Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Here is our second prayer bag for children to take home.  Like the Family prayer bag for 3-7s , this bag has ideas that families can use to pray at home and each one will only take a few minutes.  This bag also takes into account that the children of this age group will be more used to our prayer routines and may want to do some  things independently!  All bags will be ready to give out in the next couple of weeks, but why not try some of the ideas at home before they arrive... B ubbles C ounters (card squares) Laminated  3 in a row prayer game (to print out click here  ) Laminated w orld map Spot s tickers Journal notebook Felt tip Prayer chatterbox (to print out click here ) Post its  'Sorry'  acetate Bubble prayers Say thank you or sorry to God or ask Him to help you.  At the end of your prayer, blow some bubbles as a sign of your prayers going up to God. Prayer journals Use the notebook to write and draw your ...

In an effort to help parents with ideas for connecting children with God at home, over the next few weeks, I'm hoping to get some prayer bags made up for each child.  For the 3-7s age group the activities are suitable for using as a whole family, each taking just a few minutes!   As we don't have massive groups of children, with a little organisation and outlay this is going to be possible!  The purchases I've made are: paper bags, plastic teaspoons, dice, small pots of playdough (4 pots for a pound in the pound shop), bubbles (9 for £1), party blowers (10 for £1), bags of pound shop lego (1 bag will supply about 4 children).  Everything else has been printed off and laminated! ·          Teaspoons (click  here  for teaspoon prayers explanation) ·          Prayer cube (click  here  to print off) ·          Die ·...

Today our 3-5s learned the story of the lost coin!  Thanks to Kylé for putting this lesson together. After hearing the story, here are some of the things they did...  Coin headbands (silver card coins stapled to ribbon) Prayer activity- find silver card coins around the room, then draw a picture of yourself on the reverse of the coin.  Speak about how Jesus looks for people who are far away from God and is so excited when they get to know God better (just like the woman is when she finds her coin!)  Everyone then shouts 'thank you' to Jesus!  Lost coin bottle (coins hidden in rice and pasta mix).  Shake to find!  Role play items: brush, torches, lights, coins  a collection of coins with pots and tins to hide them in! Take home activity: Laminated pictures (one of which has a coin next to it), painted over with silver paint.  Children scratch off the paint to find the picture with the coin.

The children in our 8-11s group have really enjoyed playing with the  Names of God dominoes  I made a while back so I thought I'd make a different set. These dominoes are suitable to help open up a conversation about Jesus and his life as the symbols used are all clues to part of his story.  I think they'll be particularly useful at our lunch time club at school where we spend a lot of time answering children's questions and the children are not necessarily Christian.  It will also be useful to see if the children can identify why we have used particular symbols! Symbols used:  Star- Jesus birth Dove- Jesus' baptism/ Holy spirit Sheep- represents the parables Jesus told Wave of water- miracles of Jesus such as the calming of the storm/ Jesus is the living water Loaves and fish- represent the miracles of Jesus Palm leaves- Palm Sunday Bread and wine- last supper Crosses on the hill- crucifixion Sunrise- Easter Sunday/ new life Crow...

Here is our new story bag- just in time for thinking about Pentecost!  All the items are homemade or come from the pound shop... Pentecost story book (Print and make your own  here ) Felt board with felt figures, felt flames and felt 'wind' Pentecost tab pull (print and make your own  here ) 2 'fire' ribbon streamers 2 paper windmills bubbles (need breath or 'wind' to carry and make them!) battery operated tea lights birthday badge (Pentecost is the Church's birthday!) We'll be using this with our 3-5s on Pentecost Sunday and then the bag will be available for parents to borrow and take home.

This seems like quite a complicated craft, but it's worth it, even if it's just used by the leader as a storytelling aid!  I've tried to show step by step what to do...  It's probably best to stick all of the pieces onto card to start off with as this will make it more sturdy- either that or print onto card! If you do this, you will still need the A5 piece of card (see instructions)  Print off the sheet with all the sections on it...  Cut all the sections out (including the blank middle 'window' on the main section).  Get a piece of A5 sized card and trim it to fit the width of the flames section.  Stick the flames section to the top of the card.  Fold the main section along the fold line and fit the fold over the top of the card.  Glue the back section down.  Place the tab section over the flames... (don't stick it down!)  Fold the top of the main section over the card and stick it down, leaving room around the 'w...

Here is another reflective colouring sheet for those children who like to be focusing on something visual while they spend some quiet time with God- it's quite an intricate one this time!  The verse is Psalm 27:1: 'The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?' For a printable version click  here

Here's a great idea you can use at home to help children pray and it only costs £1! I've always loved the idea of teaspoon prayers- 'tsp' being the abbreviation of 'teaspoon' in recipes but also being the initial letters of 'thanks, sorry and please', three things we can encourage children to pray about.  I like things that stick in the head! I got a pack of small spoons from the pound shop and wrote t or s or p on each one with a permanent marker.  Then I put them in a jar.  Children can take a spoon at random from the jar and then pray a 'thanks', 'sorry' or 'please' prayer according to the letter on their spoon.

