Hidden treasure prayers

I've had some left over sand and plastic coins lurking around since holiday club and have finally decided to do something with them!

This idea could be used for lots of things (memory verse words, for example, would work really well) but I'm using it for prayers to begin with.

There are lots of things that we could say thank you to God for, but we often forget to do so, a bit like having treasure that we bury and forget about!  This activity helps us to remember to say thank you to God and also emphasizes the idea that the things and the people we have around us are precious like treasure.

Get the children to draw on little stickers things they could say thanks to God for: people, animals, food, nature etc.  Stick the stickers onto plastic coins (you might need a bit of glue too, to make sure the stickers stay on!) and then hide them in a bucket of sand.

Take it in turns to dig into the sand with your hand and pull out a coin.  Thank God for what is on the coin or ask God to bless them if the picture shows a person or place.

Prayer Jewels

I found this idea on Pinterest recently and it really got me thinking!  I've adapted the idea and turned it into a reflective prayer and praise idea that will work well with older children who like to use words...

Very simply, all you need is a permanent marker pen and some decorative glass nuggets...

Write words describing God and/or prayer words onto the top of the nuggets.  Words I used are in the following list but there are so many more you could use!

Joy, great, good, God, Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, you, hope, me, amazing, have, peace, kind, strong, be, I, me, help, thanks, love, loving, kind, joy, patient, are, faithful, powerful, self control, great, gentle.

Use the nuggets to make prayers

or to think about the character of God.

Joseph in Egypt: Egyptian collar craft

This week in our journey through the story of Joseph, we've reached the part where Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream and becomes an important leader there.  I was inspired by an Egyptian collar craft I found here but put my own slant on it!  This craft was very easy but gave a lot of scope for individuality as we had a group of children ranging from 3-13 years.  I really wanted the children to think about how God had looked after Joseph and had brought him through hard times to something really good.  Because of this we used lots of shiny things to decorate the collars with!  We wanted to make something special to represent how special Joseph was to God.

We used felt for the collar base but card would work just as well.  To decorate we used sequins and strips of shiny coloured card.

Draw round a large paper plate and cut out the circle from the felt

Make a neck space (off centre) by drawing round a CD.  Cut this circle out and reserve for another craft.

Here are the designs the children came up with...

 (3 year old)

 (4 year old)

 (10 year old)

 (5 year old)

 (3 year old)

 (9 year old)

 (5 year old)

(13 year old)

Light of the World CD craft

I'm thinking about light at the moment, especially Matthew 5:14-16 where Jesus tells us that we are the light of the world and that we should '...let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven'.

This is a great, easy craft to to with the children when thinking about this passage.  I came across it first at a 'Light Night' Halloween alternative event at Southwell Minster a few years ago so I have no idea who thought it up, but it wasn't me!

You will need: Old or blank CDs, paint pens, blu tack, tea light candles

 Decorate the shiny side of the CD With paint pens, remembering to leave some of the shininess showing so you can talk about reflecting light!

Blu tack a tea light to the middle of the CD and light the candle!

Talk to the children about light being very visible and brightening up what is around it.  How can we help to bring light to the lives of the people around us?  How does what we do help the love of Jesus shine out to others?  How do we reflect who Jesus is?  Invite the children to light their candles and to think about what they can do to be light in the world.

Quick and Easy Praise Bunting (a work in progress!)

This summer I'm finally getting round to decorating and sorting one of the rooms that we use on a Sunday.  It's been a work in progress over the past few months!

To help with the decorating efforts, I made some bunting to hang with words that describe God on each piece.  We got the children on Sunday to think of words and then I added them to the bunting as a temporary measure.  Hopefully, after summer, when more of the children are around, we can get them to decorate it properly!

Words the children chose are:  faithful, patient, Lord, great, light, strong, love, king, caring, kind, big, awesome, amazing, eternal, clever, un- sinful, good, powerful, always in control.  It's great to have the words hanging as a constant reminder of words to praise God with!

 The bunting itself took minutes to make.  I cut some triangles out of foam sheets and stapled them to a long string of ric rac braid.  I then wrote the words on with a permanent marker.  I'm hoping the children might add some glitter and sequins!

Playing card prayers!

I was sorting out the games in one of our cupboards today and came across about 5 packs of playing cards we obviously had never opened.  It started me thinking about how we could use them to pray with...

Here's a prayer activity that would work really well in a family prayer time or as a small group prayer activity. 

Take a pack of cards and lay them face down.  Take it in turns to take a card off the top of the pile and pray using these guidelines:

For a red number card say a 'thank you' prayer

 For a black number card say a 'sorry' or 'please' prayer

 For a king card, think of a word to describe God and how great He is.

 For a queen card pray for someone who is female.

 For a jack card, pray for someone who is male.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace craft

Here is a very visual way to illustrate the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace with a verse to remind us of the power of God to protect and save.  It's quite fiddly so it's probably best for older children or as a teacher's tool to help tell the story!

Print off the picture sheet (click here).

Cut out the square and the two pictures

 Stick picture 2 in the centre space like so...

 Cut along the lines of picture 1 to make 4 triangles.

 Fold the corners of the main square into the middle of picture 2

 Stick the triangles of picture 1 onto the folded flaps like this.

Now you can tell the story of the 3 men being thrown into the fiery furnace and then lift the flaps to show...

...the fourth man in the furnace, sent by God to protect them from the flames!

Simple stackable storytelling characters (quick and easy to make!)

It's always a great idea to tell stories with visuals and it's even better when you can move things around! We try to give our younger children lots of opportunities to retell Bible stories using items from the story (see our story bags) but it can often be quite expensive to get hold of  'people' figures to act out the different parts.  We try to keep our costs down as much as possible so here is a cheap, easy and quick way to make some generic 'Bible story' people.

 Cut out squares of scrapbooking paper (I used 12cm x 12cm squares).

 Fold in half as shown above.  The fold line is the long line towards the bottom of the picture.

 Fold the ends of the triangle as shown above and below.

 Fold the point of the top section over the folds you have already done.  Fold the point of the bottom section INSIDE the cup so that the reverse side of the sheet can not be seen.

 Stand the cup upside down.  This is the body of your storytelling character.

Glue a head to the front of each body. 

When you have finished using the characters, fold the unglued part of the head piece over to the back and stack the cups together for easy storage!

Joseph: God is with us in the ups and downs craft and prayer activity

The next part of the Joseph story we are going to look at is what happens after he is taken to Egypt- in Potiphar's house and in prison

It's not terribly constructive to go into the precise details of how Joseph lands up in jail (especially with 3 year olds!) so we will be using the retelling in the Lion Storyteller Bible, stopping just as Joseph is taken to see the king (that will be covered in the following session!).  What we really want to emphasise is that Joseph experiences good times and bad times (ups and downs) but God is always looking after him and never leaves him.  This retelling is especially good to help with this.

To help this idea to stick in the children's heads we are going to make an 'ups and downs' craft.

You will need:
Foam sheets, beads, pipe cleaners.

Front

Back

To make:  

• Push one end of the pipe cleaner through the foam sheet and bend over at the back to secure.
• put a bead onto the pipe cleaner.
• Bend the pipe cleaner to make some 'ups and downs' and then push the other end through the foam sheet and bend over to secure at the back
• Do this several times on your sheet
• use your hands to guide the beads up and down the pipe cleaner bends

Reflection/ prayer activity

• As you guide the beads along the bends, think of the ups and owns in Joseph's life and how God always helped him
• Think about the good times (ups) and bad times (downs) in your life and ask God to be with you and help you.  Say thank you to Him for the good times
• Think about people who are going through bad times in their lives and ask God to help them.