Thursday 28 February 2013

A more colourful finger labyrinth to print out and use with children!

One of our popular posts about prayer has been the one on finger labyrinths for children.  Click here for the original post.  Some children find it useful to have their hands occupied when they are focusing on God and I've had quite a few children share something they felt God was saying to them when they used one during a time of reflection.  It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it really helps the odd one or two!



Recently I made a more colourful version (the others being black and white) because I know that the visual helps to draw me into prayer so there are probably children out there who feel the same!  We'll print some out and add them to our collection at church and please feel free to click here to print out your own.

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Lord's Prayer Symbol Eggs

This week our 5-11s are looking at the Lord's Prayer.  As our children are very accustomed now to using symbols in prayer and story telling, I thought I'd put together some symbols for this prayer.  I've seen Easter story symbols put in plastic Easter eggs and as we had some lying around I've used them as containers (easy to carry around!).  As usual, the symbols I've used are all things that you might find lying around the house or could get hold of easily!

The idea is that we can open the eggs (each containing a relevant section of the prayer) and discuss how the symbols relate to the words and meaning...


 Our Father in heaven: Smiley face sticker, feather and foam heart
Symbols of love, gentleness, happiness, peace to represent what heaven will be like.


 Hallowed be your name: gem stones
Symbols of how precious God is and how we should be respectful and careful with how we use His name.


 Your Kingdom come: Crown


 Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven: foam hearts
Symbols of how God wants us to behave on earth so that His will can be done here.


 Give us today our daily bread: lego bricks and pasta pieces
symbols of food and bricks (shelter)- things God gives us so we can have what we need day by day.


 Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us: a stained tissue and a clean tissue
symbols of how things we do sometimes make us less than God wanted us to be and how God can restore us through His forgiveness


Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: a stone and a safety pin
symbols of hard, difficult times when we need to hold onto God to do the right thing and a safety pin to represent God keeping us safe.

Monday 25 February 2013

Prayer Cube for 3-5s (or any age!)

Here is a useful prayer activity to introduce 3-5s to the idea of what we can say when we pray.  Please feel free to print off the document and use it at home!  Click here for a printable version. 

Friday 22 February 2013

Letting the light in scratch art

As part of our holiday club session on shining like a light, I wanted to help the children to understand in a visual way how Paul and Silas helped bring the prison guard into the light by telling him about Jesus.  I'd been thinking about scratch art, where the darkness is scratched away to reveal the colour underneath and then I found how to make my own scratch art on Pinterest.  Click here to see how!


So... it took a little bit of time, but as we only had about 25 children it wasn't too onerous.  I used oil pastels to make simple pictures of a cross on a coloured background (on credit card size pieces of card).  Wax crayons would work as well.

Next I painted over each picture with a mixture of black paint with a little bit of washing up liquid mixed in.

During the session, we gave each child a blacked out picture and a coin and they rubbed off the paint to reveal a coloured cross underneath.  They didn't know what would be underneath so it was a bit of a surprise!  

This then led to a good discussion about Jesus bringing light to the sadness and hard times of people's lives and how we could help people to see who Jesus was (helping to take the darkness away!)

Thursday 21 February 2013

Shining a light lighthouses!



Today at holiday club, one of our messages was about shining a light in the world,helping people to find out about Jesus and brightening their lives in some way.  We made a really easy craft to remember to be a lighthouse to others (we had a pirate theme to holiday club so the sea analogy really fitted!) and the children (and the adult helpers!) were thrilled by them.  The link for the original idea that we adapted can be found here.

You need: a polystyrene cup, a clear plastic cup, pens to decorate with, a battery operated tea light and some small blobs of blue tack.


1.  Decorate the polystyrene cup with the pens
2. stick the tea light to the top of the cup with a blob of blue tack.
3.  Put the clear plastic cup over the top and secure with another small blob of blue tack

Blue tack is used so that it's easy to lift off the top cup and the tea light to switch the light on and off, but everything will generally stay in place when the light is on!  Unfortunately, it's not easy to get the tea light on and off unless you dismantle and reassemble.  The children really didn't see this as a major problem though!

