The Works also stocks lots of other crafty stuff, such as coloured pipe cleaners, foam sheets, foam shapes, glue, glue sticks etc etc etc
More specialist stuff is easily available from Baker Ross. A visit to their web site will make you boggle with delight. They are good for stencils, scraper board, woggly eyes, card sets and hundreds of other things, including beads and elastic. Their stuff is good if you don't have much craft experience..there are lots of kits and 'how tos' in the catalogue. Phone 08445768922 to order or inquire. They also now stock Christian craft items, such as crosses and stained glass windows to colour.
Paper bags and paper plates are useful for craft activities as well as taking stuff home.... go to the cash and carry for big packs so you don't run out. We use Bookers
I have just bought a set of tough card stencils for the smallest children to use..........there are 16 different Easter shapes, although the lambs, butterfly and several others can be used later in the year. I have more detailed stencils for Easter egg pictures from Baker Ross but they look to be out of stock at the moment!
We also use things like card finger puppets to colour...animals and bugs;
stained glass window designs to colour with felt pens;
designing onto a plain glass/mug/egg cup using ceramic/glass painting pens;
t-shirt printing with fabric dye pads and rubber stamps or draw with fabric pens use a plain t-shirt...get the children to bring one in to keep costs down
making bead bracelets materials available in The Works and Baker Ross.....take care with little ones and ears/noses
packing noodles are great fun..we leave saucers with a little water so they don't lick to stick them together, Baker Ross again
Stencil cards
Easter stencil cards
Easter stencil cards
- A box of sturdy stencil cards with sixteen simple Easter shapes.
- Shapes include chicks, daffodils, lambs, bunnies and Easter eggs.
- Easy to use and perfect for home-made cards, decorations and other art activities.
Playdough Not all crafts need be take home crafts. Playdough is a great activity for little ones and the things they make can be taken home and baked slowly in the oven so they will keep. they can be painted once they have cooled. Recipes on many websites such as:
http://babyparenting.about.com/cs/activities/a/playdough.htm
Plastic bags taped onto the end of the table makes a good bit bin and can be dropped into the wheelie bin on your way home.
Baby wipes are useful for sticky fingers and for cleaning rubber stamps.
A washing up bowl of soapy water and towels are essential if you are doing hand/ foot prints. Have it right next to the printing to minimise mess.
Basic cooking ingredients, snacks and drinks from the nearest supermarket. They will also have craft stuff but it may not be the cheapest.
A slow cooker is really useful for melting chocolate for crispies or for keeping candle wax runny for candle dipping. It is much safer than, perish the thought, having children round a pan of boiling water on the cooker top!
There are lots of resource books, including the Messy Church books and books from Usbourne.
Organising your space for Messy Church
Our space is severely limited....it's a little Georgian Church, beautifully restored but very short of space. In addition we have very heavy wooden chairs which won't stack. They can only be moved to one side, which means that they take up a huge amount of space when they are not needed. The church is a small rectangle, with a smaller side area and quite a large sanctuary area, which has just come into its own for Messy Church. Oh, and there is no church hall. We do have a garden which we can use with parents and children...................very useful for Easter Egg hunting.
The church building is very much a shared space....... Little Gems meets twice a week, Youth Group once a month, there's a midweek service on Wednesdays, Stage Gems meets on Monday evenings and that's not to count parish events and private lets. We have a tiny kitchen, equipped with a domestic cooker and minute sink.
Hopefully you will have more space or even a hall.
We set up on Tuesday afternoon, after Little Gems have moved their equipment. We put a high table and chairs in the least accessible part of the church where we do the really messy stuff or cooking. It's not easy to crash into the table accidentally so accidents are kept to a minimum. We have a large, low table and small chairs for little ones, and we have clean crafts............crayoning, dot to dot, puzzles sheets etc here. There's a high table and chairs with similar, appropriate clean activities for older children. And a third high table for a semi-messy activity, also with big chairs.
