Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

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.'

With only a few days to go before Christmas, here is the new Nativity Story Bag I've made up with lots of things to help to explore the characters and events... Nativity peg figures (see how to make them here ) 3 boxes to represent the gifts of the wise men felt stars a variety of hearts to help think about God's love a crown a selection of Nativity themed Christmas cards A story book- here I've included the brilliant  Touchy Feely Nativity  by Fiona Watt A background cloth Have fun!

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'

We are gradually resourcing the stories that we use with our 3-5s over the course of the year and here is one of our latest story bags: Jesus calms the storm! The contents help to either tell the story or emphasise a point that we are trying to teach. Contents: Blue and white fabric (to use as waves) plastic boats plastic container (fill with water and float the boats!) Fish bubble gun Instruments (to make storm noises) rubber ring (to emphasise the idea that Jesus will keep us safe) Calming the storm fuzzy felt Face stick puppets The fuzzy felt is kept inside a plastic takeaway box, with the backing felt glued to the lid There are pieces for stormy weather and Jesus sleeping... ...and Jesus calming the storm The faces (except for the 'Jesus' figure) are double sided. Fear on one side... ...happiness and relief on the other side.

Here is the bag I've put together to help tell and play the story of the Good Samaritan.  Again, it's all easy to get hold of and quite cheap! Contents: Story book old map (to help children relate to the idea of going on a journey) flip flops (again, putting on shoes to go on a journey) toy doctor's kit and bandages (pound shop purchases!) little bag containing card coins (The Samaritan paying for the injured man's care) 5 faces-one friendly (Samaritan), 3 cross/ unfriendly looking (people who walk on the other side), 1 doublesided face with a sad, injured face on one side and a happy, healed face on the other side.

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!

I'm very excited about our Joseph story bag! We're going to be looking at the story of Joseph over the Sundays of the summer holiday and we've been planning contents of the bag to go with each part of the story. We used things that we already had in the craft and toy boxes and made a trip to the pound shop so nothing would break the bank. Hopefully, using the bag will help the children to remember the story and to have fun at the same time!  As usual, when we have finished using it, the bag will be available for parents to borrow and use at home.  Contents: Story books (I got a couple of used books very cheaply on Amazon but we found that the Lion Storyteller Bible has a great retelling as well) 13 craft stick people (12 named brothers and 1 Jacob- with grey hair to identify!) Joseph's coat fuzzy felt dustpan and brush (for when Joseph worked in Potiphar's house) toy grapes/ bread (baker's and butler's dreams in prison)  2 toy cows (Pharaoh...

Here's a bag I've put together for Sunday's lesson on the Lord's prayer with our 3-5s.  Hopefully this will help them to understand a bit more about the parts of the prayer through play!  Explanations are quite simple, but are hopefully phrased in a way that will help this particular age group. Contents:  Globe, play food, crown, fuzzy felt crosses and hearts, wooden crosses, treasure box, hard hat and hi visibility jacket. This is how we can use the items to explain and play around the themes of the prayer... Prayer: Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name Play items: treasure box God is special and we need to treat him like something very precious. Prayer: Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven Play items: crowns and globes God is king of the whole world and wants life on earth to be as amazing as life in heaven is. Prayer: Give us today our daily bread Play items: play food God gives us the things we need to live Pr...

Here is our new story bag- just in time for thinking about Pentecost!  All the items are homemade or come from the pound shop... Pentecost story book (Print and make your own  here ) Felt board with felt figures, felt flames and felt 'wind' Pentecost tab pull (print and make your own  here ) 2 'fire' ribbon streamers 2 paper windmills bubbles (need breath or 'wind' to carry and make them!) battery operated tea lights birthday badge (Pentecost is the Church's birthday!) We'll be using this with our 3-5s on Pentecost Sunday and then the bag will be available for parents to borrow and take home.

Here is the latest story bag for our collection.  We're going to use it on Sunday as part of the introduction to Easter for our 3-5 year olds and, after that, parents will be able to borrow it and take it home. Here 's what we've put inside... Easter Story book Palm Sunday:  Card palm leaves to wave, palm crosses, a peg leg donkey and a Jesus on a donkey spinner.  If you want to use our Palm Sunday spinner, click  here . Last Supper: plastic goblet and bread Good Friday:  Three crosses, a playmobil figure, a 'cave' (upside down biodegradable plant pot with a door cut out!), a stone and (if you want a bit of reflection) a battery operated tea light.  We've also added some foam hearts so you can talk about Jesus' love for us. Easter day: Plastic Easter eggs, streamers to wave in celebration!

