by Jay Thomas | Fri, May, 2015 | Children's Resources
Below is a collection of summer crafts and activities suitable for children’s clubs and Sunday Schools. Craft: CD Weaving What You Need: Old CDs, scrap yarn, scissors, and if you want to make the flexible needles, plastic lids, and a hole punch. To make the needles, cut the rim off the plastic lid. Cut the remaining flat circle of plastic into pie shaped pieces, then round the top edge. Punch a hole in the rounded end to make the eye of the needle. Trim if needed. You can prepare the CD looms in advance if you like. To Warp the CD: The warp yarn is between 4 and 6 feet long. Tie it to the CD by putting one end through the centre hole and knotting it to itself on the back. Turn the CD over to the front, pulling the thread through the centre and wrapping around the CD, creating the spokes. Make sure the warp threads are pretty tight! It’s IMPORTANT to have the warp threads be an UNEVEN number. It’s easy to check this by pushing the spokes together in pairs, making sure your last one is a SINGLE… The total number of warp threads can vary, as long as it’s an uneven number. The fewer spokes, the faster it is to weave, but the looser the weaving will be, especially out near the edge. Knot the last thread on the back of the CD by tying it to the first thread. Then spread out the warp threads evenly on the front. Now you’re ready to weave! Choose your first yarn. It will be the centre...
by Jay Thomas | Fri, Mar, 2015 | Children's Resources
Children’s Session – Who is this Jesus? This session helps young people think about the different metaphors that are often applied to Jesus. Introductory Activities Guess Who Game – Ask as many questions as it takes to guess the face Who am I Post-it Note Game Write the name of a famous person or character on a sticky note for each child. Characters can be dead or alive, fictional or non-fictional, real or “cartoon”. Making sure that the player can’t see it, stick the note to their forehead. When everyone is named players mingle and walk around the room asking the sort of questions that can be answered by “yes”, “no” and “not applicable” to try to work out who they are. Cracker Challenge How many Crackers can the children eat without having a drink of water? What does it feel like to be thirsty? What does it feel like to have your thirst quenched? “but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14 Snack: Chocolate pastries and juice Main Activities Game: Wrap a Leader Split the group into teams and assign a leader for each team. Provide wrapping paper, ribbon and tape. The first team to wrap the leader up the quickest and prettiest wins. Make sure they can breathe and make sure they person being wrapped up is comfortable with this. Game: Am I telling the Truth The leader will read out five statements about themselves and the children have to decide whether you are telling...
by Jay Thomas | Thu, Mar, 2015 | Children's Resources
Children’s Session – Palm Sunday Introductory Activities Famous Faces Quiz Can the children and young people guess which famous celebrities are in each mash-up. Quiz Powerpoint: Famous Faces Pin the tail on the donkey Available from Amazon Lotus Party Game – Pin The Tail On The Donkey – 12 Player Palm Branches Children will make their own palm branches that they can take into the service with them. You will need a piece of green construction paper, scissors and tape. Cut your construction paper in ½ inch strips about half way down the length of the paper. Roll uncut end of paper into a tube and tape. Fluff top pieces of paper where you cut into strips to create palm branch. Palm Sunday Worksheets Palm-Sunday-Coloring-Page Newspaper Front Page Wordsearch Main Activities Palm Sunday Relay Race Break the children into two teams. Each team are given a stick donkey, 3 cardboard palm branches and a t-shirt card template. This is a race but when the children are riding the donkey they can only step on the branches or t-shirt template on the ground. To get up and down they will need another member of the group to move the branches/t-shirt after they’ve been stood on. The winning team will be the first with each member to race to the top of the hall and back Palm Sunday Video Invite children and young people to wonder using such statements as : I wonder why it is called Palm Sunday I wonder what the people were feeling as Jesus rode into Jerusalem I wonder what you would have said to Jesus I wonder how Jesus felt with all...
by Jay Thomas | Sat, Oct, 2014 | Children's Resources
Children’s Session Prayer Prayer Collage In the week before this activity collect a variety of local newspapers. Organize your class into twos and threes and give each group a different local newspaper. Have the groups look through the newspapers for stories of people they would like to pray for. It’s not hard to find people who have been victims of different crimes, are facing challenges, or would benefit from prayer in some way. Have them create a collage of newspaper stories, with short prayers for the people they want to pray for written on the collage. Feelings Prayer Game Game Board: feelings prayer game Dots and Squares Prayer Game You will need: A piece of paper, pens or pencils (each player should have a different colour) Draw some dots in lines and columns on the paper The example below has 10 rows of 7 dots. Each player takes it in turns to draw a line between two of the dots. Eventually, you will be able to close up boxes. Whoever draws the line that closes the box can write or draw inside the box… Someone’s name- ask God to bless them and help them Something that you want to thank God for Something you would like to ask God for Take time to say the prayer out loud or in your head, then carry on! The winner is the player who has filled the most boxes by the end of the game. Worksheets Directions Prayer Maze Prayer Wordsearch Popcorn Challenge To start off have the kids stand in two straight lines, facing each other. The kids will be paired up in...
