Friday 29 June 2012

Using colours and objects to explore the idea of Heaven

Every week we go into school to do a lunchtime club with 7-11 year olds.  Because everyone's learning style is different it's hard to keep everyone focussed at the same time,  but this activity had everybody participating for the whole time and they loved it!  More than that, it really helped us to go deeper with the children and to help them express their ideas about spiritual matters.  


The children had expressed a real interest in talking about Heaven.  We'd discussed it the previous week but I wanted the children to show me their ideas and to see what being creative would uncover!


We started by asking the children to imagine a place where they felt entirely safe and entirely happy.  We then invited them to choose a foam sheet of a colour that represented that place to them.  Next we told them that the Bible says that heaven is a place where there is no more death or crying or fear or sadness (except maybe tears of joy as one pointed out!). 




 We asked them to use the selection of objects we had to show what they thought heaven was like (arranging them on the sheet).



Next we lit a candle in the middle of the circle  and said that Heaven was like a place of light in comparison with the way in which the world can sometimes feel dark and worrying.  How did the children think you got to heaven?  We next asked them to make a path from their sheet to the candle using the objects, showing how they thought people got to heaven.  For safety purposes we blew out the candle while we did this!!


At this point we asked the children to explain what they'd done if they wanted to...

One child had used a silver ribbon in a winding pathway because she thought her personality was represented by something sparkly and silver but she thought the path to haven wasn't very easy.

Another had put a cross on her path because she thought that Jesus helped you get to heaven,  It was really fascinating to discover why children had used certain objects on their 'heaven' sheet and on their pathways and almost everyone wanted to share!  I explained that I had put a cross on my path because I believed that Jesus was the way to heaven.

Finally we relit the centre candle sand talked about how Jesus had taught us to pray 'your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven'.  How could we bring a bit of what heaven will be like into our lives now?  Again there were lots of suggestions, including not getting into any more fights!

We put out some mats and lit a candle for each child from the central flame, representing bringing some of heaven to earth now.

Here are some pictures of the final arrangement!







Using colours and objects to explore and respond

Last week we had Anita from Finland staying with us and she was able to tell me a little bit about her work using Religion Pedagogishe Praxis, a German method of spiritual exploration with children, involving the group making a symbol of the story with colour and small objects.


I really liked what she told me and wanted to try out some of the ideas! RRP is not well known in the UK so I can't claim to know any of the theory but I just wanted to explore what would happen if I used  some colours and objects with children to help them explore an idea.  I'm hoping to learn the proper process at a future date!!  


Anyway...


I put together a basic kit box I could use quite cheaply from The Range and from stuff I had already lying around.



A multipack of felt rectangles and a multipack of coloured foam sheets (children need a choice so there needs to be a few of each colour).


Candles, tea lights and a set of tiles from the pound shop


Buttons, shells, chiffon, bangles, foam hearts, mirror tiles, lolly sticks, matchsticks, stones, ribbons.

Check out the next post to see what happened when we tried  it for the first time!


 

Tuesday 26 June 2012

Zacchaeus in Sparks

This Sunday Sparks learned about Zacchaeus, thinking about the theme of Jesus being our friend. After telling the story, this is what we did...



A group collage, sticking leaves on a picture of the tree where Zacchaeus hid, giving the opportunity to recap on the story with the children.



Remembering that Jesus went to eat with Zacchaeus by playing with the toy food and tea set.



Playing with toy money to remember what Zacchaeus did before and after meeting Jesus.


Remembering that Jesus wanted to be Zacchaeus' friend by drawing our friends and saying thank you to God for them.

Singing 'Jesus love is very wonderful'!

Monday 25 June 2012

Changes Assembly- Abraham

Last week we went into school to do a SEALS assembly about changes based on the story of Abraham being called by God to leave his homeland and journey to a distant land (Genesis 12).


We started with a game...


We got 10 yellow ball pool balls, 5 red and 5 blue  and shared them out as follows into 3 baskets spaced out across the front of the hall:


Left basket: 5 yellow balls, middle basket 5 red and 5 blue balls, right basket 5 yellow balls.


2 volunteers stood by the left hand and right hand baskets.  When I shouted 'go', they had to change their balls one by one until the left basket had 5 red balls and the right basket had 5 blue balls.  The first to change all of their balls was the winner.  All of the children in the hall were cheering on their favourites and from this game we introduced the idea of 'change'.


We then talked about God calling Abraham to leave everything behind to journey to an unknown place (mirroring what would happen after the summer when Y6 move to secondary school).  We invited a child up to the front and gave him a rucksack and a map as if he was going on a journey.  Then we took the map away and gave him a blindfold to wear and led him around following only the direction of my voice.  This was hard because he really had to trust!






