Prayers to colour in!

As the children really enjoyed the reflective painting prayer station we had last term, I've made some colouring sheets that can be done individually.  

The Lord's Prayer (printable version here)

And Matthew 22:37 (printable version here)

Have fun!

Good Samaritan Helping Hands Challenge!

Here is the take home sheet we gave out as part of our Good Samaritan lesson this week, encouraging children to look out for and help others!

For a printable version, click here.

Forgiveness: Washing Sins Away

I found some old coloured acetate lying around the other day and, as I'd been thinking about forgiveness and the new start of baptism, an idea came into my mind for how to use it in a prayer activity.  I tested it out before trying it on the children!

I cut the acetate into people shaped pieces and then we wrote or drew on them things I was sorry for or the names of people I'd hurt.

Then if you dip the people in a container of water, as a symbol of confessing your wrong to God and asking Him to forgive you, the writing dissolves and you are left with a clean person!

I tried this first using dry wipe whiteboard markers, but it took a real effort to scrub the writing off!  The type of pens that really worked were washable felt tips.  The writing came right off as soon as the surface of the person hit the water, but that type of pen doesn't show up too well in the photos unfortunately!  

The children love this kind of visual when they are asking for forgiveness so I am looking forward to trying it!

  

Baptism of Jesus: Take home activity

As part of our work on the life of Jesus, our 5-11s looked this week at the baptism of Jesus.  Here is the activity we gave them to do at home as a compliment to the lesson...

Baptism is a sign of a new life with God, where we say sorry for the things we have done, put our old life behind us and start something new.

Take some old, stained 2p and 1p coins.

Put them in a plastic box with some vinegar and 2 teaspoons of salt.  Put the lid on the box and shake for 30- 60 seconds.

Open the box, pour the salt and vinegar mixture away and rinse the coins in water. 

They should now look sparkly and new!

Just like the coins got a new, shiny start, if we say sorry to Him, God can help us to make a new start. Tell God about the things you are sorry for doing and think about an area in your life where you’d like to make a new start- it could be with a friend you have argued with for example. Ask God to help you make a new start.  Take a coin and keep it next to your bed for the next week to remind you of the new start you are making with God’s help.

Click here for a printable version.

Prayer challenge card for 8-11s

At Powersource on Saturday we gave out some challenge cards to the children.  As it will be a month until our next meeting we wanted them to think about how they could do some constructive faith related activities in between times!

Here are the challenges we wanted the children to think about doing...

Challenge

1. Pick up someone else’s litter

2. Make a thank you card or note for someone

3. Thank God for 5 things you can see out of your window

4. Give something away to someone

5. Ask a parent what they would like you to pray for them- and pray for it!

6. Sit or lie down quietly and listen to God for a few minutes.  What does he say or show you?

On each card there are 4 columns of tickboxes for (one for each week until we next meet again.  We don't expect the children to do all of the challenges every week, but are encouraging them to do at least 3 a week!

Click here for a printable version of the card!

Healing board take home sheet

We've started to give take home sheets to our children so that they can do an activity at home that will reinforce our teaching on a Sunday morning.  This Sunday our 3-5s looked at the story of Jairus' daughter and finished with prayer for healing on their own version of our healing board.  

The children thought of someone who was ill and stuck a plaster with that person's name on it (though this is not necessary!) onto the heart as a symbol that they were asking God to heal them.

The classroom version was A3 but we printed off some A4 versions for the children to take home with them to do with their family.

For a printable version click here

Thanks Kylé for your work on this!

Worship journals

Every third Sunday we are exploring worship in more depth with our 5-11s- what it is and how we can do it!  Read our previous post on multisensory worship to see what we have been up to so far!

This month we decided to take things a step further and to introduce 'worship journals'  This was Tanya's creation and she spent a lot of time getting them ready for the children to use so thanks Tanya!!

These are the introductory pages in each child's journal (the journal is an ordinary exercise book with these pages stuck in).  They remind the children of the multisensory ways we have used so far to look at worship.

