The Wise Men find The King

This story is from Matthew 2:1-18

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

Far away from where Jesus was born there were some Wise Men. They read books and knew a lot. They loved to look at the stars in the dark night’s 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 travelled 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 at all 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, frankincense 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.

Some star craft ideas

For a star craft – decorate a star wreath shape and add some tissue paper for a stained glass window effect. Or use Christmas card pictures to decoarate a star.

Make a Wise Men stained glass window. For instructions see this blog post Christmas stained glass – paper plate!

Paint a star shape. This is a wooden star but card would be fine too.

Star Christmas decoration to make – using lollipop sticks

Star Christmas decoration to make to hang on the tree! Lots of sequins are needed for this simple star shaped decoration for the Christmas Tree. It’s a fun craft to make and looks lovely as a special home made decoration. The printable banner, ‘Joy to the World’ is a reminder of the great news of the first Christmas.

Luke 2:10-11 And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.

Everything you need for the star decoration

  • Six lollipop/ popsicle sticks per star. (plus some spare in case of any mishaps!) Try to buy the coloured sticks. (Please consider purchasing through this link as the blog will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you!)
  • Sequins (different colours, shapes and sizes)
  • PVA glue and spreaders
  • A button and thread
  • ‘Joy to the World’ mini banner (download available below)

How to make the star

1. Glue the lollipop sticks together – layer the sticks as shown in the photo and wait for the glue to dry.

2. Meanwhile thread the cotton through the button – tie in a knot to make a loop. This will be used to hang the star from the tree.

3. Glue the threaded button to the top of the lollipop stick star.

4. Before you add sequins to the lollipop stick glue the mini ‘Joy to the World’ banner in place and then add sequins to the star.

Diagram showing how to put a lollipop stick star shape together
Star decoration made with lollipop sticks and sequins
Star decoration for the Christmas tree made with lollipop sticks and sequins

Here’s another star idea that’s suitable for under 5’s. A Christmas Star wreath shape decorated with pictures from Christmas cards. If you don’t have Christmas cards use wrapping paper scraps!

A Christmas Carol to enjoy!

Journey to Bethlehem – week 5 – Jesus is born

This week we arrive in Bethlehem!

The story is from Luke 2:1-7.

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)

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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)’

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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)

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We’ll add another paper plate to our Journey to Bethlehem display..IMG_3697

So altogether we have …..

We will be making Christmas star wreaths as our craft..

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Another Christmas star idea!

Christmas star craft

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.

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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.

The two ideas…

Star wreaths are from Baker Ross

Christmas Star to make

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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.

The Wise Men visit Jesus

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.

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