Bible Alphabet Archives - Let their light shine!

X is for Xerxes

X is for Xerxes is part of our Bible Alphabet. The following is a much shortened telling of the story of Esther, King Xerxes and Haman. When you are telling a story in a toddler group you have to shorten the narrative and find a way to tell the story simply. To read the full story see Esther

X is for Xerxes story idea

Our story happened a long time again in a country called Persia. There was a powerful king called King Xerxes. He was in charge of a huge kingdom and in his kingdom lots of God’s people lived. They were a long way from home.

Now one of God’s people had married the King (he didn’t know that she was one of God’s people – he had married her because she was very beautiful) Her name was Esther.

And there was another man whose name was Haman. The king liked him very much but he was a very bad and horrible man.

Haman didn’t like God’s people at all. He wanted to get rid of all of them. And so he asked the king, ‘Can we get rid of all these people?’ And the King said, ….. ‘yes!’

Now Esther was very sad and worried. She had to find a way to keep God’s people safe. She knew that she needed help. But who could help her? She sent a message to her family – Pray to God. Ask him to help me. And I will pray too.

Esther asked God to help her. She went to see King Xerxes. She told him what was going to happen to God’s people and how she was one of them. The King was horrified. He was angry with Haman and he protected God’s people. They were kept safe.

King Xerxes was very powerful – but not as powerful as God who is able to keep his people safe and hears them when they ask for his help.

X is for Xerxes props for story telling

People characters made from cardboard tubes

King Xerxes and Queen Esther are made from Pringle Containers. Xerxes is a regular Pringle container and Esther is a whole wheat Pringle tube which is slightly smaller (perfect for making storytelling people of different heights!)

To make you just cover the tube in coloured paper (I used a glue gun to stick this) and then add a face , hair and some clothes. Pipe cleaners are very useful for holding everything together. As they are royalty I added crowns but often it’s just a piece of material held in place with a pipe cleaner as in the case of Haman. There are instructions here

W is for Water from the Rock

The People of God were in the wilderness. They had escaped from Egypt but were thirsty. They moaned! God told Moses to strike the rock and out came water. The story is from Exodus 17:1-7

W is for Water from the Rock – story idea

Have you ever felt hungry? God’s people had been hungry and so God had given them food to eat.

Have you ever felt thirsty? God’s people felt thirsty. But instead of asking God to help them find water they moaned and groaned! Why isn’t God helping us? they said to Moses.

Why are you moaning and groaning? Moses said

Then Moses asked for God’s help. What shall I do with all these moany and groany people?

God heard Moses. God helped Moses. God said, ‘Moses, take your staff and hit the rock’.

Moses did what God said. He lifted up his staff and struck the rock and out came water!

God gave the people water to drink. He looked after them.

God is able to look after you and me too.

Water from the Rock Craft Idea

A simple collage to make. Beforehand prepare the rock from brown paper, a sun, some blue paper strips for water and Moses (Pdf below). The children can build the scene.

Moses-Water-from-the-rock Download

Here’s a link to another story about Moses

Q is for question

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

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.

A-Z of the Bible

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.

Here are the downloads. WALL DISPLAY (a-d) (1)WALL DISPLAY (e-h)WALL DISPLAY (i-l)WALL DISPLAY (m-p)WALL DISPLAY (q-t)WALL DISPLAY (u-x)WALL DISPLAY (y-z)

Y is for the rich young man

The story of the Rich Young Man (Mark 10:17-22) has a sad ending. He loves his money more than Jesus. With older children you could talk about things that get in the way of them following Jesus. You could also add a question mark symbol and talk more about why the young man asked the question, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Did he already think he was good enough?

With young children the story lends itself to using actions – running, kneeling and walking. Make a money bag using real coins as they are weighty and jingle! Or use an action to represent money such as rubbing your thumb and fingers together.

The Story about The Rich Young Man – for younger children

One day a young man came to speak to Jesus. He didn’t walk up to Jesus. He ran to Jesus. (Run on the spot) He wanted to ask a question. He thought that Jesus was important so he knelt down in front of him and asked ‘Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?’ (kneel down)

It was a good question and the young man really wanted to know the answer.

Jesus said to him, ‘ You know what the Commandments are that God gave us, to tell us how to live to please him.’

‘I’ve kept them all since I was a young boy,’ he replied

Jesus looked at the young man. Jesus cared about him. Jesus wanted to help him. Jesus said to him,’Go, and sell all you have and give your money to the poor and then you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.’

But, oh dear, the young man had a lot of money.(Show money bag) He loved all his money very much. (Hug money bag to yourself) What a choice! Sell everything and give all his money away and follow Jesus or keep all his things and his money and go back home. What would he do?

The young man walked away from Jesus. (Walk on the spot, looking sad and dejected) He felt sad. He chose to keep his money.

We are almost at the end of our Bible Alphabet – next up is Zacchaeus!

Z is for Zacchaeus

I made this to use with under fives to tell the story of Zacchaeus. He moves up the tree which is great for keeping the young children interested. We are doing the story as part of our Bible Alphabet series. It’s from Luke 19:1-10.

The tree is a Pringles container covered in brown construction paper with large leaves stapled around the top. It’s important that the brown construction paper is taller than the Pringles container by about 4cm so you have space to staple on the leaves. Also leave the lid on so that Zacchaeus doesn’t fall inside while you are telling the story! The leaves were made from construction paper and lightweight card in two contrasting greens.

You can slide Zacchaeus up the tree trunk by blue tacking him to a piece of brown construction paper that has been folded and wound round the tree trunk and stapled to make a circular collar for the tree. This should be tight enough to stay in place but slide smoothly. When Zacchaeus has climbed the tree take him off the brown slider/collar and blue tac him in the leaves.

Here’s a link to a craft idea and a short video of the story.

The well known children’s song ‘Zacchaeus was a very little man (or very wee man) is great to sing. There are lots of versions on the web; some have music to sing along to and others also have animation.

X is for Xerxes story idea

X is for Xerxes props for story telling

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W is for Water from the Rock – story idea

Water from the Rock Craft Idea

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To tell the story to young children

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The Story about The Rich Young Man – for younger children

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