Building Game

Nehemiah had all of the people work together. They had one common purpose—to rebuild the walls! This game will be played as a large group, working together to keep the wall from being torn down! This game is played much like the game of Hangman. You will guess letters of important things or people in the Bible story. When you guess a correct letter in the word, a box is added to the wall. When you guess incorrectly, a block is removed from the wall. We will start with three blocks on the wall. Why do you think we are starting with just part of a wall? Parts of the wall were still standing when Nehemiah came to Jerusalem.

Nehemiah made sure that the work did not stop even when they were threatened by Sanballat and Tobiah. Your challenge is to keep the wall from being torn down and to build it even higher!

Select a word from the list. Make a blank line on the board for each letter. (For the word “mock,” make four blanks.)

The first child guesses a letter.

If that letter is in the word, write it in the correct blank on the board, then add another block to the wall. If a letter is in the word more than once, write it in all the places it is used. (For Sanballat, write the letter “a” in the three corresponding blanks.)

If a child guesses a letter that is not in the word, knock one box from the wall (as if it was destroyed by the enemy). Write the incorrect letter below the blanks so children will not guess it again.

Play continues until the blanks are filled in and the word is revealed or the word is guessed.

A child may guess the complete word only on their turn.

Be careful; an incorrect guess removes two blocks from the wall! If there are two or fewer boxes, an incorrect guess may cause the group to lose that round!

Do not allow children to shout words while others are playing, as this is disrespectful and takes away from the game experience.

If the wall still has blocks remaining when the word is guessed, Nehemiah is happy! If all of the boxes are torn down before the word is guessed or revealed, Nehemiah is behind schedule!

Play again with another word, beginning with three boxes in the wall.

Word List: they do not need to be used in order.

• Mock
• Pray
• Nehemiah
• Stones
• Jerusalem
• Celebrate
• Guard
• Laborers
• Trumpet
• Alarm
• Destroy
• Builders
• Weapons
• Rebuild
• Succeed
• Challenges
• Strength
• Weeping
• Sanballat
• Tobiah