Family prayer bag 8-11s

Here is our second prayer bag for children to take home.  Like the Family prayer bag for 3-7s, this bag has ideas that families can use to pray at home and each one will only take a few minutes.  This bag also takes into account that the children of this age group will be more used to our prayer routines and may want to do some  things independently!  All bags will be ready to give out in the next couple of weeks, but why not try some of the ideas at home before they arrive...

• Bubbles
• Counters (card squares)
• Laminated 3 in a row prayer game (to print out click here )
• Laminated world map
• Spot stickers
• Journal notebook
• Felt tip
• Prayer chatterbox (to print out click here)
• Post its
•  'Sorry' acetate

Bubble prayers

Say thank you or sorry to God or ask Him to help you.  At the end of your prayer, blow some bubbles as a sign of your prayers going up to God.

Prayer journals

Use the notebook to write and draw your prayers or to record what God shows you when you listen to Him

Post it prayers

Write prayers on post its and stick them to one side of a window.  When the prayers are answered, move them to the other side of the window and say thank you to God

3 in a row prayer game

Play with someone else.  Choose a space.  Pray for that thing and put a counter there.  The first person with three counters in a row is the winner

World prayers

Choose a place on the map and ask God to bless it and the people who live there.  Stick a dot on the map to show you have prayed for that place

Prayer chatterbox

Use the chatterbox to find out what to pray for- please, thanks, sorry or others

Sorry prayers

Write or draw with the felt tip on the acetate something you would like to say sorry to God for.  As you say sorry to Him in your head, rinse the acetate in some water or wipe with a wet wipe.  The pen will wash off as a symbol that God forgives you

Family prayer bag for 3-7s

In an effort to help parents with ideas for connecting children with God at home, over the next few weeks, I'm hoping to get some prayer bags made up for each child.  For the 3-7s age group the activities are suitable for using as a whole family, each taking just a few minutes!  

As we don't have massive groups of children, with a little organisation and outlay this is going to be possible!  The purchases I've made are: paper bags, plastic teaspoons, dice, small pots of playdough (4 pots for a pound in the pound shop), bubbles (9 for £1), party blowers (10 for £1), bags of pound shop lego (1 bag will supply about 4 children).  Everything else has been printed off and laminated!

·         Teaspoons (click here for teaspoon prayers explanation)

·         Prayer cube (click here to print off)

·         Die

·         Feeling prayer board (click here to print off)

·         Counters

·         Lego

·         Playdough

·         Bubbles

·         blower

Teaspoon prayers

Choose a spoon and pray for what the letter shows: P=please, T=thanks, S=sorry

Prayer cube

Roll the cube and pray for whatever lands face up.

Feelings prayer game

Roll a die and move that number of spaces.  Follow the instructions on the game board if you land on a face!

Lego thanks tower

Take turns to say thank you to God for something.  When you say amen, add another brick to the thank you tower!

Playdough prayers

Use the playdough to make the shapes of things you want to say thanks to God for

Bubble prayers

Say thank you or sorry to God or ask Him to help you.  When you say amen, blow some bubbles as a sign of your prayers going to God.

Blower prayers

Say thank you or sorry to God or ask Him to help you.  When you have finished your prayer, blow the blower as a loud ‘amen’!

The Lost coin with 3-5s

Today our 3-5s learned the story of the lost coin!  Thanks to Kylé for putting this lesson together.

After hearing the story, here are some of the things they did...

 Coin headbands (silver card coins stapled to ribbon)

Prayer activity- find silver card coins around the room, then draw a picture of yourself on the reverse of the coin.  Speak about how Jesus looks for people who are far away from God and is so excited when they get to know God better (just like the woman is when she finds her coin!)  Everyone then shouts 'thank you' to Jesus!

 Lost coin bottle (coins hidden in rice and pasta mix).  Shake to find!

 Role play items: brush, torches, lights, coins

 a collection of coins with pots and tins to hide them in!

Take home activity: Laminated pictures (one of which has a coin next to it), painted over with silver paint.  Children scratch off the paint to find the picture with the coin.

Life of Jesus dominoes (print out and play!)

The children in our 8-11s group have really enjoyed playing with the Names of God dominoes I made a while back so I thought I'd make a different set.

These dominoes are suitable to help open up a conversation about Jesus and his life as the symbols used are all clues to part of his story.  I think they'll be particularly useful at our lunch time club at school where we spend a lot of time answering children's questions and the children are not necessarily Christian.  It will also be useful to see if the children can identify why we have used particular symbols!

Symbols used: 

Star- Jesus birth

Dove- Jesus' baptism/ Holy spirit

Sheep- represents the parables Jesus told

Wave of water- miracles of Jesus such as the calming of the storm/ Jesus is the living water

Loaves and fish- represent the miracles of Jesus

Palm leaves- Palm Sunday

Bread and wine- last supper

Crosses on the hill- crucifixion

Sunrise- Easter Sunday/ new life

Crown- Jesus the King

To print off a sheet click here.

