Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

 This Sunday, as we journey through the resurrection story, we get to the story of the disciples who meet Jesus on the road to Emmaus.  This play dough mat will help children to explore the story they've heard, while also creating something with their hands.  Click here to print off the sheet. As usual, cover with a plastic sleeve and you'll be able to use it again! Extra things to talk about as you create a path: I wonder... ...how the disciples felt when the stranger joined them? ...where have you seen Jesus breaking and sharing bread before? ...what it felt like to recognise Jesus? ...why Jesus vanished/

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?

  I love investigating what is going on generally in the creative world and I've recently been massively inspired by the work of Anna Bruder at A Line Art - particularly her recent work at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Click here to see all about that! It struck me that bringing colour to black and white flowers was a really powerful symbol of the new life of Easter Day, so that's what we will be doing in our Easter day service. My plan is to give everyone who comes a flower and to invite them, at any point in the service to come and fill the flower with colour at one of our craft tables. We'll then use them at the end of the service as a symbol of the new life of the resurrection and create a flower garden. This works particularly well if you are using the passage from John's gospel where Jesus is mistaken for the gardener. Here's a quick how to: Print some flower shapes onto card (if you want to use mine, click here ). Stick the flower head to a paper st...

One of the key elements of the story of Jesus and Thomas after the resurrection is that Thomas finds it hard to believe that the resurrection is possible if he doesn't see it with his own eyes.  Sometimes people tell us things that it's really hard for us to believe and we want proof. This craft is something that seems hard to believe unless you see it. With two cuts you are going to make two circles into a square.  Give children some strips pf paper and show them how to make them into circles by gluing the ends together. Then ask them to take two of the circles and, with only two cuts, make a square. When they have struggled for a while and found it impossible, then show them the steps below! You will need: scissors, two identically sized strips of paper, glue. Glue the ends of the one of the strips and make it into a circle Put glue in the centre of the second strip of paper. Glue the centre of the paper to the inside of the first ring as shown. Glue the end of the second s...

Celebrate the new life of resurrection with this butterfly craft. You will need: two squares of coloured paper (one smaller than the other), string. Easter Egg Prayers Easter Day colouring sheet Easter Day Play Dough Mats

Here are the final two play dough mats for the Easter Story.  Click here  For the 'In the tomb' play dough mat. Click  here  for the 'He is risen' play dough mat. Print out, laminate and get started with the play dough!

Butterflies are great symbols of new life when you are talking about the resurrection.  These are really easy and really effective to make- but are probably best made by older children as the folding can be a bit fiddly! First get a brightly coloured page from a magazine, Then cut it into 2 squares- I used one 12 x12 cm and one 8cm x 8cm Starting with a corner, concertina the paper diagonally Tie the two concertinaed squares together with thread  Hang the butterflies up!

This is good for Easter or any time when you have talked about the resurrection. We talked about Jesus dying and rising again to new life and the hope that this gives us.  The children were then encouraged to think of areas in their life where they'd like to have a new start- maybe in a relationship where they'd argued with someone, or something positive that they'd like to start doing.  They then coloured in part of a butterfly's wings as a symbol of asking God to help them with that new start (you can find lots of outline pictures of butterflies on the internet.  We just printed one out and enlarged it to A3 size).  Some of them shared and others kept it private.  This has now become one of our regular prayer stations.