This year we will actually have our Thursday toddler group on February 14th. Valentines Day is often in half term but not this year! So a special ‘keepsake craft’ is in order. Something special for parents and toddlers to make together, write the date on the back and keep.
Baker Ross sell card hearts that are perfect for making a heart wreath. The heart shapes are cut using paper punches – two different sizes. There will be wool and sequins too. The cut out hearts will be colour coordinated – lots of pinks, some green, patterns and bright yellow. The yellow brings the whole thing to life.
We’re doing stories from the life of peter at Tuesday toddler group. last week it was the calling of the first disciples (Mark 1:16-18. Peter is still called Simon at this point. We have used the name peter to save confusion). The craft was paper plate fish.
This week it was the healing of Peter’s mother in law. (Mark 1:29-31)
The craft is a little bit more involved than usual – it is definitely one for an adult to make with their child. But it uses different textures and can be used to tell the story as the woman can get in and out of the bed.
There’s a free PDF of the bed and the woman is from kit that needs minimal prep.
The two sides of the craft – if you can’t do double sided printing/photocopying the side with the quilt pattern can be blank. It will work just as well.
You need pieces of fabric for the pillow and quilt. Mum-in-law has wool for hair and has a happy face one side and a sad face the other. The idea is that she isn’t glued to the craft but can get out of the bed.
I used a set of concertina girl shapes for the woman. They are from amazon. They need to be cut into individual people.
There are lots of opportunities for chat while making this craft. Parents/carers and toddlers can talk about colour and texture and of course talk about the story. We have our story half way through the morning with craft before and after. For those who make it before it can help them know what to listen out for.
Thank you for visiting this blog! I just want to wish you a very Happy Christmas and a blessed New Year.
This is my last post of 2018. To finish, here are some photos from the Toddler Group parties that I’ve been involved with over the past week. One was a birthday party for Jesus – with a cake! Father Christmas came to see us last Thursday (real shame there were no elves to wrap gifts! – wrapping 60 books was not all that much fun). I put the gingerbread house and train together the night before one party. Some ideas seem so great till you are several hours into decorating and it still isn’t finished. But no doubt I will forget this and do another one next year. (Only with better decoration!)
Each Christmas I really enjoy telling the Christmas Bible stories. What a truly wonderful thing it is that Jesus came as a baby. It always fills me with a sense of wonder.
‘And while they were there (Bethlehem), the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.’ Luke 2:6-7
So far we have had stories about Creation, the Fall, Abraham, the angel visiting Mary and the birth of Jesus. Our last story in our journey to Bethlehem series is all about the shepherds. Luke 2:8-20
‘The baby sent from God was tucked up in the manger. Mary and Joseph were there to look after him. Do you remember his name? He was called Jesus. There they were that night – just the three of them.
Meanwhile, out of the town, in the hills, there were shepherds. Shepherds look after sheep. What sound does a sheep make?
It was dark – the shepherds were making sure that all the sheep were safe.
Then suddenly something happened that made the shepherds really scared! There was an angel – and the angel was surrounded by bright light.
‘Don’t be afraid’, the angel said, ‘I bring you good news of great joy that is for everyone, everywhere. Today, a Saviour has been born. You will find him lying in a manger.’
Then lots of angels were there singing. And then they were gone and it was dark again.
The shepherds looked at each other, ‘Let’s go and see this thing that’s happened that God has told us about.’
So off they went – down the hill, through the town, looking here, looking there – until they found Jesus. They found the Saviour.
We can find Jesus too. He is still the Saviour sent from God for everyone, everywhere. We won’t find him in a manger – but we can know him as our Saviour.‘
Another paper plate…to add
All the paper plates from our Journey to Bethlehem
I often start story time by introducing the characters – in this story we’ll all say hello to Mary and then to Joseph as I take them out of the story bag. (The knitted characters are from an Alan Dart pattern – available from his website or from Amazon)
The Story
‘Mary and Joseph had to go on a long journey. They needed to go all the way to Bethlehem. Maybe they took one of these with them – take donkey out of the story bag. What noise does a donkey make? Everyone join in with ‘eeyore (hee-haw)’
When they got to the town of Bethlehem they needed to find somewhere to stay. Mary’s baby was soon going to be born.
They looked and they looked. They knocked on the door of the hotel. ‘We must find somewhere soon!’ they said to each other.
The hotel boss answered the door – ‘No room here!’ he said
Oh no! (Everyone repeat this)
‘But maybe you could stay where the animals are?’ he said.
It was better than having nowhere to go. So that was where Mary and Joseph went. And there Jesus was born.
He was a real baby – with 10 fingers and 10 toes and a nose and two eyes and two ears. But he was also very special because he is God’s Son. The Bible gives him a special name – Immanuel – which means ‘God with us’. ‘ (Matthew 1:23)
We’ll add another paper plate to our Journey to Bethlehem display..
So altogether we have …..
We will be making Christmas star wreaths as our craft..
This week we get very near to Bethlehem! The story is the Angel’s visit to Mary from Luke 1:26-38.
