This past week I needed a large -ish visual aid to use at Toddler Group that was a change from a story bag. So I made a big book. Well, it’s nearer to an envelope really. Very simple to make. All you need is A3 cartridge paper (it does need to be strong paper) x2, some double sided tape, string and cellotape. The basic idea is that you gradually take pictures out of the book/envelope by pulling on the string that has pictures attached.
To make – print out pictures of the things you are thankful for. On one of the A3 sheets of paper secure the string. Then attach your printed pictures onto the length of string – make sure you space them well. Better to have loads of string rather than very small gaps between pictures. Leave a length of string to hang outside the book/envelope. Decorate your front cover. Then using double sided tape stick the A3 sheets of paper together on three sides only. I also used cellotape around three sides.
The person is meant to be me! I used large people shapes from Baker Ross. These are OK but a bit tricky to colour with crayons as they are shiny. The pictures were from the internet – food, a home and a family.
If I was doing this with over three’s I would get enough supplies for each child to make their own and then use the ‘book’ as a prayer help. Older children could select their own pictures or write. If doing the latter an A4 or A5 sized book would be fine.
A couple of years ago we used the alphabet to teach a Bible story a week at Toddler Group. We used a person, place or object and once or twice a word from a story for a letter of the alphabet. For example a is for Adam, b is for Bethlehem, c is for carpenter and so on. The downloads are the wall chart that we built up over the weeks.
For craft we did various things and sometimes chose to print out the letter for that week for the children to decorate – so a bit educational :). We tried to use the phonetic alphabet but did do E is for Eve because I think I just wasn’t thinking straight that week.
This story is from John 6 ( and the other gospels too). In the story basket we had Jesus, Andrew, the young boy, a paper chain of people to represent the crowd and the lunch of two fish and five loaves. In John 6 Philip is also mentioned by name but we kept to just Andrew as he bought the young boy with the lunch to Jesus. Sometimes too much detail can make a toddler group story too long. The paper plate lunch was also our crafty make – we did the craft before the story. The loaves and fish were cut from sugar paper. We weren’t strict about how much ‘lunch’ everyone had on their plate.
We don’t usually do stories in strict chronological order at Toddler Group. We generally tell Bible stories that are linked by a theme and may or may not follow on from the previous week. However, we followed the story of Rahab and the spies with the story of Jericho and it worked well. The duplo Jericho was very visual – a bit tricky to make sure that Rahab’s home stayed intact when the walls came down but the lego duplo was carefully put together to make sure her home was safe!
TheStory (Joshua 6)
To tell the story we had actions for everyone to do – marching, blowing pretend trumpets and a loud shout. We did lots of counting too – the seven days and the final seven times round the city walls. With the shout the duplo walls fell down.
Main Teaching Point – the people believed that God would do what he said. God always does what he says he will do.
Rabab and the spiesThe spies hiding
Rahab had great faith – she put the red cord in the window and went and got her family together. And she waited. The Israelites had to cross the Jordan before getting to Jericho but she didn’t doubt that God would give them the city. We read about Rahab’s family in Matthew’s Gospel. She was Boaz’s grandmother. Boaz married Ruth and was King David’s great grandfather. She is one of the few women named in the genealogy of Jesus.
Hebrews 11:30,31
‘by faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days. By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient’
At toddler group we are using the Go Teach Book No 5 for under three’s. Last week the story was from Joshua 2 – Rahab and the spies.
We took a break from using items from a storybag and had a duplo city instead. This was hidden under a cloth all morning so as not to spoil the surprise. Jericho is made with duplo and the people are from duplo and happystreet. (Not historically correct but the right number and all I had!) The red cord is a piece of wool.
Our craft was red collages – very easy. We had tissue paper, crepe paper, wool, material, sugar paper and red shiny paper to glue any way the children liked onto white sugar paper. Lots of different textures and shades of red. One toddler in our group loves the opportunity to enjoy the feel of all the different textures letting them fall through her fingers like confetti.
Learning the Books of the Bible is really useful – just having an idea of whereabouts a book is and what kind of book it is can be helpful when we are finding our way around God’s Book. For a brief description of the Old Testament books take a look here.
For the New Testament the pegs work really well as a reference and by playing games with the pegs – mixing them up and putting them back in the right order – children can begin to get a feel for the order.
The pegs are wooden attached to a wire coat hanger – the names of the books are written on with biro and then a colour to represent the NT is added at one end and then different colours for categories at the other end.
Categories
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John – the gospels or life story of Jesus.
Acts – history of the early church
Romans through to Jude – letters. Explain that some of the names of the letters refer to where they were sent (e.g Philippians). Others refer to the name of the person who received the letter, (e.g I and 2 Timothy) while others refer to the person who wrote the letter (e.g 1,2.and 3 John).
Revelation – prophecy relating to end time events.
