the appropriate numbers. Serve smaller portions of what the “big kids” are having, or serve one of the optional ideas listed below.
Keep this time calm and quiet. Pray before eating. As they eat, listen to a story or watch a quiet Christian video. Children may bring blankets or rest mats for a short rest time. They have been going all day, so this is a good time to rest. Remind the children that Jesus made them and loves them.
Thematic Snack Ideas
Day 1
Circles and Salsa (Tortilla chips)
See Day 1 in the snack guide for directions, but use fewer chips and skip the salsa.
Teaching Tie-In
Today, we’re pretending to travel far away to a place called South America. God loves the people who live in South America, and he loves you, too! 
Our snack is a food that’s eaten a lot in South America. Let’s thank God for our tortilla chips and for all the wonderful things he’s created for us to eat.
Rain Forest Chocolate Balls
Put Cocoa Puffs® into individual snack baggies or jungle-themed cups. You will need approximately 1/2 c. per child.
Teaching Tie-In: 
When God made the earth, it was like a beautiful rain forest filled with yummy things for Adam and Eve to eat, like chocolate! God made the world good because God is good! 
Let’s thank God for our yummy chocolate snack, and then let’s eat!
Day 2
Pita Chips and Dip
See Day 2 in the snack guide for directions for the Pita Chips and Dip. 
Teaching Tie-In
Our snack today is pita chips with a dip called hummus, which is a favorite snack eaten in an area of the world called the Middle East. This is where the tower of Babel was built. We learn about the tower of Babel in the Bible. God is kind to give us the Bible so we can know about him and the world!  
Let’s thank God for these pita chips and dip, and then let’s eat.
Pocky® Sticks
Serve Pocky® sticks, a favorite snack founded in Japan. These are available online and at grocery stores with international food areas. 
Teaching Tie-In
Today, we’re pretending to travel to a place called Asia. A snack called a Pocky® stick is a favorite there. Have any of you had them before? Pause. Our Pocky® sticks remind us that God loves the people who live in Asia, and he loves you, too! 
Let’s thank him for our snack, and then let’s eat!
Day 3
Shades of Cake 
See Day 3 in the snack guide for directions for the Shades of Cake. You may want to give the toddlers just one mini cupcake.
Teaching Tie-In 
Let’s look at the different shades our cupcakes are. What color would you say they are? Take responses. Yes, they’re all shades of brown, just like people’s skin. We’re all shades of brown, too, from light brown skin to dark brown skin. God made us that way. 
Let’s thank him for our Shades of Cake snack, and then we’ll eat them! 
Pup Patrol Chew Sticks
Put some thick, twisted pretzel sticks (the kind that are about three inches long but fatter than regular pretzel sticks) in a small bowl (a pretend dog dish) or in a small cup.  
Teaching Tie-In
Do you remember who our animal pals are today? Take responses. Yes, our animal pals are pups that live in a place called Africa. They remind us that God made each dog special, and he made each person special, too. 
Let’s thank God for our Pup Patrol Chew Sticks, and then let’s eat!
Day 4
English Scones
See Day 4 in the snack guide for directions, but adjust the size to make them smaller for the toddlers. You may want to serve them with a little jam.
Teaching Tie-In
Today, we’re pretending to travel to a place called Europe. This is a food they like to eat there called scones. Isn’t it fun to see what people in different countries like to eat? God made all of us, no matter where we live or what we eat, and he loves us, too. He sent Jesus to earth to rescue us! 
Let’s thank him for our English Scones and then eat this yummy snack. 
BabyBel® Cheese (or other cheese) 
France is known for its cheese, and Babybel® is no exception! Serve these yummy little cheeses with crackers, or serve string cheese or other cheese with crackers. Make sure to cut the cheese into tiny pieces.
Teaching Tie-In
Today, we’re pretending to travel to a place called Europe. One place there (France) has over 300 kinds of cheese! Here’s one of them. Isn’t it awesome how God has given people the ability to come up with so many different foods? People could have developed just one kind of cheese, but there are many different kinds! God is a wonderful Creator, and we reflect his creativity when we develop new items to eat. 
Let’s thank him for this kind of cheese, and have fun eating it. 
Day 5
Big Apple Mini Pies
See Day 5 in the snack guide for directions, but adjust the size to make them smaller for the toddlers.  
Teaching Tie-In
We’re pretending to travel to a place called North America today, our last stop on The Incredible Race. We’ve traveled around the great big world this week and been reminded that God loves people of every nation, tribe, and people group. Let’s thank him that people from all over the world will live together in heaven someday, getting along perfectly, and let’s thank him for our Big Apple Mini Pies.
All Heart
See Day 5 Healthy Options in the snack guide for directions.
Teaching Tie-In
What shape are these foods? Take responses. Yes, hearts! Hearts remind us that God is loving, and we should be, too. The Bible tells us over and over to love one another. 
Let’s thank God for this food and for his love. 
Day 1
Ready, Set, Go
 Before Babel
Continent
South America
Bible passage
Genesis 1–11
Animal Pal
Bo the Anaconda
Lesson Focus
As the race starts, we explore the beginning of the human race and how nobody was running a perfect race through life.
Apologetics Focus
We’ll talk about the sin cycle and how the world got divided into continents.
Mile Marker Memory Verse
“All have sinned.” Romans 3:23
Today’s Exploration Stations
•Discovery Center: Rain Forest Rubbings
•Touch Table Water: Slithering Snakes
•Touch Table Sand: Dig It Up!
•Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
•Coloring Corner: Romans 3:23
Today’s Lesson at a Glance
Lesson Time 
•Part 1: Refuel Challenge 
•Part 2: Racing Through Genesis 1–11
•Part 3: Puppet Pal—Obey Is the Way
Song Time
•Song 1: “Cristo Me Ama”—“Jesus Loves Me” in Spanish
•Song 2: “Jesu Cristo Es el Señor”
Memory Verse/Review Time
•Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
•Part 2: Go and Do
•Review Challenge
Preparing for the Lesson 
•Read Genesis 1–11 several times.
•Read this lesson several times and prepare the materials as outlined in the purple pre-prep boxes.
•Visit answersvbs.com/irfaq for more information on Genesis 1–11 and the breaking up of the continents.
• Pray.

Exploration Stations
Discovery Center: Rain Forest Rubbings
Materials
Real or fake leaves
Crayons
White paper, at least 1 piece per child
Pre-prep
Gather the leaves from various trees and bushes in your area, or round up some fake ones. Remove the wrappers from the crayons.
Directions
The racers put the leaves under their papers. Show them how to rub their crayons sideways over the paper to get the leaf impression. Write their names on their papers when they’re done. 
Teaching Tie-In
We’re racing to South America today where the Amazon rain forest is—a beautiful place filled with lots and lots of trees and other plants. In the beginning of the Bible, we read that God made the world. It may have been like a beautiful rain forest. God made plants and animals and the first two people, and he said everything was very good. God is amazing!   
Touch Table Water Option: Slithering Snakes
New this year are two options for the touch table. If you prefer to not have to change from sand to water throughout the week, you can stick with either the water option or the sand option for all five days. Or, if you enjoy the variety of materials, you can change it up throughout the week. Or offer both of them all week. The kids at our test churches enjoyed them all!
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Water
Rubber snakes
Pieces of PVC pipe, or other waterproof, plastic tubes
Pre-prep
Cover the floor under the touch table with a tarp or plastic tablecloth. This will be used all week. Cut the PVC pipe into small pieces. Put the water, the  snakes, and the pipe pieces/tubes in the table. 
Directions
The racers play with the snakes. Use the pipes/tubes for the snakes to slither through.
Teaching Tie-In
In the very good world God created in the beginning, the first two people didn’t obey God. The serpent tricked Eve into disobeying God. And Adam disobeyed, too. That’s sad. You know what? We don’t always obey God, either. When we don’t obey God, it’s called sin. I’m so thankful our loving God can forgive us of our sin through Jesus!
Touch Table Sand Option: Dig It Up!
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Play sand, available from hardware stores (make sure it’s marked play sand, not regular sand)
Wet wipes for cleanup
Play fruit (represents the first human sin with Adam and Eve)
2 little plastic men (represents Cain and Abel)
Small plastic play boat (represents the flood)
DUPLO®, LEGO®, or other play bricks (represents the tower of Babel)
Pre-prep
Cover the floor under the touch table with a tarp or plastic tablecloth. This will be used all week. Put the play sand in the table. Hide the play fruit, plastic men, play boat, and plastic bricks in the sand. 
Directions
The racers dig to find the hidden items. Once they have them all, the leader shares the Teaching Tie-In, and they attempt to put the items in the order they happened.
Teaching Tie-In
The Bible tells us at the beginning how sin came into the world. Sin is when we don’t obey God. All people sin. First, Adam and Eve ate the fruit when God told them not to. Then came Cain and Abel, who were brothers. Cain got angry and killed his brother! Then came the time of Noah and the great flood. Everyone was sinning (not obeying) all the time, except for Noah, who found grace from the Lord. And then came the tower of Babel, when the people took bricks and built a tall tower to the sky, even though God told them not to stay together but to live all over the world. 
Let’s see if we can take the objects we found and put them in order to remind us of how people at the beginning of time didn’t obey God. Go through what each item represents and help them figure out the order.

Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
Note: This station, which will be a hit all week, can be as low-key or as elaborate as you’d like. There are a number of suggestions. Choose what you would like to do! See Decorating Decisions for specifics on the suggestions below.
Materials
Small chairs and supplies to make a pretend airplane, including a pilot’s panel
Reservation/check-in desk with play phone, maps, travel brochures, an old computer keyboard, passports, washable stamp pads and stamps, play tickets, etc. 
Security checkpoint
Child-size suitcases/backpacks
Travel supplies to pack in suitcases, such as children’s clothes, hats, little purses, play money, and empty toiletry bottle
Pilot hats (Oriental Trading Company has them)
Optional: souvenirs, play hats, and other safe items from the continent of the day (today—South America—see suggestions in pre-prep)
Optional: international flags, travel posters
Pre-prep
•Put together the pretend airplane and reservation/check-in desk. Also, decide if you want to add the security checkpoint. These will be used all week. Check the Decorating Decisions for specifics. 
•Decide what else you want to have in your center. Gather the supplies/props. These can be borrowed, made, or bought from thrift stores, garage sales, or online companies like Oriental Trading Company or Rhode Island Novelties. Oriental Trading has sets of international play hats. 
•For items from various continents, check with your church members for items you can borrow from mission trips or travels that are child-safe and non-breakable.
•Items from South America could be brightly colored cloth, instruments such as maracas or castanets, sturdy hand-carved crafts, painted bead jewelry, colorful ponchos, South American hats, and brightly colored tissue paper flowers. If you don’t have authentic, safe items, some of these can be easily made. Do online searches for preschool maracas craft, making tissue paper flowers, etc.  
Directions
Pretend to be racers heading to the continent of the day. Set up the station to have the reservation/check-in area and the security checkpoint on one side of the plane. You may also want to set up a souvenir shop with items from the continent of the day.
Today, the racers are pretending to be traveling to South America. 
Teaching Tie-In
We’re traveling to South America today on our plane. The world used to have one big piece of land, and there weren’t separate continents. But the big flood of Noah’s time changed all that! There was so much water everywhere, it made the land break into different pieces. So what we see today is land that is kind of like puzzle pieces that go together and make one big picture. So now we have to get on airplanes or boats to cross oceans to get to certain places in the world.  
Coloring Corner: Romans 3:23
Materials
Around-the-World decorating supplies (see Decorating Decisions)
Day 1 Memory Verse Coloring Sheet
Markers or crayons
Optional for marker and crayon storage: mini suitcases flipped open (see below for how to make mini suitcases)
Optional: additional supplies to glue on, glue sticks, and stickers
Pre-prep
Make or gather the decorating supplies and set them up. These will be used all week. Photocopy the coloring sheet, one per child. Gather additional supplies to glue on to the coloring sheets if desired, such as cotton balls for “clouds” or blue cellophane pieces for “sky.” 