We then talked about Abraham having to trust God when everything he knew was changing and how we have people we can trust to help us when things around us are changing.


Next we showed an object lesson which went amazingly well (but only after a bit of practise beforehand to check it worked!).


I found the idea on this blog of object lessons using natural laws.  


I stood about 10 feet away from 'Abraham' and aimed an inflated but untied balloon at him.  When I let go, the balloon went a little bit crazy in the air and then landed behind me.  This is like us when we get stressed about things and don't let others help us.  Next I blew up another balloon (still without tying the end) and sellotaped it to a piece of straw with a long string running through it (see above).  'Abraham' held on to one end of the string and I held the untied balloon/ straw at the other end.  When I let go, the balloon ended up right at its destination (Abraham)!   This shows us how, if we trust God or those around us to help when things are changing and we are worried then, like the string, they will help to keep us on track!


We finished by thinking of the people who help us when things are changing and thanking God for them.

Sunday 24 June 2012

Investigating and exploring in creche


Today our theme was 'Bigger than Big' so we set out some things that would reflect lines from that song we love!  We also wanted to give the children more of a chance to explore and investigate so we got the ohp and some colour acetates out...

Big and little balls (and massive balloons!)

books around the theme

Instruments to reflect 'louder than loud'!  These came in really handy when we sang the song.

Bubble wrap to explore 'stronger than strong'


Investigating shapes and colours on the OHP

Chalks on giant and small chalkboards

We had a lot of fun and enjoyed the slide and seesaw too!

Wednesday 20 June 2012

Hands over the world- praying for God's blessing

This prayer activity is fun and interactive and can be used with children from 3 upwards.  We gathered together some laminated maps of the world, the UK and the local area.  Then we stuck them on the wall, but you could do this on the floor if you wanted to!  We put a blind fold on a child and turned them round and then got them to stick a hand sticker onto one of  the maps.  The child them took the blind fold off to see where the sticker had landed.  We then asked God to put his hand over that place and to bless it.  


Monday 18 June 2012

Hands and hearts crafts- reaching out

Yesterday we had a brilliant whole church day!  Our themes for the day were relating to each other and reaching out to the city.  Here are the crafts we did in the workshop time to encourage the children to think about being God's hands in the city and having hearts filled with his love. 

Decorating hand and heart biscuits


Great Commission hand print banner


Outreach bracelets to remind us to be God's hands in the world


Cutting and painting hearts and hands to make into bunting to hang as a reminder





Sunday 17 June 2012

Father's day crafts

Here are the gifts we made for Father's day in Powersource this week!

Shirt and tie cards

Marshmallows dipped in melted blue candy melts and then topped with sprinkles.


Hope the dads enjoyed them!!

Friday 15 June 2012

Our new favourite game- Balloon swatters!

This was an improvised game that turned out to be a real hit!


You will need:
Fly swatters- 1 per player (we had hand shaped ones from the pound shop!)
An inflated balloon



Hit the balloon with the fly swatters!!

We played 3 v 3 in a large space.  The object of the game was to get the balloon to touch the wall behind the opposing team.  It was fast moving and half way through we had to introduce the rule that you were only allowed to touch the balloon twice in a row.  The children loved it, played non- stop for 20 minutes and would have carried on if the leaders had had the energy!  They especially loved doing high fives with the flyswatters each time a goal was scored!

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Shower curtain world map for write-on prayers

I was thinking about how the children love using the globes and world map to pray for the world and wondering how I could make something big enough for everyone to use at the same time.


As I was walking round the pound shop I found a shower curtain and remembered the days of teaching when, if we wanted a really big image, we'd project it onto the wall with an overhead projector.


So..






I taped the shower curtain to the wall, made an OHP transparency of a world map outline and projected the map onto the curtain.  In hindsight it would have been much easier if I hadn't taped the quite thin curtain onto a wall with a mural on it.  It got quite confusing when trying to work out what was a line on the map and what was part of Noah's Ark underneath!


After about 20 minutes, I'd traced the outline onto the sheet with a permanent marker and it was much bigger than the biggest map we'd used for praying with up to now, though I am a little bit concerned that I might have invented a country or two along the way!  The laminated map is A3, which shows the proportions.  

I tested it out and you can write over the map using whiteboard markers and then rub them off with a damp cloth and the permanent marker stays! The children love using the graffiti board and now they have a massive version for their world prayers! Not only is it reusable, but it also folds down quite small after use.  On reflection I'd buy a slightly more expensive, sturdier curtain next time, but for a trial run, it's not bad!!


We're going to use this in the next few weeks to write our prayers for the world and for the coming of God's Kingdom.

