John 3:16 verse to colour

As the previous posts of prayers and verses for children to colour in as a reflection activity have proved popular, here's another verse.  Tomorrow is Easter, so it's particularly relevant!  Click here for the printable version.

5 minute no-sew peg characters for telling Bible stories!

I was feeling a little bit crafty the other day and wanted to make some generic figures for acting out Bible stories with.  I'm not very into crafts that take a long time.  I like minimal effort, speed and something that looks good!  These dolls need no sewing and take about 5 minutes to do!

You will need:  felt sheets, scissors, Dolly pegs with stands (I got mine from here £1.60 for 10!), thin ribbon, thin wire (e.g. jewellery making wire, about £1 a spool), hot glue (or PVA glue)

Cut a long rectangle of felt, just under twice the length of your peg.  Fold it over.

Trim the sides into a kind of truncated triangle shape and cur a v shaped hole for the peg's head.

 Dress the peg in the tunic and use a piece of thin ribbon or wire to make a belt, which will secure it to the peg.

 Cut a smaller rectangle as a head dress (you will have to make a judgement on how big, based on the size of your peg!).

Wind some wire around your index finger to make a band to secure the head dress to the peg.

Hot glue the head (top and sides) so that the head dress will stick. PVA will work too, but it will take longer and you'll have to hold it!

 Add the head dress!

I'm sure I could experiment with pipe cleaner arms but I quite like these as they are for the time being!

Praying for strength and help when we can't do it by ourselves

This is one of the activities we did yesterday when some classes from school came to do the Easter journey at church.  We used it to help talk about the garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus prayed to God to help him do the difficult thing he was faced with.

We showed the children a long length of rope and talked about its strength and the fact that sometimes, when people are in trouble we talk about 'throwing them a rope' to help rescue them.  We used this to talk about the times in our life when things are hard and we need to ask for help because we can't do it by ourselves.  This led to talking about how Christians believe that God will help them and give them strength to get through.

 We asked each child to think about who they would ask for help.  Would it be a particular person?  Would it be God?  Then each child came to tie a length of ribbon to the rope (held between two adults) as a symbol of thanks for the person who helps them to be strong.

Alternatively, children could tie a ribbon to the rope and ask God to help them to be strong when things were hard for them.

After 4 classes, hardly any of the rope was visible under the ribbons!

Last Supper Jigsaws (with picture to print out)

Today we had classes from one of the local schools into church to do an 'Easter journey' of activities.  This is the activity we used to introduce the Last Supper and the children loved it (from the 5 year olds up to the 11 year olds!)

First I collaged a picture and scanned it so it could be reproduced.  Then I printed some copies off, laminated them and cut each sheet into 10 pieces.  Click here if you want to print off the picture to make your own jigsaws.

We gave each group of 3 children one of the jigsaws, before we said anything about what happened at the Last Supper and they worked together to put the puzzle together.

When everyone had completed the puzzle, we asked them about the symbols they saw in the picture- bread, cup, heart- and the words.  They explained what they thought they were about and then this led onto telling the story.  They had so many ideas- especially about the symbolism of the heart!  A great conversation starter for this topic.

Messy Church Prayer Response: Chalkboard Cross

Chalkboard paint is a fantastic thing!  Our children love the prayer chalkboard we have and, when we were planning Messy Church for Easter, it struck me that we could use the same principle with the cross as a prayer response.

One of our amazing congregation members built us a cross and Kylé and I set to work with the chalkboard spray paint (much quicker than just painting it on!).

After showing a video clip about the Easter story, we showed everyone the dark, blank cross and talked about the sadness of Good  Friday and how we sometime have sad things that happen or wrong things that we do that make us feel bad.  We then reminded everyone that The Easter story didn't finish with Jesus dying but with him rising to new life and that, if we ask God to help us, He would help us to have new starts and hope in our lives when things go wrong. We asked people to come and decorate the cross with coloured chalk as a sign of the new life and hope that Jesus can bring to us. Even the very youngest children could join in.  Here's the result!

Messy Easter!

Today we had our Easter Messy Church.  The snow meant that we didn't have as many people as usual but we still had a lot of fun!

Here are the crafts and activities we had...