We are doing a series of bible stories all about ‘People Jesus helped’ from the Go Teach Toddlers Book 4. One of the suggested activities was to make a doll’s hospital so we had a go. It’s quite basic – a doctor’s play set, couple of dressing up clothes, dolls, dolls clothes and bedding, toy phone and a few beds made from show boxes. We moved some of our tables into an L shape and put up a sign. It was great to see lots of play going on with parents/carers chatting to their toddlers in the doll’s hospital. We won’t do this every week – it seems that having a new role play area makes more chat between adults and the children possible.
Learning the books of the Bible can be fun! The peg idea is out there on pinterest and various sites so I thought I would have a go and make my own. I have added some colours to make it easier to work out where the books belong and what type of books they all are. I’ve given a very brief snapshot of each book. It helps children to know a few things about the names – are they names of people or places or descriptions. We often assume that they will automatically know but why should someone realise that Obadiah was a person rather than a place!
Genesis – all about beginnings
Exodus – all about leaving – who, when and where
Leviticus – laws
Numbers – God’s people in the wilderness
Deuteronomy – The law for a second time
These five books are grouped together under the heading – law
Then the history books are grouped together – Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Esther, Nehemiah and Ezra.
Joshua – taking possession of the Promised Land
Judges – Israel’s faithlessness; God’s faithfulness in sending judges to rescue them
Ruth – a story about ordinary people during the time of the Judges (people who are in the family tree of David and Jesus)
1 and 2 Samuel – Israel gets a monarchy
1 and 2 kings – the good kings and bad kings of Israel
1 and 2 Chronicles – a history book written for those who had experienced the exile. the future of God’s people is secure in the dynasty of David.
Ezra – God works to fulfil his purposes. Ezra was a scribe. The exiles return from captivity and rebuild the temple. Ezra teaches the people about God.
Nehemiah – the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.
Esther – God’s people are rescued. God is at work even when his presence isn’t obvious of acknowledged. The Purim festival celebrates this true story.
Then we have the poetry books –
Job – the righteous do suffer even when they are living in a way to please God. Part of Wisdom literature.
Psalms – songs written by various authors and different times.
Proverbs – wise sayings. Part of wisdom literature. A general principle of how to live in a God-ordered world is followed throughout the book. If you live like this – then this will happen and things will go well. (Job is a contrast to this as he suffered even when doing good)
Ecclesiastes – wisdom literature. Compares life without God and life knowing God.
Song of Solomon – a song/poem about love
After the poetry which includes the Wisdom literature we arrive at the Major Prophets
Isaiah – a prophet for more that 40 years (kings at the time were – Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah)
Jeremiah – a prophet and a priest. He prophesied the exile of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and lived to see it. A very sad prophet living at a very sad time for God’s people. (Kings at the time – Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiakin and Zedekiah.
Lamentations – a coming to terms with the loss of Judah. Loss and also hope.
Ezekiel – warnings to God’s people, exile and hope for the future
Daniel – a book of two parts. Stories about Daniel in Babylon followed by visions of the future.
Then the twelve Minor Prophets.
Hosea – prophecy and warnings to the northern kingdom (Israel)
Joel – prophecy often written as poetry
Amos – prophet during reign of Jeroboam 2 (Israel) and Uzziah (Judah). Prophecy mainly against the northern kingdom (Israel). Poetic style.
Obadiah – a prophecy against Edom. (Descendants of Esau)
Jonah – short story about Jonah and God’s sovereignty and mercy
Micah – prophet during reign of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezikiah. Mainly aimed at Judah where the gap between the rich and poor was growing.
Nahum – about the fall of Ninevah (a follow up to Jonah’s story)
Habakkuk – the prophet’s struggles and prayers
Zephaniah – prophet during Josiah’s reign in the southern kingdom of Judah
Haggai – call to repent and rebuild the temple given to the people who had returned from exile.
Zechariah – very similar message to Haggai. They were prophets at the same time.
Malachi – telling God’s people that the story isn’t over yet; there is more to come…someone is coming ‘I will send you Elijah the prophet..’ Malachi 4:5
Then we wait for the New Testament. (That’s another post!)
To make the pegs you need wooden pegs! ball point pen (felt tip will just soak in and not look clear), some stickers or permanent markers to colour code (doesn’t matter that a blob of colour soaks in) Attach the pegs to a wire coat hanger. (You’ll need more than one). I had two types of colour coding – a colour for OT and one for NT at one end of the peg and then different colours for the types of books at the other end of each peg. I make a key too.
To use – play a few games with re ordering the pegs. the idea is for children to get an idea of where things are in the bible. It’s meant to be fun. You could mix up a few of the pegs and get the children to put them back in the right order. play find me a book beginning with (choose a letter). Find me a book about (poems, history or law) The colours will make it easy. If you want to make it more challenging then don’t colour code.
Marty Machowski’s ‘Leading Your Child to Christ’ is one of those books that you can sit and read all in one go (I just did!) and will want to dip back into time and again.
He has put together a book all about sharing the Gospel with your children. It’s mainly for parents but it has a lot of useful things to say to anyone who works with children in church/youth club.
