Birthstone
thanksgiving -children's time
Posted on: 10/04/2007 14:42
Hi - usually I'm brimming with ideas, but this week, I'm doing the story, and to put it bluntly, I'm getting no encouragment from the other (ordained) staff person.
I'm out of steam.
I need fresh ideas. (theme: Year C- Mustard seed, or 10 Lepers would be appropriate, or any other general justice/Thanksgiving kind of thing)
To make it even, I'll share what I did last year...
Last year, rather than be thankful for food & clothes and safe homes, we decided those weren't things we needed to worry about - what was special to us that we could really be thankful for - it was things like being able to share money with poor people, or share food, or work to help others. I had a cut out turkey body with a cute face, and it had some orange, yellow & red constrution paper hands for feathers. I had many more hand-feathers, and we wrote on each feather something that our church had done in the past year to help others. There were many many things. The hand-feathers were fastened on the body, and the turkey turned out to be fabulously feathered. So much that we included him on the offering plate as a sign that our church was thankful for our gifts & blessings, & offered them to God's glory.
People loved it!!
so, now, this year... (help?)
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Comments
Gordie_boy
Posted on: 10/04/2007 22:40
Can you stand on your head?
Think about the fact that when people give thanks, truly give thanks, it is a huge risk which turns the world upside down. In our society we are so often told to be self-sufficient. Isolated, we fear.
Tell the kids you're going to try to stand on your head, but (deliberately) have trouble doing so. Ask the ordered minister to help you, but still demonstrate you cannot complete the head stand. Get the children to help so that, with everyone working together, you are able to turn your perceptions upside down, to discard our society's need for self-sufficiency and to take up Jesus' call to community, to working together for wholeness, to self-giving instead of self-gratification. Discipleship is communal as well as personal, and it is lived out in a world of need within which we all must pool our gifts to ensure collective wholeness.
By asking them to help you stand on your head, you are taking a risk of trust. That, too, is faith, a gift from God, for which we give thanks without ceasing.
Birthstone
Posted on: 10/04/2007 22:52
Gordie-boy! That's impressive! I've done some neat stuff with parachutes and beach balls and long sheets of fabric and Princess Leia dolls and more. But never been on my head :)
Have to admit, I'm not in a collegial relationship that would support that right now, though, I have been before. Putting this on in the file for the future. With a big sticky note that says, 'don't wear a skirt!`;
crazyheart
Posted on: 10/05/2007 18:43
You know sometimes the traditional story of Stone Soup, with an imaginary pot and a real stone and longhandled spoon is very visual and with everybody helping to stir and adding imaginary veggies, salt and soup bone that has been gathered from all in the poor village , it is the ultimate story of Thanksgiving.
Birthstone
Posted on: 10/07/2007 16:03
ok, so church is over. Busymom wondermailed me a great idea using a piece of paper and some neat folding.
In the end though (and this took sleeping on it and pacing this morning) I used an idea of Monaskit's from an old thread on Children's time -
I got a small chair from the Sunday School. We covered the fact that none of us has to work too hard for food or clothes or shelter -so being thankful for that is too easy.
We are thankful for being able to help each other.
I asked them to hold up their fingers - did they think their fingers were very strong? All of them had wonderful gifts, and I knew their fingers were important. I chose a boy (grade 4) to sit on the chair and invited a child to try to lift up the chair with one finger - didn't work - others tried, didn't work.
I talked about all our different gifts, and being thankful for them, but with a Church we could learn to live God's way, and put our gifts together to help people, so I was thankful for our church. I said it was a bit like this neat trick. Everyone came over and put 2 fingers underneath the chair. On 3 we all lifted, and our little wee fingers picked that great big boy up clean off the ground - the looks of amazement were delightful!!! So we 'talked to God" and said we were glad be able to share our talents to make the world a better place -all together.
Thanks Monaskit!! And everyone else too - these were great ideas - maybe someone will need them next year and we can dig them out again.