Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

 This Sunday we hear the story of Lazarus being raised from the dead- an unforgettable glimpse into what will come on Easter Day. If you're looking at this story, here is a play dough mat to help children to explore a bit deeper. This mat focusses on the emotions of the various people in the story and asks children to use playdough to make facial expressions for different events. There are all sorts of characters they might choose to think about: onlookers, Mary, Martha, the disciples, Jesus, even Lazarus himself. Each character will have a different perspective and it is always fascinating to hear the reasoning behind what children create/ Another useful question to ask is always: I wonder where you are in the story?  If you'd like to print out the sheet, click here.

 This year we are following the lectionary more closely than usual, so I've been getting ready around the story from John 9, of Jesus healing the man who was born blind.   This picture is split into two to show the difference of the two states. Colouring the picture provides a great opportunity to chat to children about seeing and to wonder what Jesus helps them to see. Click here   to download and print the page and head over to our instagram page if you'd like to see the picutre creation video!

 Here's the reflective colouring sheet we used on Sunday to help explore the story of Jesus healing the Official's son. One of the themes we drew out was Jesus' compassion, something that the Bible links clearly to his healing miracles. Click here to download and print the sheet.

Recently our all age service explored the story of the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000 and I drew a reflective colouring sheet for the service- for adults and children to use as one of the optional on table resources. Here's the video of the process, captured by my drawing app. If you'd like to use the sheet, click here to download and print.

I used this idea in an assembly yesterday, focussing on people we trust and what it means to trust God.   This would work really well if you are exploring miracle stories or stories about trust.  Suitable verses to use with it might be:  Joshua 1:9: Remember, I commanded you to be strong and brave. Don’t be afraid, because the  Lord  your God will be with you wherever you go.” Psalm 56: 3  When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. John 14: 1  Jesus said, “Don’t be troubled. Trust in God, and trust in me  I have to admit that this trick is not an original idea.  I found the trick in this book:  Simple Science Object Talks by Heno Head Jnr  and would definitely recommend getting cold of a copy if you can! You will need: A glass of water (about half- 2/3 filled) and an index card. This is what you do: place the index card over the top of the glass, making sure that the whole of the rim is covered by it, and press...

Here is a play dough mat to help children to explore and respond to the story of Jesus walking on water and Peter's attempt to walk towards him.  It's especially useful to help children explore themes of bravery in life and looking to Jesus for confidence. As usual, the play dough mats work best if you laminate them as they are then easier to wipe clean and you can use them again and again! To print the mat,  Click here . Have fun!

There comes a time when you just have to get messy in the pursuit of story telling.  I am usually an avoider of paint, but even I couldn't resist the messiness scale of this activity! This is a fantastic way of exploring the story of Jesus walking on water, but please be aware IT IS MESSY! You will need: Paint, wallpaper lining paper or a long strip of paper, feet, washing up bowls filled with warm water, towels (old ones that you don't mind getting a bit stained!) Read or tell the story of Jesus walking on water and then talk about Peter stepping out in faith.  Who he walked towards Jesus he stayed afloat, but when he payed attention to the wind and the waves, he began to sink.   Lay out the paper to make a long stretch of 'water' and make sure that it is fastened down! It is best to do this either outside, or somewhere easy to clean. Squirt some blobs of paint onto the paper.  Make sure they are small blobs because big blobs will cause a slipperiness ...

This Sunday the lectionary covers the story of Peter praying and Tabitha (also known as Dorcas!) rising from the dead.  Here is a play dough mat to help children to connect with the story, thinking especially of those we love who provide for and do things for us and using the reflection space to thank God for them.  Have fun! Click here to print off the mat.

Under 5s love to explore stories through play so here are some ideas to help with the story of Jesus turning water into wine! Use some glitter and water to make red and blue reflection bottles and play with red and blue ribbon streamers (blue for the water and red for the wine!) Have some water play (ever popular!) Play some party games and/or make some party hats to reflect the idea of the celebration of the wedding... Play with pretend foods, cups, plates etc to add to the party feel. Act out the story with bible story figures. Secretly add some red food colouring to the bottom of a jug, then, with the children watching, pour a bottle of flavoured water into the jug.  They will see the water change colour as it goes into the jug! Use food colouring to colour some water (make the colour quite strong). Give each child two sheets of absorbent kitchen roll (one on top of the other to make a double layer), then let them use droppers to make ...

This play dough mat will work with any of the stories where Jesus performs a healing miracle- Jairus' daughter, the 10 lepers, Bartimaeus... As usual, print out, laminate for repeated use and start creating!   The focus is on Jesus' love shown through his healing power and will hopefully provide opportunities for children to think and pray about people who are ill.  It's also a great opportunity for leaders and children to share their own testimonies of God's healing! Click here to print out the play dough mat.

