Children's Activities
Explore & respond with children
Do, Make, Pray and Sing activities based on Galatians 3.23-29
Choose from these ideas to help the children make connections between the Bible reading and their lives
Do
I need a team of…
Play a game that involves sharing identities
You will need: three or more sets of items to represent different people, e.g. aprons, football shirts, school ties/jumpers, swimming goggles, toothbrushes/toothpaste, sponges.
- Put all the items in a bin liner and place it in the centre of the room.
- Divide the children into teams of three and ask the teams to stand around the edge of the room.
- Explain that you are going to say, ‘I need a team of…’ and then one of the following: chefs, footballers, schoolchildren, swimmers, dentists, window cleaners. When announced, one member of each team runs to the bag, finds as many appropriate items as they can, e.g. aprons for chefs, runs back and hands them out to their teammates.
- Allocate points for each item, return them to the bag and
play again.
Sticky style
Think about our identity as Christians
You will need: sticky notes and pens.
- Divide the group into two teams and give each team a different coloured pad of sticky notes.
- Give the children two minutes to write words on their sticky notes to describe what Christians are like, then stick the notes on a wall or the floor, covering as big an area as possible.
- The winners will be the team with the best coverage.
Dissolving boundaries 5 mins W E
An experiment to symbolise being an open community
You will need: plastic cups or mugs of different sizes and colours, one per child, water, a tube of effervescent Vitamin C tablets (available from chemists), a large jug.
- Let everyone choose a mug and fill them up with water.
- Give each child a Vitamin C tablet and invite them to drop it into their mug, watching as the water changes.
- Explain that although we are all individuals, our faith in Christ dissolves the things that might separate us and allows us to come together as one.
- Encourage them to pour the water from their mugs into the jug as a symbol of the church community we all belong to.
Make
A Christ-like community
Create your own paper community
You will need: strips of paper (divide A4 paper in half lengthways), one per child, pencils, scissors, paper doll pattern sheet, a large sheet of coloured paper, a marker pen.
- Demonstrate how to do this first, helping younger children where necessary. Fold the paper strip into eight equal sections, using a fan pleat (for equal sections, fold the paper in half first, then quarters, before unfolding and pleating as a fan).
- With the folded sides on the left, draw half a figure (see sheet for ideas), ensuring the arm reaches the edge of the paper.
- Carefully cut around the doll outline, and unfold to reveal a chain of four dolls. Invite the children to draw faces and clothes onto their paper people (see prayer activity below).
- Once they are finished, stick all the people on the large sheet of paper in a long row and write underneath ‘CLOTHED IN CHRIST’ with a marker pen. Display the poster.
Pray
Paper people
Pray for members of your church congregation
You will need: paper doll chains (see above), a jar of buttons, shells or beads, quiet worship music.
- Invite the children to sit in a circle and lay their paper people chains on the floor. Place the jar next to them.
- Play the music and invite them to imagine that one of the paper people is someone in church. Encourage them to select an object from the jar, place it on the paper person they’ve chosen and pray for that person for a few moments.
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