Tuesday 31 January 2012

Scrabble Praise

This is for the older children and those who are especially interested in words!

Set out a scrabble board and tiles and across the middle put the word 'almighty' or 'amazing' or any other longish word to describe God.  Children can then use the tiles to add to this word- scrabble fashion, any other praise words to describe God- or, indeed any word that describes God to them.  You might want to put out a list of possibilities so that there is a starting point for those who prefer it.  Leave it out over several weeks to see how the praise progresses!


Possible words to put out: amazing, outstanding, indescribable, awesome, loving, caring, uplifting, breathtaking, unknowable, mighty, strong, powerful, glorious

Monday 30 January 2012

Prodigal Son Messy Church prayer response

As one of our craft activities at Messy Church we built a house out of cardboard boxes.  It turned out brilliantly and even had a door.  The younger children especially liked hiding inside it!  In the celebration section we used the house for a prayer response.  After telling the story and having a short talk about forgiveness, we talked about God forgiving us for the wrong things we have done if we come to him and say sorry, because He loves us so much.  We asked everyone to think of something they'd done that they'd like to say sorry for and then we played some music and people came forward to put a heart shaped post it note on the house as a symbol that God loved them, forgave them and welcomed them into his house.  Luckily the house stayed standing throughout!!


Prodigal Son Messy Church crafts

Yesterday we had a buzzing Messy Church at our grand opening of the reordered building.  Our theme was 'The Prodigal Son' and these are the crafts we used to explore the story...

Money bags made of felt squares, elastic bands and ribbons


Sandals with stiff cardboard soles and string straps


Jewellery made from threading cheerios onto strawberry laces



Dressing up in 'robes'

Family photo frames made of lolly sticks, stickers and card squares


Pig biscuits: digestives, pink icing, pink fondant, chocolate chips, mini smarties, pink candy melts


The Father's house made of cardboard, brown tape, imagination adults and children.  The most house- like structure we've ever built!!!

We also had 'Pigswill' gunge made of cornflour and water, which was a great hit with the younger children especially!

All of these crafts were then mentioned in the story during our celebration section, so that the children (and adults!) could see how they fitted into the story!

Saturday 28 January 2012

Balloon Praise

This is an active, engaging way to say thank you to God!

Each child needs an inflated balloon and a permanent marker (otherwise the pen will smudge on hands!).  Write on the balloon things you want to say thank you to God for and then get ready!  Play some  music and children bat the balloons to each other.  When the music stops, they grab the nearest balloon, read what it says and, together, everyone says 'Thank you God for...' The music starts up again and the process is repeated for as long as feels right!

We have used a similar idea in a primary school harvest service and in an all age service.  This time we have pre- written 'thank you' on about 30 balloons and the whole congregation has batted the balloons around as music plays.  At the end of the music, the leader says a big thank you prayer and everyone joins in the 'Amen'!  The school especially loved the idea and talked a lot about how church had actually been fun!!

Friday 27 January 2012

Jesus is our rock- Wise and Foolish builders prayer response

This is a response we used at our 'Seaside' Messy Church last summer.

After telling the story of the wise and foolish builders, we brought out a house made of a cardboard box.  We asked everyone who they trusted to keep them standing firm and strong when things got difficult (just like the wise builder's house stayed firm in the storm because it was on a rock).   They might have friends or family members they could trust but Christians also believe they have Jesus to keep them steady in hard times.  After giving people the chance to think about it, we played some music and asked people to come forward and stick a 'brick' sticker on the house to stand for the person who kept them steady.  When those who wanted to had come forward we thanked God for those people and asked Him to remind us that Jesus was always there for us to lean on too.  On the way out, everyone took a mini stick of rock with the words 'Jesus is our rock' stuck to the wrapper as a reminder of the message!

Remember the Wise and Foolish Builders

Thursday 26 January 2012

God in crèche: My favourite song for Easter

God in crèche: My favourite song for Easter

By Catherine Ward

Having decided with Mina that crèche would look at Jesus between Christmas and Easter I have been wondering how we present a message about Easter in our under threes’ group. How do we present something which is honest, biblically sound and yet at a level that the children can really connect with? I suspect, indeed hope, that most of our under threes don’t yet have clear ideas of what death, sacrifice, humiliation and torture are, but that is what Christ went through for our freedom. Flicking through a very old song book at my mum and dad’s house I came upon the perfect song to introduce to our children at Easter ‘Jesus’ love is very wonderful’. Simple and repetitive for our youngest children and yet expressing in the simplest language the unintelligible mercy of God. Jesus’ love is very wonderful. 


Who do you trust? Curds and whey object lesson

We did this as an All Age talk during the summer and it really stuck in the mind!

We were looking at the story of David and thinking about who our real friends were- who could we trust?

I poured some hot milk out of a thermos into a clear glass bowl.  The milk shows us what our friends appear to be, warm and comforting.  However, I then added some vinegar to the milk and it started to separate into curds and whey.  The vinegar represents difficult things that happen in life.  The friends may start to separate, as the milk does, into those who are solid and dependable and those who are watery and insubstantial.  We drained the whey away so that only the curds were left.  God is solid like these curds.  He is a friend who will never drain away when things get difficult.  When everyone else has drained away, he will always be close ro us.  We then introduced the verse below as something to remember.

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24


This is a brilliant book, containing lots of object lessons like this one.  I've never actually used an experiment from the book for the purpose it was originally designed, but I've used lots of them to illustrate other points!

Simple Science Object Talks

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Simple-Science-Object-Talks-Heno/dp/0784719829/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327597648&sr=8-1

Wednesday 25 January 2012

God in Crèche: stories about God

God in Crèche: stories about God

By Catherine Ward

It’s such a simple thing but children love to be read to and we can capitalise on this to bring stories about God to life for our youngest children.  While I’m reticent to jump in with the classic Noah’s ArK for our under threes (animals and a rainbow yes but also sin, judgement and God killing nearly the whole population of the planet) there are some wonderful books written for under threes. Nick Butterworth and Mick Inkpen’s ‘Stories Jesus Told’ series are some wonderful retelling of some of the parables, and books about Jesus’ miracles and God’s love are often something the children can really connect with while they are yet to understand about sin and death. We present books ‘face forward’. It’s really important to remember that until children can read confidently for themselves then books ‘spine on’ on shelves don’t offer children the chance to select a favourite book and ask for it to be read to them. Standing books upright in a quiet corner of the crèche room works really well as does putting books into small baskets so children can see the covers of the books. 

Fruits of the Spirit- planting seeds

Fruits of the Spirit is a bit of a theme for us!  The children really seemed to connect with this activity.

After a lesson on the fruits of the Spirit, we asked the children to decide which of the fruits they felt were a little bit lacking in their lives and they'd like God to give them more of.  It was interesting that many of them chose self-control, patience and kindness!  We then gave the children some plastic cups with compost in and asked them to take a sunflower seed and to plant it in the soil.  Children wrote the fruit they wanted to grow in their life on a sticker and stuck it to their cup.  We prayed that God would grow that fruit in their lives.  They then took the seeds home so that they could grow the sunflower as a symbol of what God was doing in their lives.

Prayer grab bag for under 5s

We've found that sometimes when we suggest the younger children pray for the people in their lives, it's really hard for them to fix on what to pray for!  Like the prayer bingo idea, this is an idea to help children to think more widely about what they could pray for in an everyday prayer time.  It's probably most suitable for under 5s.

Print out some pictures representing 'home', 'family', 'friends', 'food', 'school', 'healing', 'thank you', 'sorry'.  Laminate them if possible so you can get good use out of them and cut them out.  We made two sets so there was plenty of choice and you might choose the same thing to pray for again!  Then either put them in a small bag (we used a small tin instead), shake them about a bit and let the children choose something out of the bag to pray for.  They might want to close their eyes, but whatever they draw out should be a surprise!  Younger children will need explanation about what they might pray for in each category e.g. school might be for a teacher or for help in reading, but they will soon get used to it!  Model simple prayers such as 'Dear God, please help...' and soon they will be in the swing of it!


For a printable version of the cards (plus versions of prayer consequences and prayer bingo for older children click here.

Tuesday 24 January 2012

God in Creche- connecting toys with stories

God in crèche: Connecting toys with stories

By Catherine Ward

We’ve been trying to think about how we make sure that our under threes’ group has something on offer for all of our children from babies to those approaching their third birthdays. In those three years children develop from a babe in arms to a walking, talking, drawing, painting, building, storytelling handful. In an effort to try to provide some input for our older children without disrespecting their expertise in guiding their own learning we’ve been trying to provide some links between a story that we tell at snack time and the toys that we provide throughout the session. We put out a picnic blanket, lunch boxes and some toy food when we did the feeding of the five thousand. We plan to put blocks in our sand tray and big cardboard ‘puddles’ and wellies out for the wise and foolish builders and hide some toy sheep for the children to search out for the good shepherd. As more of our children get beyond their second birthdays we’ll let you know how it goes.     

Jenga Forgiveness

I was looking at a game of Jenga the other day and an idea struck me for helping children (and adults!) to pray symbolically about forgiveness.

Build a Jenga tower.  This is like the hard heartedness we build up when we are hurt by someone and can't forgive them.  It feels like a solid mass we can't break down easily.

Slowly start to take bricks away- children could take it in turns to do this.  As each brick is taken away, pray 'Lord help me to forgive'.  This symbolises the fact that we can't break the tower of unforgiveness ourselves, we need to ask God to help us with it and, bit by bit, give the hurt to God.  We might need the support and help of others too.

Eventually the tower will collapse.  This shows that, even though it takes quite a while, if we keep asking God to help us to forgive, our hard heartedness will collapse.  The bricks remain to show that what happened still happened but God has now rearranged how we feel and broken down the hurt.

Monday 23 January 2012

God in Creche- helping children to enjoy being at church

By Catherine Ward

God in Crèche:  helping children to enjoy being at church
Eleanor Goldschmiede is one of the most respected writers on providing play opportunities for the under threes. Her work has shaped much of modern nursery provision. Treasure baskets and Heuristic play are two fantastic ideas which, simple as they sound, are not to be underestimated. Treasure baskets are intended for babies who can sit up but are not yet crawling they are intended to contain everyday household things and natural objects made from wood, metal, cloth, leather, cork or rubber, but not plastic. Unlike plastic toys treasure basket items have different weights, smells and textures.  Some feel cold to the touch, others make fascinating noises when they are dropped or shaken. Research into how babies learn has established that babies rely much more on touch, and smell than adults do to find out about their world. Babies have been observed to play, investigating treasure baskets for up to an hour. In my post on inviting awe and wonder I talk about seeing something of our creator God through natural materials like sand and water, pebbles and pine cones. The natural materials in the treasure basket clearly grasp babies’ attention. 
Heuristic play is intended for babies who can crawl and for toddlers, and it’s basically about providing open ended materials for children to experiment with. We have used baskets, tins, curtain rings, mug trees, ribbons and wooden spoons, with great success. Unlike slot puzzles, shape sorters and stacking ring toys these open ended resources have no single ‘right’ answer. Children can spend as long as they want finding out about filling, emptying, capacity, stacking, threading and patterns. Without the risk of failing to find a right answer they can practice using their God-given creativity.

Beach ball prayers

I recently did an all age service on the theme of  'be ready'.  I had an idea for using beach balls and I was a bit worried about how it would work, but it actually turned out quite well!


