Prayer can be a bit hard to understand for young children. When you talk to a person, you can see them, hear them, and often touch them as well. But when we pray to God, we can’t very easily do any of those things. Using some creative prayer activities for kids, you can help your child learn to pray, enjoy talking to God, and build a life-long habit of prayer.
These prayer activities for kids can be simple or complex, depending on how you want to use them and expand on them. For young children, simple is better so they don’t get tired or bored. As children grow, their capacity for understanding prayer and expanding on their prayers also grows. Teaching children the importance of prayer at a young age through fun prayer activities can help them develop a prayer practice that will last their entire life. Kids of all ages can build faith foundations by learning to take their prayer needs to Jesus.
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Prayer Activities for Kids
If you’re looking for prayer activities for kids, these ideas can help you find some new ways to encourage your child to engage with prayer. Creative prayer activities can help your child enjoy the process of praying, understand it a bit more, and help them to make it a life-long habit.
Prayer activities or learning about prayer isn’t the same as actually praying, so as you plan your prayer activities for kids, be sure you are also taking time to actually pray and give them the opportunity to pray as well. This can be a great way to connect what they are learning with the heart of communicating with God.
50 Creative Prayer Activities for Kids
Here are 50 creative prayer ideas and prayer games to help your children experience prayer in different ways. These can be used for children of all ages as you encourage good prayer habits. Use these as you teach and reinforce prayer concepts with your children and then pray that the Holy Spirit will guide your children as they learn about God.
- Prayer Journaling: Encourage kids to write or draw their prayers in a dedicated journal or on a sheet of paper.
- Prayer Rocks: Decorate small rocks with paint or markers and write a prayer request on each one to use them as tangible reminders for prayer requests.
- Prayer Puzzles: Create puzzles with prayer requests that kids can put together during prayer time. Use an existing puzzle and write the prayer on the back, or make up your own puzzle.
- Prayer Wall: Use a bulletin board, bedroom door, or the side of the fridge as a prayer wall where kids can pin up their written prayers. Write the prayers on sticky notes or hang them up with magnets.
- Blessings Basket: Write your blessings down on a different colors of paper and place them in a basket. Every so often, go through the papers in the basket to review the blessings God has give your family members.
- Gratitude Jar: Have kids write down things they are thankful for and place them in a jar.
- Prayer Chain: Create a paper chain with each link representing a prayer request. Write one request on each strip before adding it to the chain.
- Prayer Flags: Decorate fabric squares or pendants with prayers and string them together.
- Prayer Walk: Take kids on a nature walk and encourage silent prayers along the way, thanking God for the different things He has created.
- Prayer Request Box: Decorate small boxes to hold written prayers or requests. Provide slips of paper for children to write their requests on. Then pray over the requests on a regular basis.
- Bible Verse Memorization: Memorize and recite Bible verses as prayers. Write Bible verses on index cards and then use the Bible verse card to memorize the scripture.
- Prayer Dice: Create a dice with different prayer topics for kids to roll and pray about.
- Prayer Bingo: Make bingo cards with prayer topics or a Bible lesson.
- Prayer Balloons: Write prayers on balloons or slip them inside balloons before inflating them, then release them together.
- Prayer Collage: Have kids cut out pictures from magazines or draw pictures to represent their prayer requests in a collage.
- Prayer Mobile: Create a hanging mobile with prayer requests written on colorful paper shapes.
- Praise and Worship music: Create a playlist of worship songs for kids to listen to during prayer.
- Scripture Stones: Paint Bible verses on small stones for kids to reflect on during prayer.
- Prayer Map: Use a world map to pray for different countries and people groups.
- Prayer Pillowcase: Decorate pillowcases with prayers or scriptures and use them during bedtime prayers.
- Prayer Bookmark Craft: Make bookmarks with Bible verses and prayers for kids to use during reading.
- Prayer Puppet Show: Use puppets to act out prayer scenarios, Bible stories about prayer, and teach about prayer.
- Prayer Charades: Act out Bible stories about prayer and have others guess the story.
- Prayer Wind Chimes: Create wind chimes with prayer requests written on them to remind children that God always hears their prayers.
- Prayer Board Game: Design a board game with prayer-related challenges and questions.
- Prayer Felt Board: Make a felt board with felt cutouts for kids to use in storytelling prayers.
- Prayer Circle: Place a hula hoop on the ground and have kids stand inside if they’d like others to pray for them.
- Prayer Scavenger Hunt: Create a scavenger hunt with items representing prayer topics or Bible stories about prayer. Kids can also go on their own scavenger hunt and find things that remind them of God.
- Prayer Garden: Plant a special plant in your garden to remind you that God is helping you grow in your relationship with him through prayer.
- Prayer Bingo: Make bingo cards with prayer topics and let kids play after praying about each.
- Prayer Puppets: Create puppets with different expressions to help express emotions in prayer.
- Prayer Tic-Tac-Toe: Play tic-tac-toe using prayer-related symbols instead of Xs and Os.
- Prayer Watercolor Painting: Allow kids to paint their prayers using watercolors.
- Prayer Origami: Fold paper into origami shapes with written prayers inside.
- Prayer Crown: Decorate paper crowns with prayer requests for a special prayer time.
- Prayer Hopscotch: Draw a hopscotch grid with prayer topics for kids to jump on.
- Prayer Egg Hunt: Hide plastic eggs with prayer requests inside for a fun search.
