Category: Old Testament Bible stories

Jonah and the One Great Big Fish – A Bible Number Story

Jonah and the One Great Big Fish – A Bible Number Story. We are thinking about counting in toddler group. So we have some Bible Stories with numbers. First up is Jonah. The Bible truth for toddlers in this story is ‘God always knows where we are’. The story is from the book of Jonah.

To tell the Story you need –

  • Jonah (we used a figure from happyland),
  • a big fish (the one pictured is VERY big – made over a tent) and
  • a toy boat.
Jonah and the boat to Ninevah
The big fish that swallowed Jonah

Jonah and the One Great Big Fish story

God said to Jonah, ‘go to the big city called Ninevah (can you say that? repeat the name together) and tell everyone there about me.’

Jonah listened to God.

But Jonah didn’t like the people in the big city of Ninevah.

‘I don’t want to! I’m not going to go!’ He said (have you ever said that?)

Jonah thought to himself, ‘I will go far away – so far away that God won’t know where I am.’ He went and got on a boat and sailed away, far, far away from Ninevah.

But then the rain came and the wind blew – and out of the boat came Jonah – and splash into the sea!

Down, down, down he went. ‘Please God, help me!’ he prayed.

God knew exactly where Jonah was, God always knows where we are; and he sent something to help. It wasn’t a boat – it was one great big fish. The one great big fish opened up it’s mouth and swallowed Jonah. He was safe!

The one great big fish took Jonah back to land. God said, ‘Jonah, go to Ninevah’. And this time Jonah did exactly what God said.

Jonah craft idea

Decorate the big fish! It’s a free download.

number-1-big-fishDownload

The other stories in this Bible Number Story Series

Elisha and the Widow’s Oil craft ideas

Elisha and the widow’s oil is a story from 2 Kings 4:1-7 where we read about Elisha helping a widow who needed to pay her debts. He told her to borrow as many empty jars of oil as she could from neighbours and then go inside her home and close the door. What happened next shows us God’s care for his people.

Elisha and the widow’s oil Bible Story

Bible Truth for Toddlers – God cares about us

To tell the story to young children – you need a bottle of oil.

‘There was once a woman who had two sons. Sadly, her husband had died and she was in trouble. She owed some bad people money and she had no way of paying them back.

She went to see Elisha. He was God’s prophet. ‘I am in trouble. Can you help me?!’ she asked

What do you have at home? Elisha asked

I have one jar of oil. (Show the oil)

Elisha told her what she must do. ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your neighbours. Then go home. Shut the door and start to pour the oil into the empty jars and then sell the oil and pay your debts’

What would the woman do? She started to borrow empty jars. She went to one home and then another and then another. Soon she had lots of empty jars.

Then she went home and closed the door.

Her sons helped her start to pour the oil into an empty jar. And something amazing happened. As they filled the empty jar the oil that they had started with didn’t run out. They filled another jar and still it didn’t run out. Soon all the jars were full of oil. And once they were all full the oil that they had started with stopped flowing.

Now oil is expensive and the woman was able to sell all this extra oil. She had enough money to pay her debts and money left over for her and her sons to live on.

Elisha was able to help because he was God’s prophet. God cared about this woman and her sons. God cares about you and me too.’

Craft ideas – free downloads

One idea is to colour/decorate jars of oil. The other is to add more jars of oil to the picture and then colour or decorate.

Elisha and the widow's oil craft colouring jars
Decorate the jars of oil
widows-oil-jars-x-4Download
Elisha and the widow's oil craft
widows-oil-jars-add-a-jar-1Download

Noah in the Ark – a weather themed story

IMG_4567

There is a page of mini arks all ready for downloading and printing here Basic Noah’s Ark (x 8)

We did this craft a couple of weeks ago when we were doing Bible Stories on the theme of weather.

We used tissue paper, crepe paper, cellophane wrap, cotton wool and paper clouds.

Baby Moses 3D craft

Baby Moses 3D craft for young children. This is a lovely Baby Moses craft that is easy to make and very effective. It uses easy to find materials that take just a little bit of time to prepare.

All you need for this Baby Moses 3D craft –

  • A4 card (cut the slits so that the card will fold and stand up),
  • small baby printout (there are some to download in this blog post),
  • green crayons for the reeds,
  • blue tissue paper for the water,
  • cup cakes cases for the basket,
  • glue.
Baby Moses 3D craft
Baby Moses 3D craft
Detail of 3D craft
Detail of 3D craft

Baby Moses Story

(This story is based on Exodus 2)

A long time ago there was a very bad King in Egypt. He was very bad. He wanted to get rid of all the baby boys. That was very awful.

