For our last fun day of this school year, on Friday 30th May, we looked at the story of Samuel, the last of God’s prophets in the Old Testament and King Maker who led the people of Israel. We learnt about Hannah praying to God for a baby, “Samuel” ran to and fro across the church with the lights out to ask Eli why he what he wanted in the middle of the night, and acted out the anointing of King Saul and King David.
We made temples out of clay, temple tea light holders, and looked up what our names mean. Hannah named her baby “Samuel” because it means “heard by God”. We also made an ‘ephod’, the tunic and breastplate worn by temple priests, like Eli. The breastplate had 12 stones set into the metal, one for each of the tribes of Israel.
The teams turned into master chefs to make “Samuel’s Rocky Road buns” which would have kept him going on all his journeys. (Only one child was accidently covered in cocoa powder, and even likely he saw the funny side!).
We also made lots of noise in our African drumming workshop, using 30 djembe drums from Guinea. The children were really good at keeping different rhythms going, leading the rest of the group by how they walked. Tiny steps on tip toe for a quiet drum roll tor jumping to make as loud a hit as possible. We also played a drum version of ‘hotter, colder’.
Many thanks to all who came and all who helped in so many ways. It was a good day!
Our next Fun Day is in October half term, on Friday 31st October, please get in touch about it or any of our other events.
Liz, Children and Families Worker
Our latest fun day, on Friday 25th April, saw 31 children coming to explore the events of Holy Week and the first Easter.
We told the story of palm Sunday with a parade through the church, watched the events of Mundy Thursday before darkening the Sanctuary and lighting a candle to listen to the what happened on Good Friday. We then celebrated with a full cast of actors and actresses for Easter Sunday.
We made chocolate cornflake cakes and egg shell mosaic crosses. I think the young boys in particular enjoyed smashing up the egg shells. We also decorated palm crosses and make tiny flowers out of ‘fimo’ to decorate an Easter garden, which we designed and can be seen in church.
Perhaps the most exciting part of the day was an animal workshop provided by “Oreo and friends”, where the children and leaders enjoyed meeting a whole host of animals, including 15 day old meerkats, a skunk, raccoon, giant millipede, tarantula, an armadillo, a super cute kinkajou and some geckos and snakes. The tortoise did a giant poo!
We also ate lots of chocolate, made hot cross buns and searched the church for 86 eggs (congratulations to the winning Yellow Team, though there were cries of subterfuge!).
One of the most important things to remember from the day is that the leaders can still beat the kids at an egg and spoon race!
Many thanks to all who came and all who helped in so many ways. It was a brilliant day!
Our next Fun Day is on Friday 30th April, 10-4pm, looking at the story of Samuel. We’ll see who can remember the hand actions to “God can do anything”. If you would like to book a place, please get in touch.
Liz, Children and Families Worker
On Friday 28th February, 30 children aged between 4 and 11 and volunteers from the church gathered to explore the story of Joseph.
We made pin doll Josephs, made colour board and bags to take our crafts home before gathering in our teams upstairs for worship, the workout kind!
We told Joseph’s story of jealous brothers, Ishmaelite traders, being sold as a slave, being thrown into prison, Pharaohs, famines and family reunions. Children volunteered to be part of the cast, as a camel, little sheep, grumpy brother or police officers. If you’d like to hear more about Joseph turn to Genesis Chapter 37 in the Bible.
After an energy top up (thanks snack team!) we took part in a dance workshop, led by local group “Alegria Arts”. We greeted each other in Egyptian Arabic:
Then learnt some traditional Egyptian dances. There were 2 court dances, which Pharaoh would have seen in his palace, a slow, graceful one and one which involved lots of spinning. Balance and control were important for both! The final dance was a group dance in a circle, similar to ones Ishmaelite traders would have danced around the campfires, watched by their camels.
We made some bread, pharaoh masks, Joseph’s coat of many colours (and MANY sequins!) and ‘dream pictures’, by blowing bubbles in a mix of paint, water and fairy liquid.
With big games of stuck in the mud and hunt to silver goblet and making our music video of “Joseph’s coat from the musical, it was a pretty packed day.
