Mother's Day - Jail

One of the biggest hits in primary that I've had was one mother's day.  I decided that I would get some of the children's mothers and put them in jail.  (Ok, so one child in junior cried a little, but she was ok in the end.)

I our primary we have those accordion room dividers.  So I closed one half-way, and on the open half I hung black strips (that I made from cutting a plastic black tablecloth) to make it look like a jail.  I put the mother's behind it.

I had the mom's sneak in during sharing time.  Then I had my volunteer "Stinky Pete" come in.  A real fun dad that was up to play the part (his kids loved it).  So I started singing time with a wiggle song and then he came in.  He pulled back the divider half way (revealing the jail) and then the moms stood behind it fake crying and whimpering.  The kids faces were priceless.  He then cackled a bit and sat down on a chair in front of the chair.  I had him wear an old cowboy hat and chew a piece of straw.

Then I whispered to the kids a secret.  And they were so quiet and paying attention!  I told them that Stinky Pete had a weakness, if you sing really good and loud it actually puts him to sleep!  So we sang some review songs for the program, and I added in a few reverent lullaby-ish ones too, and they sang so well!  Every time they sang good he "fell asleep" and 1 mother would escape!  The kids were thrilled each time to say the least, even senior primary got really into it.

In the end all of the mothers escaped and Stinky Pete was sad he just wanted his own mother.  (The kids loved his fake cry.)  So we sang a mother's day song to him and it made him happy.  Then the kids all ran up and gave him a group hug.  This part was cute, but not so reverent.  Oh well, I learned that group hugs in church some times end up as a dog pile and that is NOT reverent for church!

~Kate