So what’s it all about? Well clearly Marty believes that children need to be saved. But he is clear that this doesn’t mean that adults should try to manipulate them or lead them to ‘right’ answers about what the Bible teaches. Children often want to please us and so will agree to things on a surface level. This is not advocated in the book.
Instead, Marty explains that our conviction should be that God works in a persons life. We tell the gospel but it is God who saves. This book gives practical suggestions as to how we explain the gospel and how we live the gospel in front of our children.
The book begins with giving examples of children’s testimonies and an explanation of where the book is going.
The main part of the book is a breakdown of leading your child to Christ based on A- Admit you are a sinner; B- Believe in your heart the full Gospel of Christ; C – Confess your faith in Jesus and D- Demonstrate the fruit of repentance.
This may sound like a formula but as the headings are explained it becomes clear that this is not the case. I particularly found the section on Belief helpful. It’s such a hard concept to explain as it is more than an acknowledgement of a set of truths. It is a full trusting of all of ourselves to what God has said and done- not always easy to explain.
Marty also gives us the core truths of what the gospel is. What’s great about it is that each statement begins not with something about us but about God.
Now the nitty gritty – the book is not expensive – I bought my copy from Amazon and it took a while to reach me. 10of Those sell it too – £2.60 for one copy. Well worth buying and reading. An excellent book.
To make a small model of a bible time house all you need is an empty cardboard box, double-sided tape, paint, brown crayon, scissors, sugar paper.
Start by taking the box apart to it’s net – so you can turn it inside out – and then remake it using double-sided tape. ait it. Leave it to dry. Add some crayon colour to give it some ‘texture’. Add the steps up to the roof, door and window and some shrubs using sugar paper. And it’s all done.
Children aged 7 up could easily make their own house (younger children would need some help). You could make a whole village.
This is a very easy palm leaf craft. The basic shape is cut from construction paper (5 at a time). Then there are two shades of tissue paper, squares of green construction paper and some shiny cellophane – this was not great to cut up as it clings to you! It’ll look nice and I like to use stuff up – this was wrapping for a bunch of flowers. The wax crayons are shades of green.
As part of a series for older children – 4 years plus – we’re taking a look at the beginning of the Bible. Would you ‘Adam and Eve it?’ is rhyming slang for would you ‘believe it?’
The Bible, God’s Word to us is true. We want to encourage others to believe God’s words.
Genesis 1 tells us that God made everything good. It was a perfect world with everything working in harmony. Clearly that isn’t a picture of our world today. So what happened? Genesis 3 tells us. The people that God had created believed the words of the serpent rather than the words of God.
Genesis 1 tells us how it all began. It is a chronological telling of how the world began. Once there was just God and then he spoke the world into being. Our beginning matters because if God made us then this is his world and we are accountable to him. So do we Adam and Eve it? (rhyming slang for do you believe it 🙂 )
When we tell the story of creation to children there are a few things that can help us. First the order of everything is significant. Everything was made in the right order for life to be sustained. (You would of course explain that more simply 🙂 ). The food was made before the animals who were going to eat it. The sea before the fish that needed to swim in it. When people were made the world was ready for them.
For older children who will be learning that creation is a myth/fairy story it’s useful for us to be able to point them towards creation apologetics. They need to make their own minds up – we can give them information so that they are informed. Answers in Genesis Kids is a good resource for this.
There are loads of great crafts to help us teach about creation. Here are some ideas from this blog
paper plate creation – I’ve used this to tell the story of creation.
Sometimes I manage to find something when I need it! Today I managed to locate a bag of petals and flower pots that were left over from a summer themed craft last year. They are now going to be used to make mother’s day cards. One of the helpers at toddler group is a committed car boot enthusiast and found some great card making shapes just last week and some green tinsel. The latter is going to be cut up (it’ll be messy!!). These will also be used in the card making 🙂 Before toddler group I’ll spray the flower shapes with perfume. This makes for a lovely scratch n sniff card.
This year I have bought blank cards with envelopes from hobbycraft – they are pre-folded and colourful and I just fancied having an envelope too. A chance meeting with a friend, who was also in hobbycraft, and she agreed that paying extra for the envelopes was worth it!
Our bible story will be about Jochebed – Moses mum.
Our toddler group will close for two weeks this half term 🙁 so it’s an easy Valentines Craft this week. Our families pay £1 a week to come to the group so every now and then I use some of the funds to stock up on craft supplies. The heart stickers were not cheap but at £10 a tub I hope to get to use half this week and then use the other half another time. The foam hearts come in packs of 30. It won’t matter if some children want to make 2.
We’ve made other heart themed crafts in the past –
Easter with toddlers! There are some lovely Easter Garden ideas in this post and if you read to the end an Easter Story video.
A simple Easter garden is a great way to introduce young children to Easter. You can use natural materials such as soil/compost and leaves or you can make a garden like the one here. The playdough will last a couple of weeks before it dries out – so this won’t keep for ever – but then next Easter the children can make another garden.