To make mini suitcases, start with shoeboxes or old wipes containers with flip lids. Spray paint them any color and add a handle at the top. Stick some travel stickers here and there on the suitcase.
Directions
Color the sheet. Add additional supplies if desired.
Teaching Tie-In
Practice saying the memory verse on the sheet. Discuss its meaning.
Additional Exploration Station Ideas
Construction Zone—Gather child-safe items to use for a construction-themed center. Possibilities include a Little Tikes® workshop, play tools, play hard hats and goggles, small construction aprons, yardsticks, child-safe tape measures, rulers, play bricks and building supplies (shoebox bricks, LEGO®, DUPLO®, wooden blocks, Jenga® blocks, 3-D foam shapes, egg cartons, paper tower tubes, etc.). This building spot can be used with the bricks all week to build, count, sort by size and shape, make a long 
row or high stack, stack into pyramids, etc. It’s also fun to create “buildings.”
Language Learning—Have fun teaching about different countries and their languages. Share various words from countries and have the children try to say them. These can be numbers, colors, common phrases, etc. Remind them that different languages started at the tower of Babel.
Maps and Globes and People, Oh My!—Borrow a talking globe (the junior variety is good for this age) and set up a center with maps and globes. If you have access to any map puzzles or puzzles of children around the world, add them in. Remind them that God loves all the people groups of the world no matter where they live or what they look like, and so should we. Every person all over the world is a special creation of God!
Transportation Station—Gather Hot Wheel® cars, a Fisher Price® airport, magnetic toy trains, and other child-safe travel toys.  
Hot Air Balloon Book Nook—Make an exciting spot for reading by making a hot air balloon. Start with a large cardboard box that is shaped like the basket portion of the hot air balloon. (Or, alternatively, use a laundry basket.) Cut a swinging door into one side of the box. Either gather a large bunch of balloons and tie to the box/laundry basket, or gather a very large beach ball or paper lantern and a parachute or sheet. Drape the parachute/sheet over the ball to make the hot air balloon portion. If using the parachute/sheet and beach ball, hang them from the ceiling. Add strings from the parachute/sheet to the four corners of the large cardboard box. Put children’s picture Bibles and books with individual Bible accounts in the hot air balloon and have kids go in to interact with the books. You may also want to include some children’s books about other countries. Answers in Genesis has several good ones for this theme such as Passport to the World: Your A to Z Guided Language Tour Book, Tower of Babel Pop-Up Book, All God’s Children—Why We Look Different, Children’s Atlas of God’s World, and The Not So Super Skyscraper. See the VBS catalog for more details.
Texture Trays—Provide various textures on which and in which they can trace words or pictures of key Bible items they will learn about, such as a step pyramid, people and items from around the world, crosses, and hearts. Possible textures include shaving cream or hair gel in zippered baggies that are duct-taped shut (try coloring the hair gel bright yellow), burlap, trays of salt, thick fleece, magic slates, or chalkboards and chalk. (Supervise carefully and make sure they know not to put their hands in their mouths. You may want to put out different textures on different days.) Provide wipes for clean-up.
Play Dough—Play dough is always a favorite, so you may want to feature a station with it all week, adding thematic supplies each day, such as garden of Eden nature items to press into the play dough for Day 1 (pine cones, leaves, shells, etc.), a model of a step pyramid out of play dough for them to try to construct for Day 2, play dough in various shades of brown (from light to dark) with circle cookie cutters for cutting out faces on Day 3 (add safe items to press into the circles for eyes and mouths), cross cookie cutters for Day 4, and heart cookie cutters for Day 5.
How to Make Play Dough
2 c. flour
1/2 c. salt
2 c. warm water
4 t. cream of tartar
2 t. oil
Food coloring
Mix the first five ingredients in a saucepan, blending well. Stir over low to medium heat until the dough is formed and is no longer sticky. Remove from the pan, add the food coloring, and knead until smooth. After it has cooled, store in an airtight container. 

Lesson Time
Part 1: Refuel Challenge (5 minutes)
o	Bible or children’s Bible
o	Costumes for teachers
o	Backpack
o	Mounting putty or tape for hanging posters
o	World Map
o	Optional: Pictures of South America or real items from South America
o	Fruit Poster or real fruit (see text)
•	Be familiar with the lesson, but don’t memorize it. Place it on a clipboard to use as a reference. You may want to decorate the back of your clipboard (the side the kids will see as you hold it) with travel stickers.
Pre-prep: Gather your trainer costumes, which you’ll wear all week. Turn the set panel around for Day 1 so the collage images are showing. If using the pictures of south america or real items from South America, put them in your backpack, along with the Bible, and prepare the bites of South American fruit if doing so. (Check for allergies to make sure everyone can eat the fruit.)
As the racers come in and get settled, say something like the following:
Teacher 1: Hola, racers! That means “hello” in Spanish. We’re glad you’re here at The Incredible Race! I’m _____ and this is my assistant, _____. You may want to adopt fun names like Danny Dash, Airplane Annie, or Racing Ryan. 
Teacher 2: Hola! Are you ready to start our VBS race around the world? Take responses.  God loves the people all over the world! 
Teacher 1: Show the World Map. We live right here. Point. And, today, we’re pretending to race here to South America. Point to South America. 
For today’s first challenge, ask them to come up and point to South America after you show them where it is. 
Teacher 2: Let me show you some things you might find on a trip to South America. Either point out the collage images on the Day 1 set panel, or show the pictures of south america or the real items from South America in your backpack. 
Teacher 1: Let’s check out this fruit from South America. Either show the fruit poster, or show a real fruit from South America for today’s Refuel Challenge. You may want to have anyone interested try one bite each—fresh or dried. Possible South American fruits include mango, red banana, acai, yellow dragon fruit, guava, passion fruit, papaya, and coconut. 
Teacher 2: You just tried/saw a fruit from South America! When I hear about fruit, I sometimes think about a certain fruit the Bible talks about. Let’s get out our Bible carefully—it’s God’s special book—and check out what it has to say about this piece of fruit from long ago. Do so, pulling your Bible from your backpack carefully and respectfully.
Part 2: Racing Through Genesis 1–11 (10 minutes)
o	Large marker board and dry erase marker, or chalkboard and chalk
o	Simple Line Drawings Sheet
o	World Map 
o	Sin Cycle Poster
Pre-prep: Gather the supplies. Practice drawing the simple drawings ahead of time using the Simple Line Drawings Sheet and the Sin Cycle Poster as a reference.
Teacher 1 will tell this account while Teacher 2 draws it, listening for the cues from what Teacher 1 is saying. 
Adam and Eve
Teacher 1: Let’s start right here at the start of the Bible. Point to your Bible. Guess what happened? God made the world! Let’s have _____ (Teacher 2’s name) draw a few things God made and see if you can guess what they are. 
No worries if you aren’t an artist! Teacher 2 can draw some or all of the suggestions on the board with simple line drawings. Have the racers guess. Suggestions are water (draw simple waves), clouds (after they guess, explain that this would include the sky), sun, moon, stars, a plant, a bird (can draw a simple V-shape), a fish, a stick giraffe (long neck should give it away), and a stick person.
Teacher 1: Great job guessing some of the things God made at the beginning. Does anybody know the names of the first two people God made? Take responses. Yes, Adam and Eve. Everything and the people God made at the beginning were good. 
But then Adam and Eve did something they shouldn’t have. See if you can guess what ____ (Teacher 2’s name) is drawing.
Teacher 2 draws a simple stick drawing of Adam and Eve eating the fruit that was forbidden.
Teacher 1: Right, they ate fruit that God told them not to eat. Usually it’s okay to eat fruit, but in this case, God told them not to eat the fruit from one tree. They didn’t obey God. 
When they did that, the good world was changed forever because Adam and Eve sinned. Sin is when we don’t obey God. This was the first time a person sinned on earth. Sadly, after that, people sinned again and again. Let’s clap five times, and then we’ll hear about another time somebody sinned. Do so.
Cain and Abel
Teacher 2 draws stick people—first Cain, then Abel, then their offerings (sheep for Abel and fruit for Cain). Erase Abel when noted.
Teacher 1: Adam and Eve had children. The Bible tells us right here that their first two children were named Cain and Abel. Point to Genesis 4. There’s Cain. Let’s wave to him and say, “Hi, Cain!” Do so. 
And there’s Abel. Let’s wave to him and say, “Hi, Abel!” Do so.
When the boys grew up, they brought gifts to God called offerings. Abel brought an offering that pleased God. But Cain brought an offering that didn’t please God. 
Cain got angry when he realized Abel’s gift pleased God and his didn’t, so guess what he did? When his brother Abel was out in the field one day, Cain killed Abel! Teacher 2 should erase the picture of Abel. 
Do you think we’re obeying God if we hurt others? No! God says we are to be kind to people. Cain sinned by hurting his brother. First Adam and Eve sinned by not obeying God, and now their child Cain sinned. Let’s stomp our feet five times and then we’ll hear about another time someone didn’t obey God. Do so.
The Flood
Teacher 1: Point to Genesis 6. Right here in the Bible, we read that more time went by.
Teacher 2 draws lots of dots on the board to represent people, leaving a space off to the side to draw the ark. 
Teacher 1: Lots more people were born until there were lots and lots and lots of people on the earth. And guess what all the people on earth were doing? They were not obeying God. That includes everyone except one man named Noah, who found grace from the Lord. 
Teacher 2 circles one dot to represent Noah, then draws a quick ark, rain, and water. 
Teacher 1: Because everyone was not obeying, God sent a flood of water all over the earth. He told Noah to build a big ship so he and his family could escape the flood. 
Again, the people wouldn’t listen to God and they kept sinning. Everyone who wasn’t on the ark died. First Adam and Eve sinned, then Cain, and now everyone on the whole earth except Noah, who found favor with God! 
And the people’s sin affected the whole earth itself! It’s likely that God created a large piece of land in the beginning. But when the flood came, there was so much water and pressure, the land broke apart and separated into what eventually became the continents we have today! Point to the map.  
Wow, this is sad! Everyone keeps sinning (not obeying God). Let’s stand up and turn around, then we’ll sit down and hear one more example of not obeying God. Do so.
Tower of Babel
Teacher 2 draws the tower of Babel—a step pyramid. Draw some buildings around it for the city.  When finished drawing, Teacher 2 should go behind the puppet stage.
Teacher 1: Point to Genesis 11. The Bible tells us right here that after the flood, the people, who were children and grandchildren of Noah, were sinning again. They were all living together at a place called Shinar, even though God had told them to spread out and live all over the earth. They stayed together to build a city and a tower we call the tower of Babel. 
What’s that called when we don’t obey God? Take responses. Right! Sin. They were sinning because they didn’t listen to God and didn’t do what he said. 
Wrap-Up
Now let’s look at these pictures and see if we can remember what they’re about! Show the sin cycle poster and see if they can remember each one. 
Tomorrow, we’ll hear lots more about the tower of Babel, but right now, let’s call our special puppet pal, Speedy, and talk to him (her) about this.
Part 3: Puppet Pal—Obey Is the Way (5 minutes)
o	Puppet (girl or boy) in costume
o	Clipboard
o	Day 1 Puppet Script (2 copies)
o	Day 1 Animal Pal Poster
o	Item (piece of candy or a play food cookie), and tape
Pre-prep: See Decorating Decisions for ideas on making the puppet stage. Tape one puppet script inside the puppet stage and place the other on the clipboard. Dress the puppet in a mini VBS T-shirt, khaki vest, or travel clothes. Mini bandanas made from thematic fabric are a fun addition, such as rain forest/jungle print on Day 1, camel print on Day 2, African animal print on Day 3, European print on Day 4, and North American print on Day 5. (See YouTube.com/AnswersVBS for sample bandanas.) Attach the candy or cookie to the palm of the puppet’s hand.
Each day, the puppet pal will be used to teach or reinforce the lesson. It’s always a favorite, so try to include it even if you have to cut something else. 