We had a great time exploring this story this morning!  There was a group of children aged from 1-3 with their parents joining in as well.  We had a lot of play and popcorn too! Here's how we explored the story... Telling the story with props (felt bread and fish that took me about an hour to sew but can be used for so much in the future!) Making popcorn to show how a very little, with the right help...  ...can go a long way! The children really loved watching the popcorn pop into the bowl and were very patient.  We then shared the popcorn out and ate it together, sitting on the floor like the people Jesus fed. Free play with toy food, plates and utensils playdough with plates, knives, forks and cups Magnetic thank you prayers for the things God gives us.

Here is a playdough mat to help explore the story of Jesus appearing on the beach in John 21.  The disciples don't realise at first who Jesus is, but the amazing number of fish he helps them to catch and the bread and fish they share on the beach are reminders of his miracles and help them to recognise him.   On a simple level the mat will help children to remember the catch of fish, but if you want to go a little further it might help the children to think of what it feels like to recognise Jesus and be close to him. To print ot the mat click  here , laminate and get creating!

This is the next in our collection of play dough mats.  This one helps children to reflect in a tactile way on the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fish. Tell the story and then let children use play dough to make loaves, fish or their favourite foods, placing them in the open hands.  While they are constructing the foods, ask them to pray for people who are hungry and have very little food.  Pray that God will provide for them in miraculous ways, just as Jesus did in the story. Click here  to print out the mat, then laminate it for repeated use!

We've started to give take home sheets to our children so that they can do an activity at home that will reinforce our teaching on a Sunday morning.  This Sunday our 3-5s looked at the story of Jairus' daughter and finished with prayer for healing on their own version of our  healing board .   The children thought of someone who was ill and stuck a plaster with that person's name on it (though this is not necessary!) onto the heart as a symbol that they were asking God to heal them. The classroom version was A3 but we printed off some A4 versions for the children to take home with them to do with their family. For a printable version click  here Thanks Kylé for your work on this!

As part of our summer Sunday sessions looking at meals Jesus had in the Bible, we looked at the story of Jesus turning water into wine.  Here's what we did... Starting game: red and blue memory game You will need a collection of cards, half of which are blue and half of which are red and all of which have the same colour backs.  I did this by sticking blue card to white card and red card to white card and then cutting them up.  Lay them out colour side down.  Children take it in turns to turn over 2 cards, hoping to make a matching colour pair.  This is great because we had 3 year olds and 11 year olds playing the same game with no problems! Story To tell the story we used a Foo Can (an illusion widely available- I got mine from Amazon).  I have a collection of illusions for various occasions and this one fitted the story really well!  Without giving away the secret it means that with, some prior preparation, you can pour clear wat...

As part of our lesson on Jesus turning water into wine we looked at the idea of God wanting to give us good things.  We encouraged the children to think of good things in their lives they could say thank you to God for and then we got down to the prayer activity! You will need:  A box, shredded paper, small treats such as lollipops and party bag filler toys (we had mini bouncy balls and mini spinners). Children take it in turns to say 'Thank you God for...' or'Thank you God for giving me good things'.  They then  put their hand into the box and pull out a treat to symbolise God's gifts!

This week Sparks were learning the story of the 'man through the roof' and it seemed a good idea to act it out with little people rather than just telling the story!  I have to admit that I had some fun putting this together! Get a box and cut a flap in the roof.  This is your house! Then dig out all the toy figures you can find!  Here the two friends arrive with the man on the mat and see a crowded house... The men carry the man on the mat up the stairs to the roof. They cut a hole in the roof..., ...and lower the man down into the crowded house Jesus heals the man and the friends celebrate!

Today with our 3-5s, we looked at the story of Bartimaeus and had a lot of fun!   We told the story and everyone had a pair of these glasses made of card and pipecleaners so that we could all practice not being able to see and then being able to!  The glasses were so easy to make and so effective.  The children loved them!  I found the idea on this  Pinterest pin  if you want to see the original idea. After we'd talked about the story we then talked about why we need our eyes.  We put blindfolds on and tried to guess the items in the feely bag! Next we let the children choose an activity. They could draw a picture of Bartimaeus being healed by Jesus (we had lots of smiley faces on Bartimaeus!) or choose from these options: Playing with a selection of goggles, sunglasses and blindfolds Thinking about how Jesus can heals us and playing with the doctor's kit and the toy ambulance Using their eyes to help them put together s...

We're really enjoying finding more creative ways of telling stories with our 3-5s.  Here's what we did this week when we looked at the story of Jesus calming the storm... Reversible story stones.  Stormy on one side... ...and on the other side, Jesus makes it calm and sunny! Making boats from bottle tops, blu tack, cocktail sticks and paper Foil pie cases work well too! Shakers to make the storm noises Streamers to make the waves (tissue paper, lolly sticks and elastic bands!) Water play with things that float- Jesus won't let us sink!