At the end of this post there is an idea for telling the Easter story using different faces – there is a PDF for you to use too.
To make an Easter Garden like this one each child needs
Sticker/label with the words ‘Jesus is alive!’ printed on to them -here’s PDF of a sheet to print onto labels Jesus is alive! (label)
Make a garden yourself to show to give children and adults an idea of what they are aiming for.
If you click on the links above you will be taken to where I bought the plates, ice cream tubs and flowers. You could use different plates – just make sure they are the shiny coated type so the dough won’t soak through.
To prepare the craft cut a ‘stone’ out of ice cream tub and make the dough. You will need a lot of dough!
Playdough recipe
2 Cups plain flour (cheap flour is fine)
2 Cups water
Food colouring (add this to the water)
1 Tablespoon cooking oil
1 Teaspoon cream of tartar (don’t be tempted to leave this out)
1 Cup salt
Put everything in a large saucepan and mix over a medium heat till it comes together as a dough.
Take out of the pan and kneed on a lightly floured surface for a of minutes till smooth. It will be hot!
Store in an airtight container/bag in the fridge till you need it. Let it come to room temperature before the children use it.
This amount will make 5 square plate Easter Gardens if you cover the entire plate. You could cover less of the plate as in the picture above.
Enjoy making..
Have a look at an Easter garden I made to show the children at Toddler Group during story time.
Telling the Easter Story
This idea uses faces to explain the story – angry, sad, surprised and happy. As you tell how some people were angry with Jesus show the any face and ask everyone, ‘can you look angry?’When Jesus died his friends were very sad – show the sad face and ask everyone, ‘can you look sad?’ Then something amazing happened; Jesus came alive again. His friends were surprised! Ask everyone, ‘can you look surprised?’
Jesus is still alive today! Show the happy face and ask, ‘can you look happy?’ We can be happy because Jesus is alive!
Paper plate faces to help tell the Easter Story – see below for a telling of the story.
Here are the faces as printable PDF’s if you would like to use them
‘And the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.’
Luke 1:30,31
Make a stained glass ‘window’
You will need – black square paper plates, black paper for the stars (my paper punch wouldn’t go through the paper plate), star paper punch, assorted bright coloured tissue paper (torn or cut into smallish pieces), glue, cover film (Tacky back)
The paper plate is the window. Cut out the centre and fill the gap with the tacky back – sticky side on the same side as the black rim of the plate. Don’t discard the tacky back backing yet but use it to cover the sticky side till you are ready to make the window.
Cut the simple shapes to represent Mary, Joseph and the manger from the part of the paper plate that was cut out to make the window frame.
To make – stick lots of flat pieces of tissue paper over the tacky back covering it.
Glue on Mary, Joseph, the manger and star making sure that the black side of the shapes is at the front.
Chocolate has taken over advent calendars! So this is a set of printables to make your own set of pictures (that children can decorate every day of advent) with a Bible verse to read each day. In our family we won’t do this instead of chocolate but alongside the chocolate eating advent calendar.
Use this any way that suits you – we have some Christmas twine and paper clips.
We’ve had our Early Leaning Centre Nativity for about 14 years and it is still going strong. Sadly the new sets no longer have a stable 🙁 But with some shredded tissue paper for straw and a big catering size foil dish to keep the tissue paper contained, you have a place to display an play with the nativity figures.
I saw this on pinterest and thought I would see if it would be ‘child making’ friendly. I think it is! In a few weeks we’ll be having a go at making these mini houses at toddler group. I’ll warn the parents the week before.
The biscuits used are the ‘Bahlsen Continental’ biscuits for the base and two ‘Nice’ biscuits for the two sides. Decorate the Nice biscuits first (place on a paper towel ‘cushion’ to prevent breaking if little fingers press too hard) and then build the house and used tubes of icing to secure. I found that the biscuits were just the right size to make the triangle shape and held together really easily.
Of course always check for allergies before making anything edible.
These paper plates were made as an aid to telling the Christmas story but they could easily be adapted to be crafts. I had a lot of fun making them 🙂 They would make a lovely family craft activity to make during advent and then display at Christmas. And if you want a family craft at a church group then there is lots for a child and adult to enjoy.
All you need – good quality paper plates (these were from waitrose!), wool, tissue paper, material, triangles for the body shapes, heart shapes for the angel wings, shredded tissue paper, cotton wool, cardboard tubes/rolls. And any art/collage supplies you fancy! For glue I used double sided tape for the cardboard tubes and glue sticks.
I so wanted to make something like this last year but just ran out of time. So this year I was determined to make a craft focusing on Christingle. This is not necessarily instead of making the real thing. This craft could be done as an extra activity or used for very young children that you would rather didn’t have a candle.
The basic shape is drawn on a paper plate (this needs to be sturdy) and then I used paint. I would have used red ribbon but it was being elusive! The ‘sweets’ are beads on pipe cleaners. Do this for young children or alongside them as the beads are small. I attached these with cellotape.
