Ascension Day

SAMTSIRCH:  You will need to put up a large banner up front to show our special word (SAMTSIRHC) or put it up on the overhead screen etc. 
 
Every day is a special day for someone (ask the children if they had any special days or do they know anyone who had a special day in the past week – a birthday or an anniversary).  On Thursday we celebrated a special day SAMTSIRCH day.  Does anyone want to try and pronounce it?  Does anyone know what this special day is about?  It is “Christmas backwards” day.  
What happened at Christmas?  God sent Jesus to earth as a baby for us.  No on this “Christmas backwards” day, god takes Jesus back to heaven from earth as a resurrected man.  Because we often think of heaven as “up there” and earth as “down here”, Christmas is the day Jesus came descending or come down to earth.   “Christmas backwards” day is about Jesus going up or ascending.  It’s proper name is Ascension Day. 

Have one of the younger members to read Acts 1:6-11. 
 (Adapted from Ascension Day – A Presentation on the Barnabas in Churches website)

I have listed below some sites that have Ascension Day activities you may find helpful.
Little TAKAs (has a list of various websites with resources)
Sermons4Kids (take a look at the group activities for some creative, fun ideas, the mazes and word searches are also quite good)

Balloons: Blow up a balloon in front of the kids. Ask them to listen very carefully to the sound of the air going into the balloon. Pass the below around and let each child have a chance to hold the balloon and shake it. Ask the children to listen carefully when you get the balloon back  and slowly let the air out (so don't tie a knot that you can't undo). Explain the sound is the air escaping and filling the room. Where is the air now? Everywhere, and even though we can't see it,  and we can all have it at the same time. Jesus is like that. When he was a person on earth he could only be in one place at one time, but now he's ascended he can be with all of us all the time, just like the air. 

Give each child a balloon and challenge them to try and keep the balloon up in the air for 40 seconds (for older children you can make it a little more difficult in that they aren't allowed to use their arms to do this).   Anyone who lets their balloon touch the ground sits down while anyone still going after 40 seconds goes on to the next round until you only have one person left.  

Memory verse game:  Write out your memory verse on cards or post-it notes.  After reading the Ascension story let the children know that you have hidden cards around the room, or get them to gather up the post-it notes to make the memory verse.    If you have a large number of children you may want to divide them into two group and have two sets of the memory verse - it may be helpful to use different colour cards or pen if you do more than one set.  

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Pentecost

Interactive Pentecost Story:  Share the Pentecost story with your children in a way that engages with them and gets them involved.  Click here to download the story.

Action Song for Pentecost: 
God's not given us a spirit of fear 
But of love, power and a sound mind 
God's not given us a spirit of fear
But of love, power and a sound mind

Love for one another
Power to overcome
Overcome the enemy
Overcome the enemy
Actions:
1st line:  head and hands moving left to right as if you are saying no2nd line: love - cross arms over chest,  power - bodybuilder arms, sound mind - tap side of head3rd and 4th line repeat actions5th line: shuffle to the right6th line: shuffle to the left7th line;  little jumps to the right8th line:  little jumps to the left (contact me if you need the guitar chords).

Spread the news: Buy a few roles of yellow and red streamers.  Hand them out to a few children telling them that we are having a party to celebrate the churches birthday.  Get them to hold onto one end and then toss it to another child, who then holds onto part of the streamer and again tosses it to someone else. Keeping going until you have a delightful tangle with each child holding onto a streamer.   While they are holding the streamers tell them the story of Pentecost and explain that when they received the streamer is was like someone telling them about Jesus and when they passed the streamers on, it was like them telling someone else about Jesus like we are supposed to.

Stained glass window craft: Make a stained glass window to celebrate Pentecost.  By using clear cellophane as your window and then decorating it with  bits of coloured cellophane you can create a wonderful effect when put up against a window.   If you would prefer to do one using paper the DLTK website has some great ideas for how they can look and useful templates.

Barnabas in Churches has some good Pentecost resources although many of them are more suitable for use as an all age activity

DLTK has some resources that may complement your lesson.

Sermons4Kids also has a range of Pentecost resources.  They are lectionary based but if you search Pentecost on the site you get a range of resources that you can pick and c