Bible story – from Luke 1:26-38.
(Include actions in the story if you can – ask the children and adults to join in)
‘One day Mary was at home. It was just an ordinary day. Mary was cleaning the house (some actions here – maybe dusting or sweeping).
But then something extraordinary happened! An angel came to see her! Now angels are not like fairies. Angels are big and strong! (actions here too). The angel that came to see Mary was called Gabriel (ask everyone to repeat the name). He had a message from God.
‘You are going to have a very special baby,’ he said to Mary. ‘This baby will be God’s Son and he will be King forever.’
Who was this baby? This baby, that the angel talked about, was Jesus.
Mary listened. (everyone touch their ears). She knew that this promised baby would be very, very special and important.’
All the paper plates so far will be on display…
New plate to add……
And an angel craft idea…
All you need is paper plates cut into wedges, doilies cut into quarters, circles, wool, shiny paper and wool. You can either draw on the eyes and smile beforehand or let the children do it.
Yesterday I posted a Christmas Card Star idea. Today another idea using the same star wreath. This time you can paint the star or decorate with stickers and then use tissue paper for a stained glass effect.
I used paint markers to create the dots. As with all paint check that what you use is washable and have aprons or warn parents/carers that there will be paint! I bought Washable Dab and Dot Markers. They are for 3plus years but if you put the lids out of reach and keep a watchful eye they are ok. If you don’t feel 100% comfortable with using something in your group then don’t use it.
This is so easy and uses up Christmas cards! The star shape is from Baker Ross. I kept my Christmas cards from last year but wasn’t quite sure what to do with them until I was planning for Christmas and a friend told me about star shaped wreaths!
For toddlers I’m cutting out nativity themed pictures plus a few winter robins and I’ve added the choice of tissue paper too. I went with green and red but silver and gold would be lovely!
Older children could cut out their own motifs from a selection of cards.
This week the Bible story was all about God’s promise to Abraham to give him a huge family and to bless all the people on earth through that family. During the story I use the names Abraham and Sarah for simplicity. (At this point in the Bible they are still using the names Abram and Sara – and you can use these names if you prefer)
Bible Story – God’s Promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3 and 15:5)
Bible truth for toddlers – Jesus was born into Abraham’s family
‘Say hello to Abraham! (take a puppet or doll from the story bag). Abraham lived a long, long, long time ago.
One day God spoke to Abraham, ‘Pack up your things and leave the place where you are living. Go to a place that I will show you. I will make you a great nation and all the families on the earth will be blessed through you’. God was making a promise to Abraham.
Abraham listened to God and he did what God said. He and his wife Sarah (take another doll or puppet from the story bag) packed their things and off they went.
God showed them where to go.
Now after Abraham and Sarah had been living in their new home for quite a while God spoke to Abraham again.
Abraham was outside at night time. It was dark. God said to him, ‘Look up at the sky and all the stars. So many stars that you can’t count them. This is how large your family will be.’
Abraham listened to God and he believed God.
And Abraham did have a large family .. and from that large family came Jesus. He is the one that blesses the whole world.’
When we had finished the story we added another paper plate to all the others ..
So, altogether the story so far….
God makes the worldAdam and Eve eat the fruitGod’s promise to Abraham
These paper plates can be used to tell the Christmas story and/or as craft ideas. They need some prep so I’m posting them now!
The Angel Gabriel visits Mary – Luke 1:26-38
Jesus is born – Luke 2:1-7
The shepherds are told about the birth of the Saviour – Luke 2:8-21
You can tell the story a little at a time over three weeks or use the plates altogether
They are made from sturdy paper plates that have a rim (not the cheapest but they need to stand up to being taken out of a story bag). The picture backgrounds are made from tissue paper and the scenes and people use paper, sugar paper, crepe paper, cardboard rolls (stable) wool, cotton wool and shiny paper. The angel wings are hearts cut out using a paper punch. The bodies of the people are triangles and the head scarfs (I can’t think of a better word!) are material. Lots of different textures and colours! Use what you have 🙂
This week the story is all about how things went from being ‘very good’ (thumbs up) to very bad (thumbs down). The creation plates will be part of the large picture board and the next story will be added.
Bible truth for toddlers – Adam and Eve broke God’s one rule
‘God gave Adam and Eve one rule. ‘Don’t eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden’. They could eat from every other tree but not that one.
Then one day a serpent began to talk to Eve! ‘ Just look at the fruit on that lovely tree in the middle of the garden! It looks so deliciousssss. I’m sure God won’t mind if you take a bite. Nothing bad will happen!’
Eve looked at the tree. It did look lovely. Eve looked at the fruit. It did look yummy. She reached out her hand…. and she took the fruit. She could smell how delicious it was and then…… she took a bite. Then Adam took a bite too!
They had broken God’s one rule and everything changed. They weren’t friends with God anymore and they tried to hide.
But God found them. He still loved them and he promised to send a Saviour so that people could be friends with God again.’
