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We have two offerings for you here:

Download your Churchyard Butterfly HERE. 

First up are butterflies for decorating your churchyard and giving those vital signs of life to your local community that this is a place of life and joy.. 

This simple butterfly can be printed back to back. Then challenge the children – or indeed any age – in your congregation, or the school connected to your Church to decorate their butterfly with beautiful patterns and colours.

Gather all the butterflies, cut them out and laminate them, then hang them from the trees in your church yard or from your railings and invite families to come and find their Butterflies. You could even tie it in with the Small but Mighty trail which is free to download on the Sunhats and Wellieboots page HERE.

You could either have this as a come any day activity to encourage people to explore the church grounds, or you could make it a Spring day event and have the church open to welcome families to stay and chat over tea and snacks, have congregation members available to link in with new faces.

Download your Paper Plate Butterfly HERE

The second butterfly is a more delicious sort altogether! This printable can be coloured in and stuck to a paper plate where your group can place their edible butterflies. Little hands can develop their fine motor skills by cutting out the circle.

To make the butterflies we used chocolate fingers, chocolate covered pretzels and mini smarties – all held in place with melted chocolate which hardens when dry. You can of course let you culinary imaginations run wild and use a multitude of foods to make your butterflies, even vegetables (much to my daughter’s disgust!!) It’s fun way to get a wonderful Bible verse back into the homes of your Children.

Download by clicking the relevant image below (full colour or black and white).

We recommend printing on thicker paper or card to ensure durability.

This is a simple paper craft to help tell the Easter story. We have two versions, one is full colour and the other is black and white so that children can colour in the scenery and characters as you chat about the story.

You can take one section of the story at a time if using it as part of a wider lesson for example on Palm Sunday. Or you might choose to do all 5 together to tell the story from the triumphal entry to the resurrection – we would recommend using the full-colour pack if doing all 5 in one session.

Pages should be printed back to back to ensure the Bible verse lines up with the back of the scene.  Assembly instructions are included in the pack.

Click either of the images below to download the pack:

Full Colour: 

Colour In: 

Click the image to Download

The saying “Mad as a March Hare” may well resonate with those of us in Children and Families Ministry this year as so many big things fall into March this year. To help us with some ideas and planning, check out the Spring Newsletter by clicking the image above.

Our Easter wheel resource tells the story of Easter one segment at a time with a final segment explaining in simple terms why Jesus died. We have one with full text taken from the Big Bible Story book, and the other is an Easy Reader with just a few lines of simple text each section.

The wheels can be used in a multitude of ways. You can choose to print and pre-assemble them as gifts for families at Easter, or you can choose the black and white versions which children can colour in and assemble themselves.

Click the relevant image below to download the version/s you wish to use.

Full colour version

Easy reader full colour

Colour in full version

Colour in Easy Reader

Click the images to download the respective Easter pack or the blue poster to download the Church Adoption day pack and the QR code will open the Bible Buddies App.  

The Bible Buddies are reclaiming Easter from the Easter bunny!

A Bible Buddy is a small toy which a child adopts and promises to look after. The main difference to any other toy is that this buddy needs feeding – not with pet food but with the word of God!

You will see we have two reading packs. The red pack has passages from the International Children’s Bible for those who are reasonably confident in their reading, or if an adult is reading with them. This pack includes pages for the children to write and draw their thoughts following the reading – this is their space, it is not a test to see if they remember what’s been said but a space to express what thoughts they had, things they felt and or draw those things too. The Orange Easy Reader pack has shorter passages taken from the Big Story Bible Book – these packs are for those who find reading more of a struggle. There’s no writing / drawing pages in this pack but you could print them from the red pack if you wish.

These packs tell the story of Easter and enables families to explore, chat and wonder about all that happened to Jesus.

Unlike our other Bible Buddy reading packs, this pack deals with some challenging themes. The Easter story is not fluffy bunnies and chocolate eggs, but it is central to our children’s growing faith. We do not want to hide away from the truth of the gospel, however we do need to consider our child’s stage of development and how, in particular, we talk through the topic of death.

We have not edited anything from the bible passage that tells of the crucifixion (“A very dark day” page). In our notes that follow this reading you will see we have placed the emphasis on the miracle that was to come next, and that when there seems to be no hope – God brings new life and renewed hope. God’s love is stronger than death.

When chatting with your child allow them to ask questions and in response use the same age appropriate words that you would use generally when talking about death. Ask them what they think, give reassurance and hope – this is not the end. You might even choose to do “A very dark day” & “Alleluia He is risen” together on the same day. This is all covered again in the “Adult’s pre-amble” page of the pack. 

If you are running an adoption day in your parish or diocese you can download the Church pack. You can run this as a stand-alone event, maybe have a teddy bear’s picnic if you wish or incorporate it into an all-age service, or at the end/start of a holiday camp. The Church purchases however many toys you think you will need. We recommend using the small TY teeny or beanie boo toys for affordable options that come in a variety of colours and animals, but work with your budget and shop around to find what is best. The key however is to ensure that one child is not getting a larger toy than any other.

The Church pack includes:

• A poster which you can put your details into or use on social media.
• A care guide for the children to learn how to look after their pets.
• A certificate of adoption for each child to choose the name of their new buddy.

You can ask the children to send in photo’s of their buddy on adventures as – at the park, the beach etc which you can display on social media (ensuring you have parental permission and adhere to your GDPR policy if children are in the photo’s)

Another added Eggstra(!) is the recorded version of “The Garden, The Curtain & The Cross” which can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/5t73P_1a-JU

Click on the image to download, or you can read the online magazine version here: https://bit.ly/3DUj5xu 

This super simple download can be used either for Easter or Valentines day. If you click either of the images above it will download a simple pdf with the image of the heart and John 3:16. Print off however many you need, then what almost every child loves to do – dip their hands in paint and make handprints to match the shape of the heart – be careful not to use too much paint and try to position the hands carefully inside the heart and around the cross.

Then you can give the children blank paper and let them have fun with the squishy paint making squishy pictures just for fun!  (my favourite part!!) 

The heart picture can be used as a take home Easter / Valentines card or you could even go one step further and frame them as mementos to give as a gift to parents.

You can also download the picture as an image file so you can make it whatever size you need – simply click HERE 

This is an intergenerational activity that can be used either in your home or at church as part of an intergenerational service.

Together you create each tier and read a section of the Easter story. Using the templates provided you make the boxes that separate each tier – each box has Bible verses and a question to fill in if you choose. At each stage you stop to reflect on what that section of the story means to you, and you pray together.

The bottom tier reflects on the garden of Gethsemane and we think about things that are difficult in life, things we want to pray for.

The middle tier reflects on the crucifixion – the sacrificial love of God.

The top tier reflects on the resurrection – new beginnings, things to rejoice and give thanks for.

All instructions and templates can be found in the PDF which you can download by clicking HERE

Sometimes the old ones are the best – this has been around quite a number of years but it’s still effective. This version comes from Ministry Ark. You can either use it as a simple A4 colouring page while you talk about God’s love, as we move towards Easter when God’s amazing love was shown to us in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Or you can download the card template – simply print, fold, colour and give away.

Click on the relevant image to download: