Stones are an important part of the Easter story because it is a massive stone that is placed in front of Jesus’ tomb and the same stone that is rolled away at the resurrection. Stones are also amazing tactile. They are something firm to hold on to and also something hard to help children to reflect on the hard times we all face in our lives. They are also a great surface to draw on and this craft was really popular at our Messy Good Friday service yesterday.
You will need: Stones (enough for one each), paint pens, sharpies, felt tips (test the pens on your stones before starting as different types of pen work better depending on the kind of surface your stone has!)
Ask children to reflect on what they know of the story and of who Jesus is and to decorate their rock accordingly. They might want to use words or pictures or a mixture of both. Use the time they spend creating as an opportunity to speak to them about the story and what it means to them.
Party hats: Paper. staples, glue, glitter, ribbon, stickers, sequins
Building the Father’s House (or the pig sty!) out of boxes and tape
Clay hearts to help think about the Father’s love
Cornflour and water ‘pigswill’
Pig biscuits: Biscuits, icing, marshmallows, chocolate chips
Jewellery for the returning son to wear, made of strawberry laces and cheerios (this was very popular!)
I’ve put together a bag of times to help tell the story of Noah’s Ark to some children under 5. Bags like this are great because the children can then play with all of the items when you have told the story and you can also lend them to families to play with at home. This bag contains…
A coloured coat made of a length of brown paper (with a head hole cut out!). We decorated the coat with pens, coloured paper, bubble wrap, felt pieces and lolly sticks and then used it as a costume when we told the story.
Coloured coat fuzzy felt: Felt coat shapes and scraps to decorate.
Edible coloured coats: Wraps cut into coat shapes and decorated with icing and sweets.
Egyptian collars made from paper plates and sticky shapes
Joseph’s jail made from Lego bricks
Plaited straws (our attempt at wheat sheaves!)
Paper plate cow faces.
You will need: sandpaper (use quite fine sandpaper if finger painting as it is much less rough on fingers), paint.
The Well Creative Children's ministry 