Leader Guide
Guessing Activity
- Two Game Cards Patterns
- Modeling dough or clay: one container of dough or brick of clay per group of 3–6 children
- Optional: cardstock, two sheets per group
- Scissors
- Sealable sandwich bags or envelopes, one per group
- Toothpicks, craft sticks, or sharpened pencils, at least two per group
- Waxed paper, one 12-inch square sheet per group
- Mini rolling pins, one per group; or unopened soup or vegetable cans, cylinder-shaped wood blocks, or small plastic bottles. As an alternative, children can flatten and form the dough with their hands
- Hand wipes or paper towels for each group to clean their hands during the activity
- Timer, such as a stopwatch, clock or watch with second hand, or timer app for each group
- Tables and chairs
- Bible or Superbook Bible App
Make a copy of the Two Game Cards Patterns, one set per group on cardstock or paper.
Cut the individual game cards apart. Place one set of 16 cards in each bag/envelope. Be careful to keep each card set separate.
Daniel and his three Hebrew friends served King Nebuchadnezzar as scribes. They translated important writings and records on clay tablets onto scrolls. Now, it’s time for you to have some fun and draw pictures from the video in clay or modeling dough. You will work in small groups and take turns drawing and guessing items you saw in the Bible story or Signpost video.
Divide the children into small groups of 3–6 children depending on the class size.
Explain the activity and demonstrate how to roll out the clay or dough on a sheet of wax paper and scratch a symbol onto it.
Give each group some clay or dough, a sheet of wax paper, paper towels, toothpicks, craft sticks, or pencils, and a bag of game cards. Place the stack of cards face down in the middle of the table.
On their turn, each child will roll out the clay or dough on the wax sheet, take a card from the stack, read it without letting the other children see what it says, then try to draw the item by scratching it onto the clay or dough as the rest of the group tries to guess what the object is.
Groups can slowly count to 30 seconds or use a timer as each player draws.
Assist any children with special needs.
Conclusion: How did you do; was it difficult to draw the object onto the clay? Can you imagine how long it took to write a record of an event, a law, or a decision on a clay tablet? I am very thankful for pencils, pens and keyboards, aren’t you?