Journey To Bethlehem is a series of Bible Stories that take us from the very beginning of the Bible up to the first Christmas. There are six stories in the series with ideas for visual aids and crafts. We have used these stories several times in the half term leading up to Christmas in our Toddler Group.
We start with creation and everything being made good. Next week the fall and things no longer being good and then onwards to Jesus being born. God’s Saviour sent for us.
The Creation story is going to be told using an idea that I found here – It Happens in a Blink.
Creation paper plates
Here’s some of the paper plates in close up. I had a lot of fun making them. You need sturdy paper plates! I decided not to have a blank plate for day seven. I did see an idea that included lots of zzzz for resting but God didn’t go to sleep, he just stopped making because everything was complete and perfect. He doesn’t need to rest in the way that we do. He never slumbers or sleeps 🙂
Week 1 story
We are going on a journey – all the way to Bethlehem!
Let’s begin. Everything was very quiet and then God began to make things form nothing! He just spoke and things began to happen..
As I tell the story we will count the days together and name what we can see on the plates. After each day we will say ‘it was all very good’ and do a thumbs up. This will be our action for this weeks story.
We have started our journey to Bethlehem!
How to tell the series over 6 weeks
You can find all the stories in this series here on the blog with a different paper plate for each story. (You will see that the snake is not a paper plate – but if you don’t have a pre-cut spiral a paper plate would be fine. Just decorate and then cut into a spiral shape) The links to each story are with each picture.
As you go through the weeks display the paper plates until in week 6 they are all displayed 🙂
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Here’s some simple instructions for making the Baby Moses paper plate craft. I’ve made a baby Moses paper plate craft before (you can find it here) but wanted something a little simpler for our Holiday Bible Club as we don’t have a lot of time per age group. So this time there was no drawing round hands and the paper plate is a square plate.
To prepare the Baby Moses paper plate craft I pre cut a slit in each square plate, prepared a piece of green card the right size to slot into the slit and printed lots of baby Moses’s (there is a link to the download below) and basket lids.
The children needed to cut the green card to make reeds, slot into the plate (a leader then used cellotape to secure the green card under the plate), the children mould a plasticine basket and place a coloured in Moses inside. The plate was decorated with blue and white tissue paper. A label was added ‘God kept Moses safe’ by ________ ; the children fill in the blank with their name.
You could use air drying clay to make the basket but the plasticine was pretty much mess free. There is a softer version of plasticene for young children.
Moses has a sad face because he was crying when the basket was opened.
We’ve been learning about ourselves at toddler group. This was our last session this half term and was all about talking. The story was the Tower of Babel. We used actions to show building (fists on top of each other over and over – like the rhyme one potato. two potato), talking (using our hands to opening and closing), our tower getting higher and higher (stretching up high) and God looking down (hand above eyes looking down). When God was not happy that the people thought they were more important than him he sent new words and people couldn’t understand each other (everyone shrug shoulders). They had to stop building the tower.
But we still have words – we can say hello (everyone say hello) and we can sing … and then we sang some songs.
We had 43 adults and their children today so busy but happily so 🙂
Craft idea – megaphone! Sorry for the poor light for some of the photos – it’s the same piece of green card! Beforehand cut the card as shown and roll to make a cone shape. I used cellotape to stick the card to make the shape.
Then let the children decorate – the smiley face stickers are from Waitrose. Very reasonably priced and a good size. Sticky stars would be good too.
This craft is suitable for all ages – all you need is collage materials, facial features cut from magazines or pictures from the internet, glue, face shapes and sugar paper. Older children can cut out the facial features they want to use. You can either go for proper likenesses or make some funny crazy faces.
You could use this craft for Thank you God for my eyes, ears, mouth, nose. With toddlers there are lots of opportunities to talk about our faces as the craft is made.
Picasso made a lot of funny faces – you might want to print some of his pictures to show the children. Take a look at this Pinterest board.
It’s harvest celebration time! At toddler group we often mark this event at story and craft time. The story is usually focused on saying ‘thank you’ for our food. I have a basket of various fruit and veg (all real) to show to the children and as I take the fruit and veg out of the basket we name them and I mention what we can use the veg for – eg potatoes can be mashed or made into chips! And sometimes where the fruit or veg grows; potatoes in the ground, apples on a tree. It’s also good to have some wheat or flour and a loaf of bread. But choose things that suit where you are. Our aim is to say thank you for the food that God gives us.
Harvest Craft Idea
This is a paper plate craft of a basket with fruit and veg inside (these can be made from card) – The two plates are cut beforehand to create a handle. Then at toddler group they are glued together so that the paper fruit and veg can slot inside and be carried in a harvest ‘basket’. The basket can be decorated – we used tissue paper and foam stickers. You need fairly sturdy paper plates so the handle doesn’t tear. PVA glue is best for sticking the plates together. You could have some cellotape to hand if needed.
