Five Loaves ~ 2 Fishes software is an interactive computer game about the Feeding of the 5000 that puts your students in the role of the small boy who offered his bread and fish to Jesus.
This important miracle was remembered in all four Gospels (John 6:1-15, Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17), because it reveals the identity of Jesus as the Christ in an unforgettable way, and presents us with his call to BELIEVE in him.
Game Overview
5 Loaves is a complete Bible Study that plays like a 3-D style adventure game. Students navigate through the Galilee and Bethsaida landscape onscreen in front of them as if they are the small boy who gave his lunch to Jesus. The story-game requires your students to LISTEN CAREFULLY to the story and characters so that they will know what to do next.
Play begins on Peter’s boat which is sailing across the Sea of Galilee with the player and Peter aboard. The player navigates the boat, talks to Peter, and docks at Bethsaida, where according to Luke, the miracle took place. The player then goes into the village to find “Uncle Reuben” who needs to be convinced to spare time to go listen to Jesus.
After convincing Reuben to go meet Jesus, the player must then find 5 loaves and 2 fishes, then go find Jesus. The village has houses and passageways to explore. (Not to worry, our guides and cheat sheets make you look like a gamer genius. The fish and bread are in an upper storeroom which your kids need to figure out how to climb up to.)
Bringing the bread and fish, your students find Jesus and the crowd down at the shore. They hear him preach, then have the opportunity to offer their bread and fish to Jesus so that the crowd can be fed. Jesus then asks them to go collect the leftovers.
After listening to Jesus’ call to discipleship, Uncle Reuben finally sees the light! His words express the importance of GOING TO HEAR JESUS, and BELIEVING he is the Christ.
(As you can see, we have not simply reduced this miracle down to a “share what you have” moral. It’s much more than that, as Jesus’ miracles often are.)
After hearing Jesus, the player and Reuben go out onto the Sea of Galilee for some fishing and quiz questions. Each correct answer screen contains follow-up content and a question for the astute teacher to run with!
After the Fishing Quiz, students can select an additional Discussion Panel which has several options for going deeper into the story, including other scriptures related to Jesus’ identity and Jesus as “bread”. (All these can be seen in the Teacher’s Guide linked below.)
Following the Fishing Quiz, we have included a wonderful Music Video Reflection. It features the catchy tune, “5 Loaves ~ 2 Fishes”. The song drives home the lesson in a fun, visual, and musically memorable manner. Learn more about the song below.
Listen to the song:
Game Time: It takes about 25 minutes to play the game, more if you dig into the various questions at the end. Younger children can easily navigate Bethsaida (it’s not complicated), but may need help reading a few things towards the end.
The Big Life Application Theme in 5 Loaves:
The importance of taking the time to learn from Jesus, and believe in him. This was the point of his miracle, –it opened the eyes of his students that day, helping them realize that The One who was teaching was the Messiah himself! 😉
Age Range: K* through adult.
Younger kids will enjoy trying to navigate and will respond to all the images, but they will need an older person helping them. Students must navigate the Bethsaida village by controlling the keyboard and arrow keys.
Minimum: 1.4 ghz, 2 mb ram, 64 mb videoram.
Windows 8/10 users, see our Windows tweaks.
TiP: If using a laptop, we recommend plugging in an additional keyboard and mouse to make sharing the navigation much easier.
Make sure you print the Teacher’s and Student’s Guides below so you look like a gamer genius.
5 Loaves Teacher’s Guide and Outline
5 Loaves STUDENT Guide (pdf) 
Jesus Feeds the 5000 Multi-Week Lesson Set
-includes art, games, and computer lab lessons, written by Neil MacQueen
Lyrics and chords to “5 Loaves~2 Fishes”
Game Cheat: How to find the 5 Loaves and 2 Fishes
Important Tips on Teaching with This Software
5 Loaves is a lesson disguised as a game. Your kids will have to try and figure out how to do certain things. It’s not hard, just listen to Peter and Reuben! They tell you what to do next. And if your kids get stumped, have your handy teacher’s guide ready. You will need a minimum of 20 minutes to play the game, maybe more. You cannot “run out of turns.” At the END of the game there’s a video that is meant to be discussed, and Discussion Panel with extra questions. Figure 10 minutes on these. You might do them as a group, or individually at each workstation. You decide.
Think of this game (and others like it in our catalog) as a SERIES OF “STORY CHECKPOINTS” your students will play through in the correct order. This requires your students to listen carefully to the characters. Note: The red arrow in the game is a ‘general’ directional aid. What you need to go and do next is always told to you by one of the characters.