Tuesday 19 February 2013

The Lord's Prayer: Crafts, games and prayer activities

On Saturday, Powersource explored the Lord's Prayer, looking creatively at every section.  Here's how we broke it down and what we did.  Some activities have links to posts which will explain in more detail.  Please note that we had a 3 hour session so that's how we fitted so much in!

Warm up- Order the Lord's prayer (how much can you remember?).  Prayer printed out and cut into strips, mixed up so they can be put in the correct order.  We made this a race!


Our Father in Heaven:  Heaven collage (a whole group project)

 Hallowed be your name: Names of God dominoes  (discussing the many names of God and what they mean to us).

Your Kingdom come:  Kingdom of God orbs.  When we finished we put them on a world map to symbolise God's sovereignty over the world.  The children then insisted we arrange them into a cross shape.  They have really got into using symbols in prayer!




 Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven:  We talked about road signs in this country- triangle signs are warnings and circle signs are orders.  If God made some order signs to show how He wanted people to live, what would be on them?  Children came up with great ideas such as 'love', 'no fighting', 'let all plants grow', 'no other gods' (see below)

Give us today our daily bread:  Children shaped bread dough into their initial to show thanks to God for all the things he had given them in their daily lives.


Forgive us our sins: Washing away sins.  After quite a lot of activity, the children really settled down and took this very seriously.  For the first time that day they were actually silent!

As we forgive those who sin against us: Forgiveness fizz.  This is one of their favourite activities and focuses on letting go of anger and asking God to help you forgive.

 Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil:  God is with us safety pins.  We adapted this slightly to speak about God being close to us when we are tempted and in danger.


Take home activity: Lord's prayer colouring  




Saturday 16 February 2013

Heaven collage

Today our Powersource session was based on the Lord's prayer and we used a lot of creativity to explore the ideas contained within it!  This is what we did to explore the idea of heaven, using a quote from Revelation- "I am making all things new!" 

We Printed and enlarged the above picture so that it filled 2 A3 size sheets.  We stuck the sheets together so that the collage was a single sheet (our photocopier won't do anything bigger than A3!).  We then made a second copy of what we'd done and cut it into twelve pieces, with little initials indicating what colours each section of the picture should be filled with.  We then gave each child a piece and let them get on with it!  

We had lots of different scrapbook papers and children had to tear and stick.  No scissors allowed!  They were engrossed, which I wasn't expecting and they really worked well to help each other out and share colours.

Next, as children finished their squares, we arranged them on the base copy we had made orignally.  When all had been arranged we stuck them down!

 The final version with letters outlined...
The project took about 40 minutes and the children loved it.  It was great to be able to have some conversations at a relaxed pace too!

Friday 15 February 2013

3 in a row memory verse game

Sometimes it can be tricky to come up with interesting ways to teach and recap on memory verses we want the children to learn.  Here's an idea we will be using this Sunday as we revisit a memory verse about worship!


Step 1:  Write out your memory verse in a grid (as far as possible!).  You may need to split the Bible reference into several different squares or group words together so that it fits into the number of spaces you have.  Give the children some time to memorize where the words are!

Step 2:  Cover each word with some post it notes (I needed 3 layers for each space so the words didn't show through).

Step 3:  Split the children into two teams and give each team a different colour pen.  Get teams to take turns in choosing a space and saying which word should be under the post it.  If they are correct, they can circle the word in their team colour.   They can discuss answers in their team but a different person must speak each time.

Step 4:  The first team with three words in a row is the winner!

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Easter story game to print out and play

Here is a game that you can print out and play at home.  

The game goes through the events of the Easter story.  Roll the dice and move forward that number of spaces!  Some spaces have an additional instruction that might provoke a question e.g. why go forward on Palm Sunday and The Last Supper (the story is moving forward first with joy and then with Jesus preparing his disciples), but go backwards at Gethsemane (a great disappointment for the disciples) and miss a turn at Jesus death and burial (the idea of waiting).  It might be interesting to ask the children why they think the last space says 'not the end' rather than 'end'!

For the printable version, click here.

