Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

• Wonder Box poster
• Picture of your congregation or a congregational event for the Wonder Box poster
• Tape or glue stick
• Copies of Taking It Home for all participants
• Newsprint, markers and tape

Preparation for Activity

• Display the Wonder Box poster.
• Write the closing words on newsprint, and post.
• Customize, print out, and photocopy the Taking It Home section for all participants.

Description of Activity

Gather the children in a circle and show them the Wonder Box poster. Explain that it looks like the Wonder Box to remind us about our intangible gifts. Invite a child to tape or glue the picture of the congregation to the poster. You may say, in your own words:

Here is a picture of our congregation. It will remind us that the care of our faith community is in our hands, and we are the stewards of our faith community.

Tell the children you are happy and thankful you all could be together today. You may say:

Giving thanks for being together helps us remember that we are thankful for giving and receiving the gift of stewardship. Let's say our closing words of gratitude together.

Invite the children to hold hands. Show them where you have posted the closing words. Ask them to say each line with you, and say the lines slowly:

We are thankful.

We are thankful to be here.

We are thankful to be here, together.

We are thankful to be here, together, now.

Then ask one child to very gently squeeze the hand of the person to their left, and have that person continue to pass the squeeze until the squeeze has returned to the person who started it. Tell the person who started the squeeze to signal that it has returned to them by raising their arms, still holding hands with the people on either side. When this happens, instruct everyone to raise their clasped hands, together. If you like, suggest a word for them to say at this moment, like "Good-bye!" or "Shalom!" or the name of this session's intangible gift — "Stewardship!"

Extinguish the chalice. Distribute Taking It Home handouts. Thank and dismiss participants.