Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

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 .

Last week we continued our Messy Church theme of Parables and investigated the parable of the mustard seed. It's a tiny parable but has so much in it! 31  He told them another parable:  “The kingdom of heaven is like  a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field.   32  Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”  (Matthew 13: 31-32) Here are the crafts we used to think about the story... Mustard Tree cakes (cupcakes with a hole scooped out of them. Plant a Smartie 'seed' in the hole, cover with butter icing and show a paper tree growing where the seed has been planted!) Decorating branches Building Lego homes Growing Seeds Making bird gliders (Kits from Baker Ross at a really reasonable price) Making a prayer tree with prayers on leaves and birds ...