Great big God in creche

This Sunday we looked at 'Great big God' and tried to get across some kind of the idea of God's bigness!  This involved playing with things that were 'big and small'.  So...

Big balls and small balls

big boxes and small boxes

big balloons and small balloons

Big jigsaw pieces and small jigsaw pieces

This was fun!

We ate grapes and raisins and then sang 'Great Big God' with all the actions- the children were highly amused at the sight of the adults dancing but tried to copy one or two of the actions!!

Magnetic prayers

Here is a cheap and easy prayer idea that struck me as I was looking at baking trays in the pound shop!

I had some magnetic tape in the cupboard and bought a pizza tray for £1.  I wrote out some words to do with God and prayer and stuck a little piece of magnetic tape on the back of each.  Now we have a 'magnetic poetry' prayer set that the children can use to make their own prayers!  It introduces them to the vocabulary they can use in prayer and it also encourages them to express themselves.  It might be worthwhile also to have some blank tiles so that children can add their own words to the collection!


Words I used include: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, come, thank you, amen, light, amazing, love, joy peace, please, heal, help, world, power, pray, we, us. you, and, the, I, are, cry, know, heaven, praise, heart, to, for

Fun in creche: Bouncy balloon beanbags!

In our quest to make creche a place of exploration and discovery, we're always trying to find ways of giving the children some kind of different sensory experience.  I came across an idea similar to this on Pinterest and thought I'd give it a go, but with an unintentional twist!

I found some ideas for making bean bags by pouring rice into balloons and tying off the ends.  After experimenting, I quickly realised that this would only work with big balloons!  At the pound shop (my favourite place!) the only big balloons available were the punch ball type with an elastic band tied at the end so we tried to make the beanbags with them.  It worked out brilliantly and the best thing was that they bounce as well.  One of the children at Sparklers this morning wouldn't put his down and all of the adults kept playing with them as well.  Definately worth while and only £2 to make 6!

Zacchaeus assembly- Give people a chance!

We did an assembly today on the theme of 'relationships'.  We Used the story of Zacchaeus to try to get across the idea that we often make judgements about people without knowing who they really are and the potential they have.

First we used a 'feely bag' to get the children to try and guess some items without seeing them. They managed to get close on most items, but they couldn't see everything about them e.g. colour.  We need to look properly to get all the facts and can't judge too quickly!


Next we told the story of Zacchaeus by acting it out with some of the children and getting the others to join in with some sound effects and with some cheering at the end.  The point we drew was that the people had made up their minds about Zacchaeus but Jesus could see who he really was and who he had the potential to be.  Zacchaeus surprised people!


After the story we told a story from real life about a time when we really got to know someone and had to change our mind about them and then we used this verse:  'People look at the outside of a person but the Lord looks at his heart' (1 Samuel 16: 7).  It had been written out in alternating blue and red words.  We split the children in half and they read it out, one side of the hall taking the red words and the other side taking the blue words.  They got really into it so we had to swap over and do it again!!


We finished off with a lit candle and a quiet reflection on those people we might need to give a chance and get to know better.  The school decided to keep the memory verse sheet and let the children add post it of their reflections on the subject over the coming weeks.

Welcoming 3-5s: The Hello Board

We're trying to build up a sense of belonging to a group amongst the children in Sparks.  As the children come from homes spread right across the city and are not likely to meet up outside of church, we want them to feel welcome and amongst friends when they come to their group on a Sunday morning.  Part of this involves giving them space to play and explore together during the session but another part relies on their physical surroundings.  We want the Sparks room to be a welcoming, friendly place to be!

One thing that has been introduced to help them feel that it is their place is the 'Hello board'.  This is a peg board for name cards.  When children arrive they can find their name card (helped by pictures if they aren't reading yet) and peg it to the board.  We can then use this as a starting point to gather together at the start of the session, see who's here and share the news of the week.  It seems something very simple, but it helps to build a routine and the children really love using the pegs!

Jesus welcomes the children story stones

On Sunday we're going to get to use the story stones for the first time!  Amongst our collection, we've got some general 'people' stones, 'children stones' and a heart stone and I've been testing them out to tell the story with...