by Jay Thomas | Thu, Oct, 2014 | Children's Resources
Children’s Session: Light of the World Matthew 5:14 ‘You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.’ Indoor Fireworks Use some indoor fireworks to introduce the theme of light. Set up a table and use a non-flammable surface such as a baking tray to put the fireworks on. Safety is paramount so remember to keep children at a safe distance and use a well-ventilated space. You can read a review of indoor fireworks here. Video: Night and Day Craft: Salt Dough Sun Catchers Begin by mixing together the flour, salt and water to make the salt dough (2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water). Roll out dough and make shapes using large star shaped cookie cutter. Use the smaller star cookie cutter on the centre of the cut out shapes. Remove the dough from the middle. Using a toothpick or skewer make a small hole in the top of the star. Using a spatula careful lift each star onto a cooking tray covered with parchment paper. Have the children fill the middle of the stars with the transparent beads. Try to make sure that there are no spaces left between the beads. Depending on time children can take their finished sun catchers home with instructions to bake. Loosely cover with tinfoil and bake at 375 degrees F for approximately 1- 1.5 hours or until the beads are melted together. Remember oven temperatures can vary it may take a longer or shorter amount of time. The salt dough will turn a light to dark brown colour. Let cool completely. Game: Sun, Moon,...
by Jay Thomas | Thu, Oct, 2014 | Children's Resources
Children’s Session Remembrance Day Worksheets Remembrance Day Wordsearch Remembrance Day Word Scramble Game: Poppy Relay You will need: large petal shapes from red paper/cardboard and a large centre from black paper, blu-tac. This is a game that can help introduce the theme of remembrance and gives the opportunity to build things by working together. Split the children into relay teams to build up a poppy on the wall. Don’t explain that the black centre needs to be put on last. After they are finished see how they got in. Was the centre placed on last? If so it will cover the rough edges of the petals in the middle. Video: The Poppy Story http://www.childrenandyouth.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/The-Poppy-Story-First-Level-Up.mp4 Was there anything in the video story that you hadn’t heard before? Why do we wear poppies? Why is it important to remember events of the past? Why do we maintain a minutes silence at Remembrance Day? Poppy Craft (Older Children) You need 2 pieces of cardboard for this project. One for the background and one for the poppy. Trace a poppy shape on the cardboard and cut out. Starting on the outside of one of the petals spread some tacky glue and start laying down the wool. For this project the tacky glue is the best, it holds down the yarn immediately whereas PVA glue may not stick at first and gets soaked up in the wool. Now you can add different shades of yarn in the poppy to add depth. You can also add some black yarn in bits and pieces as well. For the centre first paint it black and then add...
by Jay Thomas | Tue, May, 2014 | Children's Resources
Children’s Session Pentecost – Acts 2: 1-21 Introductory Activities Balloon Races This is a fun and quick game – basically you tape a balloon to a straw on a string and watch it fly! It can also be set up as a race between to balloons. Set up two chairs on either side of your hall or room. Tie the string to one of the chairs and thread the thread through the straw before attaching the other side to the second chair. Place the tape on the top of the straw. We used white masking tape. Blow up your balloon and either hold the end or secure with a clip. Pull the balloon back to the starting position and release the air from the balloon. Watch them fly to the other end of the hall. Airzooka Get your hands on an Airzooka – available here. Set up some paper cups as targets and have the children see how many they can knock down using the Airzooka. You could experiment with how far away the Airzooka will work. Today’s session is thinking about the power of the wind in the Pentecost story. Wind just like the Holy Spirit can’t be seen but the effects can. In our game the wind forces the cups over and in today’s story the Holy Spirit brings about change and transformation in the lives of the disciples. Game: Blow Football Set up a game of blow football. You could make your own using a table or box and some straws. Alternatively you can purchase the game here. Spinners Trace a circle onto a piece of white corrugated cardboard. Try to get...
by Jay Thomas | Mon, May, 2014 | Children's Resources, Video Resources
A collection of resources for a children’s session looking at the story of Noah. Includes video, worksheets, object lesson, and craft ideas. Worksheets Below is a collection of worksheets: Colouring Sheet: Ark In A Flood Colouring Sheet: Animals Entering Noahs Ark Noah Wordsearch Noah Crossword Easy Noah Crossword Hard Noah Puzzle Colouring Sheet Noah Challenge For this you will need a large bucket placed at the end of a table and two square wooden blocks. Ask for two volunteers to take part in the challenge. The object of the game is for children to push one of the wooden blocks into the bucket. They can only use the tip of their finger and they can’t push or move the bucket. It seems impossible but it can be only achieved by both children working together by pushing their blocks against one another to create enough resistance to lift them in the air and eventually drop the wooden blocks into the bucket. Below is a video example of the challenge Video: Wooden Block Challenge The challenge is all about working together and reminds me of a scene from the film Evan Almighty with Morgan Freeman as God explaining the story of Noah. This is perhaps a film clip that could be used with the children. “God: [posing as a waiter named Al Mighty] I love that story, Noah and the Ark. You know, a lot of people miss the point of that story. They think it’s about God’s wrath and anger. They love it when God gets angry. Joan: What is the story about, then? The ark? God: Well, I think it’s a love...
