Supplies appropriate
“This Is Your Pal” form for each guest, pencils, camera(s), small bow-shaped pretzels, pretzel-making ingredients (see below), cookie sheets, baking spray, spatulas, bowls, mixing spoons, measuring cups and spoons, brushes, oven mitts, wire racks, water or apple juice, cups, napkins; optional: picture-printing supplies, cheese dipping sauce.
Do Ahead - Arrange to use an oven. Recruit people to bake pretzels.
- Mix as many batches of dough as needed (see below). Divide into lumps, ready to be formed. Mold enough number shapes out of dough to number each pair’s pretzels.
- Divide dough into 20 lumps.
Dough: 1½ cups lukewarm water
1 package dry yeast
4 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Coating: 1 egg
1 tablespoon water
coarse salt
Dough Prep: - Mix water and yeast in a large bowl. Let stand 5 minutes until bubbly.
- Combine 3 cups flour with sugar and salt and add to yeast mixture. Stir until ingredients blend and form a ball.
- Place ball of dough on lightly floured surface. Slowly knead in the last cup of flour. After about 5 minutes the dough should be smooth and not sticky.
- Divide dough into 20 lumps
Introduction Game Have adult Pals sit with their club members. Hand out “This Is Your Pal” forms and pencils. Let Pals and kids work together to complete the forms and discuss them. Pass out small pretzels to snack on.
Then play a “scavenger hunt” game where you call out things that someone may have written on a form, such as “Someone whose favorite food is pizza.” Adults and kids quickly search each other’s forms and raise their hands if they find that particular answer. Whoever raises a hand first introduces his or her Pal to everyone: “This is my Pal, Mr. Green, and his favorite food is pizza.”
Pretzel Making Pals and club members work together as pairs. Put a large piece of waxed paper at each person’s place. Give each pair at least two lumps of dough. Put bowls of flour on each table.
To shape pretzels:
- Lightly flour hands and waxed paper.
- Roll each lump into a long snake about ½ inch (13 mm) thick and 15 inches (38 cm) long. Form a U.
- Cross the ends of the U and give them a twist.
- Fold twisted ends down on bottom loop.
Bakers make coating by mixing one egg with one tablespoon of water. Teams carry their pretzels to the bakers, who put them on numbered, greased cookie sheets several inches apart. They tell teams their number. Teams brush pretzels with egg mixture and sprinkle with coarse salt. Bake 15-20 minutes at 425º F. Cool on wire racks.
Picture Perfect Take each pair’s picture while they make the pretzels. Print out copies now for them to take home, if you brought equipment. Have Pals and club members sign each other’s pictures and write, “I’ll pray for you.”
Otherwise, plan to mail the pictures or hand them out in club or church.
Devotional While pretzels bake, share the history of pretzel-making:
Twelve hundred years ago, pretzels were made to give to children who learned their prayers. The beginning U shape stood for the hands of children praying, the twist was the love of their father and mother, and the finished shape stood for the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Pretzels remind us of prayer. One of the reasons you have a Pal is for prayer. Your Pal will pray for you, and you will pray for your Pal. Prayer is a wonderful thing we can do for each other. It will show you your Pal cares about you.
The Apostle Paul knew how important it is to pray for each other. Listen to what he wrote. Read Ephesians 6:18.
God cares about our needs! He wants us to talk to him about the needs of people we care about. Let Pals and club members tell each other some prayer requests and pray about them.
Bible Memory To memorize Ephesians 6:18b together, teach these motions for key words:
- Alert—Slap cheeks as though trying to stay awake
- Praying—Clasp hands with fingers interwined
- Saints—With hands still together, wiggle fingers
If the pretzels aren’t done yet, play a game from the Games section.
Snack Have bakers pass out the pretzels to the right groups. Option: Pass out cheese dipping sauce.
Games Pretzel Tangle Players form a circle and join hands. Without letting go, players form a complicated, tight knot by raising arms, ducking under, stepping over, and so on. When the group is all “pretzeled-up,” one set of hands is broken apart, and everyone works together to untangle the pretzel with no other hands becoming unlinked.
Pretzel Letters Form small groups. Groups take turns deciding how to use everyone in the group (lying on the floor) to form an alphabet letter for the other group to guess.
Pretzel Relay For each team, have a large bowl of small bow-shaped pretzels at the starting line and a large empty bowl at the finish line. The first player on each team scoops up a pretzel with a spoon and carries it as fast as possible to the empty bowl. If the pretzel falls, they pick it up and start again where it fell. They dump the pretzel in the empty bowl and run back to hand the spoon to the next player. Set a time limit and see how many pretzels each team has transferred. Note: If you don’t want to use pretzels, use pennies or cotton balls.
