Cloudy With a Chance of Cornflakes

How to Play

At one end of the room:
Have players form teams and stand in lines. Give each team a spoon.

At the opposite end of the room:
Place a large bowl of cornflakes on the floor for each team.
If you prefer not to waste food, you may substitute with beads or raw beans that can be washed before cooking. Alternatively, use individually-wrapped candies.

Be aware of the food allergies of your players. Avoid nuts.

In between the players and their large bowls of cornflakes:
For each team, place 5 empty cups in a row on the floor.
(If you are using this game to introduce the story of Jesus feeding the five thousand, you can mention that each cup represents one thousand people that the players must try to feed.)
If space permits, the cups should be at least 2 feet apart.

On “go”, one player from each team runs with the spoon to scoop up cornflakes from their bowl, then runs to any of the team’s cups to “rain” the cornflakes into the cup.

Rules about “raining” the cornflakes:
– Players must stand upright.
– The arm holding the spoon must be straight and parallel to the ground such that the spoon is at shoulder-height.
– Be careful not to knock over the cups.
(You may want to allow younger children to bend down to fill the cups.)

The player then runs to pass the spoon to the next player.

The first team to fill all 5 cups wins.
(If you are using individually-wrapped candies, you will need to specify in advance the number of candies per cup.)

At the end of the game, there will usually be cornflakes on the floor that missed the cups.
Collect these in a separate container.
These can represent the twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over that the disciples collected after the feeding of the five thousand.

Variation

Instead of arranging each team’s cups neatly in a line, you can use different colored cups for each team and scatter the cups randomly (but fairly) in the playing area. This set up will result in more movement and potentially more fun but will also likely be messier.

If different colored cups are not available, differentiate each teams’ cups with different colored napkins or papers placed underneath.

Bible Lesson – Jesus Feeds Five Thousand

Discuss
1. Did you enjoy this game? Why or why not?
2. Was it easy to rain the cornflakes into the cups? Why or why not?
3. Have you read any Bible stories about God raining down food from heaven?

Say
While the Israelites were travelling through the desert from Egypt to the promised land, God “rained down bread from heaven” (Exodus 16:4). We can read about that story in Exodus 16.

Discuss
4. Was this the only time God provided food for the people? Do you remember any other Bible stories where God provided food for the people?

Read
Matthew 14:13-15

Discuss
5. Why did the disciples ask Jesus to send the crowds away?

Read
Matthew 14:16-17

Discuss
6. Did Jesus agree to send the crowds away?
7. What did Jesus tell his disciples to do?
8. How much food did the disciples have?
9. Was the food enough to feed a large crowd of people?

Read
Matthew 14:18-21

Discuss
10. Did Jesus feed the large crowd of people?
11. How many people ate?
12. Did everyone have enough to eat?
13. What does today’s story teach us about Jesus?

Conclude
God provided manna for the Israelites in the desert for 40 long years!
Jesus fed 5,000 men (not counting women and children!) with just five loaves of bread and two fish.
In the same way, God can provide for all our needs, and he can do so in unusual, unexpected ways.
We must learn to trust God for his provision.

Related Bible Passages
Mark 6:32-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-13; Matthew 15:32-38

Bible Lesson – Manna and Quail

Discuss
1. Did you enjoy this game? Why or why not?
2. Was it easy to rain the cornflakes into the cups? Why or why not?
3. Have you read any Bible stories about God raining down food from heaven?

Read
Exodus 16:1-4

Discuss
4. Where were the Israelites?
5. Why were they there?
6. Why were they grumbling?
7. Do you think it was true that the Israelites “sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted” in Egypt? Why do you think the Israelites said that?
8. How did God respond to the Israelites’ grumbling?

Say
In the beginning of the book of Exodus, the Israelites were living in Egypt.
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt had made the Israelites his slaves and treated them badly, so the Israelites cried out to God for help.

God came to the Israelites’ rescue in a dramatic fashion. God called Moses from a burning bush and sent him to Pharaoh. Pharaoh refused to let the Israelites leave Egypt, so God sent plague after plague upon the Egyptians. Eventually Pharaoh relented; God had the Israelites plunder the Egyptians before leaving Egypt with food, clothing, articles of gold and silver and large droves of livestock. When Pharaoh changed his mind and decided to pursue the Israelites, God parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross over on dry ground, while the Egyptian pursuers drowned in the sea.

Today’s Bible story took place about one month after the Israelites left Egypt. The Israelites were passing through a desert on their way to Canaan, “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey” (Exodus 3:8).

While the Israelites did carry some food with them when they left Egypt, these must have run out and so they were starting to get hungry. They quickly forgot about their suffering in Egypt and about God’s miraculous deliverance. They started to grumble.

Instead of getting angry with the Israelites and punishing them for their grumbling, God told them that he would “will rain down bread from heaven” for them.

Read
Exodus 16:9-18

Discuss
9. What did God provide for the Israelites that evening?
10. What did God provide for them the next morning?
11. How was the “bread” formed?

Read
Exodus 16:31

Discuss
12. What did the Israelites call this special bread?
13. What did it taste like?
14. What does today’s story teach us about God?

Conclude
God is gracious. Even when we don’t deserve his loving kindness, he continues to care for us and provide for us.
God provided manna for the Israelites in the desert.
In the same way, God can provide for all our needs, and he can do so in unusual, unexpected ways.
We must learn to trust God for his provision.