Tag: 5-7s

New Year Hopes Prayer Card

Leave a comment

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15.13

You will need: seed paper, coloured paper, pens, glue dots, glue, card, scissors,

Think about the new year and what our hopes for the next 12 months are. How would you like to see things getting better for yourself? Your friends and family? The world?

Talk about Jesus being the Light of the World and that, with him, however dark and bad things seem, there is always hope that light and better days will come. Jesus gives us hope of new life, even when everything seems hopeless.

Make a card signifying ‘hope.’ You might use colours or symbols (such as the rainbow) to show hope for better things. Attach a strip of seed paper to the front of the card with a glue dot, so that it can easily be removed.

Keep the card for yourself or give to to someone else. Write hopes for the coming year onto the seed paper and plant it in the garden. As the seeds grow, pray that your hope in what God can do will also grow.

Remembrance Sunday Torn Paper Collage

Leave a comment

Remembrance Sunday can sometimes be a tricky day with lots of questions and emotions. This collage craft helps to pick up on some of the themes of the day, gives children time and space to chat and ask questions and provides an opportunity to discuss what it will be like when God makes everything new and there is no more war or pain.

3 I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.[a] 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”

5 And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new!” Revelation 21: 3-5, NLT

You will need: Red paper of varying patterns and textures, black paper, backing paper, glue

Ask children children to choose some paper as their collage backing paper and then tear up red paper to make petals for their poppies. They might like to draw a poppy shape on the page first and then fill it in, or just go with a freestyle collage. Finish with black paper in the centre of each poppy.

As you tear and stick the paper down, use the time to chat. Discussion could include lots of things:

  • relate the tearing of the paper to the destruction of war and what it must have felt like for the soldiers and their families
  • Talk about how the churning up of the soil and the distribution of the seeds during the fighting led to the poppies growing there the following year. Life emerged where there had been death.
  • Think about God’s kingdom as talked about in Revelation 21: 1-7, where there will be no more death or crying or pain
  • What questions do children have? what do they wonder about war or peace or what God’s kingdom will be like?

Pray

  • use the words of the Revelation verses to help you think about people who died or who were injured in the wars and also about their families.
  • Light a candle and put the poppy pictures around it and ask God to wipe away the tears of all of those who are grieving or in pain today because of war.

Manna in the Wilderness

Leave a comment

In Exodus 16, God first gives the Israelites manna as food in the wilderness. It’s describes as being like ‘flakes.’ These crackers aren’t like flakes exactly, but making them will help children to imagine themselves into the story.

You will need: 100g plain flour, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/2 teaspoon sugar, 1 tablespoon vegetable or olive oil, 3 tablespoons of water, a rolling pin, a mixing bowl, a fork, a baking tray, greaseproof paper, a knife or pizza cutter, an oven, honey

Preheat the oven to 180˚C and grease a baking tray or line it with greaseproof paper. Mix the dry ingredients together in the bowl and then add the oil and water. Mix together with a fork or your hands until a dough is formed. Roll the dough out thinly and place it on the baking tray. Prick the dough all over with a fork and then cut it into squares with a knife or pizza cutter. Put the baking tray into the oven and bake for 15-20 mins until the crackers are starting to turn light brown.

When the crackers have cooled, share them out and try them. Children might want to spread a little bit of honey on them, as we are told that the manna tasted like ‘wafers made with honey’ (Exodus 16:31). As you eat, talk about the story of God giving manna in the wilderness.

Talk about:

  • How would you have felt to see the manna on the ground for the first time?
  • Why do you think God gave the rule about only gathering what was needed?
  • What would you think of having this every day for many years?
  • What foods do you eat every day?

Pray:

Thank God for the foods you enjoy. Ask him to show us how to help those who don’t have enough to eat.

Exploring The Parable of the Sower

Leave a comment

As we come further into spring, it’s a great time to tell the parable of the sower and to think about how we grow as disciples.

Here are some helpful resources to help you to do this:

Use the Parable of the Sower Playdough Mat (above). Click here to print off and use. For repeated use, it really helps to laminate the sheet!

Think about how seeds might grow on different types of ground by testing it out! Make ‘seed balls’ and then throw them into your garden and watch what happens as nature takes its course. This is a great set of instructions to help you to get started. Be aware that it might get messy!

Go into the garden and look at where plants are growing and where they aren’t. What do you notice?

Watch this video of the story, using photos taken in Israel of the 4 different types of land.

Use junk to make a model of something that really sticks out to you from the story. Share what you have made and why.

Talk about:

  • What helps plants to grow?
  • What helps people to grow?
  • What helps us to grow in knowing more about Jesus?

Pray:

Eat some fruit and ask God to help us grow in knowing about and loving Jesus and in loving each other.

Prayers for peace

Leave a comment

Here is a very visual and watchable way to help children to pray for peace and the bringing together of communities. You can also use things you are very likely to have a home, which is always a welcome bonus!

You will need: Kitchen roll, water, 2 cups, food colouring

IMG_5336

Take 2 cups and fill them about 2/3 full with water. Into each cup, mix a different food colouring so that each cup’s water is a different colour. Try to get as strong a colour as possible.

Cut a strip of kitchen roll as long as a sheet of the roll and about 5cm wide.

Talk about divisions in communities we know or live in. What causes such divisions? Who or what helps to heal divisions and bring people together. Think about one of the names for Jesus which is ‘Prince of Peace.’ What does that mean? How can we help to bring about peace?

Think of a situation where there is division e.g. in a war. Put the paper towel as a bridge between the two cups, with each end of the towel in on of the cups. Pray that God will help to heal the divisions and bring people together in peace, as you watch the coloured water ‘climb’ up the towel, meet in the middle of the towel and combine to form a new colour (e.g. red in one cup and yellow in the other will lead to an eventual combination of orange in the middle). Try different colours for different situations and watch your peace prayers bring about new colours!