Jesus talks to the people

The disciples try to stop the children coming to Jesus

Jesus welcomes the children because he loves and values them!

I'm really interested to see if the children will want to use the stones to retell the story by themselves!

Jesus welcomes the children prayer and ideas

This week with our 3-5s we'll be looking at the story of Jesus welcoming the children (Luke 18:15-17).  We'll be using the version from 'The Lion Storyteller Bible' (in fact we'll be using this book lots this term!)

Click here for more details of the book!


As well as telling the story, we'll be making a welcome banner, singing 'Jesus' love is very wonderful',  sharing food with our friends and putting together a jigsaw of a picture from the story.  The main message we want to get across is that Jesus loves each one of the children and thinks they are important.


I found some craft sticks in the shape of people in my drawer (click here if you want to buy some like them!) and we're going to use them for a prayer idea.

Let each child decorate their stick to look like them and then write 'Jesus loves' and their name on the back. Collect all the sticks in.  When you come to pray, put the sticks in a big heart shape made out of paper and placed on the floor.  The leader says 'Jesus loves...' and picks up a stick.  The child it belongs to shouts out their name and takes the stick.  Continue until all the sticks have been claimed.  Then all say together 'Thank you Jesus for loving me!  Amen!'  To carry on the message you could also play 'Jesus loves...' and describe someone in the room.  Who can guess who it is?  Get the children to take turns if they are able and make sure you don't leave anyone out!

Praying for specific countries

Sometimes there are certain countries that we feel drawn to pray for and we'd like to encourage the children to think about those places they feel drawn to themselves.  As a model and to start the ball rolling, it seemed a good idea to choose a few countries that we could focus on as we pray for the world.  The first country picked is Albania. I sponsor a little boy there, so I'm quite drawn to praying for that country myself!  I thought it would be best to give the children some facts about and pictures of Albania so that they would have some ideas about what to pray for and I then gave them an outline map to draw and write their prayers on.  It was fascinating to see what they wanted to ask God for!

We'll get the children to suggest the next country they'd like to pray for, so it could be anywhere!

Poverty Prayer Station

While thinking about praying for the world, we are encouraging the children to think about those who live in poverty- in this country and in the wider world. We also want to encourage the children to think what THEY can do and to make their own contribution.  Here is our poverty prayer station for this term...

You will need: 

• A money box
• A tin containing coins (I used quite a fancy one to reflect the riches some people have to share)
• Instructions (see below)

•Some people do not have enough money to pay for food and a home.

•Take a coin from the pot and hold it.  As you hold it, pray that God will help us to share what we have with others.  Put your coin in the giving box.  

If you want to you can bring your own coins to put in the box as well!

Hunger Prayer Station

One of our new world focussed prayer stations this term looks at hunger.

You will need: 

• A world map (I've labelled it with names of countries where there is famine and put some dots on it so that the children can find the countries)
• a pot of uncooked rice
• a spoon
• a plate
• instructions (below!)

Look at the map and see the places in the world where people are dying of hunger.

Ask God to send people who will help them and pray that the world will be a fairer place. Pray for charities who bring food and help to the hungry.  Ask God to show you what you can do to help.  

As you pray, put a spoonful of rice onto the plate.

New life Easter cross

This Easter Sunday we had a fantastic visual symbol of the new life Jesus brings to us.  It's a great all-age idea because everyone can join in!

We have a wooden cross which has been covered in chicken wire.  All day on Good Friday, the cross stood outside church in its bare wooden state.  On Easter Sunday morning we put it outside church again but this time, as people came into the church they were invited to put a flower into the chicken wire.  The flowers soon covered the cross as a witness to the new life of Easter Sunday.  This was a brilliant object lesson for the children because it was so visually accessible and they could easily take part!

Starting to fill the flower cross!

Praying for peace with zips!

This coming term our prayer stations are going to focus on interceding for the world.  One of the things I want to look at is praying for peace and reconciliation.  When I was thinking about how to do this, it struck me that zips might be a good idea- they are a great illustration of bringing two sides together!


so..

