Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

If you're looking for a simple retelling of the Nativity Story, especially one that's suitable for under 5s, here is a short video for you using a widely available Nativity set.  Have a lovely Christmas everyone!

Celebrate the new life of resurrection with this butterfly craft. You will need: two squares of coloured paper (one smaller than the other), string. Easter Egg Prayers Easter Day colouring sheet Easter Day Play Dough Mats

For anyone who is looking for something to do at home this coming week, here is a playdough mat that ties in with our Mothering Sunday readings. Just click here , print out and laminate for further use in the future!  Think about: What does being safe feel like? Who keeps me safe? Who do I help to feel safe? Have you ever asked God to help you feel safe? Pray: Use the play dough mat to think about people who keep you safe and say thank you to God for them.

I try to buy or make a new nativity scene every year and this year I decided to have go at making some story spoons. These can either be displayed or used to retell the story and are a good size to be held by little hands! You will need: 10 wooden spoons (you can buy some quite cheaply for crafts) , a copy of the print out, colouring pens and pencils, scissors, glue or sellotape. Print out the story spoons sheet and get children to colour in the character pictures. Cut the pictures out and glue or tape each of them to the back of a wooden spoon. I used sellotape so that I can remove the pictures easily and make a different story. Tell the story using the spoons as props!

I've been thinking a lot about the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13: 31-32) recently, and for some reason it keeps cropping up all over the place! Because it's been on my mind, I've made a play dough mat to help children in their exploration.  The seed is a little bit bigger than it should be if we're going to keep accurate proportions, but I wanted children to at least be able to see it! As usual, if you laminate the printed sheets, its much easier to clean up the play dough and you can also keep the mats for repeated future use! To print the mat click here .

We're getting ready for Christmas and one of the things I'm most excited about is our upcoming crib service.  It's a new venture for our church, but it sounds as if the community are really getting behind it!  We have invited families to turn up dressed in nativity character costumes and everyone can join in the tableau that is formed during the narration. For people who don't have a costume, tea towels, tinsel and crowns will be at the ready. This is a script written with children under 5 in mind.  It can be narrated by a single voice but if you have older, more confident children, they might like to say the lines of Mary, Joseph, the Angel and the Innkeeper. The songs are all to the tunes of well known nursery rhymes, so everyone should be able to join in.  Click here to print off the script. Have fun!

A while back, I thought it would be good to have some holding crosses for the children to use during our worship time as part of our multi-sensory items but, when I looked at the price of wooden ones, I was a bit put off! Instead, I decided to go down the fabric route (I got a massive bag of offcuts from Amazon for a really cheap price!) and have made a collection of different sized and textured crosses which are perfect for holding onto.  They don't take long to make and you can stuff them enough to make them quite firm to hold.  It's great that I got such a variety of fabric in the parcel because it means that each of the crosses has its own particular feel and texture. You will need: Various kinds of fabric- fleece, denim, silky, sequinned etc, needle and thread, stuffing (I used the stuffing from a cheap cushion from IKEA) 1. Cut out two identical cross shapes from a piece of fabric.   2. Lay the shapes on top of each other and sew around the edges. Don't ...

We had a last minute planning situation at our children's group this last Sunday, due to a leader's illness. We were not deterred however!  I got out my Godly play materials to tell the story of the Great pearl and then we had lots of activities to choose from that didn't take a lot of preparation. As most of the children in the group are under 5, it's good when we have a craft that is a bit loose and free flowing and they absolutely love anything to do with food! This craft involved some stuff that I found in my cupboard the night before... You will need: Plain biscuits, icing sugar (made into spreadable icing), sprinkles, cupcake cases, white fondant icing rolled into 'pearls'. Spread some icing on top of the biscuit and then add sprinkles to decorate your 'treasure'. Add a fondant pearl to the top of your treasure biscuit to remember that the pearl was the most special treasure of all.   Finish by covering the biscuit with a cupc...

For those of you who have followed this blog over a period of time, you will probably know that last month saw the publication of my first book.  I am so excited about it! The book looks amazing and has loads of ideas for helping you to introduce Holy Communion to under 5s.  There are play sessions for Creche areas, sessions for more formal children's church settings and ideas for when you have no children's groups at all. There is also a section for what families can do at home to explore the main themes. What is extra great about this book is that it comes with downloadable and printable material.  To give you a taster, here is one of the play dough mats that links with a session exploring what it means to be part of God's big family.   To print click here You can buy the book here (overseas postage is available) or on Kindle here. Have fun!

