Have children sit in a circle. Have the first person whisper a message into the ear of the person next to him (e.g., “John wore camel’s hair and ate sticky bugs,” or “Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.”) That person whispers the message she thought she heard to the person next to her. The game continues until it reaches the last person in the circle. The last person says the message he heard to the group. Compare the original message to the final one shared. Remind children that John the Baptist was a messenger sent to prepare the way for the Lord.

Have children line up on one side of the room. The teacher stands at the opposite end of the room. When the teacher holds up the “Jesus” sign and calls out “Jesus,” children must run toward the sign. When the teacher holds up the “Sin” sign and calls out “Sin,” children must immediately stop and turn their backs to the sign. If a child does not stop immediately, send him or her back to the starting line. The child who passes the teacher first wins. Remind children sin keeps us from Jesus, but we can always run to Jesus and ask for forgiveness.

Tell children that you are going to flip a coin. If the children think it will land on heads, they should go to one side of the room. If they think it will land on tails, they should go to the other side of the room. Flip the coin. The children who guessed correctly are safe, and those who did not are out. Continue play until one child remains. Remind children that in life we have choices to make—not silly choices like heads or tails but choices about whether we will follow Jesus or not. John the Baptist encouraged people to choose repentance and pointed them to Jesus.

Divide children into two teams and assign one team to each section. Distribute an equal number of pieces of paper to each team, and instruct children to crumple the paper into balls. Explain that the paper represents sin and that they’re trying to get rid of it. On “Go” each team tries to keep the paper off their side by tossing the pieces to the other side for a predetermined amount of time (about 3 minutes). When time is up, the team with the least number of paper balls on their side wins. Play again as time allows. Remind children that to repent of our sin means to get rid of it.