Thursday 29 November 2012

Nativity Blocks



Got this idea from Pinterest where several people have made lovely nativity block sets with stickers and varnish. I thought it would be nice to paint some, turned out ok for an attempt but I need new paintbrushes I think! (The blocks are cheap store replicas of jenga blocks, bought from a charity shop)

Wednesday 21 November 2012

God's Love Storybook iPad app

I've just downloaded this iPad app that is on sale for Thanksgiving at 69p /  99c. It is called God's Love A Bible Storybook and is available from iTunes
I haven't had a change to have a thorough look but looks like it will be very useful.

The organisation who have created it are called Positive Action for Christ and they have some accompanying resources on their website.

Monday 19 November 2012

Prayer and Worship (@ Christmas)

These were from a session last year that was around christmas time, but we had planned to do a session on prayer and worship but decided that it was appropriate to make the connection between the two.

These were the available exploration/ play resources
Nativity set with book, initially presented with no baby. To pose the question, ahh we need a baby at christmas and aid discussion about Jesus. And this worked very well, pointed out missing baby by three year old.
Sung/ musical/ dance worship, the cards are Mary's song presented with a visual image for each sentence.
People who came to worship Jesus when he was born. Play dough making the people  who came to visit Jesus (apparently there were a lot of snails who visited Jesus who knew)
Prayer is communication: Walkie talkies, a two way baby monitor (other half in another room, had to be found) mobile phone. And a basket of resources to make cup and string phones.
We need to look out for how God is speaking to us and it's no always words: No talking signs - children acted out the cards for friends to guess
Worship God/ Human creation: cards with images of people e.g. concert, church, football match children sorted into which they thought were worshiping God. This led to some interesting discussions about us not knowing what was going on inside people heads e.g. the concert the people may look like they are worshiping the band they may be singing christian songs to God, the church they looked like they were singing to God but they may not care. A really useful activity.
We hear from God through his word, Bible story books.
Sometimes we go in our room and quietly talk to God, a tent to do so on our own.
Free craft, with range of resources.

Saturday 17 November 2012

Going to Bethlehem, Signed Story

 I posted about this book in a previous post last, year but thought I would show you pictures of all the pages. I signed the key words in addition to these but don't have pictures of all of those. I also had a toy resembling each of the key transportation items. The repetitive script made it great for the children to join in.










The signs and symbols were from the Makaton site, but edited into this format by me using images. Makaton regularly updates free downloads, check it out. The pictures are from kizclub which has brilliant printable props for popular stories, these are for we all go travelling by . I also made colouring books of this which were good for a few children and will probably create these for carol service packs.

Saturday 10 November 2012

Makaton Christmas Story Cards

Makaton is a language programme using signs and symbols to help people to communicate.  It is designed to support spoken language and the signs and symbols are used with speech, in spoken word order. 

The signs and symbols were from the Makaton site, but edited into this format by me using images. Makaton regularly updates free downloads, check it out.

I created two sets, one with children doing nativity play or cartoon images.