In the storybag
Journey to Bethlehem – Adam and Eve disobey craft
Use a paper plate to make a spiral. Make sure the spiral is fairly wide. Decorate with squares of tissue paper. Add some string to the snakes head, an eye and a tongue.
Autumn craft and activities to enjoy! I love making seasonal wreaths. They can be taken home and used to decorate. It is good for children to see their art work displayed and treasured.
We’ve used faux leaves for this wreath that were bought. You could use cut out leaf shapes instead and add tissue paper berries. Use autumnal colours – reds, oranges and yellows, browns and add a pop of green. The wreath in the first photo is a circle of cardboard bought from Amazon. If you would rather make your own use a paper plate and cut out the centre or cut a circle from card.
Autumn wreath using faux leaves
Autumn wreath using paper cut out leaf shapes and tissue paper berries
Home made playdough can be used to decorate an autumn tree.
The tree printout has been laminated – if you don’t have a laminator (and lots of us don’t) then use tacky back to cover printed or drawn tree.
The playdough is homemade and coloured with poster paint. Leaves were cut out using a cake decorating cutter. This would be a lovely activity for a small group in Sunday school or at home. If you add vanilla extract to the dough it smells amazing. If you would rather not use a cutter then just make leaf shapes by rolling the dough and shaping it with hands.
Playdough recipe – This playdough is a no cook recipe – it uses boiling water so has to be made by an adult.
1 cup flour
1/4 cup salt
1 teaspoon cream of tarter (you really do need this – don’t be tempted to leave it out and make sure it’s in date. It’ll stop the dough going slimy)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil (don’t use a nut oil in case children are allergic)
3/4 cup boiling water
Food colouring paste or ready mix water colour paint for colour
To make – add all the dry ingredients together in a mixer and then add the oil, boiling water and colouring and mix till a soft dough. You can mix by hand but it’ll take longer.
As well as an autumn wreath and autumn playdough trees another Autumn craft you can make extra large autumn leaves! Just cut large leaf shapes from coloured sugar paper and decorate!
A 3D harvest picture made from a cereal box is a different craft to the usual – it takes a bit of effort to prepare but is well worth it. You need a cereal box for each child. We asked our church to donate boxes over several weeks. So to do this craft for harvest we started asking for donations in July. It didn’t matter that the boxes were a variety of sizes. If you are running a church toddler group asking people to donate items for the craft is a great way to get the church involved with your group.
To make a harvest 3D cereal box picture, you need
cereal boxes,
circles for the sun,
cloud shapes,
grass made from sugar paper,
tractors,
lots of flower pictures cut from magazines
glue.
Preparation to do ahead – you need to put the cereal boxes back together by taping the top together. The box should be able to stand up. Then cut a window (I used a craft knife for this). Make sure you leave a rim, a bit like having a frame around the window. Prepare the grass by cutting green paper to the width of the box. Print out the tractors.
The children can then add all the other bits and bobs. They need to start off with the pictures inside the box and then add the grass, sun, cloud, rain etc..
Here is a song to enjoy. Simple lyrics, great tune! This is a great song for toddler group as you could easily add actions for everyone to join in with.
Jesus told the story about the Wise and Foolish Builders as part of his Sermon on the Mount. You can read it in Matthew 7:24 – 27. It’s a great story for using actions as you tell it. And of course there is the song. If you search youtube for ‘the Wise Man built his house on the rock’ you should find a couple of versions at least.
The craft that we made was a house on rock made from cut out shapes. The sequin rain is optional – depending on how much mess you wish to make!
A friend has asked for some ideas on what happens when at toddler group. So here are a few examples. I go to three groups a week at the moment and each one is different. Mondays and Thursday we are in community halls and on Tuesday we are in a church.
Monday group ( venue has one large hall with extra space for buggy parking)
10am Doors open and bubbles
10.15 Story time and welcome/notices
10.20 Snacks for the children
10.25 Free play and tea/coffee and cake for adults
11.15 Singing time and finish at 11.30
Tuesday group (venue has two rooms with extra space for buggy parking)
9.15 -10.15 Free play
Half way through the session snacks for the children ( everyone sits on the floor) followed by story and singing (One room is cleared of ride on toys to create space for this). The story is 5 minutes long and singing time varies.
Free play with tea/coffee and cake/biscuits for adults and finish at 11.15
Thursday group (venue has large hall, two smaller rooms and extra space for buggy parking)
9.30 Free play – with painting in side room. During this time tea/coffee is served – adults come to the kitchen door (we use a stairgate to keep it safe) and ask for their drink when they arrive or at any time up to about 10 minutes before tidy up time.
10.45 Tidy up time immediately followed by children’s snack time that we serve at tables.
At 11 we finish the morning with story, singing and musical instruments. Home time is at about 11.15.
The big downside of this timetable is that the parents don’t get any cake!
Some things to think about…
The space that you have for you group can make a difference to what you do when. If you want toddlers to be involved in story time you may need to have snacks first so that they can join in without holding a drink and a bread stick. It’s easier to tell a story without the distractions of toys around.
