Ministry-To-Children.com » Crafts

Craft: How to Make a Prayer Cube for Kids

Guest Writer — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 15:51:56 +0000

This is a simple ministry craft idea that will help children learn to pray. Here are the basic supplies, be sure to watch the video demonstration below for full directions. Click here to leave your suggestions for others trying this craft with their children.

small box (gift boxes work well)
clear tape
colored paper

Here are the suggested prayers you can write on each side of the prayer cube. Cullen is working on a printable art pattern for this on her website.

Prayer 1
God is great!
God is good!
And we thank
Him for our
food. Amen!

Prayer 2
Come Lord Jesus
Be our guest
And let thy gifts
To us be blessed. Amen.

Prayer 3
Thank you for the world so sweet.
Thank you for the food we eat.
Thank you for the birds that sing.
Thank you God for everything.
Amen

Prayer 4 (to the tune of Frere Jacques song)
God our Father
God our Father
Bless this food
Bless this food
We are very thankful
We are very thankful
Amen Amen

Prayer 5
Thank you God as this day ends
For our family and our friends
Taking time to sit and pray
Thank you God for this great day! Amen!

Prayer 6
Johnny Appleseed
Oh the Lord is good to me
And so I thank the Lord
For giving me the things I need
like the sun and rain and the apple seed
The Lord is good to me.
Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen A-men.

Pinwheel Craft for Teaching about the Holy Spirit

Amy Brown — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:35:08 +0000

This craft activity is great for a windy, spring day. The children will make a pinwheel to teach them about how God is a spirit. A lesson can be taught, followed by making the craft and the children will finish by playing with their pinwheels outside. Click here to leave your comments or suggestions about this craft idea.

Target Age: 2^nd-5^th grade

Key Verse: John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

Time Needed: 20 minutes for the craft only (The children may spend a long time decorating their pinwheel. The length of craft depends on how detailed your children will want to decorate. You know your children best and can judge how long this craft will take.)

Materials Needed:

One square piece of heavy construction paper per child
One pair of scissors per child
One thumb tack per child
One pencil (with an eraser) per child, preferably brand new
Crayons, colored pencils, and stickers for decorating the pinwheels

Procedure:

Fold the construction paper on the diagonal from corner to corner. Open the paper up and fold on the second diagonal across the other two corners. When the paper is opened flat, the folds make an “X” across the square.
Make one cut along each fold beginning at the corner and cutting toward the center. The cut should stop about halfway toward the center. The cut should not go all the way to the center of the square.
Decorate each section of the square on both sides of the heavy construction paper using the materials provided.
Take every other corner, one at a time and gently pull it up to the center of the square.
When all four corners meet at the center, take the thumb tack and push it through all four corners through the center of the square.
Push the thumb tack through the eraser of the pencil.
Blow on the pinwheel and watch it spin!

Use this craft to teach the children about how we can hear and feel the wind, but we cannot see it. We can see the results of the wind, but we cannot see the wind itself. Relate this to God. We can hear His voice through His Word and feel His peace, comfort, joy, etc. We cannot see Him, but we can see the results of His work.

Tips:

I recommend using a square which is 6 inches or smaller in diameter. You want the length from one corner to the center of the square to be shorter than the pencil.
The thicker the paper you choose to use, the more sturdy the pinwheel will be. Thick paper will better withstand to the wind and blowing by a child.
Do not push the thumb tack all the way through the pencil eraser causing the pinwheel to attach tightly to the pencil. If pushed in too tightly the pinwheel will not turn.
Here is another website we found with helpful illustrations of folding the pinwheel.

Big Picture Bible Mural Art Project

Amy Brown — Sat, 14 May 2011 11:32:07 +0000

Every week we are diligent to teach our children stories from the Bible and lessons about the character of God, but how often do we step back and put these lessons into the context of the whole Bible? As a child I was regularly taught from the Bible both at church and at home; it was not until I attended a Christian university while taking Bible courses did I start to understand the Bible as one continuous story.

