Apostle, Epistle, SpongeBob

Last Sunday, our lesson was on Paul's letter to Philemon, but we also did an overview of all of Paul's letters. I told them the letters were called epistles and discussed how they were used in the early church. To help them remember the epistles, and not confuse them with apostles, I came up with this game.

I put three hula hoops on the ground (you could use tape or some other way of creating a circle) and labeled the circles "Apostle," "Epistle," and "SpongeBob." I then read the names off the list below (in random order), and the kids had to decide if it was an apostle, an epistle, or a character from SpongeBob SquarePants. They did this by getting into the appropriate circle. For example, if I said Thomas, they should all get into the circle for Apostle, or if I said Squidward, they should all get in the circle for SpongeBob.

Here is the list I used:

Galatians (Epistle)
Romans (Epistle)
Titus (Epistle)
Ephesians (Epistle)
Philippians (Epistle)
Colossians (Epistle)
Philemon (Epistle)
Peter (Apostle)
John (Apostle)
Paul (Apostle)
Thomas (Apostle)
Simon (Apostle)
Andrew (Apostle)
Matthias (Apostle)
Patrick [Star] (Sponge Bob)
Squidward [Tentacles] (Sponge Bob)
Sandy [Cheeks] (Sponge Bob)
[Sheldon] Plankton (Sponge Bob)
Mermaid Man (Sponge Bob)
Barnacle Boy (Sponge Bob)
Mr. Krabs (Sponge Bob)

The game is actually pretty easy. Rarely did the kids miss a question. Titus, however, tricked a couple of them. The main point of the game was to have the kids do something active and fun to review the lesson, and this worked very well. I suspect I will use variations of this game to review other lessons. Maybe "Old Testament, New Testament, Dr. Seuss" is in the near future.