Fishers of Men

A fun activity that we used when teaching Matthew 4:19 was a fishing pond, like the kind you would find at a carnival. First we read the story, asking the kids what they thought being "fishers of men" might mean. After we found a satisfactory answer, we brainstormed people that we might "fish" for, and ways that we could do it. Some ideas were; take a friend to church or Kids Club, tell people about God, and dhow God's love with kindness. After the story and discussion kids made their own fishing rods out of cardboard (well I cut them out with a utility knife ahead of time) and they decorated them. We wrote FISHERS OF MEN on each rod and then we attached a string with a clothes pin on the end. They then took turns "fishing" in the pond.




We attached fish and gave a tug, the kids were delighted when their fish came up, the younger kids wanted to play it over and over again. Another fun idea would be to write words on the fish of people Jesus might have like them to fish for during the brainstorm and fish for those.

At the end we had goldfish crackers for a snack. Another fun snack would have been apple Sweedish fish set in blue jello.

 

Here is a brief summary of the lesson.

• Story (5 minutes)
• Discussion/Brainstorm (10 minutes)
• Craft (10 minutes)
• Fishing activity (10 minutes)
• Snack (10 minutes)