Back to school this year is different than any other year. This graphic has been making its way around social media, and provides some useful and encouraging ways to help children process their fears, anxieties, and hopes, and pray about them.
Tag: Schools
Leavers’ Service
The Youth and Children team have worked with the Schools team to create a leavers’ service that can be done virtually, or with some children at school and some at home. It requires no physical contact and no sharing of resources. It’s designed to have different building blocks, appropriate for years 2, 4, 6, and 8, so you can use it for transitions to junior, middle, secondary, or high school.
You can download it here:
Road and Journey Pictures
Here is a selection of photographs of roads or journeys, which can be used by schools during the online/partly-in-person leavers’ service during the “may the road rise to meet you” blessing, as suggested. They are all taken by Margaret, our Children’s Mission Enabler, and she gives full permission for their use in worship in schools and churches.
The Knitted Bible!
Today I visited The Knitted Bible in its latest host site of Hampstead Parish Church. While St. Albans Diocese has an impressive fondness for knitted Bible stories – our cathedral’s large knitted Nativity, the smaller knitted Nativity and Noah’s Ark available to borrow from our Resource Centre, and many other knitted Bible sets around the Diocese – this goes beyond even our impressive yarn-based Biblical efforts.
It consists of around 35 scenes, from Creation to Jesus’s breakfast on the beach after his resurrection, each painstakingly re-created in yarn and stuffing, often with ingenious sets made of everything from kitchen roll to upside-down flower pots. (Please note: it does include the sacrifice of Isaac, without a huge amount of material provided about that story apart from “God wanted to see if Abraham would obey,” which is a simplistic reading that can be damaging to children’s ideas of God, and scary for them. Rabbis I have spoken with tend to interpret that story more as Abraham misunderstanding God, thinking God wants human sacrifice like the pagan gods of the time, and God stopping Abraham, clarifying he does not require human sacrifice. You may want to remove this scene from your display or provide additional material to give it context.)
The Knitted Bible was created in 2008 by over 40 people at St. George’s URC in Hartlepool. It is available for churches to borrow without charge – however, it’s booked up very far in advance. If you’re interested in borrowing it for your church in late 2021 or even 2022, contact information can be found here.
While that may seem far away, it’s definitely worth considering if this is something you might be interested in doing. I spoke with the stewards on site, the church’s administrator, and with the Rev. Jeremy Fletcher, Vicar of Hampstead. The stewards and the administrator told me they’ve received a marked increase in foot traffic in the church over the ten days the Knitted Bible has been in situ. The stewards said it’s been a wonderful point of engagement with the local community – the church school has brought several classes to visit, it’s been out during worship for people to look at and explore, and people of all ages have engaged with it.
Rev. Jeremy said, “lots of people have told me they expected to be charmed by it. And that they were surprised to find that they were both charmed and moved by it.” He suspects a lot of what’s so moving about it is the detail. Every person and animal is an individual, and has their own story to tell, and little details in the setup – from a steward in the act of pouring wine at the Wedding at Cana to the little foil tip on a Roman soldier’s spear – draw the viewer in and inspire wondering and imagination.
Visiting the Knitted Bible could serve as a springboard for follow-up activities as well, in schools, or church children’s/mixed age groups, such as:
- Make your own 3-d versions of Bible stories and display them alongside the knitted ones.
- Choose a character from one of the scenes and write the story from their point of view.
- Put together an assembly, or a presentation to the congregation, about your visit and/or one of the stories.
Here are some more photos. Maybe you’ll be inspired and create a knitted Bible – or at least a few scenes – of your own!
HEBREW SCRIPTURES:
LIFE OF JESUS:
Creation/Harvest Story Bag
We now have a Creation/Harvest Story Bag for our Resource Centre – churches can borrow it for Junior Church, Messy Church, assemblies, clubs, All-Age Worship, or anything else. The Resource Centre is open at Holywell Lodge, in St. Albans, from 9-5, Monday to Friday – however, if you can’t get down here, let me know and we’ll send out an APB to the staff to find someone who’s driving your way and can deliver the item.
The story bag contains:
Bible stories and non-fiction books related to the story of Creation and the themes of Harvest Festival
Toys to help explore the six days of creation – a light-up sun for “let there be light,” fish and birds, green growing things, animals, and people!