If parents help with tidying up toys it can be a real help if there aren’t many people in your team. In each of the three groups I help at the team of leaders tidy furniture once everyone has left.
If you have a craft table or do painting the items that are made need time to dry before home time. This is especially true when it comes to painting!
It can be hard to get a toddler and new baby out of the house to arrive at a group for 9.15. If people arrive half an hour after you’ve started will they have missed the chance for a drink or the story?
It’s useful for everyone attending your group to have an idea of what happens when. At the Thursday group we have a large print out on our noticeboard of our timetable with the heading ‘What happens in toddler group’. There was a lot of laughter the morning we found that someone had written ‘stays in toddler group’ underneath.
How does your group look? Please share your ideas!
This term we are thinking about the good things that God has given to us. The idea is borrowed from Christ Church Dunstable (big thank you to them!!). Each week we discover something that God has given to us. We aren’t exactly telling a story each week but are taking things from a story bag. This week we were thinking about animals and so I had a selection of toy animals to take from a bag. We named them and thought about stripes, colours, the sounds they make and whether they had a long tail or a long neck. The last animal was – a wild animal but one that we all might see. Any ideas? A fox. We are in an urban area where it’s not unusual to see foxes in broad daylight.
Here are the different story bag items from the last three weeks…
It’s nearly summer! This term we are thinking about the things that our Good God has given to us. This idea is borrowed from a Toddler Group scheme from Christ Church Dunstable. Last week we thought about the world. We had a globe (that lit up!) and lots of pictures. All the pictures were freely available from the internet. I just used Word and then inserted pictures from the web. No problems with copyright!
This week we are thinking about how God has given us family and friends. Last weeks pictures will be used again and the people added. Then we will wave at our friends, smile and shake hands. For song time we’ll include Row, row, row your boat’ that needs a friend to row with.
We made these over two weeks at our after school club. The first week we made the basket and baby Moses and today we made the hand shaped reeds and tissue paper water. The four year olds did a great job of using scissors. I never use scissors with preschoolers but the children today are already in year one so it’s good for them to use their skills.
Nicodemus is mentioned several times in the New Testament. He first appears in John 3, then again in John 7 and then finally in John 19. He came to be a follower of Jesus over time. Quite different to Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus but no less real.
For our Toddler Group story we’ll be thinking about the events of John 3. Nicodemus was a very important man with lots of questions. He was also wanting to see Jesus when the crowds had gone home and so he found Jesus at night.
Jesus had done lots of amazing things. He had made sick people better, he had made blind people see again. No one else could do something like that.
Lots of people heard about the things that Jesus did and they wondered, ‘Who is Jesus?’ ‘Is he a good man?’ Yes, he is. ‘But is he sent from God?’ Some people believed that Jesus was God’s Son sent from heaven.
But some people weren’t sure what to think. One of those people was a man called Nicodemus (everyone repeat the name). Now Nicodemus was an important man who knew lots and lots of things. But he didn’t know if Jesus really was God’s Son or not.
What could he do?
One night when the stars were shining in the sky (make star shapes with your hands) and most people were at home in bed and fast asleep (pretend to be sleeping) Nicodemus crept out of his house (walk on the spot on tiptoe and everyone shush)Â and went to find Jesus.
‘Jesus, you are a great teacher sent from God or how else could you do the amazing things that you have done’ said Nicodemus.
Then Jesus said something that Nicodemus found hard to understand, ‘You must be born again!’ Jesus didn’t mean that we all have to become brand new babies again. He meant that when we believe in Jesus he makes us brand new inside.
It took Nicodemus a long time to understand what Jesus meant. But he thought about who Jesus was and he believed that he was God’s Son. Everyone who wants to be a follower of Jesus needs to believe that Jesus is God’s Son.
Craft Ideas – one is a collage of the night sky and the other is a silhouette of Jesus and Nicodemus.
We started a new set of Bible stories at Toddler group today. Each week we are going to meet someone from the Bible who followed Jesus. Today we started with Tabitha (or Dorcas) from Acts 9. She came along in our story basket together with a few sewing related items.
We begin by saying hello to Tabitha and then I talk about how she helped others because she followed Jesus. The way she helped was by making clothes. As items are taken out of the story basket they are named. The children listened really well!
The puppet is new and was from E W Education via Amazon. They come as a set of 10 different puppets in a lovely hessian sack with several accessories.
Our craft was decorating people shapes with fabric and wool.
On a slightly different note – I will be leading a seminar/workshop about craft at toddler group at the Care for the Family Playtime Conference in September. It’s going to be all about crafts for different seasons. I am chuffed to bits to have been invited. Here’s a link to the info. There are lots of seminars and great speakers. It’s going to be a really good day 🙂
Sometimes I have cut out wreath shapes from paper plates but when you need to make 50 that can take a while! So when I found that Baker Ross were selling cardboard wreath shapes I was really keen to try them out. As you can see they are dark brown, obviously made of card and come with a hole and some string so they can be displayed at home. A big win! Here’s the link to Baker Ross with all the info about the craft wreaths.