This Bible timeline activity for kids can be spread over several weeks and be completed as a multi-step project to involve all school-aged children in your church. The craft project can be adapted to fit the size of your church and how many children attend on a typical Sunday.

The following pictures are a mini-version created on poster board to demonstrate the idea. Please leave a comment to let us know what you think. If you use this idea in your ministry, we’d love to see your pictures too. Just upload them to our Facebook page.

Click here to see a larger version of this picture.

Click above to see a larger version of this picture.

Age Appropriate: K-5

Activity Objective: The children will create a mural to help them see how familiar Bible stories fit into the context of the greater biblical narrative.

Materials Needed:

White drawing paper
Copies of chosen coloring pages
Variety of colored construction paper to use as backing/matting for the drawing and coloring pages (at least 31 total sheets needed)
Butcher/Bulletin Board paper of any color, cut into 12 pieces to be hung vertically on the wall
Markers
Crayons
Colored pencils
Glue

Activity Set Up:

Assign one or more sections of the biblical narrative to each grade level: Creation, Fall, Promise, Exodus, Judges, Kings, Exile, Return, Silence, Jesus, Early Church, End Times
Each grade level/group will be given a length of butcher/bulletin board paper. The group will write the title of their biblical narrative section at the top of the paper as a heading for when their butcher/bulletin board paper hangs vertically on the wall for display.
Assign a Bible story to each child or a small group of children within the topic of their section:

Creation- each day is a separate “story”
Fall-Adam and Eve’s temptation
Promise- Abraham, Noah, Joseph
Exodus- Plagues, Parting of Red Sea, 10 Commandments, Wanderings, Joshua and the Promised Land
Judges- Ruth
Kings- David and Goliath, David and Saul, Solomon builds the temple
Exile- Esther, Daniel
Return
Silence- 400 years
Jesus- Birth, Miracles, Death, Resurrection
Early Church- Paul’s conversion, missionary journey, Paul writes letters to churches
End Times- John’s vision in Revelation

Activity Plan of Action:

Pass out coloring pages which correspond to the child’s assigned story. If no appropriate coloring page can be found, then pass out a blank drawing page for the child to recreate the story on paper. Every paper should include a key verse from the assigned story. The stories for which you have coloring pages should be assigned to the younger children and the stories which need to be drawn from scratch should be assigned to the older children.
Once finished with their coloring page or drawing, the child will glue it to a piece of colored construction paper to mat it.
The coloring/drawing pages will then be glued to their corresponding biblical narrative section butcher/bulletin board paper in the order the stories happened.
Once all biblical narrative section butcher/bulletin board papers are complete, they will be hung side by side on a wall in the church in order of the biblical narrative. This will be your children’s department Big Picture Bible mural!
Use this mural to walk/teach your children through the entire story of the Bible. The mural becomes a visual tool to see where the familiar isolated Bible stories fit into the big picture of God’s story. This mural can also be used to show how all events of the Bible point to Christ. This mural can be displayed for an extended period of time to use as a teaching tool in future weeks. You may even find this mural beneficial for the adults in your church as they, too, can observe how the story of the entire Bible fits together.

Tips:

With this activity, you can create multi-grade level groups where children of all grade levels work together on one of the biblical narrative sections.
Make sure to have the corresponding Bible passages ready with the assigned stories, so the children can reread their Bible story as they color/draw their page for the mural. This will be essential for the stories where the children need to draw from scratch.
The Ministry to Children website includes free coloring pages for the Days of Creation, Joseph, Moses and the 10 Commandments, David, Jesus’ Birth, and Jesus’ Resurrection.
For homeschoolers, you might use the poster board version like pictured above.

