Materials needed:

- Roll of contact paper
- Scissors
- Box with dress-up clothes in it
- Sock with 5 coins in it (one sock for each child)
- Long sticks (one for each child)
- Picnic basket with pretend (or real) food inside
- Toy catalogs, magazines or advertisements
- Bag of trash (preferably smelly kitchen trash)

Before class: Tie the socks to the ends of the sticks.  Place the sticks in one area of the room.  Continuing around in a circle place the box of dress-up clothes in another area of the room.  Continuing on around in a circle place the picnic basket in a third area of the room, the toy catalogs in a fourth area and the trash bag in the fifth area completing the circle.  Cut out footprints from the roll of contact paper.  Stick the footprints between the areas going around the circle.  The children will follow the footprints as they "journey" as a prodigal son from spot to spot.

Instructions:

As a class, they'll pretend they are prodigal sons.  They are going to "journey" with the prodigal son through the story.  As you tell the story have them follow the footprints to each area and do the activity assigned there.

1.  Area one - Go to the sticks.  Each child takes a stick, removes the sock, counts his/her money and ties the sock back on the stick.  They learn why the son wanted to leave home, how the father felt, what he took with him and what
he expected.

2.  Area two - Go to the box of dress-up clothes.  Children choose an item to put on.  They leave two of their coins at this area.  They learn the kinds of friends the son hooked up with, how he may have spent some of his money,
how he felt at this point in the story.

3.  Area three - Follow the footprints to the picnic basket.  (It's up to you whether or not you choose to eat any of the items out of the basket).  The children leave two more coins at this area.  They learn about other choices the son made and more ways he chose to spend his money.  Call their attention to how much of their money is left.

4.  Area four - Follow the footprints to the toy catalogs.  Give the children scissors.  Have them cut out one or two pictures of things they would like to have.  Instruct them to leave their last coin at this area. 

5.  Area five - Follow the footprints to the trash bag.  Here the children discover they are out of money.  They leave their sticks and socks here.  They remove their dress-up clothes, put their cut- outs in the trash and sit around the trash bag.  Here they learn the importance of being humble and being repentant.  Review what they learned.