Four computer flying games
about four important Jesus teachings
…that they’ll want to play again and again.
Galilee Flyer has four different flying games, each teaching an important “Jesus teachings”:
The Beatitudes ~ Lord’s Prayer ~ Sermon on the Mount ~ Kingdom Parables
In each game students fly around the Sea and Hills of Galilee looking for Bible verses to match and collect from one of four lessons they have selected. As they fly, students must also answer questions about each verse. The Verses and Questions are floating in the air, and open when you fly into them. Match them all and land to get your Pilot Ranking!
See Galilee Flyer in action:
Here’s how you play Galilee Flyer:
- Pick from one of four subjects: Beatitudes, Kingdom Parables, Lord’s Prayer, Sermon on Mount.
- Select “easy” or “hard” flying controls.
- Take off and go study the verses on Mount Hippus. (Their text pops open when you fly by the summit).
- Then go flying to looking for verses found floating in the air around Galilee. They pop open when you approach them, -showing you have a verse and several options to correctly complete it. Select the right one to collect it, or fly around to try again. Correct answer pop-ups share a bit more information about the verse.
- As you fly, you’ll also find multiple choice questions about each verse. These will help improve your Pilot Ranking. “Correct” Answer pop-ups also contain additional interesting information about the topic.
- When you’ve matched all your verses, go land on the airfield to get your Pilot Ranking.
- Your “Pilot Ranking” is based on how many tries it took you to match the verses. Enter your name on the scoreboard.
- Then go fly to the Discussion Area, land and discuss the pop-ups, -or play again to try for a higher score.
- There’s no penalty for getting a verse match or question wrong, but you do have to correctly match all the verses to complete the game. You can crash the Triplane and it is game-over after 3 crashes.
Question Panel Pop-up in the Beatitudes game.
More Galilee Flyer Notes:
- Great as Sunday School lesson software, or for “after class” and home use.
- Each game takes about 25 minutes and they’ll want to play them often.
- Wide age-range. Even young children can fly and learn with help.
- Verse pop-ups and Questions are written to teach concepts and vocabulary found in the verses.
- Verse and Questions appear in the Galilee skies in two locations and open AGAIN each time they are flown by, -even after you’ve matched or correctly answered them to reinforce student memory.
- Students can fly over to optional Reflection-Discussion content after each game.
- Land near Jesus in the landscape to him preach a very kid-friendly version of the scripture.
- Look for the two floating Video Clips which show what the Mount of Beatitudes looks like today.
- Scoring and game design encourages kids not to guess. Content is repeated to improve their recall.
- Fun game design means they’ll keep on using it for a long time to come.
For complete details on game play and content, view the Galilee Flyer Teacher’s Guide.
See a list of all the verses found in Galilee Flyer’s four games.
Game Play and Content Notes for Teachers
Flying the Galilee Flyer is a lot of fun. In “easy” mode it flies slowly and the floating Verse and Question box open when you fly near them rather than right into them.
See the “Doc Box” below on this page for links to the teacher’s guide and printable poster.
The Lord’s Prayer
As they fly, students find verse halves floating in the sky, and a pop-up window presents them with four possible other half verses. We’ve included all three versions: debts/sins/trespasses. After matching a verse, a pop-up window provides additional information about a word or concept in the verse. Then, also found floating in the landscape are multiple choice Questions about the verses and their meaning.
After matching them all and landing, students receive a Pilot Ranking, and can then fly off to the Discussion area up in the hills. Flying into that area pops-open questions for students and teachers to consider together. It also suggests activities about HOW we can find more time to pray.
**Discussion area content .
Pilots will need a MINIMUM of 25 minutes to learn and enjoy this game. They will crash a bunch at first as they learn how to fly the plane and avoid the mountains. The more YOU have previewed the game, and the more helpers you have, the better your start will be. I recommend introducing the game to your pilots during some free time BEFORE you want to teach with it. Once they’ve played one of the four games, the other 3 will be much easier to introduce down the road. (I do not recommend trying to play all four games in a row over a period of weeks. It’s too much.) The Triplane is hard for little pilots to fly, but they liked to be helped. With all ages, just have plenty of time, and use your Teacher’s Guide for cheats!RIP McERKEL, ACE PILOT, SPEAKS
The Beatitudes
As with the other games, students must find and correctly match Beatitude verse halves with each other. Pop-up windows with each verse help explain vocabulary, such as, “what is meek?” and add life application. Discussion area asks questions talk about the concept of what it means to be “blessed.” We have used the NRSV version of the Beatitudes, which is extremely similar to most other modern translations.
