Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This craft is very messy, requires some patience and is very effective for exploring the idea of Jesus giving us the strength we need (e.g when looking at verses such as Philippians 4:13). You will need: wool, PVA (white) glue, greaseproof or waxed paper, string, at least 24 hours!  Cut lengths of wool and dip them in PVA.  Cover the strands quite thickly and be prepared to get very messy and sticky.   Arrange the wool in patterns on top of the greaseproof paper.  We made crosses but you can do anything!  Make sure that each strand of wool connects with at least one other strand so that they will stick together when the project dries. Now wait AT LEAST 24 hours for your artwork to dry.  The wool will stiffen.  Even if you think it is dry- wait!   Carefully pull the dried projects off the paper and thread some string through them so that they can be hung in windows or from door handles. Talk about: sometimes we find things ha...

I'm getting into a story bag frenzy at the moment, sorting out a few more bags before I leave... Here's the bag for the the David and Goliath story we tell our 3-5s in the autumn term: Foil tray shield foam sword giant feet (made from thick cardboard and string ties) sheep (David was a shepherd) toy catapult (bargain from the pound shop!!) pom poms to fire from the catapult (parents would not thank me for including stones as in the original story!) wooden 'giant' and 'David' figures bubble sword (see prayer activity to use this with at the bottom of this link ) Have fun!

Today we went into school to do a SEALS assembly on the theme of 'Good to be me'.  We acted out the story of David and Goliath, focusing on the fact that, though others thought that David had no chance against Goliath, David trusted God and God was able to use him and the skills he had.  This led us to talk about how we all had things that we were good at (sometimes things that no one else but God and ourselves know about) and that we can all be used by God to help others.  We illustrated the point with this simple scientific trick... Before the children arrive, take a balloon and fill it with about a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda. It's quite easy to make the balloon seem as though it is empty as long as the children don't get close enough to touch it! Fix it to the neck of a bottle containing some vinegar.  Talk about how it would seem impossible for me to inflate the balloon using just what is in the bottle.  You might think I was silly to even think it....

In our journey through the Old Testament this term, we have made it to David and Goliath.  We focussed this session on the idea of God doing amazing things and helping us when we trust him. After telling the story we decorated some stones, to remember how David used something so small to make such a big impact. Children then had lots of options to play around the themes of the story:   Using jigsaws and containers to explore big and small things...  ...and walking around on giant cardboard feet (they loved this!) The children could practice their throwing at the bean bag targets... ...and have a go with the paper ball catapults.  Click  here  to see the original idea. We also had a lovely fluffy sheep to play with! To finish, we prayed with a bubble sword.  The sword is a symbol of God's power to help us.  As the children popped the bubbles we asked God to help us be brave like David, and trust in Him.