If you don’t have a teaching assistant or co-teacher, enlist someone (a team leader or other volunteer) ahead of time to work the puppet each day. If you’re alone, have the puppet come up from behind a suitcase with the lid flipped up, or just stand and work the puppet.
You can use either a boy or a girl puppet. Use a consistent voice for the puppet all week. Speak clearly and exaggerate words and expressions. For instance, draw out certain words for emphasis, or make an exaggerated action for things like groaning, turning its head, or sneezing. Use your free hand to do things with the puppet’s hands or arms. For example, if the puppet is “thinking,” put the puppet’s hand on its chin. When the puppet is talking, make sure the mouth is open. (This is the opposite of what people often do!) In other words, the mouth should be open on most syllables. You don’t have to open very wide, which will help you move the mouth faster and more naturally. 
When the puppet is entering, hold your arm back and down and have the puppet take three steps up, getting higher each time, until the puppet is out and visible.  When exiting, turn the puppet toward you and take three steps down until out of sight.
Teacher: On the count of 3, let’s all call to Speedy. Ready? 1, 2, 3—Speedy!
Puppet: Come up holding something you shouldn’t have, like a piece of candy or a play cookie. Hey, everybody! Watcha’ doing? 
Teacher: Well, the question should really be, what are you doing? How did you get that?
Puppet: Well, I  . . . uhhh . . . mmmm . . . 
Teacher: Hmmm, Speedy, have you been doing something your mom told you not to do?
Puppet: Ummm . . . why do you say that?
Teacher: Because I heard your mom say not to have that, but here you are with it.
Puppet: No! I didn’t do anything wrong. 
Teacher: Speedy, tell the truth. It’s very, very important to always tell the truth. 
Puppet: Hang your head and look sheepish. Okay, I admit it. I did take it.
Teacher: Do you know what that’s called when you do something you’re not supposed to?
Puppet: What?
Teacher: Show the Day 1 Animal Pal poster. Sin. Sin is when we don’t obey God. Our animal pal, Bo, reminds us that all of us sin. Why do you think we have a snake to remind us of sin? Take responses, and remind them about the serpent tempting Adam and Eve to sin. 
Puppet: Well, I obey God! I just wasn’t obeying my mom.
Teacher: You know, God says in the Bible that children are to obey their parents. So if you obey your parents, you are obeying God.
Puppet: Wow, I guess I blew it.
•	Gospel Opportunity
Teacher: Yeah, you sinned. We all do. That’s the bad news. But the good news is God sent Jesus, his Son, to take the punishment for our sin. Anyone who admits he sinned and believes Jesus came and died and came back to life to take the punishment for his sin can ask God to forgive him, and to make him a child of God. 
Puppet: Wow, that’s better than good news—that’s great news!
Teacher: It sure is! Well, Speedy, I think you should tell your mom you’re sorry. 
Puppet: Okay. I want to obey God, so I’m going to tell my mom the truth.
Teacher: Good move, Speedy. You do that, and we’ll see you tomorrow!
Song Time
•	Simple sing-along versions of the songs listed here are available on the Digital Resources. Download them to an MP3 player and use them as an accompaniment to your song time. They are also available for purchase on a CD (11-7-141).
•	You may want to use all the songs suggested this week (found at the end of each day’s lesson), or just repeat the same one or two all week long. There are lots of options! 
Song 1: “Cristo me Ama” —”Jesus Loves Me” in Spanish
o	“Cristo me Ama” song 
o	“Jesu Cristo es el Señor” song
o	MP3 or CD player
o	Also available on Simple Songs CD (#11-7-141)
”Jesus Loves Me” is a favorite! Sing it at any point in your day. Try the chorus in Spanish, one of the main languages spoken in South America.
Verse (in English)
Jesus loves me, this I know
(Touch middle right finger to middle of left palm and vice versa to make the sign for “Jesus.” Then hug yourself.)
For the Bible tells me so 
(Make a pretend Bible with your two palms open and touching each other.)
Little ones to him belong
(Lower your hands.)
They are weak, but he is strong
(Act weak, then make muscles.)
Chorus (in Spanish)
Si, Cristo me ama (Nod “yes,” then make “Jesus” sign and hug yourself.)
Si, Cristo me ama (Repeat.)
Si, Cristo me ama (Repeat.)
La Biblia dice asi (Make a pretend Bible.)

Song 2: “Jesu Cristo Es el Señor”
Sing in Spanish this South American chorus that means: Jesus Christ is the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, Jesus Christ is the Lord, Glory be to him. 
Jesu Cristo es el Señor  
(Make “Jesus” sign, then point up.)
El Señor, el Señor (Continue to point up as you sway your hand back and forth.)
Jesu Cristo es el Señor (Repeat.)
Gloria sea a el (Wave both hands back and forth over your head.)
Memory Verse and Review Time
o	Animal Pals map, 1 per child
o	Day 1 Student Guides, 1 per child
o	Passports, 1 per child
o	Stamp for Passports
In the remaining time, complete one or more of the following ideas in class. You won’t have time to do them all, but these ideas are also on the back of the student guides. Send the student guides home each day as a fun review, and also encourage the racers to do the practical ideas (Go and Do sections) that apply today’s lesson to real life. 
Pass out the Animal Pals maps, one per child, or have leaders do so at the end of the day. Put a stamp in the passports (or do so as the racers first arrive at VBS), and/or review the student guides.
Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
o	Memory Verse Music CD and player
o	Theme Verse Poster and Day 1 Memory Verse Poster
o	Rain Forest Limbo supplies—yardstick or broom handle
Pre-prep: Cue the memory verse song. Hang up the Day 1 Memory Verse Poster.
Today’s Verse: “All have sinned.” Romans 3:23 
Practice the verse several times by playing the appropriate song from the Memory Verse CD and using the day 1 memory verse poster as a reference. Then try the following challenge.
Challenge: Rain Forest Limbo—Have someone hold a “vine” (a yardstick or broom handle). Go under the stick as you say the verse. See how low you can go, lowering the “vine” a little and saying the verse every time you try. 
Tomorrow’s Verse: “Its name was called Babel.” Genesis 11:9
Try the challenge again, this time using tomorrow’s verse. You may also want to practice the week’s theme verse, using the theme verse poster as a reference.
Part 2: Go and Do
•God says to be kind. Do you have trouble being kind? (When we don’t obey God, it’s called sin.) Ask God to help you obey.
•Talk to God (that’s prayer!) and thank him for sending Jesus, who is perfect, and who is the only one who can forgive our sin.
•Ask an adult if she remembers not obeying her parents. 
•With an adult, check answersvbs.com/irkids for more fun information!
Ask yourself this question: When I don’t obey God, do I ask him to forgive me?
•	End each day’s Refueling Station Lesson with prayer!
Review Challenge
o	Day 1 Challenge Sheet
o	Optional: Challenge Box 
Pre-prep: Photocopy the Day 1 challenge sheet on bright-colored paper, fold the bottom up about three inches, fold the top down about three inches to overlap the bottom, and put an Incredible Race logo sticker or other sticker on to keep it shut. (See illustration.) 
Make the Challenge Box. First, spray paint the box, put checkered duct tape on it, and attach an Incredible Race logo. (See illustration.) Then, make the post from a 2x2-in. board and the base from a square 1x12-in. board. Paint the post and base black. Attach a small square to the top of 
the post, and mount the box on it. Put the challenge sheet inside it. (For a simpler option, hide the challenge sheet somewhere in the room instead of making the box.)
To wrap up the lesson, do this quick and fun challenge review. Grab the challenge sheet out of the Challenge Box, or have them find it. Once you have it in hand, have them jog in place and shout out the answers to finish the phrases you read off.
•Adam and _____ (Eve)
•Cain and _____ (Abel)
•Noah built the _____ (ark)
•Tower of _____ (Babel)
•Bo the _____ (anaconda)
•All have _____ (sinned)
Day 2
Hitting a Roadblock
At Babel
Continent
Asia
Bible passage
The Tower of Babel
Genesis 11:1–9
Animal Pal
Jamal the Camel
Lesson Focus
On this leg of the race, we stop at the tower of Babel and check out the important and loving roadblock God provided there.
Apologetics Focus
We’ll talk about ziggurats and languages today.
Mile Marker Memory Verse
“Its name was called Babel.” Genesis 11:9
Today’s Exploration Stations
•Discovery Center: Build It!
•Touch Table Water: Packing Peanuts
•Touch Table Sand: Construction Zone
•Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
•Coloring Corner: Genesis 11:9
Today’s Lesson at a Glance
Lesson Time
•Part 1: Refuel Challenge
•Part 2: Tower of Babel
•Part 3: Puppet Pal—Tower Talk
Song Time
•Song 1: “O-B-E-Y All You Little Children”
•Song 2: “Trust and Obey” 
Memory Verse/Review Time
•Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
•Part 2: Go and Do
•Review Challenge
Preparing for the Lesson
•Read Genesis 11:1–9 several times.
•Read this lesson several times and prepare the materials as outlined in the pre-prep boxes.
•For more information on the tower of Babel, ziggurats, and the development of languages, visit answersvbs.com/irfaq.
•Pray.

Exploration Stations
Discovery Center: Build It!
Materials
Plastic or wooden blocks and building pieces such as LEGO®, DUPLO®, wooden blocks, Jenga® blocks, or 3-D foam shapes
Pre-prep
Make a couple simple structures out of the building pieces, such as a little step pyramid and a straight “skyscraper” building. If you have enough building pieces, leave them up. If you need the kids to be able to use the pieces, take a picture of each structure and print the pictures as examples.
Directions
The racers look at each example and try to duplicate the structure exactly. 
Teaching Tie-In
People have been really smart since the day God made the first people. They’ve been building since early on. By the time the tower of Babel happened, the Bible tells us they knew how to build not only the tower, but a city, too!
Touch Table Water Option: Packing Peanuts
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Water
Magic Nuudles® (found at teacher stores) or packing peanuts (found online or at retail stores such as office supply or hardware stores—you may want to get the anti-static kind)
Blank paper
Pre-prep
Put a shallow amount of water in the water table. 
Directions
The racers dip one Nuudle® or packing peanut at a time in the water. Instruct them to dip them ever so slightly in the water. (They dissolve if submerged.) Then they can stick them to blank paper to build towers or buildings. Super fun!
Teaching Tie-In
It’s fun to build towers, isn’t it? There are lots of great towers and buildings all over the world, but there was one tower that shouldn’t have been built, because God told the people to move from there. They didn’t listen to God and started building. They were not obeying God! 
Boys and girls, how do we know how to obey God? Take responses. God doesn’t talk to us out loud, but he does tell us how to obey him in the Bible. It’s very important for us to listen to what God tells us to do in his special book and to obey what he says!
Touch Table Sand Option: Construction Zone
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Play sand
Wet wipes for cleanup
Play bulldozers, sand trucks, digging toys
Plastic bricks, like DUPLO® or LEGO®
Pre-prep
Put the bulldozers and other play construction items in the sand table. 
Directions
The racers play with the construction items in the sand.
Teaching Tie-In
Sometimes we think people who lived a long time ago weren’t very smart and wouldn’t have known how to build things. But they were just as smart, if not smarter, than us! They even designed a city and a big tower long ago we call the tower of Babel.
Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
Materials
Day 1 items
Optional: safe items from Asia
Pre-prep
Take out any items from South America and add the Asian items.
Directions
Dress up and pretend to be traveling to Asia today on The Incredible Race.
Teaching Tie-In
Today we’re heading to Asia where a big tower was built long ago called the tower of Babel. It was there that the people didn’t obey God and ended up having to move all over the earth. It’s always important to obey the Bible, which is God’s words to us.
Coloring Corner: Genesis 11:9
See Day 1’s directions, but sub in the Day 2 coloring sheet.

Lesson Time
o	Bible or children’s Bible
o	Costumes for teachers
o	Backpack
o	Mounting putty or tape
o	World Map
o	Optional: Pictures of Asia or real items from Asia
o	Blocks (see text)
Part 1: Refuel Challenge (5–10 minutes)
Pre-prep: Turn the set panel around for Day 2 so the collage images are showing. If using the pictures of asia or real items from Asia, put them in your backpack, along with the Bible. Gather or make blocks. (See text.)