Here is our latest story at home bag.  In honour of Harvest, we have made a creation story bag! Contents include: Creation story touch and feel story book Play food 2 playmobil people A wooden heart (as a sign of God's love) Animal snap cards Star ribbon Felt sun Globe ball Soft toy duck and Zebra Blue fabric (sea) Playdough (can be used to make shapes of things children would like to thank God for) It will be available for parents to borrow in the next few weeks !

Here is our next new story bag, which we tested out in Sparks this week! Contents: 2 Daniel board books Lion cuddly toy finger puppet sad and happy faces to discuss feelings in the story lion mask 3 lion sticks and a box 'pit' Daniel and King stick puppets Angel figure We told the story using the bag and then acted out being lions who had our mouths closed by an angel- roaring one minute, then stopping suddenly on a signal. We asked the children to build dens for the lions... And then made a paper craft with hearts to remind us that God loved Daniel and saved him from the lions. We also talked about Daniel being brave and trusting in God to help him.  We talked about times when we were scared and then built a strong tower with the lego to show that God can help to make us strong when we are afraid!

Here is the next new story bag... Contents: Story book rock wooden blocks- explore 'buiding' lego 'houses' instruments to make rain noises sand jug for pouring water toy saw, hammer and spade (builder's tools!) child's hard hat metal tray to hold the rock/ sand and their houses when the water is poured on them plastic 'builder'  Parents might like to use a water proof mat under the tray when telling the story in case of splashes!!

Here is one of our new story bags!  This one helps parents to tell the story of Noah at home. Contents: 2 Noah Story Board Books A bowl for water which can then be turned upside down to make a mountain A plastic tree to represent 'dry land' pairs of foam animals bubbles (for water fun!) A Noah stick puppet sad and happy faces to discuss sad and happy time in the story a jug for pouring water when it 'rains' a 'boat' This would be a good story to do in the bath as most of the items are waterproof!

Last week at Tots we tried out one of the new story bags we are putting together and told the story of Noah's ark.  Have a look at what we did! Noah and his Ark Lining up the animals to go on the ark Animals in the ark The rain starts to fall! Back on dry land... Rainbow biscuits-  click  here  to make! We are hoping that the bag will be useful to tell a bathtime story!

Here is our third bag that we are preparing for parents to borrow.  As before, it's most suitable for 3-5s, but younger children might like some of the things too! There is a story book, a green cloth, some plastic sheep and a plastic fence and gate (found amongst the church toys!), some cotton wool, pictures of shepherds and sheep from Christmas cards, heart post its, sad and happy face plates, party horns and a cuddly sheep to play hide and seek with.  As with the other two bags, once everything is labelled it will be ready.  Please feed back!

We used the Jonah story bag today at Tots and it was great!  The Children especially loved the inflatable dolphin and the feel of the shells and the sand!  They really enjoyed playing with the items after the story and the baby we had with us made off with the shiny fabric! The Next bag we are getting ready to go is the 'Prodigal Son' bag. Into the gift bag, we have put happy and sad face paper plates, a red/ brown cloth, 3 play mobil men, 3 toy pigs, some gold and silver card coins, some money bags (made at Messy Church!), a toy tractor, some party horns, heart post it notes so we can talk about God's love and the story book.  Once we've labelled everything, it should be good to go!

Tanya and I have been really inspired by the idea of story bags to help tell Bible stories, but we knew that buying some in would be out of our price range.   So, as well as the prayer bag (see previous post), we are putting together some story bags for parents of our under 5s to take home and use as a way of helping the children to engage with a story. This is our first attempt and, when it's been labelled up, it will be ready to go!  Again, a lot of the stuff inside has come from the pound shop (we love it there!!) or from the toys and books we already have at church so it's not expensive! Inside this particular gift bag we have put: A story book, shiny blue fabric (sea) a playmobil man,  plastic fish, shells, instruments (to make the storm noises!), smiley and happy faces to help discuss the sad and happy times in the story, a plastic box for a boat (we couldn't find a toy boat that wasn't an ark, but I've put some parents on the case to find one!), an...