Making a ‘Thank you God’ book to share with toddlers is a great way to teach children about how wonderfully made they are.
We used our ‘Thank you God’ book over several weeks at toddler group. Each week we had an activity to tie in with the theme and sang songs that were connected.
The book is here to download and print. The photos are all loyalty free. (Please don’t remove the attribute that is on each photo)
At toddler group we began our story time with our welcome song and then talked through the pages of the ‘Thank you God’ book that we were using that week. There’s no need to recap on previous weeks – you want to keep the story time short. The children and adults were encouraged to join in – for example clapping when it was in the book. We added extra ideas too. The book is a starting point; add activities that suit your group.
I would start with a welcome song, do the book pages for that week, add some extra ideas and then do some songs. Every week read the Bible verse together (you don’t have to read out the reference but you can say that these words are from God’s Book, the Bible.)
The following are the files for you to download and print
Ideas for songs – Thank you God Book
There are lots of songs that will fit in with this theme. Here are some ideas.
Songs/Rhymes to use any week
- Head, shoulders knees and toes
- From my head down to my toes God loves me
- I wiggle my fingers, I wiggle my toes
- The Hokey Cokey (if you are a large group don’t get in a circle – wave arms up in the air for ‘oh the hokey cokey’)
Songs about feet
- The Grand old Duke of York
- Walking through the jungle
- Sleeping bunnies (jumping/hopping at the end of the song)
Songs about hands
- Open shut them, open shut them
- If you’re happy and you know it (can use for feet too)
- Round and round the garden (a rhymes using hands – for adults to do with their child)
- Miss Polly had a dolly (knocking on the door with our hands)
- Tommy Thumb (a song using our hands)
- We all clap hands together
Songs about ears
- I hear thunder
- Old MacDonald (all the sounds the animals make)
- Oh we can play on the big brass drum
Songs about mouths
- Jelly on a plate (for eating)
- All songs – we use our mouths for singing!
- The wheels on the bus – the verses the Daddies on the bus go ‘Shush’, the babies on the bus go ‘wah, wah, wah’ and the mummies on the bus go ‘chatter, chatter, chatter’.
Songs about eyes
- I see blue sky (second verse of ‘I hear thunder’)
- Sleeping bunnies (we close our eyes to sleep)
Songs about noses
- I wiggle my fingers, I wiggle my nose
- Head, shoulders, knees and toes
A really great book for songs and rhymes is ‘This Little Puffin’ compiled by Elizabeth Matterson. First published in 1969 it’s been updated. Well worth buying if you work with under fives. I’ve had my copy for over thirty years (might be time to buy the updated edition!) – Affiliate link – if you click on the above link and make a purchase this blog will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you.
Craft/Activity Ideas
Feet – decorate foot prints
Hands – make hand prints with paint. Do finger painting. Play with dough. Build with bricks.
Ears – put together a sound/listening table with musical instruments, scrunchie paper, rain sticks.
Mouths – decorate biscuits (check for allergies first). Make smiley faces using paper plates.
Eyes – have a ‘looking table’ with large magnifyers and leaves, pine cones, flowers for children to take a closer look at. We used this idea for Autumn too.
Noses – make scented pictures. Beforehand use some inexpensive perfume to spray collage materials. Allow to dry. At toddler group let the children create scented pictures using the now scented collage materials. Here’s a similar idea. Scented flower pictures.