Teacher 1: Kon’nichiwa! (Pronounced “kohn-nee-chee-wah.”) That’s Japanese for “hello!” Let’s say that together. Do so. 
Teacher 2: Today we’re traveling to Asia, where Japan and many other countries are. See where we are and where it is on the map? Show on the World map. God loves the people of Asia!
For today’s first challenge, see if they can point out Asia on the map.
Teacher 1: Let me show you some things you might find on a trip to Asia. Either point out the collage images on the Day 2 set panel, or show the pictures of asia or the real items from Asia in your backpack.
Teacher 2: Something very important happened in Asia a long time ago. Let’s try this little building challenge to get an idea of what it might have been. I’m going to give you some blocks (bricks), and you’re going to take turns bringing them to me as we build a tower.
Work together to stack blocks or play bricks into a step pyramid. The larger the blocks, the better. You may even want to use shoeboxes, or make “bricks” from lunch bags that you stuff with newspaper, fold over at the end, then tape. If making bricks, try to get them so they aren’t bumpy and will stack well.
Depending on how many kids you have, give each a couple blocks. Have them bring them to you one at a time and help them build the pyramid.
Teacher 1: Great job, racers! Now that you’ve made that tower, let me ask you this. What do you think a tower has to do with this place on the map, Asia? Take responses.
Teacher 2: There was once a very, very, very big tower built in Asia. It’s not there anymore, but the Bible tells us about it right here in Genesis 11. Let’s get out our precious Bible and hear more about it!
Again, carefully and respectfully get out the Bible and open to Genesis 11 so they see you using your Bible.
Part 2: Tower of Babel (5–10 minutes)
o	Piece of poster board
o	Little play people, at least 10
o	Something to use for “bricks”—blocks, LEGO®, DUPLO®, sugar cubes, or mini disposable soufflé cups, at least 10
o	Ziggurat Poster
o	“Hello” Sample List
o	Writing utensil
o	Day 2 Animal Pal Poster
Place the poster board and other supplies on the ground and have the kids gather around and sit in a circle. Teacher 1 can read or paraphrase the Bible account while Teacher 2 moves the little play people and supplies on the board. 
Direction 1: Teacher 1 reads or paraphrases verses 1–2 while Teacher 2 moves the people from the edge of the board (the east) to the middle. 
Direction 2: Teacher 1 reads or paraphrases verses 3–4 while Teacher 2 uses the little “bricks” and builds a tower in the middle of the board near the little people. Add a few bricks to be the buildings of the “city.” Show the ziggurat poster.
Direction 3: Teacher 1 reads or paraphrases verses 5–7 while Teacher 2 starts writing the word “hello” in different languages around the tower. Use the  “Hello” sample list for ideas.   
Direction 4: Teacher 1 reads or paraphrases verses 8–9 while Teacher 2 scatters the little people all around the edges of the board, north, south, east, and west. Show the Day 2 Animal 
Pal Poster and explain that our animal pal, Jamal the Camel, reminds us that the people would have walked, ridden on animals like Jamal, or even ridden in boats to get all over the world. 
Note: Teacher 2 gets behind the puppet stage now as Teacher 1 finishes up.
Teacher 1: Wow, there’s a lot going on there! Let’s all move back over here so we can talk more about this with our puppet, Speedy. Move to the puppet stage area. 
Part 3: Puppet Pal—Tower Talk (5 minutes)
o	Puppet and clipboard
o	Day 2 Puppet Script (2 copies)
o	Bible
Tape one puppet script inside the puppet stage and place the other on the clipboard.
Teacher: On the count of three, let’s stand up and call our puppet pal. Ready? 1, 2, 3, Speedy!
Puppet: Hola! Bonjour! Shalom!
Teacher: Speedy, what in the world are you babbling about?
Puppet: Oh hi! I’m just saying “hello” in other languages.
Teacher: Oh, cool, because that’s what we’re talking about today.
Puppet: That’s fun!
Teacher: Yep. You see, the Bible tells us that about 4,000 years ago, something amazing—and confusing—happened.
Puppet: I know . . . meatballs started falling from the sky.
Teacher: That would be amazing and confusing, but no. Let me share from the Bible what happened. I just told the boys and girls about this!
Puppet: I am all ears!
Teacher: Did you know there was a time on earth when all the people spoke the same language? 
Puppet: No way! 
Teacher: Yes way! And not only that, but they also lived in the same place, too. The trouble was that since they all spoke the same language and lived in the same place, they started thinking up bad ideas.
Puppet: Like peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches? Now that’s what I call a bad idea!
Teacher: No, not peanut butter and ketchup sandwiches.
Puppet: Oh, you mean bad ideas like that sin stuff you were talking about yesterday?
Teacher: Yep, like that, when we don’t obey God.
Puppet: Well, what did they think up?
Teacher: To build a city and a really tall tower that would reach way up into the sky.
Puppet: What’s so bad about that? I love to go up high.
Teacher: It isn’t necessarily wrong to build a tall tower. There are lots of them in the world. But, the reason it was wrong for them is because God told them to spread out and fill the earth.
Puppet: And they didn’t obey God and stayed together anyway?
Teacher: Yes, they sinned. God told them to have families and spread out all over the earth, but they didn’t want to. They wanted to stay all together, so they started building that city and tower.
Puppet: Wow, that’s bad! When God tells you to do something, you should do it, right?
Teacher: Right! God loves you and shows you how to obey him right here, in the Bible. Point to the Bible. He knows what’s best for you to do because he loves you so much! So it’s never a good idea to ignore what the Bible says and do your own thing.
Puppet: When I don’t obey my parents, I get in trouble.
Teacher: Guess what? So did they! They got in trouble, and God changed the way they talked so they couldn’t understand each other anymore.
Puppet: Keesha-boo-dum-dee-dum-fee-fo-fum!
Teacher: What?
Puppet: Keesha-boo-dum-dee-dum-fee-fo-fum!
Teacher: I don’t understand a word you’re saying.
Puppet: I was just wondering what it would be like if all of a sudden I spoke a different language.
Teacher: Oh, Speedy, you’re so silly! But that’s probably what it seemed like to them. And you know, even though people all over the world speak different languages and live in different places, we’re still all related to each other. We’re one big family! 
Puppet: Ha, ha, ha. You’re trying to be funny.
Teacher: No, it’s true. We may look a little different or speak a different language, but according to the Bible, we all came from Adam and Eve. They’re our great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great . . . 
Puppet: Okay, okay, I get the idea.
Teacher:  . . . grandparents! Whew! So you see, Speedy, we’re just one great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great . . . 
Puppet: Not this again!
Teacher:  . . . great big family! So you see, from the Bible we learn where all the different languages came from and why people live in all the different places around the world. It’s because of what God did way, way back at the tower of Babel. 
Puppet: Wow, I sure learned a lot today! I can’t wait to go home and tell my family and friends! Adios!
Teacher: Adios, Speedy. Let’s say, “Adios!” (which means goodbye in Spanish) to Speedy. Do so.
Song Time
o	“O-B-E-Y All You Little Children” song 
o	“Trust and Obey” song
o	O-B-E-Y Letters on 8 1/2 x 11-in. paper
o	MP3 or CD player
Song 1: “O-B-E-Y All You Little Children”
Sing to the tune of “Praise Him, Praise Him, All You Little Children.”
O-B-E-Y all you little children (Have four kids hold the letters as you sing.)
Obey the Lord, obey the Lord 
(Make your hand into a fist. Gently touch your heart twice on the word “obey,” then point up for “Lord.”)
O-B-E-Y all you little children 
(Repeat direction 1.)
Obey the Lord, obey the Lord 
(Repeat direction 2.)
Song 2: “Trust and Obey” 
Sing the chorus only of the old hymn, “Trust and Obey.” 
Verse 1:
Trust and obey 
(Lift one hand to heaven, then the other.)
For there’s no other way 
(Wag your finger back and forth and shake your head “no.”)
To be happy in Jesus 
(Make a big smile and make the sign for Jesus—touch left middle palm with right middle finger, then vice versa.)
But to trust and obey (Repeat direction 1.)
Memory Verse and Review Time
o	Day 2 Student Guides, 1 per child
o	Passports, 1 per child
o	Stamp for Passports
In the remaining time, complete one or more of the following ideas in class. Remember to send home the student guides and encourage the racers to complete them!
Put a stamp in the passports (or do so as they first arrive at VBS), and/or review the student guides.
Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
o	Memory Verse Music CD and player
o	Day 2 Memory Verse Poster
o	Tall Tower supplies—6 or more blocks (Jenga® blocks, wooden blocks, cardboard “bricks,” or something similar)
Pre-prep: Cue up the memory verse song. Hang up the Day 2 Memory Verse Poster.
Today’s Verse: “Its name was called Babel.” Genesis 11:9
Practice the verse several times by playing the appropriate song from the Memory Verse CD and using the day 2 memory verse poster as a reference. Then try the challenge.
Challenge: Tall Tower—Grab some blocks. As you put the first block down, say the first word of the verse. Put the second block down and say the second word. Continue on and see how high you can build and how far in the verse you get before the tower comes tumbling down. Try again and see if you can get through the whole verse. 
Tomorrow’s Verse: “And he made from one man every nation.” Acts 17:26
Try the challenge again, this time using tomorrow’s verse. 
Part 2: Go and Do
•Ask an adult to read John 14:15 to you. Can you explain what it means? 
•Talk to God and ask him to help you love him and obey his commands more.
•Do you know anyone who speaks another language or lives far away in another country? With an adult, find out how they say “hello” in their language. Remember that speaking different languages started at the tower of Babel.
•With an adult, check answersvbs.com/irkids for more fun information!
Ask yourself this question: Do I want to love and obey God more?
Review Challenge
o	Day 2 Challenge Sheet 
o	Optional: Challenge Box
o	Day 2 Animal Pal Poster
o	Day 2 Memory Verse Poster 
Pre-prep: Photocopy the Day 2 Challenge sheet on bright-colored paper. Put it in the Challenge Box or hide it somewhere in the room for the racers to find.
Have the racers stretch up higher and higher and shout out the answers to the following.
•Our animal pal today is Jamal the _____. Show the Day 2 Animal Pal Poster again.
• Our Bible verse says: Its name was called _____. Show the Day 2 Memory Verse poster again.
•The people at the tower of Babel were not obeying _____.
•At the tower of Babel, the people started talking in different _____.
•The people had to move all over the _____. 
Day 3
One Race, Many Nations
After Babel
Continent
Africa
Bible passages
The Table of Nations
Genesis 10; Psalm 139; Acts 17:26
Animal Pal
Pup Patrol
Lesson focus
On leg three, we see how the human race developed into people groups with different languages, cultures, and physical features, but how we are still one race.
Apologetics Focus
We’re all one blood, one race, and God created each one of us with our own special DNA recipe.
Mile Marker Memory Verse
“And he made from one man every nation.” Acts 17:26
Today’s Exploration Stations
•Discovery Center: Shade Time
•Touch Table Water: Toy Boats
•Touch Table Sand: On the Move
•Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
•Coloring Corner: Acts 17:26
Today’s Lesson at a Glance
Lesson Time
•Part 1: Refuel Challenge
•Part 2: Tower of Babel Review 
•Part 3: Recipe/Same Basic Ingredients
•Part 4: Puppet Pal—Going to the Dogs
Song Time
•Song 1: “Jesus Loves the Little Children”
•Song 2: “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
Memory Verse/Review Time
•Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
•Part 2: Go and Do
•Review Challenge
Preparing for the Lesson
•Read Genesis 10, Psalm 139, and Acts 17:26 a couple times.
•Read this lesson several times and prepare the materials.
•Visit answersvbs.com/irfaq for more information on one race/one blood and how we developed into different people groups with different looks and languages.
•Pray.

