Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

 This Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, so here's some resources to help if you're doing that too! Baptism of Jesus Story Video Baptism of Jesus Spinners Story Cards Colouring Play dough mat Take home activity

Yet again we have entered into a necessary national lockdown to help with the response to Covid 19.  Some churches are remaining open and some are closing temporarily. Whatever is happening where you are, there are lots of things to help you celebrate faith at home! This coming Sunday is when we traditionally celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. Here is a video of the story and some extra ideas for exploring it- especially useful if your church is closed and you will be at home with your family. Make a story spinner Print off this colouring sheet Make doves  from paper. Click for the video of how to make them. Think about God saying that Jesus was his son and that he loved him. Who is in your family? What is a family? How do you know that you belong to a family? What does it mean to be in God's family? Light a candle and say this prayer: God, thank you that we are part of your family and part of a human family. Send the Holy Spirit to help us and be with us in the coming year. Hel...

We have a baptism coming up where there will be a lot more children than usual in the congregation. We want to do something that will help the children to engage with what is going on, so I've come up with a play dough mat to help them explore the signs and symbols they might see being used: A cross to represent the sign of the cross made in oil on the candidate's head A dove to represent the Holy Spirit A heart to represent God's love for us Water to represent cleansing and being born to new life Candle to represent being sent out in the light of Christ This mat could also be used when discussing baptism symbols with children before baptism (if they are old enough!)- the pictures prompting conversation about why each symbol is important and what it means. Click here to print off the mat. Have fun exploring!

This easy-to-make spinner is a surprisingly effective way to see the dove descending on Jesus' head when he is baptised! Click here to print out the PDF. You will need: Colouring pencils, scissors, glue, sellotape, a straw Cut out the picture section and colour it in. Fold down the middle and turn over.  Sellotape a straw to the middle of one half of the sheet and glue round the edges of the other half of the sheet.  Glue the halves together, like so... Now swizzle the straw between your hands and watch the dove appear over Jesus' head!

I've found it hard to track down a little story book that only tells the story of Jesus' baptism, so I've made some simple story cards that use accessible language... For children who don't read yet, it's really interesting to see if they can suggest what the pictures are showing before you actually tell the story.  Sometimes they have very interesting ideas formed from what they already know of the character of Jesus! Click  here  to print out the cards.  This weekend, I used the cards in conjunction with some fuzzy felt and it was fascinating to watch the children initially take the pieces to act out the story of Jesus walking on the water because this was a story they already knew and identified with Jesus and water!  Fuzzy felt is a great way for children to retell a story they have heard because it's easy to use and cheap and easy to make.  Just back a board with felt and cut out your own felt shapes to stick on!

This is a new colouring sheet to help children reflect on the story of Jesus' baptism in Luke 3. Click  here  to print off the sheet.  After they have heard the story let the children colour in, maybe in silence or with some music playing in the background and then give them the chance to share any reflections they might have on what they have heard!  Alternatively, use the colouring-in time as a space to discuss the story and what their response is.

Here's a bag I've put together for my placement church to help with Baptism services.  It can be used to help teach children about the elements of Baptism and can also be used during the service for children to play with! Contents include: Baby doll Reflection bottle 'water' ribbon streamers battery operated tealight bowl crosses Baptism of Jesus fuzzy felt 'My Baptism Book'

I'm making a Baptism story bag for my placement church so that we can help children to relate to what is happening during the service.  It seemed a good idea to get something related to the story of Jesus' baptism in there, so I've made a fuzzy felt set to help tell the story. I've made a few sets now, gluing the felt base to the inside of a box lid and putting the rest of the pieces inside the box.  This makes it easy to to tidy away and keep everything together! As you can see, I've used pale blue felt for the base, two shades of blue for waves, a dove and some hearts to help to emphasise God's love.  I cut a slit in the dark blue wave layer so that the stick 'Jesus' could move easily up and down in the 'water'.   More details of the Baptism bag to follow soon.  It's nearly finished!

I found some old coloured acetate lying around the other day and, as I'd been thinking about forgiveness and the new start of baptism, an idea came into my mind for how to use it in a prayer activity.  I tested it out before trying it on the children! I cut the acetate into people shaped pieces and then we wrote or drew on them things I was sorry for or the names of people I'd hurt. Then if you dip the people in a container of water, as a symbol of confessing your wrong to God and asking Him to forgive you, the writing dissolves and you are left with a clean person! I tried this first using dry wipe whiteboard markers, but it took a real effort to scrub the writing off!  The type of pens that really worked were washable felt tips.  The writing came right off as soon as the surface of the person hit the water, but that type of pen doesn't show up too well in the photos unfortunately!   The children love this kind of visual when they are asking for f...

As part of our work on the life of Jesus, our 5-11s looked this week at the baptism of Jesus.  Here is the activity we gave them to do at home as a compliment to the lesson... Baptism is a sign of a new life with God, where we say sorry for the things we have done, put our old life behind us and start something new. Take some old, stained 2p and 1p coins. Put them in a plastic box with some vinegar and 2 teaspoons of salt.  Put the lid on the box and shake for 30- 60 seconds. Open the box, pour the salt and vinegar mixture away and rinse the coins in water.  They should now look sparkly and new! Just like the coins got a new, shiny start, if we say sorry to Him, God can help us to make a new start. Tell God about the things you are sorry for doing and think about an area in your life where you’d like to make a new start- it could be with a friend you have argued with for example. Ask God to help you make a new start....