January 23, 2011 · 9:08 am
Audience
Teens, Adults
Time
15-20 minutes
Description
This game helps participants to become familiar with and remember the 34 Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes through a competitive sorting activity. Participants should have taken the Clifton StrengthsFinder or StrengthsQuest assessment at http://www.strengthsfinder.com. You can get an access code by purchased their books, StrengthsFinder 2.0 or Strengths Based Leadership.
Scriptures
o Romans 12:4-5
Materials
o Cards with each of the StrengthsFinder Themes and their definitions (one set per team – you can find the file with these cards at www.teachingthem.com on the Lesson and Material Downloads page in the file “Strengths Finder Theme Sorting – Cards.ppt.”
o Scissors or other cutting tool
o Envelopes (one per team)
o Answer Key (at the bottom of this lesson and also in the file “Strengths Finder Theme Sorting – Answer Key.ppt” on the Lesson and Material Downloads page.)
o Flipchart or whiteboard
o Marker
o Prizes for the winning team (optional)
o Bible
Preparation
o Cut out the cards for sorting, and put one set per envelope (one per team). You might want to number or name the envelopes to correspond to team designations.
o Write the Debrief Question on a flipchart or whiteboard, and have them ready for the groups to review and discuss after the game.
o Practice the script.
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
- “Let’s do a competition that will help you to become more familiar with and to remember the 34 StrengthsFinder Themes.”
- “I’m giving each team an envelope with all 34 Themes and their definitions.” (Pass out the envelopes, but instruct them not to open the envelopes until you give the signal.)
- “When I say go, work with your team members to match each Theme to its definition.”
- “The team that finishes earliest with the least number of mistakes wins.”
- “I will only check your answers once, so make sure that they are correct before you ask me to check them.”
- “When you say you are done, I will tell you what order you finished in, i.e., 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc…”
- “Finishing first doesn’t mean you win. You have to have the least amount of mistakes.”
- “If there is a tie for least amount of mistakes, the team that finished earliest will win.”
- “Any questions?” (After addressing questions, let the teams open their envelopes and start sorting. When they finish, they should notify you, and you will tell them what place they finished in. This doesn’t guarantee a win. The most important thing is that they have the fewest mistakes, but if there is a tie for fewest mistakes, the team who finished earlier will win. After you have checked their answers using the Answer Key below, declare a winner and offer them a prize if you wish. Then, have the teams work through the Debrief Questions below.)
Debrief Questions
1. Read Romans 12:4-5. This Scripture continues to talk about spiritual gifts. Do you think its truth also applies to our Strengths? Why or why not?
2. Why do you think God made us so differently?
3. What does it mean, “each part of the body belongs to all the other parts?”
4. How can we live this Scripture more intentionally in the future?
Answer Key
A. Developer
B. Competition
C. Belief
D. Adaptability
E. Arranger
F. Communication
G. Context
H. Discipline
I. Empathy
J. Achiever
K. Command
L. Deliberative
M. Focus
N. Consistency
O. Connectedness
P. Activator
Q. Analytical
R. Woo
S. Relator
T. Includer
U. Input
V. Restorative
W. Learner
X. Strategic
Y. Positivity
Z. Significance
AA. Responsibility
BB. Harmony
CC. Intellection
DD. Maximizer
EE. Ideation
FF. Individualization
GG. Self-Assurance
HH. Futuristic
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Filed under diversity, Game, Games that Teach, Icebreaker, memory, Strengths
Tagged as Achiever, Activator, Adaptability, Analytical, Arranger, Belief, Clifton, Command, communication, competition, Connectedness, Consistency, Context, Deliberative, Developer, Discipline, Donald O'Clifton, Empahy, familiarization, Focus, Futuristic, Gallup, Game, Games that Teach, harmony, Ideation, Includer, Individualization, input, Intellection, Learner, many parts, matching, Maximizer, memorization, memory, one body, Positivity, Relator, responsibility, Restorative, Romans 12:4-5, Self-assurance, Significance, sorting, Strategic, Strengths Finder, Strengths Quest, StrengthsFinder, StrengthsQuest, Themes, Woo
November 4, 2008 · 3:09 pm
Time
15-20 minutes
Description
This object lesson teaches how important it is to maintain godly character by using the popular Jenga ® game from Hasbro.
Materials
- Jenga ® game (or a similar game that is played with a block tower)
- Label maker or permanent marker
Preparation
- Using the label maker or the permanent marker, label all the Jenga blocks with the following virtues, or choose some of your own. (It’s okay to use a virtue more than once; just mix up the identical virtues when you set up the block tower.) Bolded virtues are the “fruit of the Spirit” from Galatians 5:22 in case you want to just focus on these.
· Courage
· Dependability
· Fairness
· Faithfulness
· Friendliness
· Generosity
· Goodness
· Helpfulness
· Honesty
· Integrity
· Joy
· Kindness
· Love
· Loyalty
· Patience
· Peace
· Responsibility
· Self-control
· Selflessness
· Build the tower in the teaching area according to the instructions in the game. Each new level should have three blocks turned 90 degrees (perpendicular) to the level below it.
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
- “A person’s character is a very important thing.”
- “Does anyone know what the word, ‘character,’ means?” (Listen for responses and add to the definition if necessary.)
- “Character is your moral quality. It’s your virtue. A person’s character is reflected in the things that he/she does or does not do. If they do good things, we say he/she has good character. If they do bad things, we say he/she has bad character.”
- “People with good character are honest, friendly, helpful, loyal, fair…and a lot of other good things. These are called virtues.”
- “But good character is a hard thing to keep. You’ve really got to work to make sure your good character stays good.”
- “Good character is like this Jenga ® tower.” (Point out tower.)
- “It’s made up of lots of different virtues, all stacked together.” (Carefully remove one or two of the top blocks from the tower, and show the labels to the group. Then, return the block to the top of the tower.)
- “If we take away one of these virtues, the tower will still be pretty sturdy.” (Allow one of the kids to carefully remove one of the blocks from the middle of the tower. Let the child read the label out loud.)
- “We can even take away several of the virtues, and the tower will still stand.” (Allow several kids in turn to take out a block and read the label.)
- “But if we keep losing virtues from our character tower, it won’t stand for long.” (Allow kids to keep playing in turn until the tower falls.)
- “Our character only stays strong as we continue to honor God through virtuous actions.”
- “The devil likes to poke holes in our tower one piece at a time.”
- “First he tempts you to tell a lie or be mean to someone.”
- “When you give into the temptation and sin, you lose a piece of your character tower. In this case the “Honesty” virtue or the “Kindness” virtue.”
- “The devil will continue to poke holes in your character tower over and over until it crumbles.”
- “So, keep your tower safe! Don’t fall for the devil’s temptations!”
- “And if you do, tell God that you’re sorry right away. He will immediately forgive you and help you to start rebuilding the part of your tower that you lost.”
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Filed under Character, Christianity, Game, Hands-on, Kindness, Love, Obedience, Object Lesson, Satan's tactics, temptation
Tagged as Character Jenga, children, Christianity, courage, dependability, devil, fairness, faithfulness, friendliness, Fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22, Game, generosity, goodness, Hasbro, helpfulness, honesty, integrity, joy, kids, Kindness, Love, loyalty, Object Lesson, patience, peace, responsibility, Satan, self-control, selflessness, sin, temptation, virtue, youth
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