A toy farm to help connect with Harvest Festival and thank God for the earth and all that sustains us.
You can have the bag available for free play, base your entire programme around using it, or anything in between. The games included can be played according to the rules, or they can simply be used to play and build. It’s designed to be as flexible as possible.
The bag will be available to borrow within the next few days. We also have story bags for Pentecost, Easter, Christmas, Water stories, Shepherds, and more – as well as a great variety of Godly Play stories, books, and other materials.
Prayer Board for under-5s
This is an idea I got from Ann Sharp, the Early Years Advisor for Chelmsford Diocese. It can be used in Toddler Group worship, in the creche on Sundays – and, with a few “special occasion” additions, at baptisms and weddings with little children present.
Toddlers and little ones may have little patience for sitting still and listening to wordy prayers. Using pictures and movement, we can help them connect to God through prayer in a way that works with natural toddler-ness instead of against it.
Ann also pointed out that toddlers love choosing things, and they love sticking things onto boards with velcro. And the ones are are in Nursery or Reception are probably doing lots of this during the week, so they already know how it works!
I made one myself, in less than an hour and a half from start to finish. I only had to buy the foamboard and velcro, so it cost me less than £10 to get the materials. Many churches will have much of this stuff already in situ.
You will need: a laminator, laminating pouches, a colour printer, A2 foamboard, velcro (I used strips, to cut to size), scissors, Pritt stick.
I decided to use “LET US PRAY” as the centre image, to help teach them the language we use in church every week. You could use “PRAYER BOARD” or “TIME TO TALK TO GOD” or any number of things. I flanked the LET US PRAY image with a group of children and an image of the Holy Spirit.
I used Google for images (See Educational exception to copyright law here).
Then I chose the images for the prayers themselves. I decided on:
- A church (I used a picture of our own church, which the children would recognise)
- A family (I might replace the image I used with one that includes grandparents)
- A group of children playing (I deliberately chose one with children of different ethnicities)
- A child looking sad.
- A child holding a pet.
- The earth.
- A row of houses (I used a street in our parish – check local estate agents’ websites)
- A child in bed with a thermometer in their mouth and a teddy bear.
- A gravestone with flowers on it.
For each image, I came up with one or two sentences to go with it:
- We pray for our church, St. George’s. Help us to know you here and everywhere.
- We pray for our families. Help us to take care of each other.
- We pray for our friends and teachers and schools and nurseries and toddler groups.
- Help everyone who is sad or lonely or scared.
- We pray for our pets and all the animals.
- We pray for everything in the whole wide world and universe.
- We pray for our homes. Make them places where everyone is safe and loved.
- We pray for everyone who is ill or feeling poorly.
- We pray for people and animals who have died. We miss them even though we know they are safe in heaven with you.
I printed out the images and prayers, cut them out, and stuck the prayers on the back of each image. Then I laminated everything and cut it out again.
I stuck the central images to the foamboard with Pritt stick, and cut velcro to size in several rows around it (checking with some of the bigger images that there was space between rows)
This is another reason why strips of velcro might be better than dots – they’re bigger! Very small children might not have the hand-eye coordination to match up small dots of velcro.
When this was done, I stuck the other side of the velcro to the backs of the laminated images, and we were done!
How to use it: I’m planning to put all the images in a drawstring bag, and bring it out with “I wonder what’s in here … !” Under-5s love seeing what’s in the bag/box/etc. They can then choose one to put up, hand it to the leader, who reads the prayer on the back, and hands it back to the child to put on the board. Your group may not have the attention span for all nine prayers every time, so you may only have four or five per session. That’s fine!
If you use the same closing words every time, such as “Lord, in your mercy / Hear our prayer,” you may want to add those to your board.
This could also be something an older group of children/teenagers could make for your younger group.
Gifts of the Spirit prayers
I did this with Diocesan staff yesterday, with the idea that it could easily work with children’s groups.
Because it requires an understanding of abstract ideas and metaphor, it probably would work best with kids age 7 and up – into adolescence. It could also be used in All-Age Worship, if you could think of a way to include the tinies.
You will need: a picture of a dove, coloured strips of paper, markers.
One of the readings for our service was 1 Corinthians 12:3-13.