Craft Idea for Teacher Appreciation

Tony Kummer — Thu, 12 May 2011 02:21:32 +0000

This is a craft idea we used recently in our children’s ministry. We had the children paint their hand-prints on resume paper alongside their name. Once the paint dried, we helped the kids write encouraging notes for their teachers. You can also watch this teacher appreciation craft on our YouTube channel.

Supplies Needed

Non-Toxic paint
resume paper
paper plates
paper towels and wet wipes
markers
buckets for cleaning hands
at least two adult workers

The idea behind this craft is to help children show appreciation for their school teachers. It could also be used for Sunday School teacher appreciation. Either way, it encourages kids to have respect and honor the adults who serve them through education.

This was actually very similar to a project we did last year when we painted children’s hand-prints on the wall. We have added several new kids to the ministry and wanted to include them on the wall mural. Last year we used the paper prints for mother’s day, but this year we decided to use them for encourage their school teachers.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this craft project. Please leave a comment below. You can also upload pictures to our Facebook page if you decide to try this appreciation craft in your ministry.

Easter Craft: The Empty Tomb

Mimi Bullock — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 14:34:13 +0000

The Empty Tomb Easter Craft

Jesus is alive! Show kids the wonder of the resurrection message by leading them with the empty tomb craft. There are lots of good ones out there but this one is my favorite. You’ll need some prep time for cutting out tombs so give yourself time before class.

Cut paper plates in half. Foam plates won’t work. Place a half paper plate in front of you with the flat side facing down. Use a saucer as a guide for the arc you’ll need at the base. This will be the opening of the tomb. With a pencil, outline half the saucer on to the paper plate. Cut the piece out with scissors. You’ll need one tomb for each child.

In the example picture below, you can cut slightly less than halfway so the plate will stand on its own. The brown area below would be discarded. Test a few different cut lines to see what works best with your paper plate shape.

When children arrive, give them brown or gray crayons. If small kids want another color, it is okay to let them be creative. Older children can use washable markers. Kids should color the entire tomb brown. Give each child a small picture of Jesus’ face to color. After it is colored, glue it to the back of the tomb. Jesus should be peeking out of the tomb entrance.

We’ve resized one of our Jesus coloring pages to make this cut out template. Click on the preview to the right to download as a printable PDF file. You can also download the jpeg for other editing.

Next, give each child a brown construction paper disk to represent the stone. Show kids how the stone rested on the tomb until the angel moved it. Your kids can take the craft home to demonstrate to their families how the stone was rolled away.

The Lion and the Lamb: A Paper Plate Craft

Amy Brown — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:33:35 +0000

This craft uses simple supplies every children’s ministry probably has on hand. It is used to teach children about how Jesus is both the Lion and the Lamb. It can be spread out over two lessons or be combined into one.

Key Bible Passage: Revelation 5

Appropriate Age: K-5 (The younger the children the longer the craft will take. I recommend separating the lion and the lamb into two Sundays for K-2)

Time Needed: 30 minutes for craft alone depending upon how much the teacher preps ahead of time and how many adults helpers you have.

Materials:

2 paper plates per child
1 piece of yellow construction paper cut into strips
1 piece of white construction paper cut into strips
1 (6×6 inch) square of brown construction paper per child
1 (6×6 inch) square of black construction paper per child
1 scrap piece of yellow construction paper per child
1 scrap piece of white construction paper per child
1 scrap piece of pink construction paper per child
1 Pencil, marker or crayon per child
Crayons (black, blue, white)
Glue
Yarn, cut into 5 inch lengths
Stapler

Instructions for the Lion:

Pass out the strips of yellow construction paper and one marker, pencil, or crayon to each child. Each child will roll the strips of paper one at a time around their marker, pencil, or crayon to make a curl.
Pass out one paper plate and glue to each child. Each child will glue their yellow curls around the edge of the paper plate to make the lion’s mane.
Pass out one brown (6×6 inch) square to each child. Each child will cut a large heart out of their paper to make the face of the lion.
Pass out one scrap of yellow paper to each child. They will use the paper to cut out eyes and a nose for the lion’s face. They will glue the eyes and nose to the lion’s heart shaped face.
Pass out a black crayon to each child. They will use the black crayon to add details to the lion’s eyes and mouth and then glue the lion’s face onto the back of the paper plate.

