Materials needed:
Graham crackers, peanut butter, sugar, a jumbo sized hershey’s bar, and various small candy, icing, or sprinkles for decoration. Deep plastic plates, plastic knives, paper towels, and a cheap tablecloth. A small bottle of milk, and a can of compressed air.
This is a fun activity we did with our Sunday School class when we were talking about building a good foundation. We read the bible parable about building your house on stone versus sand, and talked a little about what this meant. (Matthew 7:24-27)
Then we went over to the table where I had earlier set up two plates, one filled with sugar, and the other with the chocolate bar. (These of course symbolize the sand or the stone to build your house on.) We then split up into 2 teams, and then had a contest to build the best graham cracker house possible in 15 minutes. The kids had lots of fun with this and got pretty creative, making landscape features out of M&M’s and so forth. Then we brought out the milk and canned air, to which they all said, “Nooo! you’re not going to use that on our houses are you?!” But alas, that was the point of the whole lesson. >:)
Now we made the mistake of using the canned air first, which blew the dry sugar all over the place, so you may want to use the milk first. So pour the milk in the bottom of both plates saying, “And the rain descended, and the floods came…” The plate of sugar will get nice and soggy, as will the bottom of the house. The other house will be safe and dry on top of the chocolate bar. Then blow at the houses with the air “And the winds blew and beat on the house” (Be careful not to actually blow both houses down as that would defeat the purpose. If you aim at the bases of the houses it should work)
Afterwards, have everyone help clean up and eat some of the building supplies.