But there was a family who didn’t think that the very bad King was right. And they had a brand new baby boy. He was so lovely! He gurgled and he burped! The baby wriggled and he slept. It was good that he slept a lot because his mummy and daddy had to keep him a secret. (Everyone go ‘shush’)

But as he grew and got bigger he began to make more noise! When he cried it was LOUD. Oh no! (Everyone say this together)They weren’t going to be able to keep him a secret for much longer.

His mummy had an idea. It was a good idea. She made a basket. She made a waterproof basket with a lid.

And then she wrapped her lovely baby son up and placed him in the basket and tucked him in. She and her daughter went down to the river. They carefully picked a spot where they knew someone very important would come to wash in the river. They put the basket in the water and the mum went home, but his big sister hid and watched.

And sure enough the women came to wash in the river. The bad king’s daughter and her servant. Down into the water they went. ‘Oh! What’s that? Can you get me that basket? I wonder what’s inside?’

They lifted up the lid …. and there … inside.. was a beautiful baby boy with big tears, crying for his mummy.

Now the big sister did something very brave. She came and said, ‘Shall I go and find someone to look after the baby you have found?’

‘Yes’, said the bad king’s daughter.

And the big sister ran home and called her mum to come.

‘Take this baby and look after him for me’, said the bad king’s daughter, ‘and when he is older he can come and live in the Palace. And she gave him the name Moses.

Extra Ideas to try

There are lots of Moses craft Ideas on this Pinterest Board

Journey to Bethlehem – week 3 – God’s promise to Abraham

This week the Bible story was all about God’s promise to Abraham to give him a huge family and to bless all the people on earth through that family. During the story I use the names Abraham and Sarah for simplicity. (At this point in the Bible they are still using the names Abram and Sara – and you can use these names if you prefer)

Bible Story – God’s Promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3 and 15:5)

Bible truth for toddlers – Jesus was born into Abraham’s family

‘Say hello to Abraham! (take a puppet or doll from the story bag). Abraham lived a long, long, long time ago. 

One day God spoke to Abraham, ‘Pack up your things and leave the place where you are living. Go to a place that I will show you. I will make you a great nation and all the families on the earth will be blessed through you’. God was making a promise to Abraham.

Abraham listened to God and he did what God said. He and his wife Sarah (take another doll or puppet from the story bag) packed their things and off they went. 

God showed them where to go. 

Now after Abraham and Sarah had been living in their new home for quite a while God spoke to Abraham again.

Abraham was outside at night time. It was dark. God said to him, ‘Look up at the sky and all the stars. So many stars that you can’t count them. This is how large your family will be.’ 

Abraham listened to God and he believed God.

And Abraham did have a large family .. and from that large family came Jesus. He is the one that blesses the whole world.’

When we had finished the story we added another paper plate to all the others ..IMG_3692

So, altogether the story so far….

God makes the world
Adam and Eve eat the fruit
God’s promise to Abraham

To make your own paper plates you need –

Tissue paper

Stars

Cotton wool

A picture of Abraham

Spiral for the snake

Craft paper to decorate the snake

Cardboard tube for the tree

Feathers

Flower shapes

Pictures of animals

Two faces – for Adam and Eve

Be creative!

Journey to Bethlehem – Adam and Eve disobey

Adam and Eve break God’s law

Journey to Bethlehem – Adam and Eve disobey. We are travelling to Bethlehem for Christmas starting at the very beginning…

 Week one was creation – God made everything good and Adam and Eve were friends with God and each other.

The idea for the creation paper plates came from here – https://ithappensinablink.com/paper-plate-the-days-of-creation/

This week the story is all about how things went from being ‘very good’ (thumbs up) to very bad (thumbs down). The creation plates will be part of the large picture board and the next story will be added.

The story from Genesis 3

Bible truth for toddlers – Adam and Eve broke God’s one rule

‘God gave Adam and Eve one rule. ‘Don’t eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden’. They could eat from every other tree but not that one.

Then one day a serpent began to talk to Eve! ‘ Just look at the fruit on that lovely tree in the middle of the garden! It looks so deliciousssss. I’m sure God won’t mind if you take a bite. Nothing bad will happen!’

Eve looked at the tree. It did look lovely. Eve looked at the fruit. It did look yummy. She reached out her hand…. and she took the fruit. She could smell how delicious it was and then…… she took a bite. Then Adam took a bite too!

They had broken God’s one rule and everything changed. They weren’t friends with God anymore and they tried to hide.

But God found them. He still loved them and he promised to send a Saviour so that people could be friends with God again.’

In the storybag

Spiral snake and apple

Journey to Bethlehem – Adam and Eve disobey craft

Paper plate spiral snake for Journey to Bethlehem Adam and Eve disobey

Use a paper plate to make a spiral. Make sure the spiral is fairly wide. Decorate with squares of tissue paper. Add some string to the snakes head, an eye and a tongue.

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