School Club Session: Jesus Calms the Storm

May 25, 2015May 25, 2015Leave a comment

5 mins	Reflective colouring while waiting for all children to arrive. Click here for ideas to print out
5 mins	Game- musical statues This links well with the idea of ‘calm’ (statues) and ‘storm’ (dancing)
2 mins	Song (click for a Pinterest board of Children’s Ministry songs)
10 mins	Tell the story either from a book or interactively. The Lion Storyteller Bible is great! Talk about ‘stormy’ or difficult times in life. How do they make you feel? Who do you go to for help? Have you ever asked God to help you? What happened?
10 mins	Use this Play Dough Mat to explore the story further and/or use this ‘anchor’ craft and prayer activity.
3 mins	End with a game! Click here for a Pinterest board full of ideas.

Healing Board Prayers

May 25, 2015May 25, 2015Leave a comment

This is an easy and very visual way to help children to pray for healing, for themselves and others.

You will need: A flattened cardboard box or a board, plasters (fabric plasters are best to write on), felt tip pens.

Having talked about Jesus’ healing miracles, we set up a board that the children could use every week to pray for those who need healing. We wrote words from Luke 6:19 about Jesus healing the sick at the top of the board and then encouraged children to write on plasters the names of those they knew who were ill. They then stuck the plasters to the board as a sign of their prayer to God for healing. This is a very popular prayer station!

Easter: Rolling Egg Paintings

May 25, 2015May 25, 2015Leave a comment

Here’s a great activity we did that can help children to engage with the New Life theme of Easter: butterflies painted with rolling eggs! I like the idea of rolling eggs symbolising the stone that rolled away from the tomb at Easter, so that was an added bonus that we could talk about to the children who came along. This was especially popular with boys- maybe something to do with the high activity level!

You will need: A deep sided tray, plastic Easter eggs (that you can put something inside!), marbles, paint, paper butterfly shapes.

Place your paper shape inside the tray.

Put a marble inside each egg you are going to use to paint with. This will give it a little more weight. Add a few spots of paint to the paper (less really is more in this case!). Now shake the tray from side to side so that the eggs roll across the paint and decorate the paper.

The finished painting!

Try to wipe the eggs between paintings.

We also tried some crosses and egg shapes so that we could maintain the ‘New Life’ theme and also speak about Good Friday and the cross leading to a new start for Christians.

Palm Sunday Spinners

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015Leave a comment

This is a great activity for Palm Sunday because somehow the hosanna appears on the palm leaf. The children love watching the trick of the eye happen!

For a printable version click here

It’s very easy to make…

Cut out, colour and fold on the dotted line.

Sellotape a straw to the back of one half and glue the other half on top.

swizzle the straw between your hands and watch what happens!

Prayer Chatterboxes

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015Leave a comment

Children seem to love playing with these origami ‘fortune tellers’ or ‘chatterboxes’ and I started to think about how we could use them for prayer…

We experimented at church and at our school lunctime club and they went down very well!

This activity needs to be done in groups of 2 or 3 and you can print off versions of the prayer chatterbox by clicking below. If you’re not sure how to make them get a child to show you how! When children have chosen their colour and number, their partner lifts the flap to see what they have to pray for: Please, thanks, sorry, friends, family. Sorry prayers can be said silently and finished with a spoken Amen so that we know it’s time to swap turns!

A printable version can be found here. When they’ve tested them out, challenge children to make their own version.

Lent: Sandpaper Reflections

May 21, 2015May 24, 2015Leave a comment

Here’s an activity to help the children to see how Jesus is able to identify with their everyday experiences because of the human experiences He had himself. This activity focuses on having the strength to do the right thing, even when it’s difficult, knowing that Jesus himself was tempted but stood strong.

Give the children some sandpaper, a paperclip and a copy of this verse:

Because He Himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Hebrews 2:18

Feel the roughness of the sand paper and think about times when it’s hard for you to do the right thing.

Cut out the Bible verse clip it onto the sand paper (glue is hard to stick to sandpaper!) and decorate the verse with colouring pens or pencils.

Stick it onto the wall or put it by your bed for the rest of the week and remember that Jesus is with you, knows what it is like, and will help you to be strong when you need to do the right thing