Lovely crafts were made today ..
Easter at toddler group
Category Archives: Craft
Easter Wreath Decoration
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.
Easter Ideas
Easter Garden to make
Easter/Spring wreath
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 –
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.
The Man by the Pool – John 5
Bible reference John 5:1-9
‘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.’
Craft Idea – we decorated footprints
Mothers Day Card
‘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 – Bible alphabet
A long time ago we created a Bible Alphabet for toddlers – it’s here and there on the blog. It was a great thing to do and gave us lots of story options. This time it’s the letter ‘q’. Not so many options! I went for q is for question.
The question ‘who is this, that even the winds and waves obey him?’ was asked by the disciples after Jesus stilled the storm. (Matthew 8:23-27).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 first 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
1. move arms to represent waves
2 blow in to closed hands for the wind
3 pretend to be sleeping
4 ‘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.
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 that Christmas and 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
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 stuff. 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. But when they arrived in Jerusalem they couldn’t find a new baby king anywhere!
There was a king but he was a grown up and he wasn’t happy. He didn’t want a new King! He sent for the Wise Men. 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. ‘In Bethlehem.’
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 shone right over the house where Jesus was. The Wise men had found Jesus and they knelt down and worshiped him.
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.
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.
