Holy Spirit/Pentecost Discovery Basket

May 20, 2016May 20, 2016Leave a comment

At our recent Pentecost service, we had a basket available to help babies and toddlers explore the colours and symbols of the Holy Spirit (specifically love, wind, fire, doves, red). The children and parents really got stuck in to discovering!

Basket contents included:

Wooden doves
Wooden hearts
Fabric hearts
Battery operated candles
Red, yellow and orange ribbons tied to shower rings (streamers)
A gold glitter reflection bottle (gold glitter in water- shake it up and watch it settle!)
Windmills
Bubbles (carried on the wind)

Pentecost Messy Church Ideas

June 9, 2015June 9, 2015Leave a comment

Here are some Pentecost themed Messy Church ideas. All have a fire or wind related element…

Flame headresses: ribbon, tissue paper, gold card, shiny red paper.

Fire streamers made from crepe paper, lolly sticks and elastic bands.

Flame biscuits: digestives, white water icing and fondant flames.

Blowing bubbles!

Birthday cards for the Church’s birthday!

Pentecost spinners! Click here to print off.

Paint blowing pictures.

Windchimes: Cups, beads, bells, buttons and pipecleaners.

Holy Spirit suncatchers. Click here for instructions.

Click here for a Pinterest board of even more craft ideas.

Salad Spinner Pentecost Flames

June 3, 2015June 3, 2015Leave a comment

I found a cheap salad spinner (£4 in IKEA!) and was finally able to try out some spinner art! It’s brilliant: quick, clean (because the spinner sits in its own bowl) and each piece is unique! The process of making the art really lends itself to Pentecost themes so here’s an idea to help celebrate the occasion…

You will need: A salad spinner; red, yellow and orange paint, small paper plates, a tub of hair gel (optional)

Put a plate on the bottom of the inside of the spinner and blob some paint in. Put the lid on and spin!

It only takes a few seconds of enthusiastic spinning and this is what you get… I think that trying to get the plate balanced across the bottom of the spinner would have helped this one (above) to be a little less lop-sided!

Some sites recommend adding a blob of hair gel and it does make the paint a little more runny. Experiment and see what works best for you.

I love it! I tried it out yesterday with some 2 year olds and they loved it too. All ages pleased in one go.

Pentecost Play Dough Mat

June 1, 2015June 1, 2015Leave a comment

Here is a play dough mat to help children explore the story of Pentecost.

Click here to print out the mat, laminate and let the children use play dough to make tongues of fire coming from the heads of the disciples.

Pentecost: Fork Flame Paintings

May 30, 2015May 30, 2015Leave a comment

This is a really great idea for all ages. We ended up working on the kitchen floor and even the adults decided to join in. Some of the children got incredibly creative…

You will need: yellow, red and orange paint, foil (for easy clean-up afterwards!), plastic forks, card or paper (we used black for a great effect).