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?

 This craft is really easy to make and helps to emphasize the enthusiasm of the crowd's Hosannas as they waved their palms. You will need: White A4 paper, green paper or card, glue, scissors, stapler. Cut a sheet of white A4 paper in half lengthways. On one of the halves, write the word 'Hosanna' and colour in. Start at one end of the paper and make a concertina. Fold an A5 sheet of green card or paper in half and cut out a palm leaf shape. This will give you two leaves. Glue a strip down the middle of each leaf. Stick one end of your concertina to the glued strip on one leaf and glue the other end to the stip on the other leaf. Press down firmly. This makes your Hosanna sandwich. Staple the bottom ends of the leaves together. Make sure you are not also stapling your concertina! Open your palm leaves to see the Hosanna!

I've put together a discovery basket for younger children when we do our Easter family activities morning. This basket looks at the story of Palm Sunday and I'll have some story books with it so that parents can help children to engage with the items! Contents include:  Donkey puppet, plastic palm leaves, palm crosses, a crown, strips of fabric of different textures (to represent the cloaks put on the ground). Coconut halves (donkey hooves!), bells to make some noise, a heart, a stone (to represent the road Jesus travelled along) and a small tin with magnetic letters spelling 'hosanna' and 'Jesus.'

Palm Sunday is fast approaching and we will be having an intergenerational service to mark the occasion! Here is a colouring sheet I have put together so it can be used as part of what we do.   Click here to print off a copy and please do share one photos on our Facebook page if you use it!

Here is a simple game to play at home or at church that will help to introduce the key symbols of the Palm Sunday story- palm leaves, donkey, robes laid down on the floor and a crown to symbolise Jesus' kingship.   Click here to print out the picture sheet. Cut out the picture squares and back them with card so that the ink of the pictures doesn't show through the back when they are lying face down!  If you want to keep the cards long term it might be good to laminate them too. Mix the cards up and lie them all face down.  Children take it in turns to turn over two cards.  If they are a matching pair then children can keep them.  If they don't match, then replace the cards and wait for the next turn.  The winner is the person with most matching pairs at the end of the game. Use the pictures to either introduce the story or to reinforce the elements of the story and get the children to explain in their own words what the pictures mean or to ...

Here's the first in the series of Easter Story Play dough mats.  Thanks so much to Lindsay for giving me this idea! There will be mats to help children play and explore with play dough the events of: Palm Sunday, the Last Supper, Gethsemane, The Crucifixion, The Burial of Jesus and The Resurrection.  This is the first: Palm Sunday! First click here and print off a copy.  If possible, laminate it so it can be cleaned and used again.  Now let the fun begin! Talk to the children about the events of palm Sunday, including the joy of the people to see Jesus and the hosannas they were calling out.  Let them use play dough to make smiling faces on the people and even more palm branches!

We are getting into Easter planning mode at the moment and needed something a bit different for Palm Sunday.  This is a great activity because somehow the hosanna appears on the palm leaf.  The children love watching the trick of the eye happen! For a printable version click here It's very easy to make...    Cut out, colour and fold on the dotted line.  Sellotape a straw to the back of one half and glue the other half on top. swizzle the straw between your hands and watch what happens!

Here is another preview of a Messy Church craft that we are using to represent Palm Sunday.  I saw this on someone's Pinterest board and wondered why I'd never thought of it before!!  Yet again, this is a very cheap and easy craft. Cut out a donkey body shape... ...add a tail made of wool or thread and stand it up on peg legs!

Here is a sneak preview of one of our Messy Church crafts for Good Friday! We've tried to find completely different crafts from last year, though we're keeping the egg decorating! We needed a craft to represent Palm Sunday so we looked around... Pre- cut crafts are available from catalogues and websites and we came across this idea from Baker Ross but we decided to make them ourselves and save a bit of money!  To buy the packs online, click  here  for a link.  This is what we did... Cut out a leaf shape from green card.  You can get 2 from an A4 sheet.  Fold it in half and cut long slits. Weave thin strips of coloured paper through the slits. Trim the ends of the paper and stick a magnet on the back. The finished palm leaf magnet! (quite large for a magnet but easy, cheap and effective!)

We did a session on Palm Sunday at our school lunch club today and had a great time! I wanted to make flags but didn't have any appropriate sticks.  I improvised by folding a paper plate in half and stapling it over the side of some paper to make a 'handle' the children could hold when they waved it.  No one even asked where the sticks were!! Children decorated the flags as they wished... We then told the story, acting it out with our hands and shouting 'hosanna' at the tops of our voices! Next we talked about praise words for God.  We started with the word 'amazing' and asked the children to come up with words that meant the same thing.  They loved this and we soon had a long list- incredible, unbelievable, fantastic, fabulous, wonderful... We stood in a circle and children chose a word, shouted it and waved their flag.  Then we all together shouted our word 5 times and made a lot of noise for God to hear!

We are putting together a set of prayer stations to tell the Easter story.  Here is the first one! You will need: A large sheet of paper or wallpaper roll with the words Hosanna! and Alleluia! outlined on it in large letters, glue, sequins or other shiny stickers Palm Sunday The crowd greeted Jesus like he was a king or a great hero. Who is your hero?  Who do you really admire and look up to? Why? Say thank you to God for that person and glue some sequins  to the banner to reflect how special they are.