Explore & respond with children

Do

Hunt the wedding ring                    5 mins E

Play a game that involves being ready.

You will need: a costume jewellery/plastic ring or small wrapped present.

• Invite everyone to close their eyes and count aloud slowly to 20 or more, depending on your space.
• When the children start counting, tap one person on the shoulder and give them the ring to hide.
• When the group has finished counting they shout, ‘Coming, ready or not!’ and search for the ring. The finder gets to hide the ring next time. Repeat as desired.

Dressing for the occasion                          10 mins E

Be properly dressed before you dine

You will need: three items of dressing-up clothes; a plate, a knife, forks, a wrapped chocolate bar, a die and shaker.

• Sit in a circle with the clothes, the plate with the chocolate on, cutlery and die in the centre.
• Each player takes it in turn to roll the die. If they roll a 6, they go into the centre, put all the clothes on and start to eat the chocolate using the cutlery. As soon as someone else rolls a 6, they take over. For hygiene reasons, change the fork each time.
• Play continues until the chocolate bar is finished.

Make

Ready Steady Cook             15 mins E S

Be ready to respond to a challenge

You will need: a selection of ingredients: bases, e.g. cake, flan case, muffins, sponge fingers, pancakes; something gloopy, e.g. custard, jelly, cream, ice-cream; something healthy, e.g. different fruit pieces; something sweet, e.g. chocolate buttons, sprinkles, jellied sweets, Smarties™; phone/timer, teaspoons. Check for allergies before you do this activity.

• Split the children into pairs or small groups. Show them the available ingredients, ask them to think about the options and choose one from each category to make a dessert.
• Set the timer for 10 minutes and challenge each group to create a dessert and give it a name.
• Provide spoons so everyone can taste the results!

Save the date                        10 mins  E S

Design an invitation for an event

You will need: A6 cards, pencils, crayons/felt tips, craft decorations, e.g. self-adhesive letters, stars.

• Choose a forthcoming date in your church calendar, e.g. a memorial service, Christingle, patronal festival/anniversary celebration.
• Talk about the event and who is going to be invited.
• Encourage each child to design a ‘save the date’ invitation with all the important information on it. These can be copied and distributed as appropriate.

Pray

Prayer for the uninvited                  5 mins W S

Think about those who are left out

You will need: a large piece of card set out as an invitation with the words: Dear…, You are invited…, love from God; sticky notes, pens.

• Invite the children to think silently of a person, or a group of people they know, who are left out of things at school or in extra-curricular groups.
• Give everyone a sticky note and a pen and encourage the children to write a prayer for these people on the sticky note, using him/her/them rather than their name/s.
• Place the large ‘invitation from God’ on the floor in the centre of the group and gather round. Invite the children to stick their prayer somewhere on the invitation. Close with A prayer for others on p.30.

Additional prayers

Sing

Key to abbreviations for hymn book titles

Come into his presence singing (CHY, HON, HTC, RSJ)
Jesus put this song into our hearts
Jubilate, everybody
Nobody’s a nobody
Praise the Lord in the rhythm of your music (RSJ)
Thank you, Lord, for this fine day (CPR, CJP, JP, SoF)

Spiritual styles abbreviations
W Word E Emotion S Symbol A Action
Read our Spiritual Styles articles