Lions Galore!

10th November at Messy...Daniel in the Lion's Den crafts....hmmm, now let me see, what could we do? It was fun thinking up all the different ways we could construct a lion, be it one we could eat, one we could wear or one we could use as a puppet. I heard so many 'Roars!' throughout the afternoon; the children obviously had a great time. 

Hand-print Lions

The messiest corner by far was where our hand-print lions were to be found (we ran out of places for all of them to dry, does anyone else have this problem?) Anyway, soggy lions aside, this craft was great fun for even the tiniest of guests (and some of the adults had fun too!) 

Our Fearsome Lion

Despite the fearsome image our Lion presented (left), the 

A fear of daddy-long-legs!

children were very bold in approaching him to post prayers in his mouth! We asked the children to think of all those things which most made them feel afraid and they then asked God to help them overcome these fears...most seemed to have a spider theme, but crocodiles and daddy-long-legs also got a mention! (Nobody mentioned lions, incidentally! :-))

Pasta lion

Having bought the biggest bag of Pasta Sainsbury's could offer and calculated that each child would use at least 30 pieces, I would obviously be no good at that game 'guess the number of pieces of pasta in the bag' - what, have you never played that game?). Well, 51 children WANTED to make a pasta lion, but sadly we ran out of pasta (I'd erroneously thought I might even  have some left over for my tea!). Undaunted, most children were very happy simply drawing a lion's face on the circle of card! 

Alex's Lion got a great hair-cut!

To help the children re-enact the story at home, we made puppet lions (used another 50 of those yoghurt pots, only about 1000 to go!). I've included this particular photo because Alex took so much care fringing the lion's mane - great work, Alex! 

Lion Masks

To help us in our re-telling of the story in church, we wanted the children to make lions masks. Sorry about the odd angle of this photo (I'll try and find another one), but you get the gist...we cut the centre from a paper plate and fringed the edges with orange and yellow paper and added ears. It was good to see so many of the children having a go at curling their manes. Lots of hairdressers in the making(!) 

Pin the tail on the lion

Pin the tail on the lion was very popular with children forming an orderly queue. Judging by the x's which were placed rather accurately on the lion, our blindfold may have had a few holes in it! 

Miriam the Lion

By far the most popular craft of the afternoon (and first to run out of supplies!) was our edible lions. With a toffee popcorn mane, liquorice lace mouth and chocolate drop eyes, these lions made our mouths water and only one or two made it home with the children! 

The King of the Lion Cakes

As always, we celebrated lots of birthdays in the month of November when we went into church. Our talented cake makers, Jane and Andrew, created yet another superb and delicious....you guessed it... lion cake! Bagsie I have the nose! 

Our celebrations in church kicked off with a game of sleeping lions - never have I experienced such silence at a Messy Church before! Awesome work, Yvonne! The children gathered at the front to hear the story and everyone wanted to play the part of Daniel, or to be one of the hungry lions. Daniel and the lions having been chosen, there was a lot of roaring from the rest of the children as we all joined in with the story around our lion's 'den', courtesy of the rather brilliant Enid. 

Teatime, and we munched our way as usual through loads of pizzas, sandwiches and cakes.  Our 'keep the conversation going' table signs asked the children some questions about their afternoon and what they'd learned from the story, reminding them that just as Daniel did the right thing and carried on praying to God, even when the law told him to pray to someone else, we too should 'keep the conversation going' and  pray to God. He loves to hear our voices. I'd love to hear yours too...any ideas we can share to enhance our Messy lives for God! 

See you next Month when we'll be going on a Messy Christmas Journey (can't wait!), Jo xx