Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

This is our second monthly take home prayer activity for our local primary school. After we had demonstrated the prayer activity in assembly, each child took home a small pot of bubble mixture and a prayer card to try it themselves! To print out a sheet of the prayer card, click here.

The Church School where we did our week long prayer space in September has asked me to help with setting up prayer activities for each classroom. The idea is that an activity will stay in a class for 2 weeks and then be swapped with one from another classroom. At the end of last week we got all of the new prayer activities into the library and each class came to test them out! Prayer board: requests pinned on one side and moved over to the other side when they have been answered Prayer Play Dough Mats Writing letters to God Healing prayers: Writing on plasters the names of people who need to get better  Reflective space: with books, colouring sheets, marble mazes , reflection bottles and mermaid sequin cushions. We will also be giving out a monthly take home prayer activity for each child. January was coin prayers!

After the success of our Prayer Space at school and the enthusiasm from the children, we thought it would be a great idea to give each child a practical prayer to take home with them. It was a great idea until I found myself sorting skittles into 120 little bags. Fortunately it's a fairly small school! I went in to school to do a collective worship session where I demonstrated the prayer activity and then each class was given prayer bags to distribute to the children. I know from feedback on the street and on my next visits that at least some of the children did the prayer at home, so I will call that a good result! You will need : a copy of the prayer and a small bag for each child, Skittles sweets, bag ties, stapler. I put roughly 10-12 skittles into each bag, tied the top of the bag and then stapled the prayer to the front. Click here to print off a sheet of prayers.

Last week was a busy but amazing week! I spent most of it in our local primary school in the prayer space we had created with some inspiration from Prayer Spaces in Schools . We were given a classroom for a week and turned it from this... To this... Each class spent at least one session in the room and lunchtimes, when children could make their own way there, were very busy! We had some amazing conversations about life, death, families, worries and everything in between. Here are some of the things we got up to... Unfolding Hopes and Dreams Water Prayers Play dough thank you prayers Whiteboard worry prayers Bringing light: How can I help to make the world a better place? Saying sorry sand prayers- drawing things to say sorry for in the sand and then smoothing it over as a sign of God's forgiveness Cardboard box prayers for people who have no homes Pipe cleaner people thank you prayers ...

This is a lovely activity to help children to reflect on who Jesus is and to explore how they relate to him. We did it when we were exploring what praise was with 3 classes in our local infant school (ranging in age from 4-7) and each class added to the poster as we went along. I must add that this is a church school, so children do have some knowledge of Christianity as a starting point. Making the poster does involve finger paint. so have some wet wipes or hand washing facilities available! You will need: Felt tip pens, a large sheet of paper (e.g. wallpaper backing) with 'Jesus' written on it in big letters, post it notes, finger paints Ask children to think about what they would say if they were telling someone about their amazing friend Jesus and to write or draw it on a post it note. stick all of the post it notes onto the big poster When they have all added to the poster share the things that people have written or drawn and invite children t...

Last week we went into our local church infant school to run a prayer workshop for each class in celebration of the 'Thy Kingdom Come' 10 days of prayer. This was one of their favourite activities! We got the original idea from the cross in this great post at Easy Breezy Sunday School  and then added a few little twists to it :-) We wanted the children to think about God being a provider (linked to the Lord's prayer and 'give us today our daily bread') and to know that God wants good things for us. My friend Charlotte built an amazing cross out of cardboard tubes of various sizes and spray painted it gold to make it extra special. In each of the tubes we put a sweet and then we asked the children to write or draw their asking prayers on a piece of paper, put it into one of the tubes and take a sweet as a reminder that we can ask God for things and that He wants to give us good things. We have done quite a lot of work with the children at the school and th...