"Love in the Bible" Game for St. Valentine's Day

I was searching for a way to encourage the eight- and nine-year-olds in my atrium (Sunday School class) to pull out the Bible and really look at it. We have a variety of beautiful Bibles in our room but they often sit forlornly alone on the shelf near the window, only to be cracked open briefly by the child who is doing the "Bible" reading of our morning prayer. 

I was also looking for a way to bring a Biblical perspective to Valentine's Day for my kids.   

I decided to create a Valentine's Day game that would encourage my students and kids to look up the various passages about love in the Bible. 

After a quick trip to the craft and dollar stores, I gathered together these materials to create the game:



Small notebooks, valentine-themed pencils, valentine stickers, a black permanent marker, white and pink paint pens (not shown), small wooden hearts and a box of Conversation candy hearts.

I originally planned to purchased plain wooden hearts (which I would paint red and paint), but Hobby Lobby had a 40% sale on all their valentine decorations so I was able to pick up pre-painted hearts and save a step.

Using the concordance in my Bible, I looked up age-appropriate passages about love in the Bible. I used a permanent marker or paint pen to write the citation for each verse on one heart.  I decorated the little notebooks with valentine stickers to make them a bit more festive.

To play the game, each child takes a small notebook and a valentine pencil. She picks a wooden heart and looks for the passage in the Bible.  When she has found it, she writes the passage in her notebook, then selects another heart verse and searches for it. If several children are playing, the one who finds (and writes down) the most passages within a set period of time (for example, eight minutes), wins the prize:  a box of Conversation hearts candy. If only one child is playing, then she "wins" the candy by finding a pre-determined number of verses.

I store everything in a discarded heart shaped candy box!  (A great way to repurpose those boxes!)