Hi! I have started teaching recently at the Sunday school ages 9-13. At least once a month the children take a small gift, a flower, a hand made book mark / a pen holder(using discarded toilet roles covered and decorated with a Bible Verse pasted) and each child gives it to an older church member. When giving they each say "God loves you and so do we". One elderly lady who had lost her husband recently was moved to tears and later told me how much it meant to her. "God loves you and so do we" has become our motto and with each gift they say it to the recipient. I hope this can be picked up for it does provide a ray of sunshine of Gods love touching a lonely heart.
Special thanks to Sita Jayatilaka, Sri Lanka for this great idea

     Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Ephesians 4:32
    Kids will be kids, so they don't always say positive things to one another. I tried this activity with my group in extended worship to help them practice using encouraging words.
    Each child was given enough paper strips about 1-1/2" by 9" to equal the number of children in the class. Next we wrote each child's name on each one of our strips. I called out one name at a time and spelled it so everyone wrote each name at the same time. The main part of the activity was to think of a kind or positive thing to write about each child. I helped the younger ones spell, and the older ones to brainstorm kind words. When they were done they passed out the strips to the children whose names were on them. Then they helped each other paste them into chains using glue sticks. The children left with their chains and lots of smiles.
Special thanks to Sharon Lynn from N.C. for this great idea

    I have used a kind of homemade etch-a-sketch to demonstrate the power God has to forgive us of sin and "wipe the slate clean" (erase our sins.) I put about three tablespoons of a colored gelatin in sandwich-sized zip-lock baggies and tape or staple them shut. (note: to make an even more colorful experience for the kids, try putting clear pre-made gelatin in and letting each child put 1-3 drops of the same or different colors of food coloring in their own bag. They can have fun mixing the colors themselves this way.) Give each child a pop sickle stick, or just let them use a finger to scribble words, pictures, and patterns on the surface of the bag, and then mash over the bag to watch the drawing disappear. They enjoy scribbling, but they like erasing just as much.
Special thanks to Paul B Broerman for this great idea

    I am doing crafts for the Wednesday nights Kids Club and I thought how cool it would be to do a craft recognizing the Trinity. So easy. Take 3 tongue depressor or pop sickle sticks and have the kids decorate anyway they want. Then, either paint on or paste on the words 'Father', 'Son' and 'Holy Spirit' , one on each stick. Then glue the sticks together to form a triangle. You can tie a piece of yarn on the top to use as a hanger if you want or glue a magnet on the top of the triangle and it can be a refrigerator magnet.
(Special Thanks to Judy Valentine)

   An Achan story cube for telling the story in Joshua 7: all Click Here for the pattern.

    A Faith Craft: Give each kid a small cup and some seeds, like corn. The verse is, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The corn is the seeds of faith that are planted in your heart every time you hear the Word. So if the cup is the problem then every time you put the Word in yourself you come closer to having the faith needed for the problem. If you keep yourself full of the Word then anytime you have a problem you have enough faith to handle it.

   Your class can make a coloring / activities pages book out of their weekly projects by putting a piece of construction paper on the front and one on the back of the coloring / activities pages and staple or clip them together. Then print the kid's names on the front (they really love that at this age, when they're just starting to recognize their name in writing).

    Race: During a home fellowship at our home I took the kids to the kitchen and had all the ingredients for chocolate chip cookies. I started by saying that the ingredients are all different colors (black, white, yellow , brown), separately they are not all that good, but when blended together they make a chocolate chip cookie (something very good, especially to kids). It is the same with people, Separately, one race (white, black, yellow brown) is not as good as if we were blended together. Then we all got to eat the cookies.
Special Thanks to Amy Rowlands from Seymour CT for this great idea

    God created the Heavens: I have a fifteen month old baby boy and lots of baby food jars. Let children paint the lids, and fill the jars with water, glitter, and moon and star confetti. Explain how God created the Heavens.   Special Thanks to Tiffany Jonas from Ohio for this great craft.

    Jesus Fan: Using construction paper of two different colors, weave a 5 by 7 rectangle. It will look like a checker board. Use a stencil or just write Jesus Loves Me on the rectangle. Take a tongue depressor or craft stick that size, slip it through the middle of the rectangle. You now have a fan for those hot days. We found it best to use scotch tape on the first weave and at the end scotch tape the perimeter. 
       We had first-third graders do this with people at a convalescent home. They all enjoyed it and they were reminded Jesus Loves them.  
      (Also, you can use a verse like 23rd Psalm to talk about the cool quiet victory that comes with knowing Jesus)        Special thanks to Elizabeth Anderson for this great craft

Put Jesus in your Heart; Have each kid draw a red heart on one side, and write "Jesus" on the other side of a 3" square of paper. Staple the end of a straw down the center of the piece of paper so that the straw makes a stick (handle) with the paper at the top of the straw. Place the handle end of the straw between the palms of your hands, and move your hands back and forth making the straw and paper spin one way and then the other. As you watch the paper, notice that the word "Jesus" seems to be in the heart. Ask the kids how to put Jesus in their hearts. Teach Salvation from Romans 10:10-17.

   The Fishers of Men, Fishing Games 
How to Play: Each kid takes a turn fishing for fish. Each fish (laying on the floor) has the name of a sin on the bottom side so that the fishers can not see any of the sins. This is because, as a fisher of men (and ladies) we find that, most people hide their sins, but God knows everything. After the fish is caught it is washed clean in the water (a pan of water). And this is like the people that have heard and received the Word. They are washed clean by the Word, and the shed blood of Jesus Christ. 
Useful Versus: John 3:16, Hebrews 10: 16-26, 1 Cor. 6: 6-11, Eph. 5:26, Titus 3: 1-8, 
Romans 10: 8 -11 
     Set-Up: Using old plastic milk jugs, cut out fish (side view) that are about 4-6" long. They need to be long enough to write the various sins on. There are some special problems to think about when making this activity. Since the fish are cut outs they will be tall and very thin. When you lay the fish down, one side of the fish will become the top (visible) side and the other side will become the bottom (hidden) side. 
     Most inks do not stick to plastic very well. Those are the inks that you use for writing a sin on the bottom (hidden) side of each fish. So in order to color the fish you need to find a marker or paint that is especially made to mark on plastic. Only color the fish on the top (visible) side. You may run into a problem if you color the bottom and then write a sin in another color over the base color. Especially, if you then try to wash the sin off of the fish. 
After each fish is colored and a wash-off-able sin is written on the bottom side of each fish, put a standard metal (not plastic) paper clip on its mouth. When you are done, only the sin should wash off. 
     The fishing pole is made with a stick or dowel. Cut a piece of string to a length appropriate for the size kids in the class. Tie a string to one end of the stick, and tie a magnet to the other end of the string. To get a free magnet, go to your local electric motor repair shop. They always have an old junk motor they can take a magnet out of. Test your activity to insure that you have a big enough magnet.  Special thanks to Ann Givens, and Lois Peterman from Delaware for sharing this activity.

   God wants to have an active part in your life; The Gospel Tree: There are several versions of this game. Start by drawing a large tree with no leaves on a large piece of paper.