We talked about things we could say thank you to God for and not waiting to say it or forgetting to thank Him, but telling Him straight away.  We then asked people to think of something they were grateful for.  When we'd given people some time, we played some music and threw two beach balls into the congregation- one for each side of the church.  The idea was that you threw the ball to someone.  When they caught it they had to say 'Thank you God for...' and then throw the ball on.  You had to be ready, because you didn't know who was going to get the ball next!  If you didn't want to say anything when you caught the ball, you just had to throw it to someone else.  When the music was finished, the throwing stopped and the leader at the front said a thank you prayer for everyone.

Saturday 21 January 2012

Play dough prayers

One of our most popular prayer stations is one which involves play dough.  Children shape something that they want to say Thank you to God for, say 'thank you' aloud or in their heads and then either leave it on the table for others to see or they put the play dough back for the next person.  It's very interesting when a group of children choose to do this together as they have some great conversations about what they're making!  We've used this in the context of saying thanks for some part of God's natural creation, or just as thanks for anything that springs to mind!

Find play dough recipes at http://www.playdoughrecipe.org/

Under 5s: inviting awe and wonder

By Catherine Ward

Under Fives: inviting awe and wonder
“When through the woods and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees,
And when I climb to lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze,
Then sings my soul, my saviour God to Thee,
How great though art, how great though art”

Lyrics ~ Carl Boberg, 1859 - 1940
English Translation ~ Stuart K. Hine, 1899 - 1989

What is it about the work of our creator that takes your breath away?  Like the Rev Boberg I like to be outside looking at the amazing work of his hand. I’m sure the same is true for many people, and sometimes through our awe of creation we get a better sense of the creator. I wonder why it is then, that church groups for the under-fives, and particularly those for the under threes, are so full with plastic toys. They’re cheap and durable yes, but I’m not sure they help give any real context for children to understand our talk about our creator God. We don’t have a garden at our church centre so we have a sand and water table in our crèche, we’ve been collecting pine cones, teasel and pebbles to use with our under-fives and I’ll be using some tree blocks (yes they are just bits of tree). I want to tell the children about my amazing yet invisible God; Look at what he made. 


Prayers for different learning styles

For anyone interested in following the VAK angle, here's an idea of how some of the prayers you'll find on this blog fit into the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning styles.  It's only a rough idea and some prayer ideas will fit more than one style!

Friday 20 January 2012

Prayer consequences

There are many versions of this out there and this is one I've used with our children.  It's amazing what they write and when we read the prayers out at the end, somehow everything hangs together beautifully!


1.    Give everyone a sheet of paper and a pen
2.    Tell children the starting words for each line.  They write the starting words, then finish the line themselves. 
3.    Fold over the page so that the writing is hidden and pass to the next person.
4.    Continue until the prayers are written!

  1. Dear … (address to God e.g Father, Lord Jesus, Almighty creator)
  2. You are …
  3. Thank you for…
  4. You have…
  5. Help me/ us
  6. I will…
  7. Amen

God in créche

Here is a mind map by créche leader Catherine Ward, detailing our vision for God in créche and how we envisage carrying it out!  The mind map is a little bit big for the box, but if I shrink it down, it can't be read!



Thursday 19 January 2012

Paper people

Cut out individual paper people.  Children choose someone in their family or amongst their friends that they would like God to bless and then either write that person's name or draw their face onto a paper person.  These people can then be pegged to a line or blutacked to a board as the children ask God to bless them, simply saying 'God bless...', or praying quietly in their head if they prefer.  If the line or board is kept up, each time the children look at it, they can remember that person and say thank you to God for them. Over time, stories might emerge about how God has worked in that person's life!


When we tried this this week it worked well, but some children took delight in putting a pin through their person's head (as some are bound to do!!)  Blu tack is probably a better bet!