Young children have lots of discoveries to make. It’s fun to help them discover their senses. There are different activities that can show them that they can smell. Of course they already knew that! We can help them know what the smells are that they like or dislike. Sometimes a smell gives us a warning – the toast is burning! Sometimes a smell can make us hungry.
There is a bible Story that you can tell to illustrate that we can smell here. There is a different retelling in the Go Teach Toddler book that we are using this half term.
For a craft for this Bible Story make a perfume bottle
You need – paper plate cut into a simple bottle shape (we are going to use the reverse side so the bottle looks more 3D)
Coloured paper that has been sprayed with perfume. I used tissue paper circles that I bought from Tiger.
Glue stick
Crayons to add decoration. (optional)
Beforehand cut out the bottles, spray the paper and make an example.
perfume bottle craft
make a template
all you need for perfume bottle craft
I have been cutting some herbs from my garden for the children to smell – these herbs are child friendly – sage, lemon balm, thyme and lavender. The lemon balm is a strong scent in particular. If you don’t have herbs in your garden you could use the fresh herb pots that supermarkets sell. Just a few would be fine.
lavender, sage, thyme, lemon balm
Playdough can be given a scent. I’ve used vanilla extract (expensive) in one dough and mixed spice in another. Take a look at my pinterest playdough board for some really good ideas. I like the sound of lemon dough. 🙂 there is a recipe for that on the board.
My favourite smell is fresh coffee but sadly at our group we only serve instant!
Having Breakfast with Jesus is a Bible Story from John’s Gospel. It took place after the resurrection of Jesus and before his ascension. Note – the Sea of Tiberias is another name for the Sea of Galilee.
Having Breakfast with Jesus – Story Idea
In the story bag I had Peter and some friends (there are seven disciples in the story but use what you feel able to hold) a boat (a cardboard box was great for this), a net and some fish and a small BBQ with some charcoal. The children loved having a look at the charcoal.
BBQ bucket in the story bag
Telling The Story-
Say hello to Peter! Peter was one of the followers of Jesus. This story happened after Jesus had died and come back to life again.
One day Peter said to his friends ‘I am going fishing’. ‘We’ll come with you’, his friends said.
It was night time. All the stars were twinkling in the sky (everyone make twinkling star shapes with their fingers). Peter and his friends got in their boat and rowed out onto the lake and threw their fishing nets over the side of the boat. And they waited. And they waited. And they waited. The men were in the boat all night long but there were no fish in the nets. The sun began to wake up in the sky. They looked in their net – no fish.
Then someone on the sand called to them ‘Have you caught any fish?’ They looked in their net – no fish.
‘No, we haven’t’, they called back.
‘Put the net the other side of the boat’, the man said. ‘and you’ll find some fish’
So they threw the net over the other side. Suddenly it filled up with fish. Lots and lots of fish!
One of Peter’s friends realised who the man was – ‘It’s the Lord Jesus!’ he said to Peter.
Now, Peter was so pleased that it was Jesus that he jumped out of the boat and started to wade through the water to Jesus. His friends carefully pulled the net and bought the boat to the sandy shore. And there waiting for them was Jesus. He had made a BBQ and was cooking some fish for breakfast. Jesus was alive. He knew where his friends were and what they were doing. He knew that after a long night fishing they needed some breakfast. He cared for and looked after his friends.
Jesus is still alive today and he cares about you!
Having Breakfast with Jesus craft Ideas.
Fish swimming in the sea picture
Print out the picture. Children can colour and use tissue paper to decorate the fish. Cut strips of cellophane or crepe paper for the waves.
Card strip for the wave (I’ve used notice board trim)
Blue card for the lake
Net (fruit is often sold in net packaging)
Glue
Sticky tape to secure the mast
If making with young children prepare the plate and mast first.
This story from John 21 is very similar to an incident that takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Have a look at the story here where there is another fish themed craft.
This is one of the stories that Jesus told about the lost and the found. The younger son wants his money and spends the lot. He ends up feeding the pigs and comes to his senses. But when he goes home he is welcomed by his father. This son was lost but now is found!
To tell the storyuse some props including money, party streamers/hats, pretend pigs, new robe/coat/ring/shoes.
The Prodigal Son Story Idea
Jesus told the people a story….
‘Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons (count to two). The younger son wanted his father’s money. So the father decided to share all his things between his two sons. Now they had a lot of money. (jingle the money)
The younger son packed his bag and went far, far away. He loved spending his money! He had lots and lots of parties (show party streamers/hats) with his new friends. It was so much fun being rich! But one day, he looked in his pocket for more money and it had all gone! He looked in the other pocket – no more money! He had spent every last penny! He was in trouble.
What could he do?
He needed a job. So he went to work looking after pigs. Can you make the noise do pigs make? Oink, oink! He was so hungry that he could have eaten the food that the pigs ate. No one helped him. Can you imagine how sad he felt?
‘I will go back to my father,’ he said. ‘My father will give me a better job than sitting here with these pigs.’
