Back in November last year we did the story of Joseph in two parts. In week one we told the story of his special coat and how his older brother sold him to people who were on their way to Egypt. It was great to have some soft toy camels to take out of the story bag.
The following week we told how the brothers had no food – they were so hungry! But there was food in Egypt. They made the long journey and there they came face to face with their brother. They didn’t know him but he knew who they were. What would he do? Joseph forgave his brothers. We can forgive people too. God is able to forgive us!
Here’s Joseph dressed like an Egyptian
The story takes up several chapters in Genesis (37, 39-46) We chose to tell only part of the story.
This past week our Bible Story was all about Joseph, his special coat and how his brothers sold him to people travelling on camels to Egypt. The camels were donated to the group about a year ago and normally live in our ‘Vet’ box. They come in very useful for several stories.
Craft – Joseph and his coloured coat! There is a PDF – Joseph
Look out for the umbrella in one of the children’s pictures 🙂
Story – (I used the above pictures – found via google- as puppets)
Jacob and Esau were brothers. In fact they were twins! Esau had been born first and then Jacob. They were very different to look at. They liked doing different things. Esau loved to be outside and to go hunting. Jacob liked to stay at home.
Their dad liked Esau the best. Their mum liked Jacob the best.
There was a big problem in this family. Even though Esau and Jacob were grown ups they tried to trick each other. Jacob really wanted all the great things that were going to belong to Esau, who was born first.
One day Jacob and his mum tricked Esau and this made him very angry. Esau was so angry that Jacob decided to go far away and stay with his Uncle Laban.
He said goodbye in a big hurry and he was off. It was a long walk. A long, long walk. He was getting tired. The sun was going down and it was getting dark. There were stars in the dark sky.
‘I’ll have to sleep here where I am’, thought Jacob.
So he got a stone to put near his head and he lay down to go to sleep. It doesn’t sound very comfortable does it! But Jacob was so tired and was missing home that he went off to sleep.
And then something extraordinary happened. He had a dream about angels. He could see a ladder that started on the ground but reached up and up and up right to heaven. Walking up and down the ladder were angels.
Then God spoke to Jacob, ‘I am the LORD. I won’t leave you. I will give you this land on which you are lying.’
Then Jacob woke up.
God knew where Jacob was. God cared about Jacob. God loved Jacob.
God knows where you are. God cares about you. God loves you.
This Abraham in his tent craft has a lift the flap element that hides Abraham! It’s a lovely craft to make with lots of sticking and opportunities to add texture to the tent by using fabric and texture to the sky by using cotton wool for clouds.
Abraham in his tent craft
Everything you need to make the craft
Abraham (this picture was from a google image search),
Blue sugar/construction paper,
Green sugar/construction paper cut into a narrow strip,
A cloud (optional – you could use cotton wool balls that can be unrolled and split),
A tent shape (see the photo and instructions below)
Glue
Tissue paper and/or fabric squares.
To make the tent shape – use the same size paper as for the blue background and trim about an inch off the bottom. Then fold as you see in the picture below. I pre-made the basic tent shapes in different colours in advance.
Making our Abraham in his tent craft at toddler group
Lay out your craft area to make it look welcoming. If it’s a large group don’t put out all your supplies at once but keep some for children who want to do the craft later in the session.
Craft table all readySky and grassAbraham’s tentAbraham in his tent craftAbraham in his tent craft
Our Bible Story was all about how Abraham left his home and went to a new land that God had promised to show him. This story is found in Genesis 12:1. Abraham travelled around this new land and lived in a tent. So our craft is Abraham in his tent!
‘Abraham’ came to toddler group in the Story Bag! We did lots of pointing to our ears when we heard how Abraham listened to God and lots of walking (hands on knees and making the sound of footsteps) as we heard how Abraham did what God said and went to a new place to live.
Later on we told the story about the birth of Isaac – the craft is almost the same but with more people! Take a look at this post Isaac is Born to see the craft idea.
I used a picture of Abraham from the web for the craft but have made a download of Abraham for you to use. Use the link below.
There is a really good video clip about this Bible story on The Answers in Genesis site – click here to go straight there.
In one of our toddler groups we’ve been learning about how everything began. We started with creation, then how things went wrong for Adam and Eve when they sinned against God. We’ve learnt about Noah and now we are finding out about how people groups and languages began.
In Genesis 11 we find out that Noah’s descendants were still living in one big group and that they were very capable and able to make bricks. When Noah and his family had come out of the Ark God had told them to ‘fill the earth’ (Genesis 9:1). But they had not spread out but stuck together. So God separates them by confusing their language. Then they really have no choice but to go their separate ways and ‘fill the earth’.
Story for children (during the story if you have someone who can speak a language that you don’t understand ask them to help you – they could give you some building instructions!)
Do you remember how Noah and his family came out of the Ark? They were so happy to be back on dry land again. God told Noah and his family that they should spread out over the whole earth. Do you think they did what God said? No! They wanted to stay altogether.
Time went by. Soon there were lots of people. They all spoke the same language. When someone said ‘hello’ everyone understood. They were clever too. They learnt how to make bricks that were strong. (Have a brick to show)
‘Lets build a huge city with a tall tower that reaches up and up into the sky’ they said. everyone understood.
They started work.
‘Pass the bricks’, ‘Lend me a hammer’, ‘is that wall straight?’ Everyone understood all the instructions.
God looked at what the people were doing. He wasn’t pleased. He had told them to spread out and they hadn’t listened. So God did something that only God could do. He made the people start to speak in different languages.
It was so hard to build the huge city and tall tower now that some people were saying words that other people didn’t understand. (ask your friend to give you a couple of instructions here)
The people gave up. They got together in smaller groups with others who had the same language and they began to spread out over the whole earth.
I really enjoyed putting this craft together and the children enjoyed making their own too – which is the main thing!
There was a bit of prep – cutting an ark shape from a folded paper plate and tearing tissue paper into long strips. the ark ‘floats’ on the tissue paper water. The animal stickers were a perfect size.
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