Using wooden spoons painted as story characters is a great way of helping to tell stories to younger children. Unfortunately, it means that you need a lot of spoons if you want to tell lots of different stories! It struck me that a little bit of left over chalk board paint might solve that problem... I painted some craft spoons with  couple of coats of paint on both sides. I then got the chalks out and drew on some pictures to help tell a Bible story.  The great thing about spoons is that they are double sided, so if you want to tell a story like Jesus calming the storm, you can put storm on one side and sun on the other. Children could make their own drawings to retell a story and the best part is that, when you have finished, you can wipe them clean and use them again for a different story!   Enjoy some story telling and do post any photos of your creations :-)

This is a resource I have created while putting together my book on introducing Holy Communion to under 5s. More will follow in due course on that subject! Anyway, this is a very simple idea prompted by a remark on this blog's Facebook page.  Thanks Nicole Hall for telling me about having placemats with prayer prompts on them so that children could join in with prayers over mealtimes! The idea with this placemat is that you print it off and laminate it so that a child can use it on the table and it can easily be wiped clean. The first time you use it, talk about the different pictures and what they symbolise. When you come to pray before you eat, ask your child to choose one or two of the pictures and to thank God for that thing. For example, if they choose the 'drink' picture, they might thank God for their favourite drink or for what they are going to drink at the table.  Gradually they will build up the repertoire of what they want to say thank you for! ...

We've recently been investigating how we can include and engage younger children in our worship on a Sunday morning because we really want everyone to be a part of what is happening. While we have a selection of flags that the children can dance to the music with, the only space that allows this is at the back of church. Because we don't want to relegate the children, by default, to the back, we have hit upon creating a 'pray-ground' or interactive space for them at the front of church, where they can be involved in a variety of worship focussed activities while the service is going on.  If you want to find out more about 'pray-grounds,' look at t his great post by Traci Smith. Because we want to make it clear to everyone how valued the children are, one of the clergy or leaders will often sit in the pray ground while sung worship is happening or during the sermon, so that they can interact with the children and take part in what they are doing. Each ...

We had some fun with these at Messy Church a few weeks ago!  I know I'm having a bit of a play dough mat overload at the moment but they are so useful!! Click here to print off the mat, laminate for future uses and get play dough-ing!

I'm a believer in children never being too young to absorb aspects of faith, so I thought I would have a go at making a 'quiet' book out of felt that would introduce Christian symbols in a touchy feely way. While the title 'quiet' book always raises my eyebrows slightly because I like children being a bit noisy, I can understand why the soft nature of the felt lends itself to that title.  It definitely keeps the children occupied! Some of the tinier members of our congregation have enjoyed using the book and one elderly lady in particular was fascinated by it and I had to discreetly take it out of her hands! Don't be fooled.  This book is sewn and glued together in a very basic way because I don't have time for elaborateness! I'd love to see what other people come up with :-) Felt people attached to ribbon candles with flaps opened to reveal flames Unzipped heart containing felt people stuck to a length of ribbon A Cr...

Over the next 4 weeks or so, the whole church (adults and children) is looking at and learning about various aspects of Holy Communion: what it is, why we do it, signs, symbols, stories and liturgy.  At the end of the series, we will have a special celebration where I will preside at communion for the first time and one of our children will take her first communion.  It is actually quite exciting to all be learning together! We have set up a 'treasure chest' for children to role play with during the service, using an old box we found in an antique shop.  This is what we put inside... Handkerchiefs in the 4 liturgical colours (plus extra white ones for children to use as purificatory to wipe the cup with), wooden crosses and doves. A felt book of church symbols (see a future post on this!) Some metal cups and plates found for a bargain price in a charity shop, some wooden bread, hearts, battery operated candles and a globe ball. We pu...

Under 5s love to explore stories through play so here are some ideas to help with the story of Jesus turning water into wine! Use some glitter and water to make red and blue reflection bottles and play with red and blue ribbon streamers (blue for the water and red for the wine!) Have some water play (ever popular!) Play some party games and/or make some party hats to reflect the idea of the celebration of the wedding... Play with pretend foods, cups, plates etc to add to the party feel. Act out the story with bible story figures. Secretly add some red food colouring to the bottom of a jug, then, with the children watching, pour a bottle of flavoured water into the jug.  They will see the water change colour as it goes into the jug! Use food colouring to colour some water (make the colour quite strong). Give each child two sheets of absorbent kitchen roll (one on top of the other to make a double layer), then let them use droppers to make ...