So he walked and walked and walked till he could see his old home far away in the distance.
Someone saw him coming. Someone had been looking and hoping that he would come back home. Who do you think it was? It was his father. His father ran down the road to meet him and gave him a great big hug.
‘I’m sorry,’ said the son
‘I forgive you,’ said the father. ‘Now let’s celebrate that you have come back home!’
The father gave his son new clothes to wear, new shoes and a ring. (show these items) He was so happy that he had a party.
‘My son was lost,’ he said, ‘but now he is found.’
When we come back to God it is like we were lost but are now found.
Craft Idea – Paper Plate Pink Pigs.
All you need
paper plate
pink tissue paper and crepe paper cut into squares (roughly)
glue
circles from pink sugar paper for snout. Use a paper punch to cut circles
ear shapes cut from sugar paper
stickers for nostrils and eyes
pink crayons (optional)
Allow plenty of self expression when the children create their craft!
Bible story from Exodus 8. This is part of our series of stories about animals in the Bible.
Meet the main characters – Moses, Pharoah and frogs!
Moses was the leader of God’s people. God’s people lived in Egypt. They were very sad (can you look sad). Everyday they had to make bricks. they made bricks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7, days a week. It was hot and dusty and horrible.
God told Moses to go and rescue the people. It’s always good to do what God says. ‘Moses, go and tell the King of Egypt to let all of my people go’
So Moses went to see the King of Egypt.
God says you are to let his people go
‘No’ said the king of Egypt ‘i won’t’. It’s always a bad idea to ignore God.
Moses told the king, ‘God will send something to make you change your mind!’
God sent … frogs!
Not just 1 frog, or 2 frogs or even 10 frogs but lots of frogs.
When the people wanted to cook food there were frogs in the oven, when they went to get a wash there were frogs in the water, when they went to bed there were frogs under the covers! frogs everywhere! When the king went to sit on his throne there were frogs already sitting there!
‘Take the frogs away’, said the King.
So Moses asked God to take the frogs away and God did. Now the frogs were back in the river.
After the story we sang our ‘new’ song. This went down really well.
A new song to a well known tune – always a safe combination. The tune is ‘the wheels on the bus’.
The song is about these guys. As you can see, I’ve been watching Springwatch.
The owl in the garden goes twit, twit, twoo, twit, twit, twoo, twit, twit, twoo
The owl in the garden goes twit, twit, twoo all day long.
The snail in the garden goes slurp, slurp, munch, slurp, slurp, munch, slurp, slurp, munch
The snail in the garden goes slurp, slurp, munch, all day long.
The bee in the garden goes buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz
The bee in the garden goes buzz, buzz, buzz all day long.
The frog in the garden goes hop, hop, splash, hop, hop, splash, hop, hop, splash
The frog in the garden goes hop, hop, splash all day long.
Below are the pictures in PDF. To make the song visuals – print out the coloured PDF, laminate (or print onto card) , attach lolly pop sticks or kebab sticks so you can hold the pictures. The children can do actions or buzz around like the bee, hop and crawl for the different verses. 🙂
I will be using the b/w printables as a craft activity – we have a lot of collage materials to use up! Feel free to print as many as you like.
We’ve been doing a few Bible stories at toddler group on the theme of ‘animals in the Bible’. We started with Jonah and have done the ravens feeding Elijah. Then we had a story about camels and today we thought about bees. ( I know they aren’t animals but I think it’s ok to be flexible :))
paper plate bee
The story was very simple – this was the basic outline (Judges 14:1-20)
1.God’s people were in trouble because they had ignored God
2. God still loved them so he sent someone to help them
3 God sent Samson. (At this point Samson is taken out of the story bag and we all say ‘hello Samson!’)
4 Samson wasn’t very tall, or very small, or very young or very old – he was very strong. (and we all flex our muscles)
5. One day Samson was walking along (make walking noises by patting hands on knees) when he heard a buzz, buzz, buzz. (everyone make a buzz sound)
6. He had found some bees (take paper plate bee from story bag) inside a dead lion – and they were making honey. ( I did mention that we should leave bees alone and then they won’t bother us)
7God was going to help Samson use what he saw to rescue his people from trouble.
At the end of the story I told the children that they could find this story in Tesco, Asda etc and showed them the Lyles Golden Syrup tin.
The craft was a simple paper plate cut in half. I painted them yellow at home and the children added the stripes, head and wings. I found the idea on Pinterest – it’s from Happy Home Fairy. My bee is slightly different – I tend to steer clear of googly eyes as they are quite easy for an under three to choke on. I didn’t bother with feet either as i like to keep crafts as simple as possible.
The Christian Resources Exhibition is on at the Excel in East London. So this morning I took the train to go and have a look around.
I’ve come home with a few goodies and some ideas!
The Go Teach stand
the goodies I bought home!
