Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

  Our harvest service last Sunday was all about thanking God for our gifts- food, people, talents- anything we wanted to celebrate.  One of the activities that both adults and children contributed to was our harvest leaf garland.  We folded leaves in autumn colours and added tags with things we were thankful for: You will need: ribbon, wool or string, paper in red, organge and yellow, scissors, pens Click here for a downloadable sheet of instructions!

 It's been really busy recently reopening the church and doing many risk assessments. Not everyone is able or confident to return just yet, though, so we are continuing with our weekly online family services. This week we are taking a look at the story of Jesus and the 10 lepers and exploring the theme of thankfulness. If you fancy joining in, here are some links to the resources we are using: The video of the service including sorry and thank you prayers, story, wondering questions and creative prayer activity. The service liturgy if you'd like to join in can be printed off by clicking here . Click here to print off the play dough mat: Click here for more ideas on saying thank you.

I got a new set of magnetic letters today so I could use them for some sensory style prayers!  Your letters don't need to be magnetic- wooden ones will do just as well. I just like the colours! Here are two ideas to incorporate them into prayer activities which your more hands-on children might enjoy... 1. Magnetic letter flour (or sand!) prayers You will need: A baking tray or tuff spot, sieves, spoons, flour or sand, magnetic letters Arrange the letters into words of people or places you would like to pray for.   Use the sieve to sprinkle the flour or sand onto the words as you ask God to bless them or that situation. Take the letters away to reveal the words left behind on the sheet or tuff spot base. 2. Magnetic letter hunt prayers You will need: a box or deep tray, shredded paper, magnetic or wooden letters Put the shredded paper and letters into the box and mix them all up together. Children take it in turns to pull a letter out of the box. ...

Very often we praise God through words- either spoken or in song.  It's great for children to know that we can praise God in so many other ways, including the use of all our senses.  This activity explores praise through colour and through taste and is suitable for all ages. Speak to the children about who God is to them.  What is He like? How does He make you feel? What colour would you use to show God? Collect words and images to describe God and talk about praise being about telling God how great He is.  Collect ideas for things they would like to say thank you to God for.  Tell the children that they are now going to explore praising God with sight and taste. You will need:  white bread, new paintbrushes (or cotton buds), milk, food colouring, toaster Divide the milk into dishes and mix each dishful with a different food colouring to make 'paint.'  Encourage the children to paint the bread with the brushes or cotton buds, usin...

Shrove Tuesday, known in some places as Mardi Gras, is the day before Lent starts and is traditionally a time for using up all of the nice ingredients in the house ready for a time of fasting in the next 40 days.  This is why we have pancakes! Really, this is a time to help children to celebrate all of the good things (especially food!) that God has given us.  So, along with celebratory pancakes, here is a celebratory prayer activity... You will need: Balloons (at least one per child), permanent marker pens (e.g. Sharpies), music, lots of space. Get children to write or draw on the balloons things (especially food) that they would like to thank God for. Play the music and get the children to bat the balloons in the air, not letting any fall to the ground.  When the music stops, children need to grab a balloon and thank God for one of the things written or drawn on it.  Repeat until everyone is tired and needs to eat pancakes! Extra activity: Encourage e...

This is an easy, inexpensive way to pray very visually. You will need: Chalkboards of any size, cups of water, paintbrushes. Encourage the children to paint their written or drawn prayers onto the chalkboard with water. This is particularly good for sorry prayers as the water will dry up and the sorry prayer will fade away as a sign of how God forgives us when we are sorry.  For the same reason, it's a good way of helping children to release their prayers to God and visualise them being handed over.

I was recently reminded of this prayer activity and it was great to try it out again.  I'd forgotten how peaceful and reflective an activity it could be! This is suitable for use with all ages but certainly has a 'wow' factor that children will appreciate. What's great is that you can go as big or small scale as you want.  I've seen it done in paddling pools with larger groups but it works equally as well in a small container. You will need : Thin paper, pens, scissors, a container filled with water. Ask children to think of people or things they would like to bring to God and then ask them to cut out a shape from the paper. This shape could correspond to their prayer topic or, in a more guided session, each child could use the same shape and pray around the same topic.  Options could include: Praying for others - flowers or stars, writing the name of a different person on each petal/ star arm Love/ forgiveness/ sorry - heart shapes Thanks - the shape of...

Here's a fun way to get children to engage in thanking God and asking for blessing while also symbolically releasing their prayers into his hands. First, get children to write and draw their prayers on a small slip of paper (about the size of an average till receipt). Next, roll the paper tightly round a straw (the long straight part rather than the bendy part!) and secure it with sellotape.  Fold the top of the paper over and secure it with some more sellotape.  The paper will now have made a sealed pocket around the top of the straw. Talk to children about releasing prayers to God and trusting in His love and His power.  Say a short prayer, giving your prayers to God and then blow on the free end of the straw.  Watch the prayer rocket fly as you release your prayers!

Often, when celebrating God's creation with children, we rely very much on what we can see and we neglect other senses such as smell and touch.  This is a very multi-sensory way of celebrating the things that God has made in the world around us! You will need : A variety of tea bags, including fruit teas, which will bring a real mix of smells and colours to the mix; shallow bowls; hot and cold water; paper Put each type of tea bag (1-3 of each depending on how many children you have) into a separate bowl and pour on some hot water to make the tea start to infuse.  After the colours start to emerge, put some cold water in and leave until the teabags are at a good temperature to squeeze and hold by hand.  It works better if most of the water has been squeezed out before painting! Talk about the things God has made in creation and the senses He has given us.  Remind children that tea comes from a plant and is therefore part of creation!  Encourage the child...

