Remembrance

Thoughts about Remembrance for school, Messy church, Sunday groups or church

Cut out 4 large red petal shapes from card and a black circle for the centre hold or pin up the shapes to show that they make a poppy

Cut out individual letters P-O-P-P-Y

Place P-O-P-Y at the centre of each petal and replace the centre black spot with the O

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P for Praise: we offer praise to God who loves us and cares for us, even in difficult times.

O for Offering: we are thankful for those soldiers who bravely offered their lives, fighting in wars to try and make others safe.

P for Prayer: we pray for the safety of those still serving in wars, we pray for those who have lost friends and loved ones, and we pray for those who have been injured.

P for Peace: Remembrance Day does not celebrate or glorify war, but remembers it and the importance of us continuing to pray for peace.

Y for You:  You can make the choice to bring peace to your own life and the life of those around you. You can pray for God’s peace to guide and comfort you. We all play a part in keeping the memory of war, of bravery and suffering. We also need to remember to play a part in caring for those who are bereaved or injured. Our lives, and our actions may also hold the key to a more peaceful future. We, together are offering praise and prayer to God and hoping for peace.


Submitted by Barbara Meardon

Joint school/church project

You could make these for school or church, I worked with primary school children to learn about church altar frontals and the church seasons. We talked about symbolism and colour and they then came up with designs that they would place on a frontal for the school hall.

I then took these designs to the church embroidery group and they created designs inspired by the ideas of the children and made them up. One is done with rag-rugging, one patchwork and one by padding layers of different material (see photo). 

The children were thrilled that their ideas could be made into such beautiful things and were able to share with the whole school how the process had worked.

Lent or Advent pathway

Lent and Advent are at times when the seasons are changing and in the church they are a time when we try to change/do things differently, we try to work at something or give something up and they lead up to our two most important festivals.

Mark out a simple pathway on large pieces of cardboard. Make hills and valleys along the way to make it look interesting and leave space for children or young people to add their ideas, pictures or models.

Choose activities for each part of the pathway that represent something you would like them to think about e.g. for Lent I had one that represented God’s love is our shelter and the children made tents and placed them on the pathway. For Advent you could have one for each of the themes of Advent Sundays.

Pentecost Kites

At the beginning of a service or in the middle during the adult sermon or out in Sunday groups take three kite shapes, add a ribbon on the bottom, make tails from card.

Each shape has a symbol for Pentecost, a dove, a flame, the wind,. Talk to the children/young people about what the different symbols tell us about the Holy Spirit. Then encourage them to decorate the kites. Finally ask them to write prayers onto the tail ribbons and add to the tails/streamers. Here are two of the prayers  the children wrote.

Heavenly Father, Help us feel your Holy Spirit move and shape our lives....Amen

Fill the leaders of all the countries of the world with a spirit of peace and brotherhood. Amen

You could then take these and place them at the altar.

Who? What? Why? When? Where? How?

If you are anything like me, when you have told your children a bible story you really want them to remember it and hopefully also remember what it has to do with them. An obvious way that most of us do this is by asking the children questions to reinforce the teaching. This is a very small idea to bring a different dimension to asking questions. A die with a question word on each side; Who? What? Why? When? Where? How? The children take turns at rolling the die and either you ask a question using the word they roll or they have to think up the question and ask someone else. Another way is to write the question words on a piece of paper and flick tiddlywinks to chose the question - this can get silly!
Dice available from amazon - link below.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Question-Dice-Pack-Five-Where/dp/B007ZQH8XE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1382007323&sr=8-2&keywords=question+dice

Heart Bucket Brigade

This book and the others in the series have some great ideas for getting kids listening to God, enjoying being in His presence an expecting to hear from Him. Doesn't need to be limited to kids either. Books are by Mike Seth, children's pastor at Bethel church in California. 

   http://store.ibethel.org/p850/the-heart-bucket-brigade

Grandparents and Grandchildren Holiday Club Studland Village HallFebruary 2013

A brilliant morning written and led by Barbara Meardon (Adviser for Work with Children and Families) & Joanne Triffett (PDO Mother’s Union) and run by volunteers from the Mother’s Union, Clergy and Parishes in the Swanage area.

The theme for the work with the children and grandparents together was to explore aspects of Lent and Easter in a creative way with a reflective story of how Jesus called the disciples and still calls us today. The grandparents had some time on their own to discuss issues they have experienced being grandparents and how they can share their Christian faith and the children made glass painted lanterns and boats.

Note it is never too young to teach stewardship and community when you can persuade the smallest person to sweep up!!

if anyone would like the practical ideas do get in touch barbara.meardon@salisbury.anglican.org

Top tips: 
• a great welcome and top class hospitality are crucial 
• having everything ready 
• have a theme - The theme for the work with the children and grandparents together was to explore aspects of Lent and Easter in a creative way 
 • use reflective storytelling and wondering questions so that everyone present is engaged whatever age they are - we had the story of how Jesus called the disciples and still calls us today from Margaret Coooling's Book Bible Storybags. 
 • The grandparents had some time on their own to discuss issues they have experienced as grandparents and how they can share their Christian faith while the children had fun making glass painted lanterns and boats to remind them of the themes in the story. Note it is never too young to teach stewardship and community when you can persuade the smallest person to sweep up!!