Monday 11 June 2012

I Spy Thank You Prayers

As part of our lesson on Bartimaeus yesterday, we played I Spy and linked it to saying thank you to God.  As most of the 3-5s are not really up on their letters yet, we used colours instead .e.g 'I spy something that is red'.  When the children had guessed what the item was, we discussed why we needed the item e.g fire extinguishers (red!) were useful for putting out fires so it was a good thing we had them!  We then all said 'Thank you God for Fire extinguishers, amen,' and the next child took a turn.  The children really enjoyed this and you could use the game anywhere and any time to prompt the children to think about the things around them and say thanks to God!


To make it even more of a game, you could even give them a tube to look through as an I spy 'telescope'!

Sunday 10 June 2012

Bartimaeus in Sparks

Today with our 3-5s, we looked at the story of Bartimaeus and had a lot of fun!  


We told the story and everyone had a pair of these glasses made of card and pipecleaners so that we could all practice not being able to see and then being able to!  The glasses were so easy to make and so effective.  The children loved them!  I found the idea on this Pinterest pin if you want to see the original idea.

After we'd talked about the story we then talked about why we need our eyes.  We put blindfolds on and tried to guess the items in the feely bag!


Next we let the children choose an activity.

They could draw a picture of Bartimaeus being healed by Jesus (we had lots of smiley faces on Bartimaeus!) or choose from these options:

Playing with a selection of goggles, sunglasses and blindfolds

Thinking about how Jesus can heals us and playing with the doctor's kit and the toy ambulance

Using their eyes to help them put together some jigsaws!
We then played 'eye spy' and thanked God for the things we guessed.



Friday 8 June 2012

Pray at home bag for 5-11s

After creating the pray at home bag for under 5s, I thought it was time to give the older children something to match!  The bag is designed for the 7-11s to use more independently and for the 5-7s to use with a bit more parental support.  The children will be used already to most of the prayer ideas inside it because of the prayer stations we use on a Sunday morning (see Our Sunday prayer routine and children's favourites).  



Details of the contents and prayer ideas are below.  For a printable version click here

Contents:
Laminated world map
Round stickers
Battery operated tea light
2 blue stones
1 die
Buttons (use as counters)
Laminated prayer bingo game (for a printable version click here)
Post it notes
Prayer diary
Pen
Bubbles
Magnetic writing board
Playdough
Duplo blocks
  

World prayers
Choose a country on the map.  Ask God to bless that country.  Stick a dot on top of that country to show you’ve prayed for it.

Listening to God
Take time to be silent and listen to God.  If it helps, hold one of the blue stones or light the battery operated candle.  If you want to, write or draw what God has shown you in the prayer book.

Prayer requests 1
·       Check the prayer book. 
·       Has someone who borrowed the bag before you asked for prayer?  If so, pray for them and put your initials down. 
·       If one of your prayers has been answered, put a smiley face next to it in the book
·       If you would like the next person to pray for you, write your request in the book



Prayer requests 2
Take one or two of the post it notes.  Write your prayer requests on them and stick them on one side of your mirror.  When the prayers are answered, say thank you to God and move the post its to the other side of the mirror.

Prayer bingo
Roll the dice twice to find a column and row number.  Pray for the thing in that square and put a button on the square.  Roll again!  If you land on the same square as before, roll again.

Sorry
Draw or write what you are sorry for on the magnetic board.  Tell God about it and ask Him to forgive you.  Erase what you have done as a sign that God forgives you.

Bubble prayers 
Are you worried about something?  Ask God to help you and blow some bubbles.  As you watch them float, picture giving your worries to God.  As they pop, picture God taking your worries and popping them.

Playdough Thank Yous
Shape the playdough into something you would like to thank God for and tell him about it

Blessing tower
Build a tower with the lego.  As you lay down each brick, say thank you to God for something He has given you


Wednesday 6 June 2012

Prayer chalk board

I recently came across chalk board paint for the first time.  Two coats of paint and literally anything can become a chalk board!  It's quite cheap as well, so that's a bonus!


We always have a graffiti board as one of our Sunday morning prayer stations, but to give us a little bit of a change I've swapped the cardboard for a chalk board.  All I did was paint one of the random bits of hardboard    left over from the building work and now we have a five foot long, reusable board.  The children love using the coloured chalks as well.  It's always good to have some variety in prayer!



Tuesday 5 June 2012

Exploring God the Creator in Creche

This Sunday in creche, the theme was God the Creator.  Here are some of the things Catherine put out for the children to explore and play with... 

Toy farm

Books about plants and animals

Pictures of insects

Discovery basket of natural items (including seeds in the bag!)

Farm and creature jigsaws


Fruit and vegetables with different textures to feel...
We also sang one of our favourites- Bigger than Big!