Instructions for the Lamb:

Pass out the strips of white construction paper and one marker, pencil, or crayon to each child. Each child will roll the strips of paper one at a time around their marker, pencil, or crayon to make a curl.
Pass out the second paper plate and glue to each child. Each child will glue their white curls around the edge of the paper plate to make the lamb’s wool.
Pass out one black (6×6 inch) square to each child. Each child will cut a large heart out of their paper to make the face of the lamb.
Pass out one scrap of white paper and one scrap of pink paper to each child. They will use the white paper to cut out the lamb’s eyes. They will use the pink paper to cut out the lamb’s nose. Then both eyes and the nose will be glued to the lamb’s heart shaped face.
Pass out a blue crayon and white crayon to each child. They will then color blue eyes for the lamb and use the white crayon to draw on the lamb’s mouth.
Finally, the child will glue the lamb’s face onto the back of the paper plate.

Instructions to put it all together:

Give each child a length of yarn to glue or tape to the top of their lion plate or lamb plate.
An adult helper will use a stapler to staple the lion and the lamb plates together so each face is pointing outward.
The lion and the lamb can then be hung from the ceiling of the classroom or taken home with each child to be hung at home.

Tips:

If desired, you could use wiggly eyes and pom-poms for the lion and lamb’s eyes and nose.
Using a pencil or crayon to wrap the strips of paper will make tight curls and using a maker to wrap will make looser curls.
If you choose you may stuff each craft with newspaper before stapling together, but this is not necessary.
I like using a heart shape for the faces as another reminder for the children of how Jesus is love. Even in his kingly rule as the lion and his sacrificial act as the lamb, He is always love.

Folding a Palm Sunday Cross Craft

Tony Kummer — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 16:17:56 +0000

Have you ever seen those little crosses made using real palm fonds and wonder how they did it? This is a tradition in many churches to distribute these to the congregation on Palm Sunday. It’s also a memorable craft for children’s Sunday School.

This is a craft idea we tried once in our children’s church. It took some real patience and was difficult for younger children. An easy alternative for them would be using glue to make the cross shape. Otherwise, here are a few videos that describe this craft idea.

This Palm Frond Cross craft project would work best in older elementary or youth Sunday School. Even a moderate size class could fold enough crosses to hand out after Sunday School to the whole congregation.

Those videos should give you a rough idea of how to process. For printable directions I recommend this webpage. It has easy to follow instructions for folding this Palm frond cross.

Palm Sunday Paper Leaf Craft

Mimi Bullock — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 12:54:23 +0000

Palm Date cultivation on the banks of the "Dead Sea" in Israel.

Easter is more than a holiday—it is the reason for the hope of Christians. Jesus’ death and resurrection is terrible and glorious to those that love him. For kids, Easter is full of conflicting images. Chocolate bunnies, Easter eggs and the cross get jumbled up in the Christian child’s spirit. Teach your holiday lesson with clarity by providing crafts to reinforce this important lesson.

Palm Sunday Leaf Craft

The Easter story is panoramic and includes many people and special places. Sometimes we forget to include Jesus’ entrance into the city on a donkey. The children sang, “Hosanna!” and greeted him with palm leaves. This palm leaf craft is an excellent way to reintroduce children to the kingship of Jesus.

Supplies: Large sheets of green construction paper. Child-safe scissors.

Directions: Before class cut out as many large leaf shapes as you need. Buy the large size construction paper if needed. Make the leaves long and oval shaped. Fold the leaves in half to make the leaf look like a tropical palm. When children arrive, give them safety scissors. Kids use the scissors to cut the edges making the paper look like fronds. Give kids crayons to write “Hosanna” on the leaves.

