F
Hot Seating God
Aim
To explore children's ideas of God.
Lesson
Begin lesson by informing the children that the way to find out information about something or someone is by asking questions. Select a child who is able to answer questions about herself confidently. Put her in a seat in front of the group.
Direct five questions at her: name, age, address, family, favourite food. Select another child to undergo the same process, except this time allow some of the questions to be put by the other children. Select another child. This time, the children are going to try to find out things they do not know about the child in 'the hot seat' - for example, first name of grandparents, favourite item of clothing. Repeat process with another child.
Explain to the children that a variation of this game involves the person in the hot seat pretending to be an animal.
Invite the children to ask you the original five questions; name, age, address, family, favourite food. Respond in the role of a dog, for example, Rover, three years, a kennel, nine brothers and sisters, bones. Can the children identify the animal you were pretending to be?
Invite one of the children to take 'the hot seat'. Whisper a type of animal to the child before she submits to questioning. Questions may deviate from the original five. Repeat the process with another child.
This time, inform the children that rather than an animal, you are going to pretend to be a different person. Answer questions in the role of God. Can the children guess your identity? If preferred, you may read the following script to the children.
Who am I? I have countless names. I do not have an age because I was never born. I live everywhere. Everyone in the world is in my family. I do not need to eat because I will never die. Who am I?
Conclusion
Once it has been established that you were pretending to be God, conclude lesson by allowing the children some time to reflect on the differences between themselves and God.