I printed off two sheets and then laminated them to make one set.

Pentecost story bag!

Here is our new story bag- just in time for thinking about Pentecost!  All the items are homemade or come from the pound shop...

• Pentecost story book (Print and make your own here)
• Felt board with felt figures, felt flames and felt 'wind'
• Pentecost tab pull (print and make your own here)
• 2 'fire' ribbon streamers
• 2 paper windmills
• bubbles (need breath or 'wind' to carry and make them!)
• battery operated tea lights
• birthday badge (Pentecost is the Church's birthday!)

We'll be using this with our 3-5s on Pentecost Sunday and then the bag will be available for parents to borrow and take home.

Pentecost tab pull craft- see the flames appear!

This seems like quite a complicated craft, but it's worth it, even if it's just used by the leader as a storytelling aid!  I've tried to show step by step what to do...  It's probably best to stick all of the pieces onto card to start off with as this will make it more sturdy- either that or print onto card! If you do this, you will still need the A5 piece of card (see instructions)

 Print off the sheet with all the sections on it...

 Cut all the sections out (including the blank middle 'window' on the main section).

 Get a piece of A5 sized card and trim it to fit the width of the flames section.  Stick the flames section to the top of the card.

 Fold the main section along the fold line and fit the fold over the top of the card.  Glue the back section down.

 Place the tab section over the flames... (don't stick it down!)

 Fold the top of the main section over the card and stick it down, leaving room around the 'window' for the tab to be pulled backwards and forwards.  Draw 'wind' shapes on the tab (in the Bible it only talks about the sound of a wind, but I'm using some artistic license!)

Pull the tab to reveal the flames above the disciples' heads!

To print out the sheet, click here.

Psalm 27:1 reflective colouring to print out

Here is another reflective colouring sheet for those children who like to be focusing on something visual while they spend some quiet time with God- it's quite an intricate one this time!  The verse is Psalm 27:1: 'The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear?'

For a printable version click here

Teaspoon prayers!

Here's a great idea you can use at home to help children pray and it only costs £1!

I've always loved the idea of teaspoon prayers- 'tsp' being the abbreviation of 'teaspoon' in recipes but also being the initial letters of 'thanks, sorry and please', three things we can encourage children to pray about.  I like things that stick in the head!

I got a pack of small spoons from the pound shop and wrote t or s or p on each one with a permanent marker.  Then I put them in a jar.  Children can take a spoon at random from the jar and then pray a 'thanks', 'sorry' or 'please' prayer according to the letter on their spoon.

Held in God's hands prayer activity

Kylé and I found this idea on Pinterest a while ago and it's progressed from simple craft idea to prayer activity!  The original seems to come from this Bulgarian website that has loads of great children's craft ideas (and Google translate helps to understand it!) Thanks to Kylé for this idea.

We often talk about 'putting things into God's hands' and this is a really visual way of doing it!

 Fold a piece of paper in half and draw round your hand (index finger and thumb right up against the fold).
Cut the hand out and open out.  It should look like the picture below!

The heart shape made by the join of the finger and thumb is great because it helps us to talk about God's love for us.  We can then talk about putting people or worries into God's hands and trusting that He will look after them for us because He loves us and He loves them.  Children can write the names or draw the people or the worries they want God to take into his hands and then pin the hands somewhere they can see them!
This would work well when talking about worry, love, trusting God or praying for others.

Make your own Pentecost story book (with pictures to print out)!

I'm thinking about getting things together for a Pentecost story bag soon but I've been a bit frustrated in finding  a story book for children just focused on this event.  So I decided to make my own!  It's only 5 pages long but it tells the story in an easy and simple way...

Click here to print off a PDF of the pictures (2 per A4 page) which you can then trim (I also laminated!)  and make into your own story book.

Going the extra mile prayer activity

As part of our work on the sermon on the mount this term with our 5-11s, this is one of the new prayer stations children can choose from.  It picks up on the idea of 'going the extra mile' for someone.

Encourage the children to think of someone they usually help or could help with something at home or at school.  Then get them to think of how they could do something extra and unasked to help that person.  Children draw or write their idea on a coloured footprint and stick it somewhere on the track, asking God to help them bless that person.  When they come back the following week they can then put a smiley face next to their footprint if they've managed to do that thing!

Responding to the Beatitudes with junk box modelling!

Today our 5-11s explored the beatitudes.  Click here for our beatitudes resources!

