Praising God: Toast Painting

Very often we praise God through words- either spoken or in song.  It's great for children to know that we can praise God in so many other ways, including the use of all our senses.  This activity explores praise through colour and through taste and is suitable for all ages.

Speak to the children about who God is to them.  What is He like? How does He make you feel? What colour would you use to show God? Collect words and images to describe God and talk about praise being about telling God how great He is.  Collect ideas for things they would like to say thank you to God for.  Tell the children that they are now going to explore praising God with sight and taste.

You will need: white bread, new paintbrushes (or cotton buds), milk, food colouring, toaster

Divide the milk into dishes and mix each dishful with a different food colouring to make 'paint.' 

Encourage the children to paint the bread with the brushes or cotton buds, using colour to express praise for the things God has done or given them or for who God is.  They might want to paint pictures of things they are thankful for or just make bright and colourful decorations.  

When they have finished painting, toast the bread very lightly. The colours will intensify when the bread is toasted.  Say grace to thank God for the food and eat!

Daniel in the Lions' Den: Protection Pictures

One of the key themes in the story of Daniel and the Lions' den is that of God keeping Daniel safe.  This craft helps children to explore this idea of protection.

You will need: Paper plates (it is easier to pull the masking tape off compared with paper!), masking tape, felt tip pens.

Stick masking tape onto the paper plate however you like. Here I've done it in the shape of an initial letter but it really doesn't matter.  The important thing is having some tape stuck down!

Colour over and around the tape.  Children of any age can do this so it doesn't have to be neat and tidy, though it can be if you want it to be!

Carefully pull the masking tape off to reveal the 'protected' space beneath.

Talk about:

• How might Daniel have felt at different times in the story/
• How would you have felt? 
• Think about imes we feel scared and in need of protection.  Who can we ask to help? 
• Have you ever asked God to keep you safe? What happened? (It's great if the adults share their testimonies!)

Pray: 
Ask the children to hold their finished pictures and to look at the space that has been protected by the tape. Pray for people they know and people in the news who might need God's protection.  If they want to pray for specific people, they could write their names or draw pictures of them in the protected space.

Exploring stories with 0-5s: Jesus feeds the 5000

We had a great time exploring this story this morning!  There was a group of children aged from 1-3 with their parents joining in as well.  We had a lot of play and popcorn too!

Here's how we explored the story...

Telling the story with props (felt bread and fish that took me about an hour to sew but can be used for so much in the future!)

Making popcorn to show how a very little, with the right help...

 ...can go a long way!

The children really loved watching the popcorn pop into the bowl and were very patient.  We then shared the popcorn out and ate it together, sitting on the floor like the people Jesus fed.

Free play with toy food, plates and utensils

playdough with plates, knives, forks and cups

Magnetic thank you prayers for the things God gives us.

More Praying with Lego: Lego Prayer Station

If you have lots of bits of lego lying around then this prayer activity is for you!

This way of praying involves lots of colour and touch so it's great for visal and kinesthetic learners...

You will need: A lego baseboard, lego bricks, lego people, lego accessories of any and every kind!

Make a cross shape on the baseboard using some bricks to symbolise bringing your prayers to Jesus.

Use bricks to pray! Here are some ideas:

• Use different colours to represent different types of prayer e.g. sorry, thank you, healing. 
• Use colours to pray for different people or places
• Use accessories to pray e.g. flowers as thanks for nature
• build bricks on top of each other to pray for groups or families

Do this over a period of time, either in a family, on your own or as a prayer station.  See how long it takes to fill the cross with prayer!

Holy Communion Reflective Colouring: The Word of God

This is the next in the series of Holy Communion colouring sheets, to go along with the Gathering and 'We are one body.'  

This sheet shows in a symbolic way some of the stories that flow out of the Bible.  Have fun working out which stories are shown!

Click here to print out the sheet and get colouring...