Exploration Stations
Discovery Center: Shade Time
Materials
Crayons or colored pencils in shades of brown (light to dark) and other colors as well
White paper
Pattern People
Pre-prep
Copy the Pattern People onto white paper, one per child. Set out the crayons/colored pencils.
Directions
Color the people using different skin-colored crayons/colored pencils.
Teaching Tie-In
Some people have darker skin, some people have lighter skin, and some are in between. God put something in our bodies called melanin that helps to make our skin different shades of brown. We don’t have different colors of skin, just different shades of brown.
Touch Table Water Option: Toy Boats
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Water
Plastic toy boats and/or foil boats
Optional: lightweight little plastic people that fit on the boats
Pre-prep
Fashion the foil into little boats. Put the boats in the water table. 
Directions
The racers play with the boats (and people) in the water.
Teaching Tie-In
Because the people didn’t obey God and went ahead and built the tower of Babel, God made the people move away from there. Have you ever moved? Take responses. How do you think they got all the way across the world? Take responses. They might have walked or ridden on camels or horses. They may have even built boats and floated across the ocean. There were boats at that time. People could have learned about building boats from Noah.
Touch Table Sand Option: On the Move
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Play sand
Wet wipes for cleanup
Sand bucket and small plastic cups
Plastic little people (like Fisher Price®)
“Cave Men” Poster
Optional: laminated pictures of different kinds of homes around the world (huts, igloos, homes on stilts, teepees, log cabins, houseboats, etc.)
Pre-prep
Put the bucket, cups, and people in the sand table. 
Directions
Using the sand bucket, the racers can make one big “tower” at one end of the sand table, and smaller “homes” with the small plastic cups, located at the other end of the sand table. If using pictures of homes, put them in the sand as well and comment on the different kinds of homes people live in. Have the little people “travel” from the big tower to their new homes. 
Teaching Tie-In
The Bible tells us God “scattered,” or “moved” the people at the tower of Babel when they didn’t obey him. They moved all over the world to new homes. Show the “Cave Men” Poster. Some people even lived in caves for awhile. We find drawings and tools and other things sometimes in caves that show that these smart people thought up ways to live well as they were traveling across the world. 
Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
Materials
Day 1 items
Optional: safe items from Africa
Pre-prep
Take out any items from Asia and add in the African items.
Directions
Dress up and pretend to be traveling to Africa today on The Incredible Race.
Teaching Tie-In
After God confused everyone’s language at the tower of Babel and made them move, people started heading out. Some moved a shorter distance away, like to the continent of Africa, and some moved really far away. But everyone moved somewhere.
Coloring Corner: Acts 17:26
See Day 1’s directions, but sub in the Day 3 coloring sheet.

Lesson Time
o	Bible or children’s Bible
o	Costumes for teachers
o	Backpack
o	Mounting putty or tape
o	World Map
o	Optional: Pictures of Africa or real items from Africa
o	Plantain chips, 1 per child
o	Dark Skin Poster, cut apart
Part 1: Refuel Challenge (5 minutes)
Pre-prep: Turn the set panel around so the Day 3 collage images are showing. If using the pictures of africa or the real items from Africa, put them in your backpack, along with the plantain chips and Bible. If using plantain chips, check for allergies ahead of time.
Teacher 1: Jambo! That’s “hello” in an African language. Let’s say “Jambo!” together. Do so. Today, we’re traveling to Africa, which is here. Show on the World map. God loves the people of Africa! 
For today’s first challenge, see if they can remember where Africa is on the map.
Teacher 2: Let me show you some things you might find if you traveled to Africa. Either point out the collage images on the Day 3 set panel, or show the pictures of africa or the real items from Africa in your backpack.
Teacher 1: Now, who would like to try a plantain chip, which is a food they eat in Africa? Have anyone interested try one. Plantain chips can be purchased in the grocery store or online.
Teacher 2: Show the Dark Skin Poster. And notice this African boy’s skin color. What color would you say it is? Take responses. 
Teacher 1: Did you know nobody’s skin is actually black? And did you know the color of our skin has something to do with the tower of Babel that we talked about yesterday? Let’s get out our special book, the Bible, and talk more about this.  
Carefully and respectfully pull your Bible out of the backpack and open it to Genesis 11. 
Part 2: Tower of Babel Review (5 minutes) 
o	Painter’s tape or masking tape
o	Ziggurat Poster (from yesterday)
Pre-prep: Put down a tape line in the middle of the room.
Teacher 2: Now, let’s see what you can remember about the tower of Babel. We’re going to say something and you have to go this way (point to the right) if you think it’s true or that way (point to the left) if you think it’s not true. Let’s have everybody stand on this line. Remember, you’re going this way (point) if you think it’s true, and that way (point) if you think it isn’t.
1.Before the tower of Babel happened, everybody in the world spoke the same language. (True)
2.The people started building a city and a tower. (True—show ziggurat poster again)
3.God was really happy about it. (Not true)
4.The people were not obeying God, so God confused their language and made them all start speaking different languages. (True)
5.God let them all stay right there at the tower of Babel forever. (Not true)
6.The people moved all over the earth. (True)
Part 3: Special Recipe/Same Basic Ingredients (5–10 minutes)
o	Dark Skin Poster and Light Skin Poster
o	Skin Shades Poster
o	People Around the World Poster
o	Optional: chef’s hat and apron for Chef Mel
o	Basic ingredients for a white cake (see pre-prep)
o	Mixing spoon and bowls 
o	Pictures of Basic Ingredients 
o	Blue, red, or green food coloring
o	Clear punch cups (possibly 9)
Pre-prep: Print Pictures of Basic Ingredients. Make the cake batter ahead of time, but don’t bake it or put the food coloring in. Use a boxed mix, or use the following ingredients: 1 c. sugar, 1/2 c. butter, 2 eggs, 2 t. vanilla, 1 1/2 c. flour, 1 3/4 t. baking powder, and 1/2 c. milk. 
Cream the sugar and softened butter together, then add the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla. Combine the flour and baking powder in a different bowl, and add it to the creamed mixture. Then stir in the milk until the batter is smooth. Place the batter (without food coloring) in the cups. 
•	Remember to have enough for three small cups of white cake batter per rotation, so if you have three rotations, you’ll need nine cups.
Teacher 2: Good job, racers! Now let’s sit back down, because I have some pictures to show you. When God moved the people away from Babel, they ended up all over the world, and over time, they started becoming different people groups who looked different, spoke different languages, and did different things. Look at these pictures.
1.Show the Dark skin poster and the light skin poster and ask what is different about their skin.
2.Say that the lightest people are sometimes called white. Does that lightest person look white? Compare the skin shade to the white background. 
3.Say that the darkest people are sometimes called black. Does that darkest person look black? Compare the skin shade to the black background. 
4.Explain that everyone is really the same color—brown. We are just different shades of brown. Show the Skin Shades Poster. Some of us are really light brown, and some of us are really dark brown, and some of us are shades in between.
5.Explain that every single person is special and made in God’s image. Read Genesis 1:26a. He chose to make us all look a little different! 
6.Introduce Chef Mel to come and tell us more about this. Chef Mel can have a hat and apron on if desired. 
•	If you can’t find blue food coloring, substitute a different color and make a note to say that color instead of the word “blue” in the Chef Mel demo.
Teacher 1 (acting as Chef Mel): Hello, everyone! I’m Chef Mel. Have you ever made a cake? Take responses. Well, let me show you what goes into a cake. Point to the pictures of basic ingredients. Flour, sugar, salt, butter, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, and milk. I mixed all these up and ended up with this cake batter. But now I want my cake to be blue. How blue? Well, that depends on how much blue food coloring I put into it. Let’s try it in different cups and mix it up to see how it looks. 
Do so and go from a cup with very light blue batter (only one drop of food coloring), to a cup with medium blue (2–3 drops of food coloring), to a cup with very dark blue batter (a lot of blue food coloring).
Teacher 2: Even though the cakes look different now, that’s amazing to think they all have the same basic ingredients. They just have more or less of the blue coloring, which makes them different shades of blue. 
Teacher 1: Our skin is like that, too. God made each of us out of the same basic “recipe.” But he put more or less of an ingredient called “melanin” into our bodies. 
Teacher 2: What does melanin do?
Teacher 1: Melanin is like brown food coloring. It helps to make our skin the lovely shade of brown that we have, from light to dark. Melanin also helps to determine what color hair and eyes we have. The more melanin we make, the darker our hair and eyes will be. The less melanin we make, the lighter our hair and eyes may be. So we all are made with the same basic recipe, and then God enjoys making each of us our own special person with just the right amount of special ingredients he wants each of us to have. God is the most wonderful, Master Creator!  
Teacher 2: You’re right, Chef Mel! Thank you for sharing that! Chef Mel leaves. God is a wonderful Creator. In fact, Psalm 139 says: read Psalm 139:13–14. Show the people around the world poster. Every person is special and loved by God! Point to some of the people pictured on the poster. God made this person, and this person, and this person, and this person, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and God doesn’t make any mistakes! Every single person is a special creation! We’re all made by God. God loves all people groups! We’re going to talk to Speedy about this. Let’s get ready!
To transition as one teacher goes behind the puppet stage, lead the kids in singing the “Jesus Loves the Little Children” song that is on the Simple Songs CD. 
Part 4: Puppet Pal—Going to the Dogs (5 minutes)
o	Puppet and clipboard
o	Day 3 Puppet Script (2 copies)
o	Dog Kind Poster
o	Day 3 Animal Pal Poster
Pre-prep: Tape one puppet script inside the puppet stage, and place the other on the clipboard.
Puppet: Before coming up, make a dog barking sound behind the puppet stage without being seen. 
Teacher: Hey, do you guys hear a dog barking? Wonder what’s going on.
Puppet:  Pop up. Oh, hi! I was just feeding my dogs.
Teacher: How many dogs do you have?
Puppet: Well, there’s Goofy Foofy. She’s our silly little poodle.
Teacher: You named your dog Goofy Foofy? O . . . kay . . . 
Puppet: And then our Golden Retriever is named Funny Sunny. 
Teacher: Funny Sunny? Goofy Foofy? I guess you’re into rhyming.
Puppet: And our Irish Setter is called . . . .
Teacher: Let me guess. Red Fred?
Puppet: No, silly! His name is Rusty.
Teacher: Wow, you have a lot of dogs! How many was that, kids? Take responses—three.
Puppet: They’re all so different. Two of them are big and one is little. One is golden colored, one is reddish, and one is white.
Teacher: I bet they’re different in lots of ways. 
Puppet: Yeah, Goofy Foofy is always rolling around on the floor. Funny Sunny has fur that gets all over the place. And Rusty loves to run.
Teacher: Show the Dog Kind Poster. I’m so glad God created dogs. All the different varieties of dogs are fantastic. Look at some of these! Discuss for a minute.
Puppet: These dogs do look different!
Teacher: They do. Take our Pup Patrol, here. Show the day 3 animal pal poster. These pups all live in Africa, but they sure don’t look alike!
Puppet: I’ll say!
Teacher: This one’s a Boerboel (pronounced “bore bull”). Point to the dog on the left of the poster if you’re looking at it. He’s gonna be a big, strong dog when he grows up. He has short, brown fur. And here’s a Basenji (pronounced “baa sen gee”). Point to the middle dog. Look at how his ears stick up! And then there’s this white Coton de Tulear (pronounced “co tawn day two lee er”). Point to the white dog. Look how fluffy his fur is! 
Puppet: They really do look different.
Teacher: At the same time, they’re also alike in lots of ways.
Puppet: Yeah, they all like to be scratched between their ears, and they tilt their heads when we ask if they’re hungry. And you know what else they all do?
Teacher: What?
Puppet: Spin around before they lie down! It’s so funny! Spin around a little. 
Teacher: Well, dogs do those same kinds of things because God made the dog kind. And God made every other animal kind, too. Dogs are dogs, cats are cats, elephants are elephants, and so forth. 
Puppet: How about people?
Teacher: People aren’t like animals. We’re made in God’s image. Every person is unique in his or her own way because God made each person special, putting in just the right amount of every ingredient he wanted to.  
