Holy Spirit Crayon Melting Craft and Prayer Activity

This is a really exciting way to talk about the power of the Holy Spirit!

You will need: wax crayons (wrappers off works best) strong glue (eg. from a glue gun or superglue), a canvas (this really doesn't work on paper!), a protective sheet, a hairdryer.

We did this outside with an extension cable for the hairdryer because there is a certain amount of splatter!

Glue the crayons to the top of the canvas and let the glue set firm.

Set the hairdryer to the highest level and start blowing it across the bottom ends of the crayons.  It takes a while but they eventually start to melt.  Set the dryer down a heat notch and continue to melt the crayons.

 Watch as the colour is released!  We did this with children aged 5-9 and, as long as there was adult supervision they were brilliant at taking turns with the hairdryer and had loads of suggestions about where to aim it to make certain colours run in different directions.

When you have finished, the wax will dry quite quickly and you will have a group masterpiece!

Talk about: God, through the Holy Spirit has given us each gifts to help make the world a better, brighter place.  The power of the Holy Spirit releases those gifts within us so that we can share them with the world (like the power of the heat from the hairdryer released the colour in the crayons).  Speak about the gifts of the spirit and ask children which gifts they think that God might have given to them.

Prayer idea 1: ask children to think of a colour that represents the gifts they think God has given them or they would like to have.  Ask them to gather round and put their finger on that colour somewhere on the picture.  Say a thank you prayer and ask God to release those gifts in them.

Prayer idea 2: Set up a new canvas and get children to take it in turns to melt the crayons.  As they pray, ask God to release the gifts in them.

This would be a great activity for Pentecost and would also work really well as a group project at Messy Church!