Have children sit in a circle and select one person to be the “shepherd.” This person walks around the circle and taps the head of each child while saying “sheep.” When the shepherd wants to choose a new shepherd, he taps a child’s head, says “Shepherd,” and runs around the circle. The new shepherd gets up and tries to tag the tagger before the tagger returns to the spot where the new shepherd had been sitting. If tagged, the original shepherd sits in the middle of the circle until someone else is tagged and takes his place. If not tagged, the new shepherd becomes the tagger and gets to walk around the circle and choose a new person to be shepherd. If your group is large, break into two groups to give more people an opportunity to play. Place a limit on the number of times one person can be chosen. Remind the children that God has chosen to be our shepherd and promises to care for and protect us.

Assign one child to be the shepherd (“It”). Begin a game of tag. When someone is tagged, she must lie down on the floor and say the verse, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.” Continue until only one child remains. That child is the shepherd for the next game. Remind the children that Psalm 23:2 says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures.”

Have the children stand in the taped area (the sheepfold). Choose one person to be the shepherd and the others to be sheep. The shepherd stands in the center of the play area and counts to five with his eyes closed. While he counts, the sheep scatter outside of the sheepfold. After counting, the shepherd opens his eyes and tries to tag the sheep until he has tagged them all. When a sheep is tagged, he must go to the sheepfold. As time allows, the last person to be tagged is the new shepherd.

Divide children into two teams, give the first person a glue stick, and have the children line up behind a cup filled with twenty-five cotton balls. When the teacher calls “Go!” the first person on each team should take the glue stick and one cotton ball out of her team’s cup, run down to the sheep paper, and glue the cotton ball to the picture. Then she must run back and hand the glue stick to the next player in line. Play continues with each player gluing one cotton ball at a time. The first team to get all their cotton balls on the paper—and then to get back to the cup—is the winner. Remind children that God calls himself the great shepherd, and we are his sheep.