After exploring each statement,

we gave the children access to the junk box!  In the box there's a random selection of plastic cups, card, paper, foil, lolly sticks and just about anything we could get our hands on and cram in!  The children used anything they wanted to make something that reflected an element of what they's learned.  Leaders were on hand to help but the children had no problems coming up with their own ideas!

  

Here's what they came up with...

 Chains to represent the persecuted people God would care for

 Scales to represent those who seek righteousness

 A dove's head (he didn't manage to make the whole bird in the time allowed!) to represent the peacemakers.

 A shining cross because 'when we forgive people it's like God's light shining out, like Jesus on the cross'

 A shining heart for when we think about what God wants

(on the other side) a red heart for when we don't think about what God wants

 God patting a man on the back to comfort him when he has fallen over (a 5 year old's interpretation of God comforting those who mourn)

 A full cup and a shining cup only half full to represent God blessing the humble.

a decorated cross to represent God blessing those who forgive.

It's amazing what the children come up with when we give them the freedom to express!

Beatitudes Word Clouds to help children to respond (printable)

Periodically, as a response to the teaching, we use word clouds to help the children reflect.  I can't get enough of them because I love the colours!

Here is a Beatitudes word cloud, made from pasting the Bible verses into the creator.  Children can use the heart space to write or draw how they feel about what they have learned or what the remember most/ liked most.  The words can be used as prompts to help them if they want.

For a printable version (two word clouds to a page) click here.

More ideas for teaching the Beatitudes (including a prayer response!)

Having sorted out the language I want to use to explain the Beatitudes (click here to go the Beatitudes cards), I've now got around to sorting out some more ideas for Sunday.

To link with the cards for each saying, I've got some props.  They don't exactly match the cards, but close enough!

• An inflatable swimming ring to symbolise relying on God's help (poor in spirit)
• A comforting cuddly toy (mourning)
• A gift bag (humble- people who think of others before themselves etc)
• Scales (made of a coat hanger and yoghurt pots as I didn't have the real thing! (righteousness and justice)
• Cross (mercy and forgiveness)
• Heart (pure in heart)
• Dove (peacemakers)
• Rope (persecuted)

I've made some more cards for a prayer activity to get the children thinking about how they can live more in the spirit of the Beatitudes.  

After some time thinking and listening to God, the children can choose one of the cards and hang it onto a 'tree' constructed of twigs in a jar.  They can then ask God to help them grow in this area.  Thanks to 'The secret of happiness' lesson at Urban Saints Energize for some of the ideas for these prayer cards.

For a printable version of the cards click here.

Beatitudes cards (explaining the Beatitudes in child friendly language!)

I had a bit of a panic this week when I realised that I would be teaching the Beatitudes this Sunday.  How do I explain 'humble', 'meek', 'righteousness' and 'merciful' to 5-7s without spending the whole session doing it?  Even the simplest Bible translations used words they weren't going to understand easily!

So I decided to make some colourful cards in child friendly language to explain what each statement meant.  I included some symbols that might help explain because a lot of the children are like me and find pictures very helpful!  I intend to use these symbols in real life form during the lesson.  None of the explanations or symbols are perfect but hopefully they will help!   

An inflatable swimming ring to symbolise relying on God's help (poor in spirit)

A sad face (mourning)

A gift (humble- people who think of others before themselves etc)

Scales (righteousness and justice)

Cross (mercy and forgiveness)

Heart (pure in heart)

Dove (peacemakers)

Handcuffed hand (persecuted)

For a printable version of the cards click here

Prayer net board!

We've had our prayer board up for at least a year and a half now, so it's time to have a little change round!  The knowledge that God listens to us and answers our prayers is fundamental to what we are teaching the children, though, so we want to make sure that, whatever replaces it gives the children the chance to celebrate answered prayer.

This is our new board...

I found some garden netting at Asda (£1 for A LOT!) and stapled some of it over some shiny blue fabric

Children can write or draw their prayers on paper slips and poke them through the netting as a symbol of putting them into God's hands (He can hold the prayers as in a net).  Then, when the prayers have been answered, children can unroll them and pin them to a washing line next to the board.  I'm just hoping that no one manages to pull hard enough on the next to dislodge all my staples!!

Feelings Prayer Game: A way to help children tell God about how they feel (with printable board)

One of the lessons we will be doing with our 3-5s this year will be about speaking to God and telling him how we feel.  It's really important that children learn that God wants us to be honest when we speak to Him and that he cares about what we feel. This game was sparked off by an idea I found in a lesson about Nehemiah in one of the Scripture Union Tiddlywinks books. Games are also a great way of getting children involved!  

This is a game to help the children explore times that make them feel happy and sad and help them, then, to tell God about them- either thanking Him or asking for help.  Just throw the dice, move around the board and, if you land on a face, tell God about that feeling!  This is especially useful for families to use at home.  Click here to print out the board.