What Is The Gift?

Scripture: Genesis 31-33

Learning Objectives:

  • Students will review how Jacob prepared to reunite with his brother by sending many gifts ahead to him.
  • Students will play a deductive reasoning guessing game to practice the words “is” and “does” to ask questions.

Guiding Question: How are the words “does” and “is” used to ask questions in English?

Materials: boxes, wrapping paper/bows, small gifts (bouncy ball, beads, crayon box, etc.)

Procedure: Review the story of Jacob reuniting with his brother Esau, after the years of being separated by sibling rivalry. Focus on the gifts that Jacob gave Esau to soften his heart towards him.
Students will play a game of “What is It?” Before the students arrive, place different objects that you think students would like in different boxes. Wrap each with wrapping paper.

Explain that in English, questions start with words such as “does” or “is” often are used to ask about the characteristic of something. The answers to these kinds of questions are often “yes/no” and are not open ended. Students will use these words to ask questions about what is in the gift box. The goal is to guess what is in the box using as few wrong guesses as possible. The more questions they ask, the more accurate their guess will be.

Divide students into teams. Each team takes turns asking a question. Both teams start with 3 points. They gain a point for each question that is answered with a “yes.” If their question is answered with a “no” they do not gain or lose points. The team loses a point for each incorrect guess. The team who guesses the object correctly gets 5 points. The team with the most points at the end wins.

Additional Questions:

  • What kinds of answers do you get when you use other question words such as what, when, were, why?

Supplemental Activity: Have students come up with questions that start with “is” or “does” about the Bible story. Then have them go back through and search for the answers in the Bible, research answers, or ask a teacher. Have them make a two-column chart. On one side they write their questions and on the other side they write the answer. More advanced students can write questions that start with other question words such as “why” or “how”.

Written by: Savannah Negas

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