Activity: Making bunting full of ‘thank you’ prayers.
Resources: Some paper, some scissors (ask an adult for help), some string, a stapler or hole punch, pens.
I wonder what kind of things make you happy? How many can you count?
One thing that can make us happy is doing something fun together. Here’s a fun activity to start that you can do with someone at home – I see if you can keep up with the video!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWf9Mqlp4rY
For today’s prayer activity we’re going to be thinking of the word ‘joy’. Have you heard of the word before? It’s not a word that we use all the time. Sometimes people might think joy is the same as happiness but they haven’t got it quite right.
Christians believe that joy is a gift from God and it is different from being happy, even though being happy is great too. Being happy comes and goes with what’s going on around us – events make me happy, or having my favourite food, or spending time with my friends, or the weather.
Happiness happens as a result of good things. Joy goes deeper than happiness, we can have joy even when things aren’t going so well or when events aren’t so easy. The joy we are given by God doesn’t come and go, it stays – even in the hardest times. With God’s joy we can say this every day, no matter what:
This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it
Psalm 118:24
One way of growing joy in our lives is to remember that God gave us all of the wonderful things that we enjoy and to say thank you for them. When we recognise that all of these things are gifts, it can make us feel loved, valued and grateful and God’s joy grows in us as we tell him how much we appreciate them.
So for today’s activity – we’re going to make some ‘joy bunting’ full of things that we want to say ‘thank you’ for.
First, cut some triangles out of your paper. If you can, choose different patterns and colours. If you don’t have coloured paper, don’t worry – you can colour them in yourself!
Then on each triangle, write something that you’re thankful for. As you write, take a moment to say thank you to God for that thing or person.
Decorate the triangle to make it as eye catching as possible!
Then, punch a hole into the corners of the triangles to thread the string through.
If you don’t have a hole punch, a stapler should do the trick (ask an adult to do this!) or you could use sellotape to stick the triangle on.
Thread your thread through the holes, going from outside to inside.
When one piece of bunting has been threaded, move it a long and thread the next one on until all of your bunting is on the string.
Finally, hang up your bunting somewhere you will see it often.
Every time you see it, why not take a moment to say ‘thank you’ to God and remember all the good things that He has given you.
I hope that you have fun with todays activity and that it helps to remind you of all of the good things that are in your life!