- Prayer Memory Game: Create a memory game with pairs of cards, each with a prayer topic. The first child turns over two cards. If they match, they get to keep the pair and take another turn. If they don’t match, they turn them upsidedown again and the next player selects two.
- Prayer Fortune Tellers: Make origami fortune tellers with prayer prompts for interactive prayer.
- Prayer Partners: Choose someone in your group to pray specifically for their needs for a set amount of time.
- Prayer Balloon Pop: Write prayers on a piece of paper, put them inside balloons, and pop one each day to pray.
- Prayer Puzzles: Create jigsaw puzzles with pictures representing prayer requests.
- Prayer Stones Pathway: Arrange stones with written prayers or Bible promises on them to form a pathway for kids to walk.
- Prayer Flip Book: Make a flipbook with different sections for praise, thanksgiving, and requests.
- Prayer Tic-Tac-Toe: Play a game of tic-tac-toe, with each square containing a prayer prompt.
- Prayer Word Search: Make word search puzzles with prayer-related words for kids to solve.
- Prayer Pictionary: Play Pictionary with words or phrases related to prayer. Each player takes turns drawing a picture to represent a pray word or concept and the other try to guess what it is.
- Prayer Storybook: Write and illustrate a storybook based on the children’s prayers or a prayer story in the Bible.
- Neighborhood Prayer Walk: Walk around your neighborhood and pray for each family as you walk past their home.
- Illustrate a Prayer: Pick a prayer in the Bible and draw pictures that go along with the words.
RELATED: Raising Prayerful Kids
Memorized Prayers
A simple prayer activity for kids is to memorize a prayer such as The Lord’s Prayer. Use pictures to symbolize the different sections or verses of the prayer so they can connect the visual with the words.
Explain the different parts of the prayer and the meaning of each part so your child will understand. If you are working on the Lord’s Prayer, read the story in a children’s Bible to help your child understand the context of the prayer. Rather than being a rote prayer you say in a group, this was a special prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples when He taught them how to pray.
As a child, my family had a memorized prayer in my dad’s native language. We said this together and my dad would often remind us of the meaning since we didn’t speak the language as children. This became a tradition that our family has carried on for many years. Praying together can bring tradition and prayer together all at the same time.
The Lord’s Prayer Wheel – Prayer Activity for Kids
Prayer Journals for Kids
Creating a prayer journal can be a great prayer activity for kids. While your children are very young, you might want to do this as a family and write down your praises and requests together. But as your children get a bit older and begin writing on their own, having their own prayer journal can really encourage them to enjoy praying and sharing their thanksgivings and prayer requests with God.
Children love to replicate what they see adults doing. If you have a prayer journal, let your kids see you using it and talk to them about it. Do your prayer journaling time together and make it a family activity that you are all working on writing in your prayer journals each day together.
Get some special markers or pens that are only used for your prayer journaling time and encourage your child to be creative in their prayer journal along side you.
Walking with Jesus – Prayer Journal for Kids
Five Finger Prayer
If you’ve never heard of the five finger prayer, you may want to read a little history about it as well as snag a printable worksheet for teaching and using the five finger prayer with your children. Each finger represents a different group of people or needs to pray about and helps your child visualize praying through these needs and people. This prayer was written by Pope Francis and was used as a tool to remember what and who to pray about.
This can be used as an interactive way to pray for others. Your thumb represents your family and those closest to you. Your index finger reminds you to pray for those who teach and instruct you such as your school teachers and pastors. Your middle finger represents those who are in leadership positions. Your ring finger represents those who are sick or need help. Your pinkie represents praying for your own needs.
This creative prayer activity can visually encourage your younger children and older children to pray for others and remember the needs that other people have before praying for their own needs.
Get the five finger prayer printable here.
Prayer Coloring Sheets or Prayer Coloring Pages
Another fun prayer activity for kids is to find some prayer coloring sheets or prayer coloring pages. Most children enjoy coloring and love having something new to color. You can add prayer coloring pages to your quiet activities for your kids during church, activities in the car, during your morning devotional time when your kids wake up earlier than expected, or during family worship time.
Related: Pumpkin Prayer Activity and Printable
Related: 52 Scripture Coloring Pages
Using Prayer Activities for Kids
The list above should give you some ideas for a fun way to experience and learn more about prayer with your kids. One of the good things about prayer is that is should always be changing as your relationship with God grows. It doesn’t need to be memorized or rote, but rather simply talking with God like you would talk to your best friend. When you add creative ways to make prayer fun and less like something you have to do, the more it becomes the most important thing in your day because you are spending time with your best friend, Jesus Christ.
So, whether you have a special prayer meeting, make a list of the names of people you want to pray for, sing a prayer song, put your prayers in a prayer jar, or find some prayer crafts, your children will develop their prayer skills. As they see the importance of prayer, the next time they have a prayer request or need, they will be more likely to focus on their special relationship with Jesus.
Looking for family resources, printables, games, and puzzles to enjoy with your family?
More ideas to help you teach your kids to pray.
More creative prayer activities for kids.
You may also like these Biblical parenting links…
- Tips for Sitting in Church with Kids
- Bedtime Prayers – Creating an Evening Routine
- 52 Memory Verses for Kids to Memorize
- Family Worship Ideas with Kids
- Morning Prayers for Families
- Teaching Kids to Pray
- 9 Powerful Prayers for Your Daughter
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