I am one of the children's leaders for my church, and we are having an end of summer event. The kids will all be hanging with me and doing arts and crafts. There could be 20-40 kids there, and I need to keep them busy for about an hour. The thing is, I want to be able to create something that we can put up at church (I'm not talking something made of butcher paper and markers). I want to have them all contribute to a piece of "art" that we can hang in the church for a long time and have them feel connected to it. It should have a Bible theme tied to it, but if there are good ideas without the "theme," I still would like to hear them. The kids will be from 5-10, and I have a $50 budget. Please help me think of something cool.
Have each kid cut out something that represents thier feeling about or around the church and make a collage out of it.
You could make a quilt. It is easy to get fabric squares and have the kids paint or draw with fabric markers/paint around one theme. Older kids can help stitch the squares together, or you could have someone in your church who quilts put it together - and finish it off. It is a fairly simple project to do that looks very nice when it is finished.
I just dug one out of a back closet in our church and hung it up - it was designed in 1979 by a group of children at Vacation Bible School, now whose own children can see it hanging in the church building!
I saw this really cool thing hanging from the ceiling at the Basillica in Mpls. It looked like the kids had made a giant stain glass feature. I think it was just crayon shavings melted between wax paper with an iron and then framed in different shapes: diamonds, crosses, etc. and then hung end to end with strings. It was really pretty hanging from the ceiling with the lights reflecting on it and with the other stain glass.
As a licensed childcare provider I am constantly thinking up new ideas to keep them busy. I love to play different games with them etc. But when it comes to finding alternate activities on a day that my cirriculum just wasn't enough to keep them occupied I always find exactly what I need on the net. I have tons a resources, but I think the best one to refer you to is DLTK-KIDS.COM, it has tons of FREE PRINTABLE activities for children of all ages. And the activities come in a variety of themes, including christian based. Many of them are simple, color, cut and paste together concepts, easy for children of any age. I've been blessed to have found this website and love to share it with other parents, providers, and caregivers. It's even great for teachers.
I think for a christian based craft, It would be fun to somehow construct a large Noah's Ark and have the children each create the animals that Noah took with him.
Here is the link that will take you directly to the bible section of the site, feel free to venture from there, as I said they have a ton of different activities, and many that go with themes.
Let me know what you think!
God Bless,
Savannah
How about having the kids create a symbol or something that signifies them in the eye of christ. Let them make it out of felt and then attach them all together and it could be like a quilt that shows what all the kids believe it could easily be displayed.
Just an Idea! M.
Hi K.! This is just a quick idea... food for thought, but I was envisioning the kids creating colored pages that would resemble stained glass? That would at least be very cool to hang up in the church. There are also the little "cross" necklaces that are made of beads and a string of leather....
Just ideas!
Thanks, and good luck!
S.
p.s. I work from home as well, and am involved in 2 business networking groups (one specific to moms in bus.),which have been tremendous. If you are interested, let me know!
Have a great start to your week!
He's got the whole world in His hands project.
Blue paper
Green paper
Pencils
Scissors
Glue sticks
Large poster board
Cut paper in half ahead of time. Make a large round circle out of poster board(may need to duct tape two pices together). Have children trace both hands on blue paper then cut them out(stack several papers if not many children show up). Let the glue the blue hands to the round poster board, make sure they know that it is good to over lap and that you want the whole cirle blue. You should trace the hands of the smallest children on the green paper and then arange them on top of the blue hands so that they resemble the Americas, then you will have a planet earth. If you are artistic you could make some large God hands to hold the planet. To make this pice of art really last you should clear coat it like decoupage.
Painted Cross Quilt
fabric, muslin or other sturdy
Fabric paints
paint brushed
smocks to protect clothing
Much of this project will need to be done by you, and the paint can be messy. Take cloth and paint a cross in brown paint, the more realistit the better. Then on the back make a grid of 40 or how many chilren you think there will be, number the squares,cut them appart. Give each child a square and bright fabric paints (ask them not to pait on the brown part)have them paint the squares. When dry put them in order sew them back together, you might want to add a boarder. Then you will have a wall hanging with a multi color background.
Good luck I have more ideas if these don't work, I was an art teacher in Christian childcare center.