The embellishments are from Hobbycraft (eggs and bunnies) Take the eggs out of the packaging well ahead as they really do smell! The paper hearts and circles are made with a paper punch and the confetti is the biodegradable kind. I cut the bird and ladybird from molliemakes magazine. The Easter greeting is on sugar paper and I did write happy Easter 50 times. Part way through I began to worry that I was spelling Easter incorrectly!
I will definitely be using the craft wreaths for other crafts. Really great find.
I’ve spent part of today making Easter crafts ready for the next couple of weeks of toddler group. The above is a collection of all the things we’ve done to celebrate Easter over the past six years. When I look at some of them I am amazed that I made the time to prepare 60 salt dough eggs or cut out wreath circles from paper plates! But I did and the children loved them. The chocolate nests were made at our Monday afternoon Reception to Year 2 group. This afternoon one of the children reminded me that we made them last year – I think we may make them again next week.
Salt dough eggs –Â
To make them you need to start with a salt dough. This is very easy. You need 2 cups plain flour, 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of water (add this gradually as you may not need it all). Kneed the dough on a floured surface and roll out to about 4mm thick. As you do this keep making sure it isn’t sticking to the work top. I used a template and cut around it. You could also use an egg shaped biscuit cutter. If you are making hanging decorations you need to make a hole for the thread about 1cm away from the edge. Then leave the shapes to dry. They will air dry, but it will take a long time (48 hours plus) or you can put them in a low oven, not more than 100C, for up to 4 hours. (they can burn so keep an eye on them). Once dry you can paint them or leave them plain for children to decorate.
We used felt tips to decorate but you could also glue coloured paper on to them and add glitter or use finger paints.
It seems as though we only just celebrated Christmas and here we are a couple of weeks away from Easter! So at toddler group next week we are doing the Palm Sunday story (Triumphal Entry). The story we will be using is from John 12. There are some ideas for telling the story here
For the craft we’ll be making large collage/crayon leaves. The leaves are cut from A3 paper and then I added some detail with a black felt tip. The collage materials are a mixture of sugar paper, paper and tissue paper in various shapes. The children can also use green and yellow crayons.
‘One day Jesus was in the big, important city of Jerusalem (ask children to repeat name)
In Jerusalem there was a special pool of water. The people believed that when the water started to move that the first person to get into the water would be made better. So every day lots of people who were unwell sat around the pool and waited.
Now, Jesus was walking near to the pool and he saw a man who had been unable to walk for a long, long time. He asked him, ‘Do you want to get better?’
The man said, ‘When the water moves there is no one to help me to get into the water and someone else always gets there first.’
Jesus listened to the man and then he told him, ‘ Get up, pick up the mat you are lying on and walk.’
And that’s exactly what the man did. He got up and picked up the mat he’d been lying on and he walked! He was so happy!
Jesus was able to make the man walk because he is the Son of God.’
‘Love heart flowers cards’ – This is an easy make for Mother’s Day which is only a couple of weeks away! The flowers and leaves are made by cutting out heart shapes from coloured sugar paper. I don’t cut these out with scissors ; I use paper cutters. Paper cutters or punches can be expensive but if you use them a lot they are soon worth the money spent. It would take me for ever to cut out hearts! The other shapes are squares/rectangles for the vase and thin strips of green paper for the stalks.
Handy tip – if your paper punch begins to get blunt cut a few shapes out of aluminium foil to sharpen it.
Q is for Question is part of our Bible Alphabet series. Starting at A we have told a Bible Story for each letter of the alphabet. It can be anything – a person, place or object – so long as the letter we are doing comes somewhere. Q was a bit tricky! There are names we could have used (but not many) so we went with question.
The question, ‘who is this, that even the winds and waves obey him?’ was asked by the disciples after Jesus stilled the storm. (Mark 4:36-41).There are other questions in the story – ‘Teacher do you care that we are perishing?’ and ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
The question about who Jesus is is at the heart of the story.
To tell the story to young children
Have a story bag with a boat and the twelve disciples (you could use duplo figures or cut out pictures. Below are lego mini figures because that is what we have! Don’t look too closely at the characters as they are a strange bunch!)
Piece of blue cloth to represent the sea.
Cushion or pillow
Or
Introduce actions for the children to do during the story
Move arms to represent waves
Blow into hands for the wind
Pretend to be sleeping
Say ‘Shush’ – ‘be still’
You could play some sound effects during the story – thunder and rain recordings are available on MP3 downloads (usually used for relaxation). Make sure you listen to anything you plan to use beforehand.
There’s a fuller version of the Story here and a craft idea too.
Wherever Jesus went there were crowds of people wanting to see him. This story comes not long after the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law when people had heard about the healing and had come to the house with their family and friends who wanted to be made well.
In this story Jesus is teaching the people God’s word but there is a crush so he gets into a boat and teaches the people.