This is a really great activity to help children to explore and interact with God's creation and it can be used with any age, including under 3s! You will need : Paint, paper, natural objects e.g. flowers, leaves, pine cones, sticks, stones, shells Get the children to feel the textures of the natural objects and talk about the patterns you can see.  Discuss how intricate nature can be and how much thought must have gone into creation. Use the natural items to paint a picture with- look at the different shapes and patterns you can make with them.  Give the children the freedom to explore and keep chatting as they create!  It's amazing the kind of observations they make and what they choose to do with the objects. When you have finished, display all the paintings and thank God for the things He has made and especially for each child's favourite painting object!

Children love this game, so here's a twist that adds prayer to the mix... You will need: A piece of paper, pens or pencils (each player should have a different colour) Draw some dots in lines and columns on the paper (see below).  I used 10 rows of 7 dots. Each player takes it in turns to draw a line between two of the dots.  Eventually, you will be able to close up boxes.  Whoever draws the line that closes the box can write or draw inside the box... Someone's name- ask God to bless them and help them Something that you want to thank God for Something you would like to ask God for Take time to say the prayer out loud or in your head, then carry on! The winner is the player who has filled the most boxes by the end of the game.

Here is a craft and prayer activity to help children to explore the unique person that God has made them. It works well with looking at Psalm 139:14, but also works with the creation story or any situation when we are thanking God for who He has made us to be. Craft Activity: You will need: Paper circles, scissors, pens/pencils  Give each child a circle of paper.  Fold it in half and in half again.  Use the scissors to cut patterns, as in making paper snowflakes. Open the circles out and talk about how each snowflake the children have made is beautiful and unique.  No two will be the same.  Now get children to write and draw on the snowflake the things they like about themselves and their favourite things.  Encourage children to look at each other's snowflakes.  Have you learned something new about any of your friends?  Talk to children about how God has made them all unique and special and that he knows all about them and loves them for ...

I've had some left over sand and plastic coins lurking around since holiday club and have finally decided to do something with them! This idea could be used for lots of things (memory verse words, for example, would work really well) but I'm using it for prayers to begin with. There are lots of things that we could say thank you to God for, but we often forget to do so, a bit like having treasure that we bury and forget about!  This activity helps us to remember to say thank you to God and also emphasizes the idea that the things and the people we have around us are precious like treasure. Get the children to draw on little stickers things they could say thanks to God for: people, animals, food, nature etc.  Stick the stickers onto plastic coins (you might need a bit of glue too, to make sure the stickers stay on!) and then hide them in a bucket of sand. Take it in turns to dig into the sand with your hand and pull out a coin.  Thank God for what is on the ...

Here's a really easy, active idea that you can do anywhere as long as you've got a coin! Toss a coin... If it lands Heads up, ask God to help someone. If it lands Tails up, thank God for something.

I was looking round the pound shop this week and came across a section of garden trellises.  For £1 you could get a trellis that expands to almost 1m x 2m and I couldn't resist getting one! I'd got hold of some different coloured ribbon from the scrapstore and was going to make something rainbow/ Noah's ark related with it so the trellis actually comes in quite handy. This is an idea that most ages can use because it's really simple, though younger children might need help with tying...  Have a selection of ribbons of different colours available.  Children choose a ribbon, thank God for something of that colour (e.g. green plants, red strawberries) and then tie their ribbon to the trellis wherever they want to.  Eventually the whole trellis will be covered in colour!   You can even push the trellis back together again for easy storage and transportation.  If you don't have a trellis, any kind of mesh would do and then, when you weren't using it, y...

On Wednesday we have a thanksgiving service at school and my job is to tell the story.  We're going to look at the importance of remembering to say sorry by using the story of Jesus healing the 10 lepers.  As usual, the story needs to be as visual and interesting as possible.  I thought about it for quite a while and came up with various scenarios including the use of rubber gloves, but this is what I decided on in the end... You need a chain of 10 'lepers' made from sticky backed contact paper with white sticky dots randomly stuck onto it (I happened to have red in the cupboard, but any colour will do!) Use them to tell the beginning of the story when the group of lepers see Jesus and call out to him to have pity on them.  Jesus sends them away to see the priests and as they go they are healed.  At this point, pull the sticky side away from the backing paper and dispose of it (leaving the paper behind as the 'healed' lepers. Put the 'healed leper...

Here's a great idea you can use at home to help children pray and it only costs £1! I've always loved the idea of teaspoon prayers- 'tsp' being the abbreviation of 'teaspoon' in recipes but also being the initial letters of 'thanks, sorry and please', three things we can encourage children to pray about.  I like things that stick in the head! I got a pack of small spoons from the pound shop and wrote t or s or p on each one with a permanent marker.  Then I put them in a jar.  Children can take a spoon at random from the jar and then pray a 'thanks', 'sorry' or 'please' prayer according to the letter on their spoon.

Take one of the sweets and suck it.  As you suck the sweet, think of the good things that you have in your life and thank God for them.

We had a fantastic Nativity play this morning with a mixture of ages from the oldest to the youngest in church taking part.  It wasn't slick but it did have a pantomime cow to make the right noises when we sang 'Away in a Manger'!  It's amazing what you can achieve in only 45 minutes of rehearsal! For a copy of the script (to see what you were missing if you didn't make it!) click  here . We talked during the service about gifts, both the gifts God gives to us and the gifts we can give to God- our time, our talents etc. Each of the main characters in the play said what gift they wanted to give to God and tied a ribbon to the manger.  We then played 'In the Bleak Midwinter' (because of the line about giving God 'what I am') and invited each member of the congregation to come and tie a ribbon to the manger as a symbol of the gift they wanted to give to God from their lives.  Almost everyone responded and people even came up to tie ribbons o...

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!