6 Themes/Large Group Lessons for February

1. Valentine’s  Day. Duh! You knew this one already, right?

Use heart candy for games.

    – Guess how many hearts are in the jar.

    – Have a heart relay. Kids take turns carrying candy hearts on a spoon to a specified container. Team who fills their container first, wins.

    – Form a heart. At the whistle team members must form a heart – using all clubbers on the team.

Talk about John 3:16 for the Large Group Lesson.

Do a craft with the word Valentine and John 3:16.  (See the picture illustrating this post.)

2. Crazy Heart Night. Here’s another Valentine-themed night. Kids wear as many hearts as they can. This can be a sweater with a heart pattern or stickers.

Large Group Lesson can be focused on Jeremiah 17:9 and Romans 10:9.

3. Barley Night. Have you celebrated Barley Night before. February is Barley Month (so says the Whole Grains Council) and is important enough to be listed on the February crazy holiday list.  So let’s celebrate! (Actually there are some barley cookies on Pinterest.)

Use the barley for games.

     – Teams stand on their line and each team member has a plastic spoon. Leader stands next to the first person in the line with a supply of barley. First person takes a spoonful of barley and carefully transfers the grain to the next team member’s spoon and so on until the last team member gets the barley. He/she puts it into an empty cup that is positioned at the end of the line. At the whistle, the team with the most barley in their cup wins.

Large Group Lesson – Tell the story of Ruth and Boaz. Ruth gleaned in the barley fields.

4. Popcorn Night. Popcorn Day is celebrated in February. Most documents say it’s the 19th.  We don’t really know, but we can still celebrate! Play popcorn games.

     – Have a container several feet away from the clubbers. Clubbers must throw the popcorn into the container.

    – Plan a popcorn relay. You will need paper cups and strong rubber bands. Poke a hole in the bottom of the paper cup and stuck an end of the rubber band through the hole. Next attach a paper clip to the rubber band (the end that’s through the hole) to keep it in place. The clubber attaches the cup to his foot by putting the rubber band around his foot. Fill the cup with popcorn. Clubber must walk to a specified point, without spilling the popcorn.

   – Ask for one player from each team to stand at his team line. Put a plate on each players head and put a few pieces of popcorn on the plate. Players must walk around the circle without spilling the popcorn. (Similar to bean bag relay.)

Large Group Lesson could be kids jumping up and giving a “popcorn” thanks. See how many different things/people the group is thankful for that the Lord has given them.

5. Canned Food Night. February is also Canned Food Month. What a great theme for club. Have a canned food contest – which team brings in the most canned food for a food bank. So often, food banks get a lot of donations November and December, but then are forgotten as the New Year comes in. Food banks will be thankful for a February contribution!

Games with canned food could include …

   – Rolling a can around the floor with a broom.

   – Stacking four or five cans before a child is able to run around the circle.

   – Running around the circle and needing to knock over a stack of cans with a bean bag before getting the pin.

(Cans used in games should be empty, but make sure that they’re not the type with sharp edges.)

Large Group lesson could be anything about service for the Lord, feeding the hungry, etc.

6. Plimsoll Night. (I think this is my favorite.) February 10th is Plimsoll Day, a day dedicated to Samuel Plimsoll. Samuel was a member of the English Parliament back in the 1800s.  Shipping was a big industry at the time and to get as much cargo from one place to another, ship owners would overload their vessels. This way more cargo would get to where it was going and they would make more money. But many of the ships were so overloaded, they sunk and more than 1,000 sailors a year were losing their lives.

Samuel said that all ships needed to have a line painted on the side of the ship and when that line hit the water, no more cargo could be added. Ship owners and many in government didn’t want the line because they were more interested in the money from an overloaded ship.

But finally in 1890, the line became law. Since then this has been known as the Plimsoll line and is still used today. (You can find out more information about Mr. Plimsoll on the web.)

Large Group Lesson. The Plimsoll Line is a natural illustration for a Large Group Lesson. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says:  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

God knows how much we can handle and promises not to tempt us beyond our ability or endurance. He knows our Plimsoll line.