To tell the story you could use a toy boat, puppets or knitted dolls to represent the main characters, a net some paper or plastic fish and a blue cloth for the water.
The Story Idea
One day Jesus was talking to lots and lots of people about God. But there were so many people that it was difficult! There was pushing and shoving and people standing on tip toe and trying to get near the front to see and hear Jesus.
What could he do?
Right by Jesus there was an empty fishing boat. The fishermen were busy washing the fishing nets so Jesus got into the boat and they pushed it just a little way into the water. Then there was no more pushing and shoving and Jesus talked to the people about God.
When Jesus had said all he wanted to say he told one of the fishermen to put the boat into the really deep water and throw the fishing net over to catch fish.
Now the fisherman’s name was Simon Peter – he just wasn’t sure that they would catch any fish. They had been working all night and had caught nothing! But because Jesus told him to he got into the boat and rowed out to deep water and threw in the net.
And then something amazing happened!
The boat began to tilt a little bit, the net was so full it was almost breaking! They had caught so many fish that they needed help!
Maybe we would think that Simon Peter would be really excited and be happy. But he wasn’t. He knelt down in front of Jesus and said ‘ You need to go away Jesus because I am a sinful man.’
Jesus didn’t go away he said to Simon Peter ‘Don’t be afraid, from now on you won’t be catching fish but telling people about me.’
Simon Peter bought the boat back to the land and he left it and all the fish and he followed Jesus.
Craft Idea – fish collage using tissue paper and sugar paper
The story of the Wise Men is from Matthew 2:1-15. As this story is being told to toddlers I don’t mention Herod’s plan to kill the baby boys. It is a very dark part of the story and reminds us the Birth of Jesus took place in a world where many people had rejected God.
To tell the story you need – some Wise Men, toy camels and a star. You can add some actions too – stars with hands (like in twinkle, twinkle little star), running, looking, kneeling.
The story
Bible Truth for Toddlers – Jesus is King
Do you remember how we heard about Jesus being born? He was a tiny baby. But then he grew and he was a toddler – just like you! He lived in a house with Mary and Joseph.
Far away from where Jesus lived there were some Wise Men. They read books and knew lots and lots of things. They loved to look at the stars in the dark nights sky. One night they saw a new star! They looked at the new star and they looked at each other. ‘Wow! they thought, ‘this new star means that a new king has been born in Israel. Let’s go and worship him’.
So they packed their things and set off for the important city of Jerusalem. They traveled for a long time. It took days and days to get there. When they arrived in Jerusalem they asked everyone they met, ‘Where is the new baby king?’
Now, there was a king in Jerusalem called King Herod but he wasn’t a baby, he was a grown up and he wasn’t happy. He didn’t want a new King! He heard that there were men from a far away place who were asking people, ‘Where is the new king?’ This upset him and it upset the people who were living in Jerusalem. He sent for the men from the temple. ‘Where is this new King to be born?’ he asked. The men from the temple knew the answer because it was written in the Bible. ‘In Bethlehem.’ they said.
Herod sent for the Wise Men and he told them to go to Bethlehem and find this new King and then come back and tell him where the new King was so he could go and worship him too.
So off the Wise Men went. It wasn’t too far to go now. As they got nearer something very special happened. The star was there again and this time it went before them and shone right over the house where Jesus was. The Wise men had found Jesus and they knelt down and worshiped him. They took their treasures out of their bags and gave them to Jesus. They gave him gold, farnkinsense and myrrh. These were special gifts for a King.
The Wise Men never told Herod where Jesus was. God warned them not to in a dream and they travelled home.
Herod didn’t want to worship Jesus. He wanted to get rid of him. An angel told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and run away to a different country till it was safe to go back home.
Joseph did what the angel said and took Mary and Jesus to somewhere safe far away from Herod. When the danger was past they went to back home to Nazareth.
Craft Idea –
Decorate stars – we’ve used wooden stars from amazon and paint. Put the painted star on a white envelope so you can name it. It’s much easier than writing it on the back and then having to turn the stars over at home time.
Man through the roof craft is fun! In our group for Reception – Year Two we are doing a series of Bible Stories that can be found here. This week we began with the man through the roof story (healing of the paralysed man) from Mark 2:1-12.
We made a craft using a square envelope for the house. This is my version. The picture of the man is from page 79 of the free lesson available from Teachkids.eu. The lesson is found in the Preschooler section and is called ‘Little kids can know God through his miracles’.
Thank you for taking the time to visit this blog and for leaving comments here and in a couple of Christmas cards 🙂 I hope that you have a very Happy Christmas.
‘And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.’ Luke 2:6-7
The baby sent from God was tucked up in the manger. Mary and Joseph were there to look after him. Do you remember his name? He was called Jesus. There they were that night – just the three of them.
Meanwhile, out of the town, in the hills there were shepherds. Shepherds look after sheep. What sound does a sheep make?
It was dark – the shepherds were making sure that all the sheep were safe.
Then suddenly something happened that made the shepherds really scared! There was an angel – and the angel was surrounded by bright light.
