Coin rubbing
You will need: different coins (mainly 1ps and 2ps with one 50p or £1 coin); paper; pencils or wax crayons or foil and fingers
Place the coins under the paper and use a pencil or crayon to colour over the top of them. As the children colour, the hidden coins will be revealed! To make it even more interesting, arrange the coins and the paper before the children arrive, so the first time they see them is when they colour over them. Place a single 50p or £1 coin among 1ps and 2ps in the selection and wait for the children to find it as they colour. Alternatively, cover the coins with foil and gently press down over the indentations to reveal the shapes below. Use this as a springboard to talk about things that the children have lost and found and what the feeling is like when they eventually find what they have been looking for. Link this to the woman in the story and to God searching for us when we are far from him.
Invisible picture art
You will need: white wax crayons or white wax candles; water colour paints; white paper; paint brushes
Get children to draw or write on the white paper with the crayons or candles. It will be very hard to see what they have done! Next get the children to swap papers with someone else and paint over what that person has drawn. The hidden picture will be revealed and the craft will easily lead to discussion about the themes of lost and found.
Celebration hearts – Fireworks art
You will need: large sheets of paper; poster paint poured out onto plates; scissors; cardboard paper towel tubes; glitter
Cut one end of the cardboard tube into strips so that, when fanned out, they look like the branches of a tree (with the rest of the tube as the trunk). This will be your ‘firework’. Dip the branches of the tube into a plate of paint and then press them onto a piece of paper. It will look like a firework exploding. Repeat with different colours and, perhaps, tubes of different widths. Sprinkle glitter onto the wet paint and wait for it to dry. When the paint is dry, cut the paper into large hearts. Talk with the children, while they are creating, about why we use fireworks to celebrate and why the woman in the story wanted to celebrate when she had found the coin. Link this to God’s love for us and the value we have in his eyes.
Moon-sand searching
You will need: plain flour; vegetable oil; a large container; small coins
This craft helps children to explore the theme of patient searching for what is lost and is about ‘doing’ as well as ‘making’! Mix eight cups of plain flour with one cup of oil. You will need a large bowl and children can help mix with their fingers. It doesn’t matter how big your cup is as long as you use the same one for all measurements! The oil and flour will combine to make a soft ‘sand’ which can be moulded but easily crumbled too. Put the mixture into a large container and put small coins in it. Ask the children to search for the coins and to find as many as they can. As they are searching, talk about what it is like to look for and find something and think about why God thinks we are like treasure.