After we had given the journals out, we spent some time listening to worship music and looking at the words as the singing happened.  We then kept playing music and let the children respond by joining in, drawing, writing or exploring other stations such as the building station.  Most of the children chose to use their journals to record what God was saying to them, which words stood out for them in the songs or what They were inspired to think about and say about God.  Here are some examples that the children were happy to share (none of this was initiated by adults- we just let them get on in their own way and a lot of the time, apart from the background music you could have heard a pin drop!)

On this last one, one of the children,trying to find a 'v' word for her acrostic poem asked me what 'vulnerable' meant.  When I explained she decided that it fitted in the sense of us being vulnerable to God's love, so she included it!

The children are fascinated by communion and, after we shared some bread in our first worship session, have insisted in each worship session that has followed that we share bread again!  This time, Tanya made a person shape with bread to represent us being part of the body of Christ and this time the children decided to pass the plate round, take a small piece and say thank you to God for something before eating it.

We have been so encouraged by these sessions and can't wait to see where they take us next!

Thinking about the body of Christ

Using our hands we decorated a person size sheet of paper and the outline of a lifesize person...

 Then we cut the person out and stuck it onto the background!  We all contributed to the picture in the same way that we all contribute to the body of Christ.

We next discussed how we, as a church, represented the body of Christ.  To help the children to engage with the idea, we talked about the various things Christians do inside and outside of church and what body part that job might represent e.g. mouth= teaching, worship, prayer; hands= serving drinks, welcoming, helping others, making worship art.

Children then thought about what their interests, personality and talents were and which part of the body fitted best with what they could bring to the church community.  They chose a body part picture and wrote their name on it to add to the poster.  It was great to also go round and invite other people to suggest what they thought represented their friends.  A lot of insight was shared!

Body of Christ fun!

Today at Powersource, we looked at what it means to be the body of Christ.  As a warm up we played some games...

Build a body relay:

Each team collects body parts of a different colour and sticks them to the background.  The first team to build the whole body and bring it to the leader wins!  (we hadn't told the children what our subject matter was when we played this game so they had to work out what they were making!)

Photo booth pictures:  Use the collection of wigs, glasses and hats to make yourselves a new character!

Hands, feet and mouth race:

Assign roles within each team.  
FEET are the only ones allowed to collect pieces of memory verse from the pile at the far wall.  They cannot speak or touch the pieces once they have been brought to the team base.
MOUTHS are the only people allowed to speak throughout the whole game (but cannot move and must have hands behind their backs- no pointing allowed!)
HANDS are the only people allowed to arrange and stick the parts of the memory verse to the sheet.

The idea is that, like in a relay race, children collect pieces of memory verse one by one, being them to the team base and arrange the verse so it makes sense.  The first team to complete the memory verse is the winner.

This was quite frustrating for some of the children but really illustrated how the parts of the body need to work together!

Praying with the senses: Taste

Take one of the sweets and suck it.  As you suck the sweet, think of the good things that you have in your life and thank God for them.

Praying with the senses: Sound

Listen to the music and, if you want to, read the words and sing along quietly.

Lie or sit and use the music to help you imagine being with God.  If God speaks to you, don’t forget to share it!

Write your own song about God!

Praying with the senses: Smell

Take one of the scented tissues and smell it. 

Even though we can’t see the smell, we know it’s there because our nose tells us!

God is with us all the time, even though we can’t see Him.

Ask God to be with you today. Take the tissue and keep it with you as a reminder that God is there.  The smell may fade, but God never will!

Praying with the senses: Touch

Feel the sand with your fingers.  Write or draw in the sand something you’d like to tell God you are sorry for.

God wants to forgive you

When you have spoken to God, smooth the sand over so the picture or word disappears and imagine God taking it away.

Praying with senses: Sight

This term, our prayer stations at the start of each session are based on the senses.  Here is the station for 'sight'

Look at these pictures.  What do they make you think and feel about God? 