Be sure to print and read: 5 Loaves Teacher’s Guide and Outline
Why Teach This Story? (Why did we devoted an entire program to this story!)
#1 All four Gospel writers thought it was important!
The story of the Feeding of the 5000 is one of the few miracle stories found in all four Gospels. Our “Feeding” software is an combination of all four versions found in Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; John 6:1-15. While they agree in most details, John adds that the loaves and fishes were offered by a young boy, and Luke identifies the location of the miracle as Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee.
#2 This story reveals a key meaning behind Jesus’ ministry. He wasn’t just going around being nice and saying religious things. Jesus was the Christ…and spent his ministry revealing that identity and calling people to be his disciples. Yes, Jesus had empathy for the hungry, but nobody was going to starve that day. Jesus wanted them to know who had been teaching them. The miracle was a pointer.
Thus, we DO NOT over-focus on “the small boy” or idealize him as an example of faith. And we don’t over-emphasize this miracle as a singular lesson about “sharing your gifts”. The Spirit helps us see these meanings in the story, but note that it is primarily Jesus who does the sharing! Our gifts are paltry. He teaches, and then he reveals WHO HE IS to the crowd.
And that’s a great parallel to Sunday School…. we come to learn, and God reaches out to us with the challenge to BELIEVE, and be fed by his presence. The game’s narrations, quiz questions, discussion panel, and music video reinforce these ideas, as does the study guide.
Why PLAY through the story?
Peter and Jesus also appear in our “Faith Through the Roof” about the healing of the man let down through the roof in Capernaum.
Play is a great learning tool. It helps us focus and want to do it all over again. And that focused & fun experience is GREAT for MEMORY FORMATION.
We chose a 3d style game environment for this story because those types of games are LINEAR -just like a story. The Player goes from Point A to Point B to Point C to make things happen. The Feeding of the 5000 unfolds the same way. And we put your students in the role of the young boy who must collect the fish and bread, and bring it to Jesus.
We added the character of Uncle Reuben to add opportunities to say important things like, “why should I want to go hear this guy?” and to be able to ask the student/player some questions.
We have purposely NOT made this game complicated to play. Its primary aim is to teach the story. The only “game-y challenging” aspect of the program is when the player must figure out where and how to get the 5 Loaves and 2 Fishes. (They’re on the second floor in a storeroom, btw, and there are two ways to get there.)
Interactive Games also help the story get into your kids’ brains because they create a sense of anticipation in the player, -the “what’s going to happen next” which helps focus their attention and tune out distractions.
<>< Neil, Sunday Software
A Helpful Game Hint:
About the Song “5 Loaves ~ 2 Fishes”
…found in the music video in the program.
Sunday Software has a long tradition of including songs and music videos in our software. Music is a great medium for expressing great truths! And our songs and lyrics give the TEACHER something to help students reflect with.
All our songs are custom written for each program, not “off the rack”. Our lyrics are crafted to teach.
The first set of images in the music video speak to the story. The images toward the end of the music video speak to the story’s Life Application. You can only play the Music Video after you have finished playing the game. However, you can access and play the Music Video outside of the game by exploring the install 5000 folder on your computer and looking for the music video WMV file in the folder. It can be copied, and will open in Windows Media Player.
Here are the Lyrics for 5 Loaves ~ 2 Fishes
Words and Music by Neil MacQueen Copyright 2012. Permission granted for local church use. See the printable lyrics with chords at www.sundaysoftware.com/5000/5loaves-lyrics.pdf. These words appear in the music video as well.
Five loaves, two fishes, O Lord don’t you know what my wish-is, to be with you, and serve you all my life. (2X)
I was small, but you reached out to me.
I was weak but you gave me strength to see
Though a poor boy’s lunch was all I had to spare
When you bless, there’s always more to be shared
Five loaves, two fishes, O Lord don’t you know what my wish-is, (just) to be with you, and serve you all my life. (2x)
Nothing is impossible for God,
even when it seems –against the odds.
In a world that hungers for bread and word and love
Jesus mul-ti-plies the gift from above.
(with) Five loaves, two fishes, O Lord don’t you know what my wish-is, just to be with you, and serve you all my life. (2x)
(Bridge) It’s not enough to care – when you see the need. There’s always a job to do – when you believe!
(with) Five loaves, two fishes, O Lord don’t you know what my wish-is, just to be with you, and serve you all my life. (2x)