Use this as an active tag game to show how Josiah’s choice to follow God influenced a whole nation, like a “ripple effect.”

Setup

• Choose one child to be “King Josiah.”  
• All other children spread out in a defined play area.  
• Explain the goal: everyone will eventually be joined in one long chain, all choosing to “serve the Lord.”

How to Play

1. King Josiah starts as the only “tagger.”  
2. When King Josiah tags someone, that child joins hands with Josiah so there are now two taggers linked together. As they tag the next person, they all shout together, “Serve the Lord!”  
3. Each newly tagged child joins the chain, and the whole group continues moving and tagging others while staying connected and shouting, “Serve the Lord!” each time someone new is tagged.  
4. Continue until everyone is part of one long chain.

Simple Teaching Point
After the game, gather the children and explain that Josiah’s righteous choices helped bring the people of Judah back to God, and their obedience spread, like the growing chain.  
Ask: “How can your choice to follow God and do what is right encourage your friends and family to do the same?”

Invite a few kids to share one way they can be a “ripple” for God this week.

Use this scroll craft to connect with stories where God’s Word was read and rediscovered (like in Josiah’s time) and to give each child a “treasured” verse to take home.

Materials

• Brown construction paper  
• Craft sticks or wooden dowels (2 per scroll)  
• Markers or crayons (including brown)  
• Yarn or string  
• Glue or tape  
• Scissors  

How to Make the Scroll
1. Prepare the “old paper”

• Cut the brown construction paper into a long rectangle.  
• Gently crinkle it up into a loose ball, then carefully smooth it back out to give it an old, worn look.  
• Use a brown marker or crayon to shade and outline the edges so it looks aged.

2. Write the verse 

•    - Choose a Bible verse (for example, something about God’s Word, obedience, or “serve the Lord”).  
•    - Use markers or crayons to neatly write the verse in the middle of the “scroll” paper.  
•    - Add simple decorations if desired (small hearts, crosses, or borders).

3. Attach the sticks

• Lay one craft stick or dowel along the top edge of the paper and the other along the bottom edge.  
• Glue or tape the paper securely around each stick so they become the scroll’s handles.

4. Roll and tie  

• Roll the top and bottom sticks toward the center so the writing is hidden inside, just like an old scroll.  
• Tie a piece of yarn around the rolled scroll to keep it closed.

Simple Application
Explain that long ago, God’s Word was written on scrolls and sometimes even “lost” until faithful people found and read it again.

Invite children to treat their scroll like a special treasure and to open it at home, read the verse, and remember to listen and obey God’s Word.

Use this as a hide-and-seek style game to help kids picture how God’s Word was “lost and found” in Josiah’s time.

Materials

• Several simple “scrolls” (rolled-up pieces of paper)  
• One special scroll with God’s Word written inside  
• Optional: a short verse or phrase written on the special scroll

Preparation

1. Before class, roll up all the papers into scrolls and tie them loosely with string or yarn.  
2. On one scroll, write God’s Word (and/or a short Bible verse).  
3. Hide all the scrolls around the room where children can safely search—some easy, some a bit harder.

How to Play

1. Explain that during King Josiah’s reign, the people forgot God’s rules and even lost the book of His Law, until temple workers found the scroll while cleaning.  
2. Tell the children their mission is to “clean up” the room by finding all the scrolls—and especially the one that holds God’s Word.  
3. Let them search individually or in teams, bringing any scrolls they find to a central spot.  
4. When the special scroll with God’s Word is found, have that child or team open it and announce the “secret message” (the words or verse inside) to everyone.

 Simple Application
Talk about how happy Josiah was when God’s Word was found and read again, and how it led the people to change and obey.  

Encourage kids not to “lose” God’s Word in their own lives: they can “find” it each day by reading the Bible, listening in church, and doing what it says.

Use this edible building activity to help kids picture the hard work of repairing God’s temple and making it beautiful again.

Ingredients / Materials

• Graham crackers  
• White or chocolate frosting (as “mortar”)
• Mini marshmallows  
• Small candies (such as Smarties, M&M’s, or similar)
• Paper plates  
• Plastic knives or craft sticks for spreading frosting

How to Build the “Temple”

1. Give each child a paper plate, several graham cracker pieces, frosting, and a small handful of marshmallows and candies.
2. Show them how to spread frosting on the plate or along the edges of the graham crackers to act as “mortar.” Then let them stand crackers upright to form simple “walls” of a temple or church building.
3. Let them use:
   1. Mini marshmallows as stones or pillars  
   2. Small candies as decorations or to represent treasures found or restored during the temple repairs
4. Encourage them to keep adding frosting “mortar” and cracker “blocks” until they have a small, box-like temple or even just a front wall with a doorway.

Simple Application
As they build and then eat, talk about how King Josiah had the temple repaired and cleaned so God could be worshiped properly again.  

Explain that just as the children carefully rebuilt their “temples,” God’s people worked hard to fix the real temple, and today believers can honour God by “repairing” things in their lives—removing bad habits, obeying His Word, and keeping their hearts a clean place for worship.

Use this as a simple object lesson to show that, like candy, God’s Word must be “opened” and taken in to really help us.

Materials

• Wrapped candies for each child  
• One large wrapped chocolate bar  
• A Bible  

Activity Steps
1. Introduce the chocolate bar

• Hold up the big wrapped chocolate bar and ask: “What do we need to do to enjoy this chocolate bar?”  
• Help them answer: “We have to unwrap it and eat it.”  
• Briefly note that just looking at or carrying the bar doesn’t give us any sweetness or energy.

2. Connect to the Bible

•  Place the chocolate bar next to the closed Bible where the children can see both.  
•  Explain: “The Bible is like this chocolate bar. We can carry it around, own a copy, or look at the cover, but we don’t get any spiritual ‘nourishment’ unless we open it and read it.”  
•  Explain that in Josiah’s time, the book of the law was lost and forgotten, so the people weren’t really “eating” God’s Word—listening to it, obeying it, or letting it change them.  
•  When the scroll was found and read, Josiah and the people “ate” God’s Word by listening carefully and changing their lives to match what God said.

3. Challenge to read God’s Word

• Encourage the children to make God’s Word part of their daily lives by:
• Reading or listening to a Bible story each day.  
• Thinking about what it means and praying about it.  
• Choosing one thing to obey from what they read.

4. Candy treat as a reminder

• Give each child a small wrapped candy.  
• Say: “Just like you have to unwrap and eat this candy to taste how good it is, you need to ‘open’ your Bible and read it to taste how good God’s Word is in your life.”  
• Let them unwrap and eat the candy as a sweet reminder to “taste and see” how good God’s Word is by reading it regularly.