VAK

What kind of learner are you?  How do your children prefer to learn?  When I was teaching, I was fascinated by the concept of learning styles- the idea that different people naturally prefer to learn in different ways.  It really revolutionised how I taught and it's something we certainly need to take into account with the children in our church groups!  The basic VAK model is split into 3 learning styles:

Visual- preferring to learn by seeing and reading
Auditory- preferring to learn by speaking and listening
Kinaesthetic- preferring to learn by touching and doing

I realised that the reason I switch off in long sermons is because I am very visual, quite kinaesthetic and not very auditory at all.  If I'm listening I need to be doodling!  It made me see the behaviour of our children differently as well.  The child who's always fiddling might be very kinaesthetic and sitting listening for extended periods is not helpful to him!  In our teaching it's important to include something, somewhere, in each lesson that will appeal to each of the 3 styles so everyone gets a chance at engagement.

Here's a table of things that will appeal to each learning style:


Visual 
Auditory 
Kinaesthetic 
Pictures,
Maps, TV
Powerpoints
Watching
Drawing/ colouring
Imagining
Reading
Mind maps 
Discussing
Listening
Music/ songs
Film
Instructions
Repetition
Questions/ answers
Storytelling
Props
Crafts/ making
Drama
Drawing
Games
Model making
‘hands on’
Experiments
Movement


If you want to know more, you can take a VAK test at http://www.businessballs.com/vaklearningstylestest.htm

Wednesday 18 January 2012

Freedom bubbles

As part of our work on the creed, we spoke about Jesus dying to set us free from the wrong things we had done and also to release us from the things that worry and oppress us.  Children thought about something they wished they hadn't done or something they were worried about and, in their heads or out loud, asked God to help them with it or to forgive them.  They they blew some bubbles and watched them float as a symbol of the freedom that Jesus was giving them.  We asked them not to deliberately pop the bubbles and they were very good about it!!

A new start

This is good for Easter or any time when you have talked about the resurrection.



We talked about Jesus dying and rising again to new life and the hope that this gives us.  The children were then encouraged to think of areas in their life where they'd like to have a new start- maybe in a relationship where they'd argued with someone, or something positive that they'd like to start doing.  They then coloured in part of a butterfly's wings as a symbol of asking God to help them with that new start (you can find lots of outline pictures of butterflies on the internet.  We just printed one out and enlarged it to A3 size).  Some of them shared and others kept it private.  This has now become one of our regular prayer stations.

Sunday 15 January 2012

Fruits of the Spirit Part 2

After a period of not using the original fruits of the Spirit prayer station, we reintroduced the concept slightly differently.  This time we wound some ribbon around the arms of a cross and bent some paper clips to make hooks.  Children could choose a fruit of the Spirit they wanted to ask God for more of in their life, write their name on the appropriate label and hook it to the ribbon.  They suggested of their own accord that when their prayer had been answered, they could move their label onto the answered prayer side of our prayer board!

A better world

After exploring what the Bible says about heaven and eternal life, we set up a prayer station to explore what heaven on earth might be like.  We asked the children to think about what they would change to make the world a better place where there would be no more crying, pain or hunger.  They wrote or drew a picture and then asked God to bring about that change.  Then they clipped it to a line so that their prayers could be seen.  The children suggested that if they waited, they might be able to notice a change in the world and would maybe be able to move some of their prayers to the 'answered prayers' side of our prayer board.

Saturday 14 January 2012

Reflection Area

When we first set this up we were quite surprised that it was actually the boys who preferred coming to this area!

We set out some thows and cushions in a corner where, during time we spent with prayer stations, children could just come and sit silently with God.  We lit a candle and detailed one of the adults to keep a quiet watch over the area so that the children could light tea lights if they wanted to.  We also provided pens and paper so they could write or draw, stones to hold as a physical focus and a few reflective questions such as "If God came to your school, who would he talk to?"  We made it clear that this was a silent area and anyone who was disruptive would be asked to leave the space.  We had no trouble whatsoever and at one point we ran out of space to sit!

Friday 13 January 2012

Prayer bingo

We realised that sometimes we ask children to pray but they don't know what to say!

