Have children form a large circle. Choose one child to stand in the center of the circle. Give a beach ball to a child on the circle and have her toss the ball to someone on the opposite side while the person on the inside tries to intercept it. When the “insider” gets the ball, he switches places with the person who threw the ball. Continue play as long as time allows. Remind everyone that the disciples tried to keep children away from Jesus, but Jesus welcomed children and blessed them.

Put children into pairs. Have one person from each pair stand in an inner circle and the other person stand in an outer circle. Children on the inner circle walk clockwise and the children on the outer circle walk counterclockwise. After about 10 seconds, call out, “Children come!” Children must find their partners as quickly as possible and link arms with them. The pair that links arms last is out. Play continues until one pair remains. Remind children that we can run to Jesus any time—he is never too busy or bothered.

Divide children into teams and have them line up. Have the first person on each team maneuver through the obstacle course in both directions before tagging the next player in line. The first team to get all its players through the obstacle course wins. Remind children that they should never let anything stop them from getting to Jesus.

Divide children into two teams (Team 1 and 2), and give each team one of the colors of sticky note hearts. Have the first person on Team 1 attach a heart of her team’s color to the grid. As in the game Connect Four, the grid must be filled from the bottom up. After Team 1’s turn, the first player on Team 2 attaches a heart. Play continues with each team’s taking a turn until one team wins by getting four of its hearts in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. Tell children the hearts remind us that Jesus values children and his love for them is great—in all directions, at all times.