Kingdom Parables
Mustard Seed, Pearl of Great Price and Leaven in the Loaf…with an emphasis on “What is the Kingdom of God?” Pop-up windows describe the meaning of seed/leaven, pearl and treasure. Question Pop-ups refresh verse memory and explore meaning. Discussion area questions and activities zero-in on being a part of God’s Kingdom everyday. See my free lesson plan for this story.
Sayings from the Sermon on the Mount
This flying game surveys many of Jesus’ most famous sayings, including: “you are the salt of the earth,” “you are the light of the world,” “love your enemies,” “turn the other cheek,” and “seek first the Kingdom of God.” Pop-up windows describe things such as “why Jesus chose the image of salt.” Pop-up questions found floating in the sky aware bonus points if you answer them correctly! Discussion area questions and activities suggest Jesus’ rules for how we are to act toward others.
Need to teach about the Kingdom of God?
Galilee Flyer is the program to do it with. The Beatitudes tell us what the Kingdom of God will be like, what God values in his Kingdom. The Kingdom Parables tell us how we can find it, and how we should look for it. Even the Sayings from the Sermon on the Mount tells us how members of the Kingdom are supposed to act. And of course, the Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray for the coming of the Kingdom of God. See my 7 Lessons About the Kingdom
More Content Details:
- There are approximately NINE VERSES per game which must be correctly matched.
- There are approximately NINE QUESTIONS per subject which you can answer to win time bonuses.
- There are 3 or 4 questions with life-applying comments in the “after the game” discussion area for each game.
- Secret Bonus: Kids can also fly-in and land close to Jesus to hear him preaching on one of four the subjects selected for the game. Jesus speaks a conversational version of each game’s scripture in a warm and friendly tone.
- It takes about 25 minutes per game, depending on the age of your students, game skills and knowledge. Over time, they’ll get better.
- Each game gives you 3 “lives.” You can “crumple” the plane into mountains and objects, but there’s no fire and explosion, …just the sad sight of a bent plane, a funny sound and the word “ouch.” I’m also happy to report that you cannot crash into Jesus!
- The Location of verses and questions change each time you play the game.
- The theological tone is “kid-friendly and moderate with an emphasis on the importance of “BEING like Jesus asks us to be.”
Age Range: 7* through adult.*
*Younger kids love Galilee Flyer just as much as older kids, they just need help navigating, reading, and answering a few questions. Minimum age 9 by themselves. Ages 7 and 8 with help.
*Adults who are “game-challenged” need a 5th grader to help them, or to playe in secret for at least an hour with our printed guide and flying secrets in hand so the kids don’t make (too much) fun of them, after which they’ll think you’re a gamer-genius.
Minimum: 1.4 ghz, 1.5 mb ram
Windows 8/10 users, see our Windows tweaks.
List of all the verses found in Galilee Flyer’s four games
“Rip McErkel’s Extra-Enhanced Flying Secrets for the Game-Challenged”
Student Worksheet for Beatitudes
This worksheet has space for students to write-in the answers to the verses they are matching in the game. It also contains the text of the pop-up comments and the bonus questions.
Student Worksheet for Kingdom Parables
This worksheet has a list of all the fill-in-the-blank verses and a place for them to record their answers. It also has a list of the pop-up comments and the questions.
Free Lesson Plan for Game 3: Kingdom Parables
Free “Kingdom of God” Lesson Set (which include software lessons that use Galilee Flyer and other software)
View/Print a ‘Pilot Poster‘ to give to your students. It has helpful info about the game.
See our Galilee Mountains room design notes on our Summer Ideas page for a great way to theme your classroom and use Galilee Flyer as a summer Sunday School program.
See Galilee Flyer in action:
Game Secret: Fly under any archway or bridge for a Turbo Boost. Just fasten your seatbelts!
After you have received your pilot ranking, you can fly to the “Discussion Ruins” in the NE ridgetop. Fly through the blue “D” and it will open a panel of questions.