Now in case you aren’t able to go along I picked up some of the free books from The Go Teach stand – they are samples of Bible stories and crafts for toddlers – if you would like one then get in touch via email or in the comments. We are quite happy to post anywhere. (it’s first come first served 🙂 )
You don’t need to leave your email in the comments – wordpress have a way of letting me know that. 🙂
let me know if you would like one of these samples
In our series of Bible stories that include animals we told the very short story about Elijah being brought food by ravens.
1 Kings 17
2 And the word of the Lord came to him:3 “Depart from here and turn eastward and hide yourself by the brook Cherith, which is east of the Jordan.4 You shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.”5 So he went and did according to the word of the Lord. He went and lived by the brook Cherith that is east of the Jordan.6 And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.7 And after a while the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land.
To put the story in context we had King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in the story bag and explained that they were a bad king and a bad queen who were horrible to people.
King Ahab and Queen Jezebel
Elijah was also in the story bag.
Elijah
At the beginning of the story thse three are introduced to the children.
Story
Elijah went to see King Ahab. He had a message for him from God. ‘King Ahab, God has said that there isn’t going to be any more rain for the next few years’.
There was going to be no more water for King Ahab or Queen Jezebel. There was going to be no more water for Elijah.
But God told Elijah what to do. Go and hide in the valley. I will send ravens to give you food. You can dink water from the stream.
Elijah did what God said. He went to the valley where the stream was.
When he woke up in the mornings the ravens came and bought him bread and meat for breakfast. (take ravens from story bag)
When it was getting near to going to bed at night the ravens came with bread and meat for tea.
God took care of Elijah. God is able to look after you too.
This half term we are thinking about animal’s in the Bible. So we made a start with the story of Jonah. I had seen a tent made into the big fish on Handsonbibleteacher.blogspot.co.uk so thought I would have a go at making one – my attempt doesn’t look as neat – I think my pop up tent was a little too square – but you have to use what you have! Jonah is made from a Pringles carton – I saw that idea on Pinterest. It’s originally from this blog Preachmanswife.blogspot.co.uk
Story
Say hello to Jonah! Jonah was given a job to do. God told him to go and tell the people living in Ninevah that God loved them.
‘No, I won’t’ said jonah. ‘I don’t like the people who live in Ninevah’
so Jonah packed his bag and went the other way. He walked to the boat (make walking sounds by tapping hands on knees) and he bought a ticket and off he went.
Jonah was tired (yawn) so he went inside the boat and settled down for a sleep. (put hands on side of head as if sleeping)
Do you think God knew where Jonah was? God knows everything. He knew that Jonah was on the boat.
God sent a storm. the waves got bigger, the wind blew, the rain came down. The sailors were worried. ‘Someone has done something wrong’, they said ‘and God is angry.’
They went to wake Jonah up. ‘Wake up Jonah!’ (ask children to repeat this)
Jonah opened his eyes. ‘Oh dear’, he said ‘this is my fault. You must throw me into the sea.’
‘No!’ the sailors said.
But the storm got worse and in the end they had to throw Jonah into the sea. Splash!
The storm stopped.
Jonah sank down,down, down into the water. But God loved Jonah and he had somthing there to save him. A great big fish swam up and swallowed Jonah. He was safe. (Place Jonah inside the big fish)
Jonah knew he had done the wrong thing and he talked to God. ‘I am sorry’ he said.
Could God hear Jonah? Yes, God hears when we say sorry to him.
God sent the great big fish to the beach and it gave a big hiccup and out came Jonah. (take Jonah out of the big fish)
God said,’Jonah go and tell the people of Ninevah that I love them.’ This time Jonah did what God said.
I found this via Pinterest – it’s originally from this website http://krokotak.com/ which is full of absolutely great ideas.
The idea for my simple chicken came from here http://krokotak.com/2012/11/cut-away-some-paper-animals/. My version is a bit simpler as I was cutting out quite a few for our toddler group.
If you wanted to you could place these on the breakfast table on Easter morning and hide a chocolate egg underneath!
To make this colourful wreath the children need egg boxes, ready mix paint, a paper plate cut into a ring, double sided glue squares (we used Sellotape sticky fixers) and some foam shapes and if you want a bow, crepe paper. (Don’t unfold it simply cut strips from a new pack)
For very young children you need to do some things for them ahead of time. For toddler group I cut the egg boxes and painted them too. You could easily let the children do the painting but our painting area was sadly out of action! Some egg boxes are different colours to start with so less painting was needed. I also cut the paper plates to make a ring. Using brightly coloured plates makes a difference to the finished craft.
To make these pictures I started with a roll of paper from Ikea and drew a road. The buildings and trees were added. As you tell the story you can add all the things you need. The cloaks were cut from material, the donkey has pegs for legs.
Here are some craft and baking ideas to help celebrate Easter with the links to the original posts! This week I will be getting some brand new ideas together too. I can’t believe that we are almost at Easter already when Christmas doesn’t seem all that long ago.
Easter Nests (only suitable for ages 5plus as the small eggs are a chocking hazard) – recipe is here
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