Ringing in the New Year

So I'm a bit late posting this one but this is what we did on Sunday December 30th 2012.

 Instead of new years resolutions we got chatting about what we are going to pray for in 2013.

These were the answers of a few of the 9-12 year olds.

I like how her "hope" got changed to "will"!

After chatting about it for a while I gave them all a print out of a smiley face and laid out lots of different craft materials; coloured card, pencils, colours, crepe paper etc. and then just left them to their own devices designing a picture of themselves in a party hat celebrating the arrival of the new year!

"I hope for the new Barcelona Jersey and I pray that I change" !!

"I hope all of my friends and family are safe in 2013"

   

Thankful Hearts

One Sunday morning I asked the children to draw or write something to finish this sentence:

"Thank you God for......"

love this - truly from her little heart

Flowers and Sausages!

We hung them on the wall to remind us of all the wonderful things God has given us!

GOD IS SO GOOD

One Sunday morning when we were singing one of the kid's (and my) favourite songs (see puppet version here) we decided to take a break to write or draw one reason why we love God. We did this because singing isn't the only way to praise Him you know!

Here are some of the children's thoughts....

"God is good because he cares"

Add caption

TRUTH!

without a doubt my favourite! look at that big loving heart

Saint Patrick

On St. Patrick's day we taught the children about the truth of St. Patrick

We taught  how God used a young Welsh slave boy to bring the gospel to our small nation. How God used the worst  occasions in Patrick's life, being a slave boy, to change his heart forever. We learned together how no-one is unimportant to God, that God can use any of us.We learned how God spoke to Patrick through dreams and visions. We learned how Patrick was obedient and followed the call God put on his life.
And we learned about Patrick's rich passionate love for the triune God. To remind the children that our God is three in one, Father, Son and Holy Spirit we then made shamrock sun catchers to take home.

Before the lesson you need to cut out the shape of a shamrock on black paper for each child(just draw three hearts!).

Each child needs a square of some light transparent foam for the back. I used the protective wrapping from new drinking glasses I had bought! But you could easily buy some or use baking / grease proof paper.
Anyway, let the kids go crazy sticking lumps of crepe paper on their foam or whatever and when they are done glue/tape it to the back of the black paper.

Punch 2 holes in the black paper, add some ribbon and extra decorations if you wish and voila! A lovely eye catching shamrock sun catcher!

10 Ways to be Perfect

I told the story of the 10 commandments from the Jesus Storybook Bible for a group of ten 4-8 year olds.

Before the story the children made their own little Moses which they each had in their hands during the story too. They used him like a puppet to act out the story as I told it - holding him up high when Moses climbed the mountain etc.

 I got the template from "Sunday School Crafts" which has a lot of fun, free resources like this so check it out! All the kids had to do was colour him in, cut him out and stick him onto a toilet roll insert (you could use rolled up card if you don't have TP inserts but the thicker the card the better). 

The children loved the finished product.

How cute is he!

I wanted to something to give the children an idea of what the tablets Moses would had would be like so I made these super easy little props which the children took turns holding up for the others during story time.

First I cut out the shape I wanted from a cereal box

Then I scrunched up some baking paper / grease-proof paper
I un-scrunched the paper and stuck it on to the card.

Then I wrote the commandments on with a sharpie.
Easy!

The Battle at Jericho

This week we continued using the awesome Jesus story book Bible which I cannot recommend enough for use at home or in Kid's Church. You can buy it here. 
I was teaching this lesson to the 4-8 year old age group with the under 3's joining in as much as they wanted and were able to.

When the kids arrive there are lots of different blocks laid out for them to build with, lego for the older ones, Duplo, wooden blocks and also some random cardboard boxes to make bigger structures (which are more fun for knocking down!). This is an introduction to the story, when I told the story I reminded the children about the big towers and walls they made, just like the big high walls of Jericho!

After a little time playing with these we are going to make our first craft which will also serve as a prop / something to keep their hands busy during the story.



 The kids each decorated a sheet of orange card however they liked using crayons and stickers and then we helped them roll them up and tape them into the shape of a horn like this!
Very simple but they make an effective sound when you blow into them! During the story I got the children to play their horns each time the people of Israel marched around the walls of Jericho.

After the story we moved back to the art table and I gave each child a template like this which I made in about 2 seconds with a ruler and sharpie and photocopied.

I laid out lots of colourful pre-cut shapes which I salvaged from scraps from previous art projects (never throw anything away if you can help it!).

Then the children "built" the walls of Jericho by sticking on the shapes with a glue stick.
As well as reminding the children about the story by talking about it as they got creative, this was also a good time to talk about shapes and colours.








I used a similar craft idea about 6 months ago when we learned about the Tower of Babel.

Some of the children's finished masterpieces!

Complete with cotton wool clouds :)