Salt and Light

The church went away for a long weekend to a big house by the sea. The adults had some time together each day for teaching and discussion on Matthew 5, whilst children and youth broke away for their own related sessions. The children were  fortunate to have a wonderful space for their sessions, and I wish I had have got a photo of the whole room (shame about the busy carpet). The other fortunate thing was it was situated next to the main meeting/ communal space so was utilised  at all times and the children independently accessed the play space over and over and the craft supplies were used constantly to make a range of things, related to the stories and also to make boats to sail on the pond! Which brought up lots of boat, bible story discussions (we have been doing those in children's church, so good to act it out in reality)

 

First sessions we looked at the Salt and light passages (Matt 5:13-16) We started the session hiding glow sticks in a darkened room and children finding them. The children LOVED this but a huge mistake to do this at a beginning of the session, who knew just what an exciting activity this was for children but cue VERY lively children who were already excited to be at the seaside!!!!!
And it was a good activity (for the end of a session!)

Here are the rest of the activities we had available relating to Salt and light (some of these were left for the course of the weekend)

Projector with a clear tray of salt to draw images on that would project onto ceiling - this was great shame aboutI didn't get any photos. The other warning on this one is needs to be done near windows as there was a lot of fine salt dust coming off this!!

Dark Den with light up toys and glow sticks

I came in to find this note written by one of the children, who had removed all the light toys leaving a dark empty space (we later talked about a world without Jesus, being like the darkness)

Ingredients for making play dough (which was supposed to be black, we used a whole tube of colouring!!!)

This is an eye shape about use Looking for the light/ seeing the light!

We had a glitter fest, the glitter was supposed to symbolise the light in the darkness of the play dough.

One child asked why we had glitter and I started to say that it was like the light, and one of the children said because I think it means Christians are supposed to sparkle!!!

One of the children asked to make a world, so we made some green and blue play dough...

And some people out of pipe cleaners, they were going to be lighting up the world! On the top there is a massive gem, I enquired what that was thinking it may be profound and it was (in a different way to what I was thinking) Thats where Father Christmas lives!!!! Oh I love children!

Salt dough for making  holders.

Candle holders in the process

Light houses (paper cups with electrical tape, and a battery operated candle) I love the variations and individual twists! The man on top of the white and green one is Jesus, and the words on the top say "Jesus Light of the World"

 Salt and Ice painting. I froze bowls of ice and provided salt to sprinkle on and food colouring. When you sprinkle the ice it cracks and melts and when you pain it the food colouring spreads into the cracks making beautiful patterns...until you use the salt to attempt to melt the ice then you have lots of fun, a mess, wet floor and a good understanding of the power of salt.

For snack we made pop corn and had salt and shake crisps, first we tried without salt and then added salt, everyone decided they preferred it with salt! I will post tomorrow about our general conclusions about salt and light and what we thought Jesus meant by being salt and light in the world!

Jesus Calms the Storm (Under the Sea)

We have come to the end of our "under the sea" theme of junior/ children's church. It has been a really engaging theme and all children seemed to enjoy, and certainly was a fun theme to plan for stories and activities. (I may do a recap in the week)

So today we did Jesus Calms the Storm, and here is a run down of the activities/ areas available. 

We try to be as inclusive as possible and offer opportunities for all children what ever their needs/ learning styles are (choosing activities to meet the needs of those attending or may attend). So today we set up a sea themed sensory room complete with sea ambient music (iPhone app) 

fish bubble tube, fibre optics

 fibre optics and amazing water beads lamp (jelly fish)

 You can't really tell from the picture, but their is a survival blanket, lametta, on chiffon. The wall has fish projected

 Musical instruments, an old OHP to project story creations on wall (this was really popular but only on when being used as it took away from the dark and light element of the room as the lamp so bright)

As I said we try to be as inclusive as possible and so have an electronic visual timetable (they zoom away as we do each element) We may be changing symbols soon as different  of children are used to different symbols and no one is reliant on a particular symbol set, I have created a church visual timetable that others will be able to use if they don't have access to one. If individuals need an individual visual timetable I would arrange this with appropriate symbols. (I find the timetable invaluable) 

This is part of the room with net and "sea" hanging down!

 Bunting - Like sails!

 A boat to create- they LOVED this and so simple

 Boat biscuit decorating

 Storm shakers

 Tornado bottles

Storm bottles (You'll notice the cards, an idea I pinched from Dapto Messy Church - We'd been using something similar but I copied their format, thank you) It is useful for the leaders of each station to have something to think about/ prompt discussion at each stations (most of our station leaders are amazing youth and may not use the prompts but there if needed)

In Action:

The projector used to make a story - this whilst unrelated to the story was about the birth of Jesus!!!

The sensory room awaiting tidying!!

 A whole bunch of biscuits and bottles

A boat made from giant jenga (not a planned activity, but a couple of the children ground the bricks and did this in their own!!!) Amazing!!!!

Sail bunting

Strom drawing after the story

A storm in the ocean!

 A finished boat, I wish I'd taken pics of the amazing details of drawing on sides

We told the story using a parachute! (I'll put more details up tomorrow) 

Rainbow Dance Ribbons

 Thought I'd share a great buy I got in Poundland ! Rainbow dance ribbons which are incredibly light making the smallest movement very visually effective! (But does mean may be a little prone to fraying im going to nail varnish end) We are enjoying using them in sung worship times, the only issue is with them being so light they get tangled a bit more easily! But when in movement are beautiful!1

I'm going to provide hair scrunchies to support holding for any one who has limited grip.