I plan to leave a list of countries in the world where wars are taking place on the station along with the zips so that the children can choose where to pray for!

Messy Easter Pinata Talk

I've seen talks about Easter on the Internet that use a pinata as an object lesson.  We adapted the ideas we came across and this is the little talk we gave at our Easter Messy Church to try and get over the concept of something amazing (forgiveness) coming out of something sad and upsetting (Good Friday) in a way that would speak even to the younger children.

• First of all, make a pinata or buy one!  If you fancy making one, there is a link to some instructions here.
• Fill the pinata with sweets so that there will hopefully be enough for everyone there.  This is important!!
• Suspend the pinata from the ceiling (we suspended from the balcony with someone holding a big stick and dangling it down!)
• Get the children to hit the pinata (we used wooden spoons) until it breaks and the sweets pour out.  Get the children to collect the sweets and bring them to the front.

Kylé stringing our pinata!

Talk (after having previously told the Easter story)


I feel a bit sad now!  That was a beautiful pinata and it took ages to make!  I'm really quite upset that it's broken and ruined now.  At least we got something good from it- lots of sweets!


It reminds me a bit of today (Good Friday).  Something really terrible happened- Jesus died.  It felt like everything had gone wrong and was ruined but actually it was not the end of the story.  Something amazing came out of the bad thing!  Jesus rose to new life and he gives us hope of a new life and a new start too!  Sometimes we feel like things in our lives are broken and ruined because we've done things that we wish we hadn't but, because Jesus died and that terrible thing happened, it means that he will take those wrong things away and we can have a new start with God.  Like all of the sweets that came out of the broken pinata, God wants to give us something sweet and show us how much He loves us and forgives us.  He also wants us to share His love with other people and to let them know that they can be forgiven too so let's share out the sweets and make sure that everyone has a reminder of the Good thing God wants to give us!

Messy Easter Crafts

Today we had a great Messy Easter!  Here are the crafts we put out, each reflecting part of the Easter story.


Palm Sunday

Card leaves, paper strips and self adhesive magnetic strips

Paper body shapes, peg legs and wool tails and manes

The Last Supper:

Paper plates glue, felt, wool, paper and any odds and ends!

Dolls, water and pouring equipment

Good Friday

Cardboard boxes, tape and ingenuity!

 Easter Sunday

Plastic eggs containing marbles to weigh them down, paper, blobs of paint, all in a tray and shake!

Digestives, green icing, mini doughnuts and marshmallows as the stone that rolled away...

And just for fun!

Foam eggs, stickers, tissue, ribbons,sequins etc, etc, etc!!

Lost sheep discovery bottle

One of the stories we will be doing with our 3-5 year olds next term is the lost sheep.  Inspired by the discovery bottles that Catherine is making for creche, I thought I'd try a twist on it myself for this story!

I got a plastic jar from the pound shop, filled it with rice and lentils and put a toy sheep inside...

Burrow down in the lentils to hide the sheep, put on the lid and then shake to find it again!   You can then keep hiding and discovering the sheep without taking the lid off.  If necessary I will glue the lid down!! 

Peg Leg Donkeys Palm Sunday Craft

Here is another preview of a Messy Church craft that we are using to represent Palm Sunday.  I saw this on someone's Pinterest board and wondered why I'd never thought of it before!!  Yet again, this is a very cheap and easy craft.

Cut out a donkey body shape...

...add a tail made of wool or thread and stand it up on peg legs!

Palm Weaving Magnet

Here is a sneak preview of one of our Messy Church crafts for Good Friday!

We've tried to find completely different crafts from last year, though we're keeping the egg decorating!

We needed a craft to represent Palm Sunday so we looked around... Pre- cut crafts are available from catalogues and websites and we came across this idea from Baker Ross but we decided to make them ourselves and save a bit of money!  To buy the packs online, click here for a link.  This is what we did...

Cut out a leaf shape from green card.  You can get 2 from an A4 sheet.  Fold it in half and cut long slits.

Weave thin strips of coloured paper through the slits.

Trim the ends of the paper and stick a magnet on the back.

The finished palm leaf magnet! (quite large for a magnet but easy, cheap and effective!)