Smaller children might find it fun to wave the palms at a volunteer pretending to be Jesus. Play the song, “Hosanna” and allow kids to worship by waving their crafts in the area.

Easy Easter Crafts for Busy Teachers

Mimi Bullock — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:46:05 +0000

Ministry isn’t always scripted. Christian teachers are often called upon to lead special holiday projects and events without much notice. If the ministry you serve is on a budget, you may find preparing for even well planned Easter projects stressful. Supplying each child with a craft kit is pricy if your ideas are complicated. You need easy, inexpensive crafts that will entertain and reinforce the Easter message. These two Easter craft suggestions could be the good ideas you are looking for.

Roll the Stone

This paper Easter craft is a cinch to complete and prepare for. Here is the supply list you will need: 2 brown construction papers of equal size, a clasp, a hole punch, glue, crayons and a small picture of Jesus for each child to color. The picture should be circular too so you can fit it on the construction paper.

Children should color the picture and glue it over one of the squares. Allow the glue to dry for one minute. Lay the second construction paper circle on top of the picture lining them up evenly. Use a hole punch to create a hole at the top of the paper. Slip the clasp in the hole and secure. Children can slide the paper stone away to see Jesus. If you like write “He is Risen” on the front cover of the craft.

Toothpick Crosses

Busy teachers can reach into their pantries for supplies for most of these Easter crafts. You will need these supplies: toothpicks, white glue, play dough and plastic Easter eggs. Small children will need supervision as some may be tempted to snack on the dough.

Give each child two toothpicks. Show them how to arrange them like the cross of Jesus. Apply a dot of glue where the two toothpicks join. Allow them to dry while you tell the kids the story of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

Open the plastic Easter eggs. Give each child one-half egg to use as a base for the cross. The egg half will remind children of the hill on which the cross stood. Next, children should place a lump of dough on top of the egg. The lump should be thick enough to hold the toothpick cross in place. Position the cross in the center of the dough. Squeeze the dough around the base to secure it in place. This Easter craft will harden and kids will have a neat keepsake to help them remember their Easter story.

Easter crafts don’t have to be complicated to be memorable. These easy, simple ideas are fun for kids of all ages.

The Gospel on Easter Sunday: A Cross Shapebook Craft

Amy Brown — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 13:07:56 +0000

Easter Sunday is arguably the most highly attended Sunday out of the entire year. More people will be attending church on this Sunday than any other. You will have children walk through your doors for whom this will be the only Sunday out of the entire year they will be in church. Therefore, on Easter Sunday it is more important than any other to teach the gospel message clearly.

The following lesson teaches the gospel story step-by-step using a corresponding craft activity. The children will make a book in the shape of the cross. This book can then be taken home and used to tell the gospel story to their parents. This cross shape book can be used with a variety of other lessons as a supplemental craft activity.

Text: Various Scriptures

Learning Objective: The children will make a cross shape book and be able to use it to share the gospel message with others.

Target Age: 3-5^th grade

Time Needed: 45-60 minutes

Materials Needed:

Brown construction paper with the cross outline printed on it (2 per child)
White copy paper with the cross outline printed on it (5 per child)
Black yarn
Red yarn
White yarn
Single hole punch
Markers
Pencils
Scissors
Gold star stickers
Crayons

Hook:

“Today is a special Sunday. What makes today special?”
“Today is Easter Sunday or Resurrection Sunday! Today we think about and celebrate Jesus rising from the dead to live in heaven forever.”
“Jesus rising from the dead is part of the most exciting and important story of all time. And today you are going to get to make your own book about this story.”

Book/Look:

In this part of the lesson, the children will make their craft as you teach them the gospel story using various scripture passages.

