Salt dough egg decorations

Posted in All age craft, Craft, Easter, Easter at home, Easter crafts, Family craft idea, Salt dough, Salt dough easter egg decorations, salt dough recipe by Rachel Ball

Children of almost any age can decorate these simple egg shapes. We’ve used them at a toddler group, but they would be great for older children who would be able to do more intricate designs or pictures.

To make them you need to start with a salt dough. This is very easy. You need 2 cups plain flour, I cup of salt and I 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.Smooth the edges of the eggs once you have cut them out. Then leave the shapes to dry. They will air dry, but it will take a long time (48 hours plus) or 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 decorate with paint and/or felt pens.

We used felt tips to decorate but you could also glue coloured paper on to them and add glitter! A covering of PVA glue at the end will add a shine – but as you can see in the pictures the colours may run a bit.

26Mar2020

Palm Sunday Craft to make at home

Posted in All age craft, Craft, Palm Sunday, Palm Sunday leaf craft, Things to make at home, Use what you have craft by Rachel Ball

This leaf craft for Palm Sunday is to make at home. All our groups are closed – so this is somthing to make that uses a cereal box, crayons, pens, green pictures cut from magazines (I used a gardening catalogue) and some glue. Hopefully these are things that we have at home. If you don’t have any glue then crayons, pencils and pens will be great.

Cut a leaf shape out of your cereal box – make it as large as the box shape will allow! And decorate.

There is a short toddler group Palm Sunday story here.

20Mar2020

Spread some love and hope..

Posted in Craft, Rainbows in the window by Rachel Ball

It’s a good time to share a rainbow – and maybe a Bible verse of hope.. Lots of people have been putting pictures of rainbows in their windows. I decided to join in. Maybe you would like to join in too.

This could be something that our toddler group families would like to do – I’ve shared the link below with our facebook toddler group page. You don’t need to use paint – any type of crayons, felt tips or collage would be great. I used the paint that I rescued from our store cupboard as we closed!

Hers’s a link all about sharing rainbows https://www.popsugar.co.uk/parenting/kids-put-drawings-up-in-windows-during-coronavirus-outbreak-47324740?fbclid=IwAR00_NvkRKY48jobq5St2LT3Gh2sq3HPvAzuQ3jWddlQQSMxF3oGI-cr0n0

18Mar2020

On the Way to Easter…Mary

Posted in Craft, Easter, Easter with toddlers, Mary and Martha, Mary anoints Jesus, On the way to Easter.. Bible Stories, Paper plate craft by Rachel Ball

The story is from John 12:1-8

Jesus had almost arrived at Jerusalem! He had travelled a long way. How lovely that he was able to go to his friends house. Lazarus and his sisters Mary and Martha were good friends of Jesus. They wanted to do something special for him so they had a dinner for him. Martha served the food and everyone enjoyed what she had made and they ate everything! Lazarus sat at the table with Jesus. But where was Mary?

Mary wanted to show everyone how special Jesus was. In those days when you went to someone’s house they always gave you some water to wash your feet. The roads were very dusty and people got their feet dirty.

But Mary wanted to do more than just give Jesus water to wash his feet. She had some very expensive ointment that she poured onto the feet of Jesus. The Bible tells us that the perfume from the anointment filled the whole house.

Mary was right to do this special thing for Jesus because he is God’s Son who would soon die to save us.

Paper plate picture to add to the others

Craft Idea – a perfume bottle made from a paper plate. Spray the bottle shape with perfume and allow to saok in and dry. Then decorate!

9Mar2020

On the Way to Easter…Zacchaeus

Posted in Craft, Easter, Easter with toddlers, Free printout, On the way to Easter.. Bible Stories, On the way to Easter..Zacchaeus, paper plate for storytelling, Pdf file, Printable, Toddler craft, Tree pdf, Zacchaeus by Rachel Ball

Jesus is now in Jericho on his way to Jerusalem. Last time he met Bartimaeus. Now he meets Zacchaeus. Two very different people!

To tell the story… from Luke 19:1-10

Have a tree – you can make one from a pringle container or draw one – and a person to represent Zacchaeus. Place Zacchaeus in a story bag.

Jesus was now getting nearer to Jerusalem. Lots of people wanted to see Jesus as he walked through their town. They had heard a lot about all the amazing things that he had done.

One man really wanted to see Jesus. His name was Zacchaeus (can you say that name?) Let’s say hello to Zacchaeus as he comes out of the story bag.

Now Zacchaeus was very, very rich. He had loads of money. Some of his money he had by taking what wasn’t his! So people didn’t like Zacchaeus.

But that wasn’t all. Zacchaeus was a short man. So when Jesus was coming to his town he had a problem! He couldn’t see past the crowds! The crowds of people didn’t like Zacchaeus so they weren’t going to let him get to the front. Standing on tip toe didn’t help either. So Zacchaeus began to run. He ran to a tree. Then he did something that he hadn’t done for a long, long time. He climbed the tree. Now he could see Jesus.

And there Jesus was, walking along the road. And then Jesus stopped! Right under the tree. ‘Zacchaeus, come down. I’m coming to your house today!’ said Jesus.

Zacchaeus came down the tree. ‘I will give back all the money that isn’t mine and I will give extra money too’ he said.

Zacchaeus was a different person now that he had met Jesus.

Jesus said ‘I came to look for and to save the lost’. All of us are lost without Jesus. He is looking for us and is able to save us.

Craft Idea

The tree and Zacchaeus are available to download. The tree can be decorated with tissue paper, crepe paper and/or leaves cut from sugar paper with brown tissue paper for the tree trunk.

Tree Download

Zacchaeus-x21 Download

Our next paper plate to add to our ‘Journey to Jerusalem….’

This is what we are aiming for …..

21Feb2020

God made the stars spiral

Posted in Craft, Creation, God made the stars spiral craft, Paper plate craft, Toddler craft, Toddler Group by Rachel Ball

This is exactly the same basic idea as the blossom spiral that I posted about here https://lettheirlightshine.com/2020/02/20/spring-is-coming/

Instead of blossom I’ve used tissue paper for the sky – you could use anything blue including paint or crayon. But the lovely thing about tissue paper is that I’ve made the strips long so they hang down from the spiral and they will move when the spiral is displayed.

The stars are stickers.

20Feb2020

Spring is coming!

Posted in Craft, Paper plate craft, Seasons, Spring blossom spiral craft by Rachel Ball

Where I live there is already blossom on the trees! So next week at toddler group our craft will be on a spring theme. We are going to be making some spring blossom spirals. There is some prep for me to do beforehand but not too much. The paper plates will need to be cut and some wool tied on. The blossom flowers will be cut from petit four cases. This will make the blossom more 3D than flat paper. I’ll cut out some leaf shapes too and we have some heart shapes left over from Valentines that we’ll add.

So – blossom spirals step by step – the first few pictures show the prep before toddler group. Older children could do the cutting and threading themselves.