There is always a semi-circle of chairs in the sanctuary ready for the Wednesday service; we add a few more so there are enough for all the adults and keep the central carpeted area for the children to sit on. That means we don't need to move the craft tables in order to start the service part. Our keyboard player sets up in the sanctuary and we have the percussion instruments (in 2 crates to help with organisation) also in place before we start the session. Hymn sheets are put out ready as well as any props for the story.
We keep one higher table with benches completely separate for the snacks and drinks so if spills occur it won't spoil anyone's masterpiece. There are highchairs, toy bags and a book box in addition to the craft materials.
Our programme
We organise a typical session thus:
3.10pm onwards people arrive, drinks and biscuits are offered
Children head off for whatever they would like to do, moving from one thing to another as they please. The really messy activity might be painting, wet printing, hand prints, foot prints, planting seeds, cooking, making masks, making their own sandwich, popping corn
Less messy may be making things with packing noodles, play dough modelling, glue and glitter, card making, stamping /printing, cutting and sticking, bead craft, t-shirt drawing/printing, decorating biscuits/buns
Clean crafts are crayoning pictures, puzzles/mazes/dot to dots (several different levels for the different ages of children attending), crayoning with stencils, word searches
3.30pm The 'snack Mums' arrive and serve up a more substantial snack....pizza/ sausages/ sandwiches. Children go to the snack table and then go back to their crafting.
4.10pm we look around to see if things are coming to a conclusion
4.10 - 4.20pm ring the bells (we have an octave set so they sound fairly harmonious) and get everyone into the sanctuary area for our short service.
We have a short, adaptable service with hymns, prayers, a story all linked to the day's theme eg 'Taste and See That the Lord is Good', 'Jesus is the Good Shepherd' etc. We have one really noisy song with instruments and then we put them away! We have at least one action song. But no matter how excited they get they go quiet for prayer time. Sometimes we do the Lord's Prayer as a hands-to-heaven prayer (as the early Christians did), sometimes we hold hands in a circle and sometimes it's 'hand together, eyes closed'.
We always finish with May God's Blessing Surround You Each Day and We're Going Home Sh Sh.
4.45pm or so children collect works of art, edibles and adults and go home. We have some great Mums who help clear up, wipe down tables and help organise things going home.
Tables and chairs are put away etc.
We stagger off home for tea.
Our programme
We organise a typical session thus:
3.10pm onwards people arrive, drinks and biscuits are offered
Children head off for whatever they would like to do, moving from one thing to another as they please. The really messy activity might be painting, wet printing, hand prints, foot prints, planting seeds, cooking, making masks, making their own sandwich, popping corn
Less messy may be making things with packing noodles, play dough modelling, glue and glitter, card making, stamping /printing, cutting and sticking, bead craft, t-shirt drawing/printing, decorating biscuits/buns
Clean crafts are crayoning pictures, puzzles/mazes/dot to dots (several different levels for the different ages of children attending), crayoning with stencils, word searches
3.30pm The 'snack Mums' arrive and serve up a more substantial snack....pizza/ sausages/ sandwiches. Children go to the snack table and then go back to their crafting.
4.10pm we look around to see if things are coming to a conclusion
4.10 - 4.20pm ring the bells (we have an octave set so they sound fairly harmonious) and get everyone into the sanctuary area for our short service.
We have a short, adaptable service with hymns, prayers, a story all linked to the day's theme eg 'Taste and See That the Lord is Good', 'Jesus is the Good Shepherd' etc. We have one really noisy song with instruments and then we put them away! We have at least one action song. But no matter how excited they get they go quiet for prayer time. Sometimes we do the Lord's Prayer as a hands-to-heaven prayer (as the early Christians did), sometimes we hold hands in a circle and sometimes it's 'hand together, eyes closed'.
We always finish with May God's Blessing Surround You Each Day and We're Going Home Sh Sh.
4.45pm or so children collect works of art, edibles and adults and go home. We have some great Mums who help clear up, wipe down tables and help organise things going home.
Tables and chairs are put away etc.
We stagger off home for tea.
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