Monday 11 February 2013

Your Kingdom Come: Orb craft and prayer

This week our Powersource session will focus on The Lord's Prayer.  We'll split the prayer into various sections (more of this in following posts!) to explore its meaning more fully.  Here is what we will do when looking at the part where we say: "Your Kingdom come..."

At coronation, one of the items the queen or king (at least in this country!) holds is the orb. representing Christian sovereignty (this is according to the official website of the British Monarchy, so I think they know what they are saying!).  To me it looks very much like a globe topped by a cross, which is of course, very symbolic of Christ's kingdom being over the whole world, and that is what we are praying for with those words!  So...

To make your orb you will need a styrofoam ball (we sprayed painted a whole load of them silver and that was not easy!  Next time we'll probably just paint, not spray!), two lolly sticks, a pipe cleaner, some stick on jewels, small stickers.

First wrap the pipe cleaner round the sticks so that they hold a cross shape.
 Make a hole in the top of the ball with some scissors or a knife (just pushing the sticks in without a hole being made first doesn't work too well).

Decorate the sticks with the jewels.
When the orbs are complete, get the children to think about how we would know God's kingdom was on earth.  What would happen?  What would it be like?  Get them to write something representative of God's kingdom on a sticker so that they can then stick it to the orb as a reminder to pray for that thing.

Sunday 10 February 2013

Prayer Pyramids (with print out!)

Here is another prayer activity that the more kinesthetic children enjoy- prayer pyramids (they're not technically pyramids but the alliteration is helpful!



Children throw the pyramid and pray whatever is on the face nearest to them:

S-sorry
T-thanks
O-others
P-please
For a printable version of the net, click here.


Saturday 9 February 2013

Praying for God to bring light to your area

Last night was Light Night in Nottingham city centre.  We had about 1000 people passing through the church for music and refreshments, which was amazing.  Part of what we had on offer was a prayer area with some interactive prayer stations.  As it was Light Night, one of the stations focussed on asking God to bring light to the city and hope to the dark places and dark situations that can be found there.  It was really easy to set up with some map print outs...

You will need:  Print outs of maps of your city/ area, yellow and orange highlighter pens.




Jesus said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never live in darkness. They will have the light that gives life.” John 8:12

Choose a street or area on the map and highlight it in yellow or orange.

Ask God to bless that street or area and bring his light to the people who live, work or travel along it.


Thursday 7 February 2013

Fishers of people take home sheets

This Sunday our 5-11s will look at the story of how Jesus chose his disciples and will think about what it means to follow Jesus.  As part of our effort this term to give them a take home activity based on what they learn so that the concept can be carried through the rest of the week here are some things for parents to print off.  We'll give them a paper copy, but you never know where that will end up!



Link to printable sheet: Click here


Wednesday 6 February 2013

The best £5 I've Spent on Creche Yet!

By Catherine Ward
I'd been thinking for some time about how to allow the creche children some more chance for some big movement in the creche room. We don't have wheeled toys, not because I think they're a bad idea just because we haven't really lots of space. The children have, however, always loved the little slide that we have, the seesaw and the tunnel. I wanted something fairly small and static so that in didn't invade on anyone wanting to be quiet with the sand or some books but would give some more possibilities for people who did want to do some moving about.


 If you've read any of my other entries on this blog you'll know that I believe that it can be appropriate to give children things which weren't designed to be toys so long as you're being realistic about health and safety. After some though I worked out what I was looking out for: an aerobics step. Designed to be strong, to take weight bouncing on and off it, not to slip on the floor, no sharp corners and actually quite a bit lower than the slide that everyone's comfortable with the children using.

 I watched ebay for a while but eventually found one in a charity shop for just £5. It it really is the best £5 I have ever spent on creche. The first time we tried taking a step into creche I don't think the children worked out that it was to play with straight away (it's not one that's in usual toy colours) but after we encouraged a couple of the two-year-olds that we had in creche at the time to have a go stepping up and jumping down it became a hit. Now that we have a step in the room permanently and they love it. Between them the children have though of more ways of climbing up and getting down than I would have done. It's just long enough to walk along as part of a trail of climbing and balancing things and just lately it's been move up against the wall so children can stand on it to look out of the window. The persistence and complexity of the conversation about all the things going past the window that we had on Sunday was just great.