Puppet: Like melanin? 
Teacher: Like melanin. That’s why it’s so interesting to get to know people—we’re different in some ways. At the same time, people are people, and we’re alike in many ways, too. We all eat and sleep and sometimes feel happy and sometimes feel sad and create things and talk and learn.
Puppet: I have friends who look a little different than I do, but we all like to play together.
Teacher: That’s great! We may look a little different, but remember, we’re all people, and we’re all related! Every person is part of Adam and Eve’s family.
Puppet: And God loves all people groups all over the earth, no matter where they live.
Teacher: That’s right. God loves people groups, and we should love people, too. 
Puppet: Well, this puts me in the mood to go and play with my friend Abun (ah boon).  His family is from Africa. We like playing together. 
Teacher: Wonderful! We’ll see you later, Speedy. Have fun!
Song Time
o	“Jesus Loves the Little Children” song
o	“He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” song
o	MP3 or CD player
o	Skin Shades Poster
o	World Map 
Song 1: “Jesus Loves the Little Children”
Sing this song the familiar way first, then try verse 2 with the revised words. Explain that people aren’t really red and yellow, black and white, but different shades of brown.
Verse 1
Jesus loves the little children (For “Jesus,” make the Jesus sign—put right middle finger in left palm, and vice versa. Then cross arms over chest to represent “loves.”)
All the children of the world (Make a big world with your arms.)
Red and yellow, black and white 
(Point around.)
They are precious in his sight 
(Hug yourself.)
Jesus loves the little children of the world  (Repeat direction 1.)
Verse 2
Jesus loves the little children 
(Repeat direction 1.)
All the children of the world
(Repeat direction 2.)
Shades of brown from dark to light (Move your hand from your right side to your left side on the words “dark to light.”)
All are precious in his sight 
(Hug yourself.)
Jesus loves the little children of the world (Repeat direction 1.)
Song 2: “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”
Remind the racers that God is so big and is the One who made the whole world and every person. He loves everyone and has everything under his perfect control.  
There are a lot of verses written here. Do as few or as many as you’d like, using the posters as references.
Verse 1
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world with your arms, then put your two hands, palms up and together, in front of you.)
He’s got the whole wide world in his hands (Repeat.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Repeat.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Repeat.)
Verse 2
He’s got people in Africa in his hands (Point to Africa on the map.)
He’s got people in Asia in his hands 
(Point to Asia on the map.)
He’s got people in Europe in his hands (Point to Europe on the map.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world, then put your two hands together, palms up, in front of you.)
Verse 3
He’s got people with dark skin in his hands (Point to a picture of a dark-skinned person on the poster.)
He’s got people with light skin in his hands (Point to a picture of a light-skinned person on the poster.)
He’s got people with medium skin in his hands (Point to pictures of other people on the poster.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world, then put your two hands together, palms up, in front of you.)
Verse 4
He’s got people who speak Spanish in his hands (Touch the left side of your mouth.)
He’s got people who speak German in his hands (Touch the right side of your mouth.) 
He’s got people of all languages in his hands (Touch both sides of your mouth.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world, then put your two hands together, palms up, in front of you.)
Verse 5
He’s got people with dark hair in his hands (Point to a picture of a dark-haired person on the poster.)
He’s got people with light hair in his hands (Point to a picture of a light-haired person on the poster.)
He’s got people with red hair in his hands (Point to a picture of a red-haired person on the poster.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world, then put your two hands together, palms up, in front of you.)
Verse 6
He’s got people with blue eyes in his hands (Point to your left eye.)
He’s got people with green eyes in his hands (Point to your right eye.)
He’s got people with brown eyes in his hands (Point to both eyes.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world, then put your two hands together, palms up, in front of you.)
Verse 7
He’s got every people group in his hands (Point all over the place.)
He’s got every people group in his hands (Repeat.)
He’s got every people group in his hands (Repeat.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world, then put your two hands together, palms up, in front of you.)
Verse 8
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Make a big world, then put your two hands together, palms up, in front of you.)
He’s got the whole wide world in his hands (Repeat.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Repeat.)
He’s got the whole world in his hands (Repeat.)
Memory Verse and Review Time
o	Day 3 Student Guides, 1 per child 
o	Passports, 1 per child
o	Stamp for Passports
In the remaining time, complete one or more of the following ideas in class. 
Put a stamp in the passports (or do so as the racers first arrive at VBS), and/or review the student guides.
Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
o	Memory Verse Music CD and player
o	Day 3 Memory Verse Poster
o	Balancing Act supplies—baskets or folded-up blankets, 1 per child
Pre-prep: Cue the memory verse song. Hang up the Day 3 Memory Verse Poster.
Today’s Verse: “And he made from one man every nation.” Acts 17:26 
Practice the verse several times by playing the appropriate song from the Memory Verse CD and using the day 3 memory verse poster as a reference. Then try the challenge.
Challenge: Balancing Act—Some people who live in Africa sometimes balance things on their heads as a way to carry them. Get a basket or a folded-up blanket and put it on your head. Walk around balancing it as you say today’s verse. Try to get the verse done before the item on your head falls off!
Tomorrow’s Verse: “The Father has sent his Son.” 1 John 4:14
Try the challenge again, this time with tomorrow’s verse. 
Part 2: Go and Do
•Ask an adult to read Psalm 139:13–16 to you. You are a special creation of God, dearly loved by him!
•Talk to God and thank him for the special way he made you. Nobody else is just like you! 
•Talk to an adult about foods and customs from another country. Isn’t it amazing to think we are part of the same family from the tower of Babel?
•With an adult, check answersvbs.com/irkids for more fun information!
Ask yourself this question: Do I know that God loves me?
Review Challenge
o	Day 3 Challenge Sheet 
o	Optional: Challenge Box
Pre-prep:  Photocopy the Day 3 challenge sheet on bright-colored paper. Put it in the Challenge Box, or hide it somewhere in the room for the racers to find. 
Have the racers jump up and down and do the following.
•Point to someone you are related to.
•Point to someone else you are related to.
•Point to someone else you are related to.
•Point to someone else you are related to.
•Point to someone else you are related to.
•Remember—we are all related!
Day 4
One Way—Jesus
Babel and the Gospel
Continent
Europe
Bible passage
The Gospel and a Glimpse of Heaven
Revelation 7:9–10
Animal Pals
Agape and Phileo the Polish Mute Swans
Lesson focus
On our fourth leg, we discover the need to yield our lives to God as he reaches out to all nations, tribes, and peoples with his love.
Apologetics Focus
God provides just one way to be saved.
Mile Marker Memory Verse
“The Father has sent his Son.” 1 John 4:14
Today’s Exploration Stations
•Discovery Center: Hearts
•Touch Table Water: Color Mixing
•Touch Table Sand: Crosses
•Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
•Coloring Corner: 1 John 4:14
Today’s Lesson at a Glance
Lesson Time
•Part 1: Refuel Challenge
•Part 2: Puppet Pal—Gospel Presentation
•Part 3: Around the World Review Game
Song Time
•Song 1: “Jesus Loves Me”
•Song 2: “A-B-C-D-E-F-G, Jesus Died for You and Me” 
Memory Verse/Review Time
•Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
•Part 2: Go and Do
•Review Challenge
Preparing for the Lesson
•Read Revelation 7:9–10 a couple times.
•Read this lesson several times and prepare the materials as outlined in the pre-prep boxes.
•Read “Leading a Child to Christ” found on the inside back cover of this guide, and pray for your day. 
•For more information on Jesus being the only way to heaven, visit answersvbs.com/irfaq.

Exploration Stations
Discovery Center: Hearts
Materials
8 laminated construction paper or card stock hearts in different colors—1 of each color 
Flannel board
Flannel or sand paper to put on the back of the hearts
Pre-prep
Put all the hearts on the board. If you don’t have a flannel board, just tape them on the wall. 
Directions
This works well to do as a group.
Racers look at the board and try to remember all the colors of hearts. Have them close their eyes. Turn the board around and take off one heart. Turn the board back around and have them open their eyes. See if they can figure out which one is missing. Continue in like manner.
Teaching Tie-In
Do you know what a heart shape stands for? Yes, love! God loved us so much he sent his Son, Jesus, so that whoever believes in him can have eternal (forever) life.
Touch Table Water Option: Color Mixing
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Washable markers in different colors
Coffee filters
Spray bottles of water
Pre-prep
Put the coffee filters in the dry water table.
Directions
The racers color the coffee filters with two or three colors, then squirt the water on them and see how the colors mix and change.
Teaching Tie-In
What color markers do you have? Take responses. Let’s color a little of one color on one spot on our coffee filters. Do so, then have them color another spot with another color and so forth. Now let’s use the spray bottles of water to see what happens! Spray and watch how the colors mix and change and all end up with their own “look.” Share how God put a little of this and a little of that in each of us till we all are now our own unique combination that makes us special.
Touch Table Sand Option: Crosses
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Play sand
Wet wipes for cleanup
Craft sticks (in mini, regular, and large sizes if possible—a handful of each)
Pre-prep
Keep in the buckets from yesterday and add in the craft sticks.
Directions
The racers use the craft sticks in a couple ways to make crosses in the sand. One way is to use the craft sticks like a writing utensil and draw a cross in the sand. Another way is to lay a craft stick flat on top of the sand, then press down, then lift it up to make an indentation to represent the vertical part of the cross. Do the same with the crossbar.
Teaching Tie-In
What shape are we making? Take responses. Yes, a cross! Do you know why the cross is so important to us? Take responses, and explain that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead because he loves each one of them so much. 
Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
Materials
Day 1 items
Optional: safe items from Europe
Pre-prep
Take out any items from Africa and add in the European items.
Directions
Dress up and pretend to be traveling to Europe today on The Incredible Race.
Teaching Tie-In
In Europe, people speak different languages. Let’s try to say “hello” in some of those languages. Say some of the following, and remind them that everyone spoke the same language before the tower of Babel. 
French—Bonjour; Spanish—Hola; German—Guten Tag; Swedish—Hej; Croatian—Bok.
Coloring Corner: 1 John 4:14
See Day 1’s directions, but sub in the Day 4 coloring sheet.

Lesson Time
o	Bible or children’s Bible
o	Costumes for teachers
o	Backpack 
o	Mounting putty or tape
o	World Map
o	Optional: Pictures of Europe or real items from Europe
o	European Car Picture
o	Eiffel Tower Picture
o	Stop Sign, Yield Sign, and One Way Sign
Part 1: Refuel Challenge (7 minutes)
Pre-prep: Turn the set panel around so the Day 4 collage images are showing. If using the Pictures of Europe or real items from Europe, put them in your backpack, along with the Bible and other visuals. (Make sure they are placed in there carefully so they won’t get wrinkled.)
Teacher 1: Bonjour! That’s “hello” in French. Let’s say “Bonjour!” together. Do so. French is a language spoken on the continent of Europe, where we’re traveling today. Look where Europe is. Show the World map. God loves the people of Europe! 
For today’s first challenge, see if they can remember where you said Europe was on the map. 
Teacher 2: Let’s check out some things you might find if you traveled to Europe. Either point out the collage images on the Day 4 set panel, or show the pictures of europe or the real items from Europe in your backpack.
Teacher 1: Did you know in some places in Europe people drive on the other side of the road? And the steering wheel on the car is on the other side of the car? Show european car picture.  
Teacher 2: Let’s pretend we’re driving around Europe in our cars. We’ll have to follow our GPS to know how to get to our destination, and we also need to obey the road signs! Let’s get in our cars, put on our seat belts, and get ready to drive. Pretend to do so.
•	If you have a small room, the teacher can sit on a chair facing the kids, who are sitting down. Everyone follows the teacher’s instructions and pretends to drive without really moving. Ask what you should do at a stop sign, a yield sign, and a one way sign.
Teacher 1: First, let’s put our destination into our GPS. Pretend to push some buttons on a GPS. Now let’s head to the Eiffel Tower. Show the eiffel tower picture. The Eiffel Tower is a building that’s a favorite to visit! 