Many thanks to all who came and all who helped in so many ways. It was a brilliant day!
Liz, Children and Families Worker
Scary Scriptures
Why hello! On Friday 1st November we explored two of the scarier and more disgusting stories in the Bible.
Jonah didn’t want to go to Ninevah, where God sent him, so he did lots of moaning and went the other way instead. He was thrown out of the boat during a big storm and was swallowed up by a huge fish! He spent 3 whole days in the fish’s belly, where it was smelly, slimy and full of seaweed and bits of fish. Ugh!
Daniel was the King’s favourite, which made other men very jealous. They set out to trap him, so that when he prayed to God he would be breaking the law. He prayed anyway and was thrown into a pit full of hungry lions!
We all worked together to tell these stories, with lots of props and silly costumes. And made crafts to do with the stories: lion masks, paper bowl whales and spaghetti paintings of the fish’s stomach. We also had a go at shining Morse Code messages through the dark and playing catch the tails, made monster biscuits and made a huge collage of Jonah and the giant fish/ whale.
After lunch, Peter the Clown led a circus workshop for us, where we had a go at spinning plates, juggling, flower stick tricks and stilt walking.
God protected both Jonah and Daniel and they weren’t eaten up and digested. Jonah was spat out onto a beach and went to save the people of Ninevah and Daniel survived and his enemies became the lions’ breakfast.
God is always much bigger than the fears we have or the things that scare us, be it the dark, exams or illness. He is always on our side, so what could stand in our way?
We hope all the children and helpers had a great day. Thanks to everyone who helped. :-)
Our next Fun Day will be Friday 28th February, so save the date! If you would like to know more about children’s events at Wesley Hall, just get in touch.
Liz, Children and Families Worker
Mission: Rescue!
Hello! On Friday 31st May we ran a Fun Day for 5-11 year olds.
Our three teams, “Moses”, “Miriam” and “Aaron” spent the day exploring the Story of Moses. We acted out how the baby in the basket travelled the Nile, avoiding the crocodiles and hippos, was discovered and became a prince before the amazing events later in his life: the Burning Bush encounter that sent him on God’s rescue mission and the climax of the parting of the Red Sea. We made burning bush stained glass windows, weaved baskets, made some pretty darn good chocolate cookies and decorate Pharaoh masks.
We also played silly games and used our bodies to make freeze frames of events in the story during a drama workshop run by an actress at the Lantern Theatre. There was also much singing and dancing and a race around the building to find and assemble pictures from the Exodus story into the correct order.
Finally we made a lot of mess, completing a montage of MISSION: Rescue story on a double sheet.
Many, many thanks to all the helpers and I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!
If you would like to know more about children’s events at Wesley Hall, just get in touch.
Liz, Children and Families Worker
Fairtrade Festival
Hello! On Friday 22nd February we ran a Fairtrade Fun Day for 5-11 year olds.
We explored Fair trade through unfair games, watching a short film and discussing what something being Fair trade meant.
We made big junk art, campaign arrows and a footprints poster, as well as decorating felt bunting. All this was on display at the All Age Worship service.
At the Fun Day the children learnt songs with the University of Sheffield Gospel Choir, which included singing in Swahili, Zulu and French, and about all the lovely fair trade products we can choose to buy.
We also made Fair trade fruitcake using ingredients which were hidden in Bible passages, after we had found all the clues hidden around the church building.
Crafts included plastic bottle instruments, flags from all different countries (both real ones and some interesting novel ones none of the leaders had heard of!) and key rings made from felt.
Plum, Banana and Grape team volunteers took part in a blind folded food tasting competition, correctly telling their gravy from their sweet potato and rice pudding from their doughnut.
We rounded the day off with a 5ft long inflatable banana, a parachute, many ball pool balls and lots of silliness before getting our own back on the leaders by covering their faces in flour!!
Finally we sang songs to God and danced around with flags and instruments until parents arrived and leaders could have a well-earned rest!
If you would like to know more about children’s events at Wesley Hall, just get in touch.
Liz, Children and Families Worker
