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)

Toddler Group Crafts

June 8, 2015June 8, 2015Leave a comment

The key to great crafts at a toddler group is to find something easy and open-ended. That way there is less work for the leaders and more fun and exploration for the children. Just a warning- easy can also sometimes be messy so make sure you have a collection of aprons or old shirts to hand!

Here are some tried and tested toddler group crafts…

Painting with nature

Playing with oobleck (a mixture of water and cornflour)

Playing with shaving foam on a tray

Plastic bag rainbow painting

Rolling egg paintings

Click here to go to a Pinterest board full of more ideas!

Toddler Play: Heuristic Play (Exploring with Stuff!)

May 24, 2015May 24, 2015Leave a comment

Heuristic play is a method used in lots of nurseries and pre-schools to help children to explore, create and use their imaginations. For children in church it’s brilliant because it helps them to start thinking, questioning and exploring and well as inspiring some awe and wonder! As they are allowed to freely explore, it also helps the children to build their independence and creativity. Even the adults can’t resist having a go themselves!

Heuristic play involves having collections of items (plenty of each to go round) which the children can then play with without adult intervention. Play can be themed if you are looking at a particular story.

Use items such as: corks, kitchen roll tubes, boxes and tins, napkin rings and bangles (and mug trees to put them on!), shells, pinecones, corks, pegs, stones, egg boxes, ribbons, muffin tins, bottle tops.

Click here to see a Pinterest board of heuristic play ideas.

Here are some examples we have used in church:

Have fun watching imagination and creativity develop!

Toddler Group Songs and Nursery Rhymes

May 22, 2015May 22, 2015Leave a comment

Children love to sing and nursery and action rhymes are great to keep them active and build language skills. Encourage parents to join in too!

I’ve made a Pinterest board of nursery rhymes and activities to go with them. Click on the pictures on the board and they will take you to the web link!

Using Bible Stories in Toddler Groups

May 21, 2015Leave a comment

Running toddler groups in church can be a great way of building relationships with the local community as well as providing a place of support, care and fun for families. It’s also a great opportunity to gently let the story of Jesus be known in what we do, who we are and the hospitality we provide. You are likely to have some books for the children to read with their parents and it’s a good idea to include amongst them some really good quality Bible stories. Here are some recommendations:

Stories Jesus Told

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