Teacher 2: Okay, now we’re ready to start driving. If we see a stop sign along the way, what should we do? Take responses. Okay, let’s drive around until we see a stop sign. Do so, and stop when you hold up a stop sign. Have everyone freeze. When everyone is quiet, continue.  
Teacher 1: Good job stopping at the stop sign! Now, what should we do if we see a yield sign? A yield sign means we’re going to stop and let someone else go. So now we’re going to drive around until we see a yield sign, and then let’s see if we can all yield to _____ (Teacher 2). Do so, and have them yield when they see the yield sign. Have everyone freeze. When everyone is quiet, ask the following. 
Teacher 2: Good job with the yield sign! Now, what should we do if we see a one way sign? Right, everybody needs to go the same way. Let’s drive around until we see the one way sign, and then we’ll make sure we’re all going the same way. Do so, and have them go one way when they see the one way sign. Have them freeze. When everyone is quiet, say the following.
Teacher 2 can get behind the puppet stage.
Teacher 1: Okay, let’s head over here where we will pretend the Eiffel Tower is. Let’s park our cars. Do so and have them sit down. Yay! You followed the directions carefully and we all had a safe ride! Now let’s call for Speedy and tell him (her) about all these directions we just followed!
Part 2: Puppet Pal—Gospel Presentation (5 minutes)
o	Puppet, clipboard, and Bible
o	Day 4 Puppet Script (2 copies)
o	Day 4 Animal Pal Poster
Pre-prep: Tape one puppet script inside the puppet stage, and place the other on the clipboard.
Teacher: Look down into the puppet hole and have the puppet come up at the same time. Bonk heads.
Puppet: Ouch! You just ran into me! I’m glad you’re better at driving than finding puppets. 
Teacher: Yeah, thankfully, we all drove carefully and followed the directions and the road signs.
Puppet: It’s important to follow those carefully or you could get into an accident.
Teacher: That’s right! And, you know, it’s important to follow God’s directions, too. They will help us with everything in life, not just driving.
Puppet: Where do you find God’s directions? Are they on road signs?
Teacher: No, God’s directions are in the Bible. He shares all important things in the Bible, like . . . how he loves the human race.
Puppet: God loves boys and girls?
Teacher: God loves boys and girls from every people group, and grown-ups, too! In fact, the Bible tells us that God loved us so much he sent his Son, Jesus, from heaven so he could rescue us. 
Puppet: Why? Are people in trouble?
Teacher: You may not realize it, but every person is in trouble. That’s because of sin. We talked about sin a few days ago. Boys and girls, do you remember what sin is? Take responses, and remind them that sin is when we don’t obey God. Give a couple examples, like lying, not being kind to your brother or sister, throwing a tantrum, whining, or not going to bed when you are supposed to.
Puppet: What’s sin got to do with anything?
Teacher: Well, because we sin, we aren’t part of God’s family. When we die, we won’t live with God in heaven. God is perfect, and he doesn’t allow sin into his perfect place. 
Puppet: That sounds serious—even worse than getting in an accident!
Teacher: It is. But God’s Son, Jesus, came to earth to bring a way for us to get safely to heaven. God’s good directions are right here in the Bible.
Puppet: Like what? A stop sign?
Teacher: Well, God does tell each of us to stop—to stop and ask him to forgive you of your sin. Boys and girls, that means we are sorry for disobeying God. 
Puppet: Anything else?
Teacher: Yep. Boys and girls, then you tell God you believe he sent his Son, Jesus, to save you. You see, Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect life, never doing anything wrong and never sinning. But some people were mean to him, and they put a crown of thorns on his head and nailed his hands and feet to a cross.
Puppet: That would hurt. 
Teacher: It hurt terribly. Jesus let those people nail him to a cross because he knew we needed someone who had never sinned to take the punishment for sin, which is death. It would be like if you stole a cookie, but I took the punishment for it, even though I hadn’t stolen the cookie.
Puppet: That would be so kind of you!
Teacher: Yes, it was incredibly kind of Jesus. Show the day 4 animal pal poster.  Look at our swans here. What shape do you see in between them? Yes, a heart! Boys and girls, that’s to remind you that God loves you more than you can imagine—enough to die on a cross and take your punishment! But here’s something really amazing. Jesus didn’t stay dead! That’s because he’s God! They killed him and put him in a tomb, which is kind of like putting a dead person in a cemetery. But he came back to life! 
Puppet: Wow, I never realized how much he loves all people! More than I love peanut butter and jelly.
Teacher: Way more.
Puppet: Or my Binky Bear.
Teacher: Way, way more. He loves these boys and girls more than you can imagine.
Puppet: Wow . . . so you said to stop and ask God to forgive you, then believe Jesus died and rose from the dead to take your punishment if you want to be part of God’s family.
Teacher: Yes! Boys and girls, you can talk to God and tell him you want to be part of his family. If any of you want to become part of God’s family, make sure you talk to your leader or me today about that! 
Puppet: Thanks for sharing that greatest news! I think I’m going to go tell my friend Oskar (Oh-scar), who is from Romania, about this!
Teacher: Okay! We’ll see you later, Speedy!
Part 3: Around the World Review Game (5 minutes)
o	Around the World Pictures
o	One Race Poster
Pre-prep: Hang the Around the World Pictures around the room so there are two on each wall, with a total of 8. 
Teacher 1: We’re going to see if we can remember some things we’ve learned this week at The Incredible Race. We’re going to start over here (point to your starting point) and try to race around the world and get back here by answering some questions correctly. Let’s all come over here to the starting point and sit down. Do so. Okay, here’s question number one. I’ll say it, and then on the count of three, everyone can shout out his answer. Here we go! 
Ask the first question. Count to three and have them shout out the answer. If they get it right, have them move to the next picture of the Around the World game. Continue in like manner, seeing if they can make it the whole way around the world (around the room) in the available time.
1.Yes or No: We are related to Adam and Eve. (Yes—show the One Race Poster and review.)
2.Yes or No: You are related to the person you’re standing next to.  (Yes)
3.Yes or No: A doctor made you. (No, God made us.)
4.Yes or No: God made you special, with your own special recipe. (Yes)
5.Yes or No: God made every person, and he loves and cares about all people. (Yes)
6.Yes or No: We need to love other people. (Yes)
7.Yes or No: The first sin on earth happened when Adam and Eve didn’t obey God. (Yes)
•	Gospel Opportunity
8.Yes or No: People still sin (don’t obey God) today. (Yes—you may want to share more about the gospel here.)
Song Time
o	“Jesus Loves Me” song
o	“A-B-C-D-E-F-G, Jesus Died for You and Me” song
o	MP3 or CD player
Song 1: “Jesus Loves Me”
Jesus loves me this I know (Make the word “Jesus” with left middle finger touching the palm of the right hand and vice versa, then put hands over your heart.)

For the Bible tells me so (Put hands together to form a Bible.)
Little ones to him belong (Put your hands down low as if patting a young child.)
They are weak, but he is strong (Act weak, then strong.)
Yes, Jesus loves me (Nod head “yes,” then the word “Jesus” with left middle finger touching the palm of the right hand and vice versa, then put hands over your heart.)
Yes, Jesus loves me 
(Nod head “yes,” then the word “Jesus” with left middle finger touching the palm of the right hand and vice versa, then put hands over your heart.)
Yes, Jesus loves me 
(Nod head “yes,” then the word “Jesus” with left middle finger touching the palm of the right hand and vice versa, then put hands over your heart.)
The Bible tells me so (Put hands together to form a Bible.)
Song 2: “A-B-C-D-E-F-G, Jesus Died for You and Me” 
A-B-C-D-E-F-G  (Bounce a little.)
Jesus died for you and me 
(Make the sign for “Jesus,” then point out for “you” and to yourself for “me.”)
H-I-J-K-L-M-N  (Bounce a little.)
Jesus died for sinful men 
(Make the sign for “Jesus,” then point around to everyone.)
AMEN!  (Fold hands together.)
O-P-Q-R-S-T-U (Bounce a little.)
I believe God’s Word is true 
(Make a Bible by putting your two palms side by side.)
U-V-W (Bounce a little.)
God has promised you
(Point up for “God” and link your two pinkies on the word “promised.”)
X-Y-Z  (Bounce a little.)
A home eternally
(Lift your hands toward heaven.)
Memory Verse and Review Time
o	Optional: Gospel Bookmarks, 1 per child 
o	Day 4 Student Guides, 1 per child 
o	Passports, 1 per child
o	Stamp for Passports
In the remaining time, complete one or more of the following ideas in class.
Put a stamp in the passports (or do so as the racers first arrive to VBS), and/or review the student guides. If giving each child a gospel bookmark, show at this time, and then have leaders give them out at the end of the day.
Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verses
o	Memory Verse Music CD and player
o	Day 4 Memory Verse Poster
Pre-prep: Cue the memory verse song. Hang up the Day 4 Memory Verse Poster.
Today’s Verse: “The Father has sent his Son.” 1 John 4:14 
Practice the verse several times by playing the appropriate song from the Memory Verse CD and using the Day 4 memory verse poster as a reference. Then try the challenge.
Challenge: Statues—In Europe, there are lots of famous statues. In this challenge, you say the verse and then immediately freeze in a position. Stay frozen like a statue! Try again, and get into another statue position. Try as many times as you’d like!
Tomorrow’s Verse: “Love one another.” 1 John 4:11
Try the challenge again, this time saying tomorrow’s verse. 
Part 2: Go and Do
•Ask someone to read John 3:16–17 to you. Talk to God and thank him for sending his Son, Jesus, to be the Savior of the world.
•Who has taught you about Jesus? Thank them if you can!
•Ask an adult if he is a child of God, and if so, have him tell you when he became one.
•With an adult, check answersvbs.com/irkids for more fun information!
Ask yourself this question: Am I a child of God?
Review Challenge
o	Day 4 Challenge Sheet
o	Optional: Challenge Box 
Pre-prep: Photocopy the Day 4 challenge sheet  on bright-colored paper. Put it in the Challenge Box, or hide it somewhere in the room for the racers to find.
Have the racers sit down and stand up as they shout out the answers to the following questions.
•Who loves you?
•Who came to save you?
•Who died on the cross for you?
•Who wants you to be his child?
Day 5
Green Light—GO
Why Babel Matters Today
Continent
North America
Bible passage
The Good Samaritan
Luke 10:25–37
Animal Pal
Racer the Roadrunner
Lesson focus
On the final leg, we learn that because God loves all people groups, we also ought to treat others with love and respect, not prejudice and judgment.
Apologetics Focus
We’ll talk about how Christians should love one another and be kind.
Mile Marker Memory Verse
“Love one another.” 1 John 4:11
Today’s Exploration Stations
•Discovery Center: Step It Up! Concentration Game
•Touch Table Water: All Heart
•Touch Table Sand: Go!
•Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
•Coloring Corner: 1 John 4:11
Today’s Lesson at a Glance
Lesson Time
•Part 1: Refuel Challenge
•Part 2: The Good Samaritan
•Part 3: Puppet Pal—Love and Kindness
Song Time
•Song 1: “Make Me a Blessing” 
•Song 2: “This Little Light of Mine” 
Memory Verse/Review Time
•Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verse
•Part 2: Go and Do
•Review Challenge
Preparing for the Lesson
•Read Luke 10:25–37 a couple times.
•Read this lesson several times and prepare the materials as outlined in the purple pre-prep boxes.
•For more information on a Christian response to prejudice and racism, visit answersvbs.com/irfaq. 
•Pray.
Exploration Stations
Discovery Center: Step It Up! Concentration Game
Materials
Towers Around the World Pictures
Pre-prep
Photocopy onto white card stock the tower pictures so there are two of each tower. Cut into cards. 
Directions
Tell the racers to shuffle the cards and place them face down. (Or you can do this ahead of time.) Have them take turns flipping over two cards and seeing if they match. 