Read aloud Luke 1:31-32.
“These verses explain how Jesus, God’s Son, came to earth as a man, which is the first part of the gospel story.”
Pass out one white cross paper to each child along with a pencil and crayons. Write “Jesus came to earth as a baby” on the board for the children to copy it onto their first white cross paper.
Then instruct the children to draw a picture on their white cross that will remind them of what these words say. For example, they could draw a world/globe or a baby.
“Jesus came to this earth as a man and lived a perfect life. He did not sin and do bad things because He is also fully God. Jesus lived a life without sin in our place. We are sinners and so we cannot live a perfect life, but Jesus lived a perfect life for us.” (Romans 5:19, Hebrews 4:15, 1 Peter 2:22)
Pass out a second white cross paper to the children. Write “Jesus lived a perfect life” on the board for the children to copy it onto their second white cross paper.
Then give the children a gold star sticker to place on this second page to remind them of what the words mean.
Discuss with the children how when someone receives a gold star it means they have done an excellent job. Many of them will have experienced the concept of a gold star in school.
“Not only did Jesus live a perfect life in our place, but He died on the cross in our place. He took the punishment for our sins when he died on the cross. God’s punishment for sin and doing bad things is death. So, someone had to die for our sins. The good news is we do not have to die for our sins because Jesus died for us. He was our perfect sacrifice! He paid the price for all of our sins and the bad things we would do by dying on the cross.” (Isaiah 53:6, 2 Corinthians 5:21, 1 Peter 2:24)
Pass out a third white cross paper. Write “Jesus died on the cross for our sins” on the board so the children can copy it.
Instruct the children to draw a cross and write the word “sin” across it to remind them of what the words mean.
Read aloud Matthew 27:59-60.
“These verses tell about Jesus being buried in the tomb where he laid for three days.”
Pass out the fourth white cross paper and write “Jesus was buried for three days” on the board for the children to copy.
Instruct the children to draw a picture of a large stone to remind them of the stone that guarded the entrance to Jesus’ tomb.
Read aloud Matthew 28:1-6.
“These verses tell of the great news that Jesus did not stay dead in the tomb, but he rose from the dead after three days. Jesus came back to life, so he could live in heaven forever. Our Savior Jesus did not stay dead, but he is alive today!”
Pass out the last white cross paper and write “Jesus rose from the dead to live forever in heaven” on the board for the children to copy.
Instruct the children to draw a picture of heaven or Jesus ascending. Perhaps they could draw a cloud with light rays shining out of it.
The children will now cut out their five white crosses and their two brown crosses. The brown crosses will be the front and back cover of their books.
After their crosses have been put in the correct order, they will need adult help to punch three single holes along the top of their cross book.
Before passing out the yarn to tie off the books. Explain the meaning of the three colors. “The black yarn will go in the first hole and it represents our sin. The red yarn will go in the middle hole and it represents the washing of Jesus’ blood. The white yarn will go in the last hole and it represents our souls being white as snow. As you use your book to tell others about the gospel story you can point to the yarn and tell them, ‘My sin washed in Jesus’ blood makes my soul white as snow.’”
Pass out the yarn and have the children tie a knot through each hole to bind the pages of the book together.

Took:

Talk the children through the book briefly one more time using an example cross book.
The children can then find a friend and tell them the gospel story using their cross book as a guide.

Tips:

With many visiting children on Easter Sunday many of them may not bring Bibles with them. For this Sunday it may be best to read the verses to the children and not have them turn to the verses in their own Bibles.
Pass out the materials as needed. For example, give them the white cross papers one at a time. Giving all of the materials to the children at the beginning of the lesson will be overwhelming for some and may confuse others. Keeping child access to supplies at a minimum will help your lesson run smoother.
Have the children write their name on every paper they receive, as they receive it, to avoid lost papers.
If you only have 30 minutes for this lesson have words preprinted on the white cross papers, so the children only need to draw and cut.
If using this lesson with K-2 have the words preprinted on the white cross papers, so the children only need to draw and cut