The Power of Play
“So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.” (Romans 12:2 MSG)
For children, play is an essential part of learning.
Many well known figures in the field of Early Childhood Education, including Italian physician and educator, Maria Montessori, renowned psychologist, Jean Piaget, and Presbyterian minister, author, and television personality, Fred Rogers, all spoke about play as the work of childhood or a child’s important job. To connect Romans 12:2, play is the “going-to-work, and walking-around life” of a child. They must have opportunities to play in order to begin to practice placing that life before God as an offering. Play is an opportunity for children to experience what it is like when God brings the best out of a person and even small children are being transformed by God and for God.
Children need opportunities to connect what they are learning with what they already know. Play meets this need.
Play allows children to take what they are learning and explore it, making it stick!
Like previous generations, today's kids need play. Unlike most previous generations, they don’t have adequate access to play.
Our Favorite Toys:
The toys we like best fit one or more of the following criteria:
-Encourage cooperative play and relationship building.
-Create opportunities for kids to explore Bible stories.
-Allow open-ended and creative play.
-Encourage curious kids to be more curious.
The students can't get enough of making the balls fly through the tubes. This toy has been awesome for conversations about the Holy Spirit and how we can't see the air moving through the tubes but it is powerful! I've noticed that this toy encourages team work as kids need to cooperate to get the tubes attached. The base set includes enough for a few kids to enjoy, but we purchase the add on sets because so many kids were interested:
Working together to create the tallest tower has been an ongoing project for the kids in our ministry. Conversations around Biblical topics like the tower of Babel, the house on the rock and sand, and the body of Christ (we all work together) have come out play with marble run. There are many sizes available. I try to stick to one brand so if I add sets later they all fit together.
I wasn't sure about these blocks when we first got them but they have proven to be the perfect "set" pieces when kids want to tell a Bible story because they are so open ended. They have been the base for a Creation project, they became the sea for fishing, and they became a "mount" for Jesus to tell a sermon on.
Kids love exploring with God made.
The toddler version of this item is virtually indestructible but more expensive.
The kids especially like the variety in this 15 insect set.
This link is the magnifying glasses that have been durable for our purposes and easy to use.
Kids never get tired of these! There are dozens of package sizes and add on options. There are also multiple size options. The Micro-Mags travel well.
When kids tell the Bible story using a variety of blocks, they often need people to go with them! We like these wooden dollhouse figures. They are a great size and durable.
I know Little People are usually a toy for toddlers and preschool kids, but I've seen kids of all ages play with the Little People Nativity and Little People Noah's Ark. They have fun retelling the story with ultra-durable, kid-sized pieces.
I could probably devote a whole page to how much we love Makedo products. They are ultra durable and the kids beg to use them often. They come in a few different size packages. You can get them on Amazon or directly from the Makedo website. The saws really do cut through cardboard and not through skin. The only injury we've managed to have was a child poking their hand with the part of the tool that is designed for poking a hole in cardboard. The screws are really cool too.
The pictures are some of the fun Bible projects students have made in 2026.
We found ourselves using a variety of duct tape and masking tape in different colors for our projects.
We use Kinetic Sand in lessons and offer it during free play. It is great for creative play, team work, and visualizing a story. It comes in a variety of colors, but I tend to buy the tan so it can be used in more ways.
These cards and rings worked perfectly for us to make Bible memory verse rings. We set a verse of the week for each Wednesday and made labels. Kids decorated their cards and put them on the ring so they had Bible verses to take home.
Groups large and small cheer for parachute activities. I like this particular parachute because we have it in a few sizes and have given it a workout indoors and outside on the grass. It has been tugged, waved, and even stepped on and the handles and seams are still intact. The 12 foot one has 12 handles and the 35 foot parachute has 35 handles, but sometimes we use it with a bigger group and kids hold the fabric between handles.
We love that this basketball is quiet AND it can bounce on commercial carpet. It has also proven to be durable even with frequent use.
For VBS and group games, we use cones, spots and foam noodles to mark spaces and ropes to create boundaries.
We don't have a church gym, so finding ways for kids to have the active play they crave in limited classroom space has been a work in progress. We tried this basketball game and the kids love it! They use it every Sunday and Wednesday before class and haven't worn it out yet.
We have used a few different bowling sets, including some empty soda bottles with sand in the bottom, but this one is our current favorite. It is durable and the kids like creating their own Bible games by taping words and pictures to the pins. They also just like to play bowling with friends.
Card games and board games can be a good tool for building relationships and forging friendship. Click on the pictures of some of our favorite games below to view them on Amazon and read the reviews. All of the games listed have easy to learn instructions and are kid tested. Some are just silly and some have a Bible theme.