 Shaving foam and paint marbled eggs

 Water beads, plastic eggs and polystyrene eggs

 A baby area with hearts (to reflect Jesus' love) and balls (close enough to eggs for new life!)

 Special cups to think about the last supper (click here for details of how)

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 Cards using stickers from Baker Ross

 Palm Sunday spinners (click here for details of how to make them)

Crown of thorns biscuits (icing, digestives, broken up pretzels)

 Tape resist crosses (click here for details of how to make them)

Elastic band crosses on a nailboard (one of our 4 year old boys loved this!)

make your own marble mazes (thinking about the stone that rolled away from the tomb)

Messy Easter Crafts: Tape Resist Cross

Here's another preview of our Messy Church crafts for Easter!

I came across this idea on Pinterest and we love it.  It's quick, easy and makes a really colourful resurrection cross to celebrate Jesus rising to new life!  You can see the original idea if you click here, but this is how we've adapted it!

 Cut out a cross shape (we used A4 card)

 Stick masking tape over the cross in whatever pattern you like!

Dip the ends of chalk in water and paint with it in the spaces created by the masking tape.  (It doesn't matter if you go over the edges of the tape!)

When the chalk is dry, carefully remove the masking tape from the cross!

Using pipe cleaners to express ideas about worship

We had a fantastic Ablaze worship session yesterday.  It's amazing to see how the children have really come to understand more and more what worship is, how we do it and why we do it!

Here is our latest attempt to show some hands on creativity in worship...

First the children were encouraged to share words about who God was,

Next the children were asked to use a pipe cleaner to make a shape that represents worship of God in some way (something that is a reflection of how amazing God is).  They had so many ideas!

People praising God, praying or (in the case of the yellow person) holding a hand in the air "to say 'yes' because Jesus is so awesome!"

Various hearts to reflect God's love of us and our love for God.

A dove to symbolise God's purity.  This child then said that half of the shape was yellow because God was 'golden'.

 A variety of musical notes from children who found beauty in the music a reflection of God.

 Two examples from a 5 year old: a person dancing and a snail because even snails worship God (we had just been learning the verse from psalm 150 'Let everything that has breath praise the Lord'!)

 A flower and a spring to express the joy of spring and new life that God brings.

A 'Pope' figure!  We aren't a Roman Catholic Church, but one of the older children had obviously been paying attention to the news this week and made a Pope as an example of someone who worships God and helps others to worship!

Collaged Easter day altar frontal by the children

Today at Powersource, we made an altar Frontal for Easter Day.

We though about the meaning of Easter day (celebration, hope, joy, God's love, new life) and then the children individually drew some pictures of what they thought should go onto the finished piece.  We then combined some of the images, drew them out on big pieces of paper, collaged on top and eventually stuck them onto some pre-prepared fabric (thank you Wendy!)

It turned out beautifully and everything came from the ideas of the children (and their wonderful collaging skills!)

Jesus' hands with heart shaped holes

 Palm leaves to celebrate Jesus the King

Celebration 'banner' shapes

An empty cross with a shield and heart at it's centre

A banner saying 'he is risen' 

Thinking about the cross using a nail board (Good Friday)

Here's an activity that will be available at Messy Church this Easter but is also an interesting way to help children reflect on what happened to Jesus on the cross. When using it as a reflection activity, I'd put an adult with the board as a guide and also to help prevent any injuries should a nail come loose for any reason!

The board is a piece of wood that I have hammered nails into so children can feel the textures and be reminded of what happened to Jesus on Good Friday. The nails are then used to stretch elastic bands into cross shapes of different colours and sizes.  As children make their cross they can thank Jesus for what he did or talk about what it must have been like for him.  The individual crosses represent us as individuals who have been saved by Jesus and eventually the whole board will be filled with overlapping crosses to represent the overlapping of our own relationships as Christian friends and family. 

A note on the board:  I'm not the most practical of people but it literally took me only half an hour to make so I can vouch for it being easy!

Messy Easter Crafts: Special Cup (last supper)

Here's a preview of one of our crafts for Messy Easter in just over a week!  These are 'special cups' and reflect the drinking of wine at the Last Supper.

We bought some plastic wine glasses from the pound shop (8 for £1, which we thought was a bargain!)
and then decorated them with decor pens that will write on just about anything!  Here is our sample version...

Looking forward to seeing what Messy Church goers come up with!