So, using the “gifts of the Spirit” as my inspiration, I drew an outline of a dove on some A1 easel paper and put it in the middle of our worship space. Then, to begin our prayer time, I read the following:
“God, you are three in one, and through your Spirit you have poured on all your people an abundance and diversity of gifts. Help us to know your Spirit, brooding over the world as a mother bird over her children, nurturing and inspiring, encouraging and guiding.”
Then I explained: for each question, if you would like to, you may write a response, using as few or as many of your papers as you would like. As I read the closing prayer, you may bring up your responses and place them around the image of the Spirit – perhaps as feathers, or as flames, or simply as prayers left before God. If you would like to keep your prayer private, you may fold your paper over, and I ask that everyone respects that privacy.
I read each of these questions and waited in silence until I could only hear 1 or 2 markers still scratching, before saying “Lord, in your mercy …”
What gifts are you thankful for from others today?
Lord, in your mercy …
All: hear our prayer
What gifts do the church, and the world, need today?
Lord, in your mercy …
All: hear our prayer
What gifts do your friends, family, and community need today?
Lord, in your mercy …
All: hear our prayer
What gifts do you have that you can use in your work and personal life today?
Lord, in your mercy …
All: hear our prayer
What gifts would you ask the Spirit to help you make more of?
Lord, in your mercy …
All: hear our prayer
Then I reminded everyone they could bring their prayers forward as I read the following, slightly adapted from Teresa of Avila’s famous prayer:
Christ has no body now but ours. No hands, no feet on earth but ours. Ours are the eyes through which he looks compassion on this world. Ours are the feet with which he walks to do good. Ours are the hands through which he blesses all the world. Ours are the hands, ours are the feet, ours are the eyes, we are his body. Christ has no body now on earth but ours.
The dove, with all our prayers, remained there in the middle of our circle as we celebrated communion.
You could easily incorporate music into this prayer idea.
Worth 1000 words …
Often, a visual focus can help children engage in worship, or can illustrate an idea or a story. Below are some pictures that might be useful for your groups – all were taken by me, so you’re free to save and use them however you’d like. All I ask is that you credit me (Margaret Pritchard Houston) and if you use them at an event you’re charging admission for, to get in touch and ask about fees (email me). But you can use them without payment for worship, Messy Church, Junior Church, etc.
I’ve included some suggested topics, but feel free to use them for other ideas as well!
To download an image, click on it to view it full size, then right-click and choose “save image as …”
Here are a few from my “journey” folder.
These could be used for All Souls or for other events looking at death and resurrection.
Here are some on “light”:
Some photos of the natural world that could be used for any number of things:
And a few random bits and bobs – ashes, home, water, sheep, etc:
Hope these are useful – and I’d love to hear about the creative ways you use them.
Stained glass that works!
There are so many ways NOT to do a stained glass window craft, and I’ve probably tried them all.
Black paper and tissue can work, but it means designs end up being abstract, with no opportunity for children to play with symbols and images.
Trying to draw and cut silhouettes requires a lot of practice – children don’t easily grasp the concept that the details you draw on your silhouette won’t show up in the window.
However, after much trial and error, I’ve now finally found a way to create the translucent effect in a user-friendly format.
You will need:
- Wax paper (available from Amazon). Please note, this is NOT the same as baking parchment.
- Sharpie pens.
- Ideally, a laminator.
If you don’t have a laminator, you can make frames for the windows out of stiff card – but this is probably more labour-intensive.
Simply cut the wax paper to the size and shape required, and let the children loose with the Sharpies. When they’re done, allow the work to dry fully before laminating.
Notes:
- Some Sharpies are permanent. Roll up sleeves, use aprons, etc., if needed to protect clothing.
- The laminator should be used on a fairly low setting – I did a test piece with my own drawing to make sure the laminator didn’t melt the wax and destroy the work, but I can’t promise this wouldn’t have happened on the top heat setting.
Bible Basics!
Here are the slides for the Bible Basics session at Great Barford Lower School on 4th September:
And here are the “lesson ideas” from the longer full-day presentation, in case anyone wants them:
The Busted Halo videos are all here.
And click here for the link to the free “Books of the Bible” poster.
If you would like the script for “The Big Story,” please email cme@stalbans.anglican.org .
Children's Ministry in St Albans Diocese 