You will need: coloured circles of card/paper – green, red and orange.

• Ask the children to move around the room, keeping alert and watching for changes.
• Hold up one of the coloured circles. When it is green they can keep going, when it is orange they must stand still, and when it is red they must sit down.
• Play the game for a while, then, after showing the last red card, invite them to sit while you talk about changes in life – good changes, such as a new baby, and difficult changes, such as moving house or school.
• Talk about how sometimes we need to change the way we behave or treat others if we’re not following Jesus’ way. Advent is a time to think about what we might need to change in our lives.

Platform play

Follow the right way (C+YP 15 mins)

Use a console game to illustrate following the right way, encountering obstacles, retracing paths and reaching a goal

You will need: someone familiar with console games to set up a game; console (Xbox, Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation, Sega Megadrive, Gameboy) and a selection of platform games; a screen and projector or TV, or a laptop with internet access.

• Choose a game that features a character who has to follow a path and reach a goal, meeting challenges along the way. Some examples include Sonic the Hedgehog games, most Mario games, the Little Big Planet series, or go to www.miniclip.com/games/en/platform.php and take turns to play some of the simple online games.
• Talk about how our lives are a bit like a platform game – we go through life and sometimes we need to change direction.

Play

Sweepers (C 10 mins)

A fun and frantic game of clearing out the rubbish

You will need: two or more big brooms; lots of sheets of newspaper or paper for recycling; masking tape (preferably a smooth floor surface) and a whistle.

• Divide the children into equal teams, one called ‘sweepers’, the other, ‘throwers’.
• Mark out a big square for the sweepers to stand in – their job is to keep that area free from paper.
• Allow the throwers to stand around the square with a supply of paper nearby. Their job is to take pieces of paper, screw them up and throw them into the square.
• Blow the whistle to commence play – the throwers frantically throwing into the square, the sweepers sweeping it out.
• Blow the whistle to end play and everyone MUST freeze. While everyone is frozen like statues, count the paper balls in the square.
• Swap over so that the sweepers become throwers and vice versa, and play again to see who had the most paper in the square.

Make

Advent baubles (C+YP 15 mins)

An ongoing craft activity, week 2

You will need: coloured pipe cleaners; bauble from last week.

• Each bauble will show ideas from the four weeks of Advent. You might have prepared the first segment last week, or you can do this now.
• First, the youngsters should mark out their ball into four quarters, segmented from top to bottom.
  • First segment: fix the sun and moon and stars images. Add glitter to the segment.
  • Second segment: glue on the coloured pipe cleaners to show the wiggly path and a straight path.
• Continues next week.

Play

Sound effects quiz (YP 15 mins)

A fun way to practise listening skills

You will need: a sound effects CD and the means to play it; paper and pens; a prize.

• Borrow a sound effects CD from your local library (see Further resources). Select about 10 tracks of different sounds (getting increasingly difficult), and play them one at a time to the group.
• Ask everyone to write down what they think each sound is. Then ask people to swap and mark each other's answers. Award a prize to the person with the highest number of accurate answers.