Sunday 23 December 2012

Nativity Play and Manger Prayer

We had a fantastic Nativity play this morning with a mixture of ages from the oldest to the youngest in church taking part.  It wasn't slick but it did have a pantomime cow to make the right noises when we sang 'Away in a Manger'!  It's amazing what you can achieve in only 45 minutes of rehearsal!

For a copy of the script (to see what you were missing if you didn't make it!) click here.

We talked during the service about gifts, both the gifts God gives to us and the gifts we can give to God- our time, our talents etc.

Each of the main characters in the play said what gift they wanted to give to God and tied a ribbon to the manger.  We then played 'In the Bleak Midwinter' (because of the line about giving God 'what I am') and invited each member of the congregation to come and tie a ribbon to the manger as a symbol of the gift they wanted to give to God from their lives.  Almost everyone responded and people even came up to tie ribbons on after the service was over.  We created a really effective visual sign of our prayer and intentions...



Tuesday 18 December 2012

Christingle assembly

Today we did a Christingle assembly at school and then went into every class to help the children make Christingles.  It was brilliant- by the 5th class round we had the system well in place and got the whole class finished in 20 minutes!

Christingle by davosmith - A Christingle as used in many Christian traditions in the run up to Christmas - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christingle

Here is the assembly we used to introduce the idea...

Game:  wrap boxes in gift wrap.  The first team to wrap their gift is the winner

Talk about Gifts that God gives us- Christmas is the time to remember the gift of Jesus.  What gifts does the Christingle remind us of?


I brought out 4 gift bags containing hidden items and asked the children to guess what was inside.

The first bag held an inflatable globe- we had to squash it a bit to fit it in the bag but then we reinflated it!  It also held an orange which we use to symbolise the world.

 The next bag contained fruit and sweets- the good things that God gives to us.  On the Christingle we put sweets and raisins on the 4 cocktail sticks to symbolise the good things God gives us during the 4 seasons of the year.

 The third bag contained a candle and a lamp, symbolising Jesus as the light of the world.  At this point we talked about light shining in the darkness to help people to see and we thought about the people who help us and make our lives brighter.

 The last bag contained a red box and some red tape that would go round the orange.  The red symbolises Jesus blood when he died on the cross and the box opens up into a cross shape.  We spoke about Jesus' bravery and how he gave us a great gift by dying because it brought us closer to God because our sins could be forgiven.


We finished with a reflection time thinking about the gifts God has given us symbolised in the Christingle: The world, food, the seasons, people who help us and make our lives brighter and Jesus who brings us closer to God.

Monday 17 December 2012

Nativity story word clouds and activity

I'm off into school tomorrow to do a lesson about the Nativity story and I've decided to use word clouds to help the children to think about the story.

Most of the children are very familiar with what happens but word clouds picking up on specific words really help to open the story up in a different way...

I've made two word clouds by copying and pasting the words of Luke 2:1-20 into the creator at Tagxedo.

The first one is simply a star shape that they can look at and see which words strike them most (including ones that puzzle them and we can talk about!)



The second is an inverted star, with space for children to write and draw what sticks with them most about the story.

Printable versions of the word clouds are available here.

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Christmas poem and prayer!


Having found the M & M Christmas poem on Pinterest this year, we couldn't resist using it at Messy church!  After using pictures to tell the Nativity story, we brought out our giant M&M...


We gave everyone a normal m&m of their own and acted out the poem by turning it round to make an E (for the East), a 3 (wise men), an M (manger) and a W (worship|).  We used the big M&M at the front to demonstrate!  Please check out the link above to see our source for the poem.

We then latched onto the idea of the wise men following the star to find the true meaning of Christmas.  We asked people to think of those who don't really know what Christmas is about and who will be sad, lonely or ill this Christmas.  We then asked God to help us shine like stars to show them the joy of Christmas.  As a symbol of this, people were then invited to come and get a star and lay it out on the chancel steps.  As you can see, one of the children was very vigilant about making sure the stars were in a straight line!


As a take home, we gave each person at Messy church a copy of the M&M poem (see link above) and a few m &ms in a bag.  At least one family told us that they were going to go through the poem together at home that night!

Sunday 9 December 2012

Christmas Messy Church!

Here are the crafts from our Christmas Messy Church yesterday- all Nativity story based!


 Christmas cards with Nativity foam stickers from Baker Ross



 Nativity stencil pictures

 Wise men hats

 Nativity themed baby area



 Candy Cane Shepherds

Shaving foam snow 

 Nativity sticker puppets



Saturday 8 December 2012

Baby Jesus Manger Biscuits

This is one of our most popular Messy Church crafts ever!  We've brought it back this year due to popular demand...

Get a biscuit (we always seem to use digestives!)

Ice the biscuit and crumble on some shredded wheat to make the 'hay'

Lay a jelly baby on the hay

Cover the jelly baby with a fondant icing blanket

Eat!



Friday 7 December 2012

Messy Christmas star ornaments

Here are the star ornaments we will be making at Messy Church tomorrow.  We're getting very excited!


We used air drying clay to make star shapes and cut out a whole with a straw.  Then we left them to dry...

Use a brush or cotton bud to paint PVA glue over one side of the star.

 Put some glitter on a tray, put the glue side of the star down in the glitter and swizzle it around until it's covered!

Repeat on the other side of the star and put an opened out paper clip through the hole as a hanger.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Nativity Wise Men with 3-5s

This Sunday Sparks looked at the story of the Wise men coming to visit Jesus.  Again we had quite a lot of time for playing around the theme and dressing up was very popular!

We played pass the parcel with pictures of things God gives us in each layer.  As every layer was unwrapped we said thanks to God for that thing  At the centre was a picture of Jesus and a bag of chocolate buttons to share because Jesus is a gift God has given us that we can all share.  We thanked God for giving us Jesus.
 We talked about presents and when we get them.  This led to the idea that Christmas is Jesus' birthday.
 We made Wise men hats with paper plates and shiny paper
 Dressed up as wise men and the star (and shepherds and Mary and angels!)

 Played with the Nativity set

We also played with the baby dolls and everyone enjoyed singing 'Away in a manger'- in fact the children insisted on singing it several times!  It's really great when the children have time to explore the theme of the session through lots of play.  Some play with one thing for the whole period and some play with everything!  It really helps us, as leaders, to engage with the children and to build relationships with them and we also have a great time joining in!


Monday 3 December 2012

Nativity Word search

Our 7-11s seem to love word searches at the moment- both solving them and making them!  I've put together a Nativity word search for them with a second sheet that has a blank grid for them to make their own version.  For a printable version, click here.