Open the Bible at Matthew 15.21-28
Jesus meets a woman with amazing faith, and heals her daughter despite what others might expect.
Heart and mouth pinwheels
Think about what comes from your heart
You will need: template printed onto card, scissors, split pins, felt tip pens.
- Using the template, help the children to cut away the window from the top circle, and fit the top circle on top of the bottom circle. Then help them to make a small hole in the centre (as marked) and put a split pin through.
- Encourage everyone to decorate both their circles and personalise them using felt tip pens.
- When everyone has finished, they can spin their wheels to reveal the images and read the verse aloud together.
Kindness jars
Use words to build others up
You will need: glass jars or equivalent containers (one per child), stickers/glass pens to decorate, sticky labels, felt tip pens, wooden lolly sticks.
- Give each child a container to decorate with stickers and glass pens.
- Invite them to attach a label saying ‘My kindness jar’ and decorate it using felt tip pens.
- Then ask the children to write on lolly sticks the kindest things they can think of to say to others, and ‘thank you’ prayers to God for other people. Invite the children to place the lolly sticks in their container and take it home to use as they pray. (You could provide a few extra lolly sticks for them to keep blank and use at home as they think of more ideas.)
Meditate on words
Reflect about the words we use
You will need: equipment to play music/video, pens, paper.
- Use the link to play the song ‘May the words of my mouth’ by Tim Hughes.
- Listen to the words together and encourage everyone to think about them carefully.
- Invite the children to talk about any words or lines that made them think differently or had an impact on them. Provide pens and paper if they want to write or draw any responses to the song.