Teaching Tie-In
After the people moved away from the tower of Babel and settled in different places, they took their knowledge of how they had  built the tower of Babel and built towers in their areas. These pictures are step pyramids found around the world. Finding step pyramids all over the place shows the truth of the Bible. People from the tower of Babel would have passed on this design to their children and grandchildren, who could then build them!
Touch Table Water Option: All Heart
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Water
Fun foam hearts
Small fish nets
Pre-prep
Cut out or buy fun foam hearts. Put them in the water table. 
Directions
The racers try to scoop up as many hearts as possible. Have them see how many they can get in one scoop.
Teaching Tie-In
The Bible tells us God loves us and wants us to take that love and share it with others. A way to show love is to do something kind for someone. Can you think of something you can do to show kindness to someone? Take responses.
Touch Table Sand Option: Go!
Materials
Under-the-bed storage container, small wading pool, or “official” touch table
Tarp or plastic tablecloth
Play sand
Wet wipes for cleanup
Small toy transportation objects, such as play cars, trucks, planes, trains, buses (these should ideally have different kinds of wheels so they will make different looking tracks in the sand)
Pre-prep
Put the transportation objects in the sand table.
Directions
Racers should make tracks in the sand with the various transportation objects.
Teaching Tie-In
The Bible tells us to go and share Jesus with everyone! Whether we walk or ride or run, God wants us to tell people we see about Jesus and his love. Is there someone you can tell about Jesus today?
Dramatic Play: Airport/Travel
Materials
Day 1 items
Optional: safe items from North America
Pre-prep
Take out any items from Europe and add in the North American items.
Directions
Dress up and pretend to be traveling to North America today on The Incredible Race.
Teaching Tie-In
We’re ending our race in North America today, but as you go home, God wants you to remember to love all people, show them kindness, and tell them about Jesus.
Coloring Corner: 1 John 4:11
See Day 1’s directions, but sub in the Day 5 coloring sheet.

Lesson Time
o	Bible or children’s Bible
o	Costumes for teachers
o	Backpack
o	Mounting putty or tape
o	World Map
o	Optional: Pictures of North America or real items from North America
o	Heart Pattern, scissors, and one sheet each of red, white, pink, and purple paper 
Part 1: Refuel Challenge (5-10 minutes)
Pre-Prep: Turn the set panel around so the Day 5 collage images are showing. If using the Pictures of North America or real items from North America, put them in your backpack, along with the Bible. Prepare the heart pattern so you have four red hearts that spell “LOVE” (one letter per heart), three white hearts that spell “ONE,” and seven pink hearts that spell “ANOTHER.” Provide some additional blank purple hearts. Hide the hearts around the room with at least a bit of each showing. 
Note: If you have fewer kids than letters (there are 14 letters), don’t hide them all and fill in the end ones as need be. If you have more kids than letters, hide additional purple hearts so everyone can find a heart. 
•	You may want to laminate the hearts.
Teacher 1: Here we are on our last day of The Incredible Race, everyone! Today, we’re in North America, which is here. Show the World map. God loves the people of North America! 
For today’s first challenge, see if they can remember where North America is on the map. 
Teacher 2: Let’s check out some things you might find if you traveled to North America. Either point out the collage images on the Day 5 set panel, or show the pictures of North America or the real items in your backpack.
Teacher 1: We’ve traveled all around the world and have had so much fun telling you about God and how much he loves you and people all over this world! We want to leave you with a reminder of his love.
Teacher 2: We sure do, so we hid some hearts around the room. Does everybody know what a heart looks like? A heart represents love. When we say, “Go!” we want you to get up and see if you can find one. When you find your heart, come back and sit down. You don’t need to move anything to find one. Ready? On your mark, get set, GO! Begin the heart treasure hunt and continue until everyone has found a heart and is seated quietly.
Teacher 1: Look at all these hearts! Let’s see if we can spell out a special clue with our hearts. Who has a red heart? Proceed to have all with red hearts come up and have them get in order to spell the word “LOVE.” Continue with the white hearts to spell “ONE” and the pink hearts to spell “ANOTHER.” Explain that it spells “Love one another.” This is something God tells us over and over to do.
Teacher 2: The Bible gives us many examples of Jesus showing love to others. Let’s check out this one found here. (Carefully pull out the Bible from the backpack and point to Luke 10.)
Part 2: The Good Samaritan (5–10 minutes)
Good Samaritan Poster
Teacher 1: This example of love is about a person who was not liked by others. Sometimes at school or in other places, there are people who aren’t liked very much, but Jesus shows us we should be kind to them. To start, we need a lawyer. The lawyer knew all the rules and was asking Jesus lots of questions. Who would like to be the lawyer? Choose a volunteer and have him or her come up. 
Teacher 2: Okay, I’m going to read the Bible and I’ll tell you what to do, Mr. (Miss) Lawyer! Read or paraphrase Luke 10:25. Have the child repeat the lawyer’s question: Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Teacher 1: Read or paraphrase verse 26–27. As you say verse 27, point or do motions to go along with it, then have the lawyer (and the rest of the kids) also do them as you repeat it. For 
example, as you talk about loving God with all your heart, point to your heart. Point to your whole self for your soul. Make muscles for strength. Point to your brain for mind. 
Teacher 2: Read or paraphrase verse 28–29, having the lawyer repeat back that question about who is his neighbor.
At this point, tell the account in your own words from verses 29–35, showing them the good samaritan poster.  
Next, re-enact the account by choosing children to play the man who is beaten, the robbers, the priest, the Levite, the Good Samaritan, and the innkeeper.
Explain that the priest and the Levite were people who worked full-time for God, kind of like a pastor today. The Good Samaritan was someone not liked by others. One of you read through verses 29–35 as the other gives stage directions and helps the kids act it out. Have everyone sit down and get quiet.
Teacher 1: Read verse 36 and have the kids answer. 
Teacher 2: God loves us and sent his Son, Jesus, to die for us to take the punishment for our sin and then rose from the dead, as we talked about yesterday. If God loves us that much, don’t you think he would want us to share his love with others?
Teacher 2 can get behind the puppet stage.
Teacher 1: When you see someone or hear of someone needing help, what do you think God wants you to do? Take responses. Yes, help them! Helping others shows God’s love to others. Let’s talk to Speedy a bit more about loving others.
Part 3: Puppet Pal—Love and Kindness (5 minutes)
o	Puppet, clipboard, and Bible
o	Day 5 Puppet Script (2 copies)
o	Day 5 Animal Pal Poster
Pre-Prep: Tape one puppet script inside the puppet stage and place the other one on the clipboard.
Puppet: Pop up. Hey, everybody! What’s going on? 
Teacher: Hi, Speedy! We were just saying that if God loves us so much, we also ought to love one another.
Puppet: Hey, I just learned a Bible verse about that! It goes: Love one another.
Teacher: Let’s say that together, boys and girls. Do so.
Puppet: But I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to love that kid who looks so different than I do. 
Teacher: A person’s skin shade may be different than yours or he may wear clothes that are different than the type you wear or she may live in a different country. But each person is made by God in his image. God wants us to treat them with love and kindness.
Puppet: Do you have any Bible verses that would help me remember that?
Teacher: Well, we talked about our Bible verse for today. There are many, many verses that remind us to love one another. And the Bible also tells us to not base our thoughts about people on how they look on the outside, but to remember God looks at their hearts—the people they are. That verse goes like this: Read or paraphrase 1 Samuel 16:7.
Puppet: So I shouldn’t judge someone when they look different than I do?
Teacher: No, you should treat all people with love and kindness and try to find ways to help them.
Puppet: What if somebody drops groceries out of her grocery bag?

Teacher: Boys and girls, what could you do if somebody drops groceries out of her bag? Take responses.
Puppet: What if somebody is sitting by himself on the playground?
Teacher: Boys and girls, what could you do if you see someone who seems lonely and is sitting by himself on the playground? Take responses.
Puppet: What if there’s someone who isn’t good at the sports we play?
Teacher: We should love people whether they’re good at something or not.
Puppet: What if . . . 
Teacher: I think we get the idea. We need to ask God to help us to always be ready to treat everyone we meet each day with love and kindness. Show the day 5 animal pal poster. Look at Racer our Roadrunner here. He can remind us that God always wants us to be on the lookout for ways to race around and show his love through Jesus and kindness!
Puppet: I think I’m going to go see if my neighbor can use a hand. She walks with a walker, and maybe I can offer to hold the door open for her and see what other ways I can help her.
Teacher: Great idea, Speedy. Why don’t you do that? And thanks for stopping by this week. Let’s say bye to Speedy. Do so.
Song Time
o	“Make Me a Blessing” song
o	“This Little Light of Mine” song
o	MP3 or CD player
Song 1: “Make Me a Blessing” 
Make me a blessing (Make praying hands as you sway back and forth.)
Make me a blessing (Repeat.)
Out of my life (With both hands, point to your heart and then extend your hands out toward everyone.)
May Jesus shine (Put arms up and move them back and forth.)
Make me a blessing (Make praying hands as you sway back and forth.)
O, Savior, I pray (Put hands up to heaven.)
Make me a blessing (Make praying hands as you sway back and forth.)
To someone today
(Point out and around to everyone.)
Song 2: “This Little Light of Mine” 
Before singing this, tell the kids to shine the love of God to everyone they meet.
Verse 1:
This little light of mine 
(Make a candle with your index finger and move it in a circular motion.)
I’m gonna let it shine 
(Continue to move it in a circle.)
This little light of mine 
(Make a candle with your index finger and move it in a circular motion.)
I’m gonna let it shine 
(Continue to move it in a circle.)
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine 
(Repeat.)
Verse 2:
Hide it under a bushel? No!
(Cup one hand over your index finger. Pull your hand away when shouting, “No!”)
I’m gonna let it shine 
(Make a circular motion with index finger.)
Hide it under a bushel? No! (Cup one hand over your index finger. Pull your hand away when shouting, “No!”)
I’m gonna let it shine 
(Make a circular motion with index finger.)
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine
(Repeat.)
Verse 3:
Shine until Jesus comes
(Wave your “candle” back and forth.)
I’m gonna let it shine
(Make a circular motion with index finger.)
Shine until Jesus comes
(Wave your “candle” back and forth.)
I’m gonna let it shine
(Make a circular motion with index finger.)
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine 
(Repeat.) 
Memory Verse and Review Time
o	Day 5 Student Guides, 1 per child
o	Passports, 1 per child
o	Stamp for Passports
o	Optional: Revelation 7:9 Bookmarks, 1 per child
In the remaining time, complete one or more of the following ideas in class. 
Put a stamp in the passports (or do so as the racers first arrive at VBS), and/or review the student guides. Pass out the Revelation 7:9 bookmarks.
Part 1: Mile Marker Memory Verse
o	Memory Verse Music CD and player
o	Day 5 Memory Verse Poster
Pre-Prep: Cue the memory verse song. Hang up the Day 5 Memory Verse Poster.
Today’s Verse: “Love one another.” 1 John 4:11
Practice the verse several times by playing the appropriate song from the Memory Verse CD and using the Day 5 Memory Verse poster as a reference. Then try the challenge.
Challenge: Draw It!—Draw the verse in a way that will help you remember it!
Part 2: Go and Do
•Talk to God and ask him to help you love others and treat them with kindness.
•Think of an act of kindness you can do for someone today, and do it in the name of Jesus!
•Talk with your parent or guardian about ways you can show love and kindness to others who may look or act differently than you. How can you share about Jesus with them?
•With an adult, check answersvbs.com/irkids for more fun information!
Ask yourself this question: What did I learn about Jesus this week?
Review Challenge
o	Day 5 Challenge Sheet 
o	Optional: Challenge Box 
Pre-Prep: Photocopy the day 5 challenge Sheet on bright-colored paper. Put it in the Challenge Box, or hide it somewhere in the room for the racers to find. 
Have the racers jump up and shout “yes” if they think the answer is “yes.” Have them stay seated if they think it is “no.” Sit back down after each question.
•Does Jesus want us to love him?
•Does Jesus want us to love others?
•Does Jesus want us to be kind?
•Does Jesus want us to treat others like we would like to be treated?