‘Don’t be afraid’, the angel said, ‘I bring you good news of great joy that is for everyone, everywhere. Today, a Saviour has been born. You will find him lying in a manger.’
Then lots of angels were there singing. And then they were gone and it was dark again.
The shepherds looked at each other, ‘Let’s go and see this thing that’s happened that God has told us about.’
So off they went – down the hill, through the town, looking here, looking there – until they found Jesus. They found the Saviour.
We can find Jesus too. He is still the Saviour sent from God for everyone, everywhere. We won’t find him in a manger – but we can know him as our Saviour.
Lots of making today at Toddler Group – sequins and shredded tissue paper here,there and everywhere but beautiful baubles were made and a simple nativity. I think I prefer sequins instead of glitter for making baubles and the children loved them.
I love celebrating Christmas at Toddler Group 🙂
All you need to make these decorations – circles cut out of card (I use a paper punch), an oblong with a hole for string, glue and sequins. I’m going to ask parents to put the child’s name and date on the back so that this becomes a keepsake.
To minimise sequin spillage (!) each child will have a paper plate to catch sequins! (I hope this works)
To make this angel all you need is – paper plate (cut out a triangle for the angel’s body), circle for the angel’s face, shredded tissue paper for the hair, black felt tip to draw a face, ribbon to make a hook so the angel can be used as a decoration and yellow tissue paper, shiny paper and glitter to decorate the angel’s wings and body. And glue!
We aren’t using glitter at our toddler group because we made so much mess last year! The shiny paper was a good substitute. Sequins would be fun too.
The cast of Christmas are ready! I’m really looking forward to telling the Christmas Story with these guys .. made by my super talented mum. The Wise Men are my favourites 🙂 Here’s a link to the Alan Dart pattern my mum used. (Affiliate link – if you click and buy the item I receive a small commission at no extra cost to you)
You can use the characters over several weeks and build up a nativity tableau. They are a great size and fit well in a story bag or basket. I add some toy sheep for the shepherds and we have some soft toy camels for the Wise Men.
If you are planning on making them give yourself plenty of time or ask for help! My mum used Stylecraft Special DK from Wool Warehouse. It is reasonably priced yarn that comes on lots of colours. Of course you could also ask for donations of yarn from friends and family.
If you don’t have time to do some knitting you can make a nativity set from paper plates – have a look at this post.
This past week our Bible Story was all about Joseph, his special coat and how his brothers sold him to people travelling on camels to Egypt. The camels were donated to the group about a year ago and normally live in our ‘Vet’ box. They come in very useful for several stories.
Craft – Joseph and his coloured coat! There is a PDF –Â Joseph
Look out for the umbrella in one of the children’s pictures 🙂
The Angel visits Mary Bible story – from Luke 1:26-38.
(Include actions in the story if you can – ask the children and adults to join in)
‘One day Mary was at home. It was just an ordinary day. Mary was cleaning the house (some actions here – maybe dusting or sweeping).
But then something extraordinary happened! An angel came to see her! Now angels are not like fairies. Angels are big and strong! (actions here too – make a big shape with your arms and then flex muscles). The angel that came to see Mary was called Gabriel (ask everyone to repeat the name). He had a message from God.
‘You are going to have a very special baby,’ he said to Mary. ‘This baby will be God’s Son and he will be King forever.’
Who was this baby? This baby, that the angel talked about, was Jesus.
Mary listened. (everyone touch their ears). She knew that this promised baby would be very, very special and important.
Jesus is very, very special and important. He is God’s Son who came to earth to be the Saviour.’
Craft Ideas – make angels
Square paper plate angel – cut out the wings and use tissue paper to create a stained glass effect.
Paper cup/ice cream pot angel. Use a circle for the face and add a pipe cleaner halo.
Story bag ideas – a doll to represent Mary or Early Learning Centre Nativity Set. You could add a duster and a dustpan and brush and your angel craft to represent Gabriel.
Do you have a cosy corner for sharing books? Does your toddler group have a special space for parents and children to read a book together?
Last week I spotted a mum sitting in our comfy book corner with her son and baby daughter. They were surrounded by books and were, in her words, having a ‘book fest’. Even though it was time for snacks I left them to it – they had to finish the book!
When my own children were small we had a favourite book – we can still quote parts of it to each other. It’s ‘So Much’ written by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. When I joined the Toddler Group Team at my church I bought a copy for our group. Everyone should have a chance to enjoy this book.
It’s all about a family and how that family love the new baby – they love him so much. As the book goes on we are introduced to all the family – mum, dad, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas. The illustrations are fab.
Do you have a favourite children’s book? Please share!
There are lots of Bible Stories about people who were shepherds – Abel, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and his brothers, Moses, David and Jesus is the Good Shepherd.
I’ll be using this colouring page as the craft for the story about Moses and the burning bush. (Exodus 3). As we do the craft before and after the lesson I haven’t included the burning bush as I want that to be a surprise in the story. Click here for the story.
