Jesus Without Language

Within the parable of the vineyard owner, there are two distinct themes you can pull out for games: the idea of the grape gather’s task and that of the fairness of the wages. I’ve tried to give you a selection of games to represent both, and that can also suit various setups and spaces.

Grape toss

Basically, a beanbag toss game. You can use grapes or other small items, and you need to toss them into various containers. For one child, have them try to reach every container, for groups, have each group assigned a different container to fill.

Back of the line

A simple dice game where you draw a line on the floor and challenge the child to get to the end. They can move forward the number of steps (fairy steps, heel to toe) that they roll on the dice, but if they roll a five or six they must restart. Reward all kids at the end if they made it or not. Talk about the frustration of being sent back and how the position on the line didn’t really matter.

Gather

Mirroring the workers, have the kids gather things from around your space. These can be anything you have a large amount of similar items: e.g. ball pit balls, plastic fruit etc. If you have multiple kids, start them at different times but reward them with the same reward.

Grape bunch

Use packaging tape to a circle around one member of each team with sticky tape: sticky side out. Have the rest of the team stick balloons to them to make them into a grape bunch. The winning team is the one with the most balloons.

Order