This is one of our most popular Messy Church crafts ever!
You will need: Digestive Biscuits, icing sugar made into runny icing, crushed up shredded wheat, jelly babies, fondant icing rolled out and cut into squares big enough to cover the jelly baby
Take a biscuit
Ice the biscuit and crumble on some shredded wheat to make the ‘hay’
Lay a jelly baby on the hay
Cover the jelly baby with a fondant icing blanket
Eat!
Here are some easy and fun activities for a Easter themed Messy Church…
Shaving foam and paint marbled eggs
toddler sensory play with water beads, plastic eggs and polystyrene eggs
A baby area with hearts (to reflect Jesus’ love) and balls (close enough to eggs for new life!)
Special cups to think about the last supper (click here for details of how to make them)
Cards using stickers from Baker Ross
Palm Sunday spinners (click here for details of how to make them)
Tape resist crosses (click here for details of how to make them
Playdough mats are incredibly helpful as ways of consolidating stories and exploring their themes. The idea is very easy: print out the mat, laminate it (so that the play dough will come off easily and so you can use the mat over and over again) and then get busy! Here are some example play dough mats to print off and use but why not get creative and make your own or get children to make some to help others to learn about the story…
Sometimes it can be hard for children to understand the difference between prayer and worship. It’s helpful to explain worship as being about telling God how great He is and celebrating the wonderful things He has done for us.
Here is a little game I’ve made to try and get the children to practice thinking about who God is and why He’s amazing!
Play the game in pairs. Each person uses different colour counters. Choose a square and when you have completed the little task, you can put your counter there. The first person to get 3 counters in a row is the winner!
For a printable version click here.
You will need: Biscuits (at least one per child), icing sugar, water, food colouring, eye-droppers (unused!!), knives for spreading, cocktail sticks, heart shaped sprinkles or hearts cut out of fondant.
Read Psalm 148 together or talk about the great things about who God is. What do you want to celebrate about Him? What is praise? How can we praise God? What does worship feel like? How would you express praise in colour? Set out your equipment and get ready!
Make up a bowl of thick white icing with the icing sugar and some water. Then make up some individual bowls of different coloured icing, slightly more runny in consistency than the white icing.
Use a cocktail stick to make swirls in the icing, expressing the colourful, imaginative, amazing nature of God- let the children do this as the mood takes them!
Add a heart to the top of the swirls as a reminder of God’s love for us and our love for God.
With thanks to Tanya Lord for these ideas.
Speak to the children about what worship is e.g. telling God how great he is and thanking him for all of the wonderful things he has done for us.
Get the children to think of words to describe God and put them into a big poster…
Then ask them to use a pipe-cleaner to make shapes representing an aspect of who God is, how we respond to God in worship or what they would like to say to Him. Expect some fascinating responses!
Here are some examples of what one particular group of children came up with…
A variety of musical notes from children who found beauty in the music a reflection of God.
Two examples from a 5 year old: a person dancing and a snail because even snails worship God (we had just been learning the verse from psalm 150 ‘Let everything that has breath praise the Lord’!)
Enjoy exploring!
The Well Creative Children's ministry 