Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

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.

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.

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!

Today in Sparks we told the story of the feeding of the 5000 using our story stones... It was very difficult to try and explain the concept of 5000 people to the 3-5 year olds so that they could then understand how amazing it was that Jesus could feed them with only 5 loaves and 2 fish so we tried something a little different to get the point across! I've recently bought myself a popcorn maker and it seemed perfect for an illustration. First I showed the children a small measure of popcorn kernels and all of them decided that there was certainly not enough there to feed everyone in the room.  It was less than a handful!!  We then put them in the popcorn maker and switched it on.  They were fascinated to see the popcorn start to fluff up and pour out of the chute.  Eventually we had a massive bowlful that fed all of us with loads left over!  It really helped them to understand the idea of Jesus making such a little provide for so many.  We then...