Prayer bingo is an interactive activity they can play by themselves or with others and it gives them a range of ideas to stimulate prayer.

Each child or group uses a copy of the board (see previous post).  Throw a dice twice to locate a square.  Pray for that thing using the prompt at the top of the column, then cover the square with a counter.  If you land on the same square a second time, throw again!

Prayer bingo board

For a printable version click here.

Throw a dice twice to choose a square (once for the column and once for the row).  Pray for that thing and then put a counter on the square.  Throw again.  If you land on the same square twice throw again!


1
2
3
4
5
6

Ask God to bless
Thank God for
Ask God to help
Thank God for
Ask God to watch over
Say sorry for a time when
1
Someone at school
Your friends
People who are ill
Your favourite animals
Japan
You argued with someone
2
A teacher
Your family
Homeless people
Your favourite food
Pakistan
You were rude
3
A friend
Your school
People who don’t have enough food
Your home
Britain
You told a lie
4
Someone in your family
Holidays
People who don’t have clean water
Your clothes
Romania
You upset someone
5
Someone famous
Food
People who have no job
Your games and music
Israel
You made fun of someone
6
someone who helps you
clothes
People who are upset about something
Your favourite place
Russia
You wasted something

Letter to God

As one of our long term prayer stations, we encourage children to write letters to God and to post them into a post box on the table.  They can ask any questions they like and tell Him anything they want to. In our prayer times, even adults are drawn to this station.  What the children write can be very revealing about their relationship with God and with the world around them.  We keep finding that the children have such a capacity for depth and questioning that really challenges us as leaders.

Thank you tower

This works especially well with younger children and we use it with our 3-5s.

Give each child a couple of Duplo bricks and build a tower.  Go round the circle and encourage each child to say 'thank you God for...'  As they say thank you , they can add their brick to the tower.

Junk box response

We've been experimenting with giving the children less direction in their response to teaching, so that they tell us what they really think rather than what they think we expect to hear!  The results have been interesting and have shown us that the children think very deeply about what they've heard in a way we might not give them credit for!

We decided that, once a month or so, instead of doing a directed craft or response which had a predetermined outcome, we would let them choose how to respond.  We created a 'junk box' containing fabric scraps, straws, pipe cleaners, paper, paper cups, plates, foil dishes, buttons etc and we also provided pens, paper and playdough.  The idea was that the children could make, draw or write anything that showed us what they had taken away from the teaching.  The first time we tried this we were a little bit worried that they wouldn't know where to start, but actually we didn't have to worry!  Now the children are used to the routine and even our 5 year olds get started right away.

One of the first response sessions we had was to Psalm 139.  An 8 year old put some buttons inside two foil dishes.  When asked what her model showed she said that she'd been struck by some words about protection.  The buttons were people and the foil dishes represented God protecting them.

We've been really challenged by how deep the children can go in their response when we don't put limitations on them!

World Prayers

Throw an inflatable globe into the air and catch it.  Pray for the place where the your right thumb lands, asking God to bless the people there. Put a sticky dot there to show you've prayed.

Alternatively, lay a large map out on the floor.  Find a country and ask God to bless it.  Put a sticky dot on the country to show you've prayed for it.

Thursday 12 January 2012

Sorry Whiteboards/ Sorry Bin

We've tried different ways of saying sorry to God.  Both ways work especially well for kinesthetic children and even the 5 year olds join in because they are happy to draw!

1) write or draw something you are sorry for on a piece of paper.  If you don't want to write it down, just hold the paper and imagine it.  Say sorry to God and ask Him to forgive you.  Screw the paper up and put it in the bin to show that God has forgiven you and thrown the sin away.

2) Use a whiteboard and a whiteboard marker (we laminated white paper instead of buying whiteboards!).
Write or draw on the whiteboard what you are sorry for.  Ask God to forgive you.  Wipe the board with a wet wipe to show that God has forgiven you and wiped the sin away.