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17th January 2021View past Sundays

This term we are learning about how God created us and how we have amazing bodies that can do so many things. This week we will be learning about our sense of sight.

Verse ‘I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.’ Psalm 139v14

Book God knows all about me by Claire Page and God loves little me by Rebecca Elliott (see links here). Tamsin, one of our Nest team, and two very special helpers have also recorded a brilliant video of one of this term’s books using Makaton signs (see the video here).

Songs Deep, deep, deep - Jesus loves me - Great big God - Guess what, God loves you - Jump around (see the videos here) - God made my head, shoulders, knees and toes (lyrics below, sing the first line however you’d like to and then into the normal tune).

Activity 1 Play finding body parts game (God made your…, can you find your…?), ending with eyes and talk about how God made our sense of sight.

Activity 2 Make binoculars using two card tubes (toilet rolls/kitchen rolls cut in half) and tape together. Use a hole punch to make two holes, one each side and tie string to the tubes to make a neck strap. Then let your child decorate them with crayons, coloured paper, stickers, coloured tape etc. As you make your binoculars talk about how God created us able to see.

Welcome back to Treehouse and our new series Handing Big Emotions. This series explores our natural emotional responses and how we can handle them better  

This week we are looking at grief. Let's see why some of Lucy's friends are feeling sad and watch the demonstration. Then we will see a story where Jesus meets a grieving woman and changes everything! 

WORSHIP: We will keep the same songs each week during this series, but please head to the songs and stories section for more. 

- Lift you up 

- Deep cries out 

ACTIVITIES: 

Discussion - During discussion maybe have some playdough, slime or something to sqeeze whilst discussing. 

- Could you sit together as a family, taking it in turns to talk about a time you have felt sad. 

- Perhaps you could come up with a list of strategies together for what to do when you feel sad and how to stop all the water overflowing. 

- Pray together as a family for God to help each person recognise when they are feeling grief, and to use some of the strategies.

Art Project - We will be collecting in all your artwork at the end of the month to display. (Art can be done using any material, paper or canvas - we will scan in your artwork and return the originals to you to keep) 

- Can you draw an image to represent grief?

- Can you create an artistic impression of the story of The Widow of Nain?

- Can you let your feelings come out to produce a masterpeice? 

There are no craft packs for this series, and each family will want to tailor the activities to suit their needs. 

Memory verse: “I may walk through valleys as dark as death, but I won’t be afraid. You are with me.” Psalm 23:4

Message from Lucy Munton

The activities today are very discussion based, and we are continuing the art project too - but let me share some of the ideas I might try this week. Do share your ideas too on The Oak Parents Facebook page, so we can all steal from each other.

Crafts to do with grief that we might try: 

- Could you make your own feelings monster, using paper plates and long dangling arms and legs. Stick them up and name your feelings as you feel them. Give those feelings to God. 

- Make some cards with faces on and play your own card game Maybe you have pairs of emotions to match, or maybe you just turn a card and talk about the face and what would make you feel like that. 

- Write a letter to someone you miss then if possible send it to them. You might want to write a letter to someone that has died and keep it in a special box. 

- Make a memory box/file/ folder and start to fill it with happy memories of a loved one. 

- Healing hearts - Make lots of hearts out of playdough and laugh together and talk together about some of the things that come up in today's session. 

We would love Youth to join in the family meeting tonight. 

Could you spend 10 minutes at some point praying for and praising God for your friends and family in the midst of the pandemic.