This week our focus is the Holy Spirit
Tell the story
Tell the story of Pentecost (Acts 2:1–13)
Activity time
Try these activities and see if you can start guessing what might happen in our story today. If you can’t get exactly these materials, just see what you can find around the house instead!
1. Bunting
You will need: pencil or pen; card; paper or fabric; collage bits and bobs in red, orange and yellow; scissors; glue; string or wool; stapler
Make a triangle template – take a square of card and fold it in half, then cut from the fold to the top corner and open it out. Use this to draw round paper or fabric for as much bunting as you need. Decorate each triangle with coloured scraps and patterns on a fire or flame theme. Staple them to the string and hang up the cheerful finished bunting.
Talk about the exciting, party feel to this time of year, when we celebrate the birthday of the church! Jesus’ first disciples were praying when they saw something like flames above everyone’s heads and knew it was Jesus’ Holy Spirit coming to be with them and fill them up to make them more like Jesus.
2. Paint splatter flames
You will need: drinking straws; runny red, orange and yellow paint; paper; pens; glitter and glue (optional)
Draw a person’s head at the bottom of the paper. Then put a teaspoon of runny paint above the head and blow through the straw so the paint splatters up the paper and makes a flame shape. Add a dollop of a different colour and blow again until your wildfire looks very cool. Add glitter if you want to.
Talk about the first Christians seeing the Holy Spirit of Jesus come to them as ‘something like flames’ resting on each other’s heads, and hearing the sound of a mighty wind in the room where they were praying. What noise did your breath make as you blew down the straw? What do you think God’s breath sounds like?
3. Peace be with you
You will need: the words and actions for ‘hello’ and ‘peace’ in different languages (from ideas.brf.org.uk/speaking-tongues); paper; coloured pens
If you have enough people to divide into two teams, see how many of these words and actions you can learn in five minutes, then ‘test’ the other team and see which team can remember most. Turn the words for peace into a piece of art shaped like a dove – another symbol for the Holy Spirit.
Talk about how amazing it must have been on that first day when the Holy Spirit came, to be able to speak and understand other languages! It have brought people together in a new and different
Thanks to BRF and Messy Church for these ideas
