Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Story Cubes are a great way of both telling and recalling parts of a story. With this cube, tell the story of Holy Week and then throw the cube to remember individual events. There are 2 versions- a colour your own page and a page that is already coloured and labelled. Use one or both! Click here to download and print. Think about all of the things that happen- Palm Sunday, Last supper, Garden of Gethsemane, Crucifixion, Burial in the tomb and resurrection and wonder about them. I wonder... ...which part of the story is your favourite? ...which part of the story makes you ask a question? ...where you are in this story?

Watch to see 3 crafts that will help you to explore the events of Maundy Thursday.  You will need: squares of paper, paper plates, card, paper, scissors, wool, foil, play dough and the play dough mats (below) Last Supper Play Dough Mat Garden of Gethsemane Play Dough Mat Special Cup Craft

Here is a play dough mat that would work well with older children as a prayer activity. Click here to print out the sheet Speak about Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane.   Think about the hard thing he knew he had to do but that he wanted to do God's will anyway.   Ask children about times when they face hard things.  How might they ask God to help them?   What does it mean for 'God's will' to be done in our lives? Encourage children to make leaves for the tree.  For each leaf they make, pray for someone they know, asking that 'God's will' be done in their life.

Here's another play dough mat- this time to help children to reflect on the last supper.  It might also come in handy when helping children to understand what communion is about. Click here to print, then laminate if possible (to make it reusable!) then get the play dough out!  

This is one of the activities we did yesterday when some classes from school came to do the Easter journey at church.  We used it to help talk about the garden of Gethsemane and how Jesus prayed to God to help him do the difficult thing he was faced with. We showed the children a long length of rope and talked about its strength and the fact that sometimes, when people are in trouble we talk about 'throwing them a rope' to help rescue them.  We used this to talk about the times in our life when things are hard and we need to ask for help because we can't do it by ourselves.  This led to talking about how Christians believe that God will help them and give them strength to get through.  We asked each child to think about who they would ask for help.  Would it be a particular person?  Would it be God?  Then each child came to tie a length of ribbon to the rope (held between two adults) as a symbol of thanks for the person who helps them to be strong...

Today we had classes from one of the local schools into church to do an 'Easter journey' of activities.  This is the activity we used to introduce the Last Supper and the children loved it (from the 5 year olds up to the 11 year olds!) First I collaged a picture and scanned it so it could be reproduced.  Then I printed some copies off, laminated them and cut each sheet into 10 pieces.  Click here if you want to print off the picture to make your own jigsaws. We gave each group of 3 children one of the jigsaws, before we said anything about what happened at the Last Supper and they worked together to put the puzzle together. When everyone had completed the puzzle, we asked them about the symbols they saw in the picture- bread, cup, heart- and the words.  They explained what they thought they were about and then this led onto telling the story.  They had so many ideas- especially about the symbolism of the heart!  A great conversation start...

Here's a preview of one of our crafts for Messy Easter in just over a week!  These are 'special cups' and reflect the drinking of wine at the Last Supper. We bought some plastic wine glasses from the pound shop (8 for £1, which we thought was a bargain!) and then decorated them with decor pens that will write on just about anything!  Here is our sample version... Looking forward to seeing what Messy Church goers come up with!

Today we looked again at a meal that Jesus shared with others.  The children hear the story of the last supper at least once a year when we look at the Easter story,  but conversation with the younger ones reveals that they don't always connect the communion service with this story, so we probably can't tell it often enough! Today we focussed on the theme of 'remembering', thinking about how Jesus used the meal as a way of asking his disciples to remember him. We started off with a memory game.  We put some items on a tray and asked the children to look and remember what was there.  In secret we then removed an item and asked them to guess what was missing.  Smaller items were much harder to remember! We then asked the children about really good things they could remember from their lives.  They drew or wrote their favourite memories on pieces of paper and then we put them all inside the treasure chest to symbolise how precious they were to us. ...

You will need: a pile of small pebbles or stones, a large bowl.   The Garden of Gethsemane Jesus came to the garden to pray to God about the hard thing he was going to have to do.   What things do you find hard?  Is there anything that scares you? Tell God about the hard things in your life and put a stone into the bowl as a sign that you are giving that hard thing to God and would like Him to help you.

You will need:  Bread, a cup, water, a bowl and a towel if you want to illustrate foot washing! The Last Supper Jesus showed how much he loved his friends by washing their feet and by sharing a special meal with them. Who are your friends? How would you help them? What would you share with them? Share some of the bread and think about what you would do.  Ask God to be with your friends.