How to make a prayer tree

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How to make a prayer tree.

Happy half-term holidays! A time of business and mayhem with the kids under your feet, always wanting the next exciting thing!

Well don't you worry, all of our activities are designed to be inexpensive and easy. Perfect accessible fun for you and yours.

Continuing the theme of enabling your children to take ownership of their prayer lives, we're going to make some prayer trees today! I'm sure this is a variation on a theme you'll be familiar with.

Using the templates below draw out two tree shapes on stiff card. The size we've used is A5.


Notice the key difference between the two shapes is that one has a slot cut from the top halfway down, the other has a slot cut from the bottom halfway up. This way, the two pieces can slide into each other making the cross shape you can see Stripy Monkey posing next to in the picture, and it will stand up.

Using the leaf shape provided you will have just the right size and shape to fold in half and hang over the slots in the branches.

The more foliage you add, the more interesting the tree will look.

The purpose of this is quite simple, and really fab. It's difficult to pray right? Especially as a kid. And how many tiny tots are going to keep a successful prayer diary?

So all you need to encourage them to do is to think of ONE thing to pray about each day. When you have prayed, write the subject of the prayer on the leaf and add it to the tree. After a few days, you'll have a prayer tree full of ideas for your children to refer to, to help them confidently pray in a way they have full ownership of.

If you're feeling artistic, you could modify this so the tree was covered in leaves and fruit. Or even monkeys and birds!

We'd love to see pictures of your prayer trees, do send them in to share!