Kylé and I found this idea on Pinterest a while ago and it's progressed from simple craft idea to prayer activity!  The original seems to come from this  Bulgarian website that has loads of great children's craft ideas (and Google translate helps to understand it!) Thanks to Kylé for this idea. We often talk about 'putting things into God's hands' and this is a really visual way of doing it!  Fold a piece of paper in half and draw round your hand (index finger and thumb right up against the fold). Cut the hand out and open out.  It should look like the picture below! The heart shape made by the join of the finger and thumb is great because it helps us to talk about God's love for us.  We can then talk about putting people or worries into God's hands and trusting that He will look after them for us because He loves us and He loves them.  Children can write the names or draw the people or the worries they want God to take into his hands and then...

I'm thinking about getting things together for a Pentecost story bag soon but I've been a bit frustrated in finding  a story book for children just focused on this event.  So I decided to make my own!  It's only 5 pages long but it tells the story in an easy and simple way... Click  here  to print off a PDF of the pictures (2 per A4 page) which you can then trim (I also laminated!)  and make into your own story book.

As part of our work on the sermon on the mount this term with our 5-11s, this is one of the new prayer stations children can choose from.  It picks up on the idea of 'going the extra mile' for someone. Encourage the children to think of someone they usually help or could help with something at home or at school.  Then get them to think of how they could do something extra and unasked to help that person.  Children draw or write their idea on a coloured footprint and stick it somewhere on the track, asking God to help them bless that person.  When they come back the following week they can then put a smiley face next to their footprint if they've managed to do that thing!

Today our 5-11s explored the beatitudes.  Click here for our  beatitudes resources ! After exploring each statement, we gave the children access to the junk box!  In the box there's a random selection of plastic cups, card, paper, foil, lolly sticks and just about anything we could get our hands on and cram in!  The children used anything they wanted to make something that reflected an element of what they's learned.  Leaders were on hand to help but the children had no problems coming up with their own ideas!    Here's what they came up with...  Chains to represent the persecuted people God would care for  Scales to represent those who seek righteousness  A dove's head (he didn't manage to make the whole bird in the time allowed!) to represent the peacemakers.  A shining cross because 'when we forgive people it's like God's light shining out, like Jesus on the cross'  A shining heart for when we t...

Periodically, as a response to the teaching, we use word clouds to help the children reflect.  I can't get enough of them because I love the colours! Here is a Beatitudes word cloud, made from pasting the Bible verses into the creator.  Children can use the heart space to write or draw how they feel about what they have learned or what the remember most/ liked most.  The words can be used as prompts to help them if they want. For a printable version (two word clouds to a page) click  here .

Having sorted out the language I want to use to explain the Beatitudes (click  here  to go the Beatitudes cards), I've now got around to sorting out some more ideas for Sunday. To link with the cards for each saying, I've got some props.  They don't exactly match the cards, but close enough! An inflatable swimming ring to symbolise relying on God's help (poor in spirit) A comforting cuddly toy (mourning) A gift bag (humble- people who think of others before themselves etc) Scales (made of a coat hanger and yoghurt pots as I didn't have the real thing! (righteousness and justice) Cross (mercy and forgiveness) Heart (pure in heart) Dove (peacemakers) Rope (persecuted) I've made some more cards for a prayer activity to get the children thinking about how they can live more in the spirit of the Beatitudes.   After some time thinking and listening to God, the children can choose one of the cards and hang it onto a 'tree' constructed of tw...

I had a bit of a panic this week when I realised that I would be teaching the Beatitudes this Sunday.  How do I explain 'humble', 'meek', 'righteousness' and 'merciful' to 5-7s without spending the whole session doing it?  Even the simplest Bible translations used words they weren't going to understand easily! So I decided to make some colourful cards in child friendly language to explain what each statement meant.  I included some symbols that might help explain because a lot of the children are like me and find pictures very helpful!  I intend to use these symbols in real life form during the lesson.  None of the explanations or symbols are perfect but hopefully they will help!    An inflatable swimming ring to symbolise relying on God's help (poor in spirit) A sad face (mourning) A gift (humble- people who think of others before themselves etc) Scales (righteousness and justice) Cross (mercy and forgiveness) Heart (pure in hear...

We've had our prayer board  up for at least a year and a half now, so it's time to have a little change round!  The knowledge that God listens to us and answers our prayers is fundamental to what we are teaching the children, though, so we want to make sure that, whatever replaces it gives the children the chance to celebrate answered prayer. This is our new board... I found some garden netting at Asda (£1 for A LOT!) and stapled some of it over some shiny blue fabric Children can write or draw their prayers on paper slips and poke them through the netting as a symbol of putting them into God's hands (He can hold the prayers as in a net).  Then, when the prayers have been answered, children can unroll them and pin them to a washing line next to the board.  I'm just hoping that no one manages to pull hard enough on the next to dislodge all my staples!!

One of the lessons we will be doing with our 3-5s this year will be about speaking to God and telling him how we feel.  It's really important that children learn that God wants us to be honest when we speak to Him and that he cares about what we feel. This game was sparked off by an idea I found in a lesson about Nehemiah in one of the Scripture Union Tiddlywinks books.  Games are also a great way of getting children involved!   This is a game to help the children explore times that make them feel happy and sad and help them, then, to tell God about them- either thanking Him or asking for help.  Just throw the dice, move around the board and, if you land on a face, tell God about that feeling!  This is especially useful for families to use at home.  Click here  to print out the board.