Use the colours to make your own picture about God.  This could be a picture of something He has made, a picture of what He is like or a picture of how He makes you feel.  Be creative!

Getting familiar with the story: The Lost Sheep in Tots!

We had a lot of fun today in Tots with our lost sheep!  We're trying to link the work we do with creche (0-3s), Sparks (3-5s) and Tots (0-3s on Thursdays). With the younger children our main aim is to build familiarity with the stories so, as our story on Sunday will be the lost sheep, we thought we'd bring the story bag along to Tots and see what happened!

As the children are very young we didn't really do anything structured, we just let them go into the bag and play with what they found. At one point we read the story to anyone who wanted to listen and we interacted with their play because they found a lot to do!

We got out our collection of sheep.  The most popular seemed to be the fluffy ones made from a pompom and a bit of card for the face!

 One lucky sheep went for a ride...

 one child insisted on putting a bit of cotton wool on each love heart...

 we had to herd as many sheep as we could into the pen...

then the children started to hide the sheep (and several had to be rescued from behind the sofa!)

It was amazing to see how the children interacted with the story through play and now, the next time they hear it, they will already be familiar with the theme!

Lost Sheep Prayer

Our 3-5s will be looking at the Lost sheep on Sunday and here is the creative prayer we will use with them...

We will talk about how much the shepherd loves the lost sheep that he keeps looking until he finds it and this is how much God loves all of us.  We will then put everyone's name on a sheep shape and each child can put their sheep onto a green field background, saying thank you to God for loving us!

Growing Like Jesus

This week we'll be looking at the story of Jesus in the temple with our 5-7s group.

It's great to have a story about Jesus as a child so that the children can see that he went through the things they also will be going through to some extent.

After telling and acting out the story and thinking about Jesus as a child, we're going to think about the things we like most about Jesus (from this story or from other stories we know!) e.g. likes learning, is brave, loves God, loves his  parents, helps other people.  We're then going to ask the children to choose the one thing they'd like from that list to grow in their lives so they can be more like Jesus.

Then we'll let the children have their prayer sheets...

 The sheet is folded to show a small figure...

  
When the sheet is opened up, the figure grows!

Very simply we're going to pray 'help me grow more like Jesus' and they can colour in the first section of the larger figure on the sheet.  They can take the sheet home with them and, every day for the next week, pray the prayer and colour in another section of the figure!

As you've probably worked out, the sheet is double-sided.  For a printable version click here.

Step by step Christingle

This Sunday we will be having our Christingle service at church in honour of Epiphany.  The service plan at the moment is secret so that we don't spoil the surprise but it will certainly involve the wise men and their gifts at some point!

We've put together a step by step guide to building the Christingle as we will be calling on the congregation to make them as we go along.

Step one

As people arrive they will be given an orange in a bowl (it's important to cut the bottom of the orange off beforehand so that it stands level- important for when you reach the last step!)

The orange represents the world that God has made.

Step two

Stick into the orange 4 cocktail sticks with raisins and small sweets on them.  Again, we've prepared these earlier so people only have to pick up their sticks and stick them in!

The sticks represent the four seasons of the year and the sweets represent the good gifts that God gives us.

Step Three

Put a red ribbon round the middle of the orange.  We cut strips of red insulating tape that people can collect and stick round their orange- much easier than fiddling with ribbons and pins!

The red ribbon represents Jesus's blood and his sacrifice for us on the cross so that we can come into a relationship with God.

Step 4

Everyone collects a candle and sticks it into the top centre of the orange.  Again there is some advance preparation needed here- each orange need a cross cut into the top so that the candle will stick in easily.

Then we all light the candles!

The candles represent Jesus as the light of the world, bringing hope to darkness.

So...

Advance preparation needed:

• cut bottoms off oranges
• cut crosses in the top of oranges
• put sweets and raisins on cocktail sticks
• cut strips of red insulating tape (on the day, slightly before the service starts, hanging them from table edges so people can pick them up easily)

Everything else is up to the congregation though we tend to explain each symbol one at a time in a little depth and then add it to the orange!