John The Baptist Matthew 3:1-10
Teaching Videos
Teaching Ideas
Idea 1
Get the kids to make a road, or an entrance for a king. What would it look like to greet a king? How would you want the entrance to look? How would you want to look if you were to greet a king?
Idea 2
Get a real locust and talk about what it would be like to eat it or let some kids try them.
Idea 3
Do relay races where kids need to put on some John the Baptist clothes (something itchy, fake animal fur) run to the other side, eat some honey and come back.
Idea 4
Read “Heaven Breaks Through” on page 200 in the Jesus Storybook Bible.
Questions:
What was John’s special job that God gave him?
Why did John tell people to change their hearts and lives?
How does John help us get ready to know Jesus?
What are some things we can do to “prepare the way” for Jesus in our lives?
Idea 5
Make a locust out of paper.
This activity would work well for older kids, or you could partner up a younger kid with an older one.
Give each of the kids a green piece of paper and teach them how to make a locust. You can use this video.
Once the locusts are made you can have a locust parade, or have a race of getting them to hop from one side of the room to the other. Or see which one can make the biggest jump.
Have a conversation with the kids about John eating locusts and honey, and how he was so different from the other priests of the day. The other priests would eat the meat from sacrifices, and wear robes. John ate locusts and honey and wore a robe made out of camel hair.
Idea 6
Read “John Prepares the Way” on page 259 in The Children’s Bible in 365 Stories by Mary Batchelor
Questions:
Why did people go to the wilderness to listen to John?
What did John tell the people to do if they wanted to follow God?
What does it mean to “produce fruit” that shows we are sorry?
How can we show with our actions that we love and follow God?
Idea 7
People were lining up in the desert because the knew the King was coming. We know that Jesus is coming again, what can we do to get ourselves ready?
Idea 8
Hide plastic bugs all around the room.
See if the kids will notice the bugs and if they do, then see if they can collect them all.
Try to name as many of the bugs as you can.
Pick out the locust and talk about a guy named John in the bible who used to eat them.
Tell them this guy was there to announce Jesus and get everyone ready for Him.
Idea 9
Talk about the word repent. What does it mean? Give some examples of kids who have done something wrong and have a chance to repent - what could they do to show that they have repented?