You could use it for any of the Bible Stories about shepherds. Here’s the link for the PDF – Shepherd and Sheep
Story – (I used the above pictures – found via google- as puppets)
Jacob and Esau were brothers. In fact they were twins! Esau had been born first and then Jacob. They were very different to look at. They liked doing different things. Esau loved to be outside and to go hunting. Jacob liked to stay at home.
Their dad liked Esau the best. Their mum liked Jacob the best.
There was a big problem in this family. Even though Esau and Jacob were grown ups they tried to trick each other. Jacob really wanted all the great things that were going to belong to Esau, who was born first.
One day Jacob and his mum tricked Esau and this made him very angry. Esau was so angry that Jacob decided to go far away and stay with his Uncle Laban.
He said goodbye in a big hurry and he was off. It was a long walk. A long, long walk. He was getting tired. The sun was going down and it was getting dark. There were stars in the dark sky.
‘I’ll have to sleep here where I am’, thought Jacob.
So he got a stone to put near his head and he lay down to go to sleep. It doesn’t sound very comfortable does it! But Jacob was so tired and was missing home that he went off to sleep.
And then something extraordinary happened. He had a dream about angels. He could see a ladder that started on the ground but reached up and up and up right to heaven. Walking up and down the ladder were angels.
Then God spoke to Jacob, ‘I am the LORD. I won’t leave you. I will give you this land on which you are lying.’
Then Jacob woke up.
God knew where Jacob was. God cared about Jacob. God loved Jacob.
God knows where you are. God cares about you. God loves you.
This Abraham in his tent craft has a lift the flap element that hides Abraham! It’s a lovely craft to make with lots of sticking and opportunities to add texture to the tent by using fabric and texture to the sky by using cotton wool for clouds.
Abraham in his tent craft
Everything you need to make the craft
Abraham (this picture was from a google image search),
Blue sugar/construction paper,
Green sugar/construction paper cut into a narrow strip,
A cloud (optional – you could use cotton wool balls that can be unrolled and split),
A tent shape (see the photo and instructions below)
Glue
Tissue paper and/or fabric squares.
To make the tent shape – use the same size paper as for the blue background and trim about an inch off the bottom. Then fold as you see in the picture below. I pre-made the basic tent shapes in different colours in advance.
Making our Abraham in his tent craft at toddler group
Lay out your craft area to make it look welcoming. If it’s a large group don’t put out all your supplies at once but keep some for children who want to do the craft later in the session.
Craft table all readySky and grassAbraham’s tentAbraham in his tent craftAbraham in his tent craft
Our Bible Story was all about how Abraham left his home and went to a new land that God had promised to show him. This story is found in Genesis 12:1. Abraham travelled around this new land and lived in a tent. So our craft is Abraham in his tent!
‘Abraham’ came to toddler group in the Story Bag! We did lots of pointing to our ears when we heard how Abraham listened to God and lots of walking (hands on knees and making the sound of footsteps) as we heard how Abraham did what God said and went to a new place to live.
Later on we told the story about the birth of Isaac – the craft is almost the same but with more people! Take a look at this post Isaac is Born to see the craft idea.
I used a picture of Abraham from the web for the craft but have made a download of Abraham for you to use. Use the link below.
We used a wooden spoon based craft for the bible story about Jesus healing a man who had leprosy. You can read the story in Matthew 8.
The children drew a sad face one side of the spoon and a happy face the other. We used kitchen roll for the clothes – a fairly good quality brand that the children could decorate with felt pens. The arms and belt are pipe cleaners. Use a slighty longer pipe cleaner for the arms.
To make –
Draw the faces on the spoon and write name on the spoon handle
Colour/decorate the square of kitchen roll – I cut the kitchen roll squares into quarters which made them just the right size for our small wooden spoons. Once coloured fold the quarter in half and then in half again and make a small cut on the fold. Slide the spoon through this and then add the arms. Finally add the belt.
This basic idea can be used for retelling lots of Bible stories. Large wooden spoons make great puppets too. Have a look at this idea here.
Do you remember our HBC scenery?  We bought the picture for the scenery from http://www.creativeforkids.com and so we were able to use the picture of a Bible time scene in miniature to make a craft.
The base is a square paper plate. The house is a rectangle block of wood painted with emulsion. Tissue paper makes the grass/sand.
On Saturday we drove to Wembley nice and early to go to a Toddler Group leaders conference. I was leading a couple of workshops about Crafts. It was a really good day. The Keynote speaker, Mary Hawes drew our attention to how toddler groups should be places of generosity, relationships, accessibility, community and encouragement. She encouraged us to be confident about being church based and to share Bible Stories. In the afternoon there was a music workshop that everyone was able to attend.
Very importantly tea and coffee and great pastries kept me so well fed during the breaks that I didn’t really need my packed lunch!
The day was really well organised and I came away enthused about running a Toddler Group and encouraged.
Here’s a picture of the Christmas craft we made
Sunrise – best time of day to drive on the north circular!
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