Paper plate craft Archives - Let their light shine!

Three women and a baby – women in the Bible 3

Three women and a baby is the story of Moses’ birth, his mothers’ plan to keep him safe and his rescue. Three women make sure that Moses is safe. You can read the story in Exodus 2:1-10.

To tell the story I used some pictures from Free Bible Images. They have a great selection of Bible characters that you can print onto card, cut out and make into lollipop stick puppets. Here’s a link – you will need to have a look at the different sections to find pictures suitable for Moses’ mum, sister and Pharoah’s daughter. The characters aren’t named, just have a look and see what you would like to use.

I also used a doll for the baby and an oval storage basket and some blue cloth for the Nile.

Baby Moses in a basket props for story telling

Three women and a baby – story idea

In our Bible story today there are three women. Let’s find out what they did.

A long time ago there was a really bad king. He was very cross that God’s people, who were living in his country, were having families with lots of children. ‘I’m not happy about this!’ he said to himself. Then he had a very bad and horrible plan. ‘Get rid of all the baby boys’, he said. That was a horrible plan. he was a very bad king.

There was a family that had just had a baby boy. They weren’t going to get rid of him. They loved him very much. So they kept him a secret. Every time he cried they said ‘Shush’ (can you say that?). But as he got bigger he cried louder. What could his mummy do? His mummy trusted God and she made a plan to keep her baby safe.

His mummy (take puppet from story bag) had a plan. She began to make something. Shall I show you what it was? It was a basket. She made it waterproof and very strong with a lid.

When it was finished she wrapped up her baby son and put him gently into the basket. Then she took the baby in the basket down to the river. The baby’s big sister came too. (Take her from the story bag) Now they weren’t going to just any part of the river. The mummy knew that someone important would be going to this part of the river too.

The mummy put the basket in the water and she went home. But big sister hid and watched and waited.

Sure enough down to the river came the third woman in our story. She was very important. She was the bad kings daughter! (Take her from the story bag) She looked at the basket. What’s inside? she thought. So she opened the lid! And there inside was the little baby boy and he was crying. The King’s daughter felt sorry for him. She knew that he was a baby belonging to God’s people.

Now the baby’s big sister did a very brave thing. She stopped hiding and called out, ‘Shall I go and find someone who can take care of the baby for you?’

‘Go, and get someone’, the Kings daughter said.

Who could she find to care for the baby? His mum!

These three women rescued the baby boy and he was called Moses, which means taken out of the water. Moses mummy trusted God to keep her little baby boy safe – and he did. God can always be trusted.

Maybe when you were a baby you were put in a Moses Basket? It’s called a Moses basket because of this true story from the Bible.

Moses in the basket craft idea

All you need to make a simple paper plate Moses in the basket craft

Paper plate
Cup cake liner
Blue and green tissue paper
Baby – see download (He is sad because he was crying)
Glue

baby-moses-x-24 (1)Download

Daniel in the Lions’ Den

Daniel in the lions’ den bible story for young children. You can read the story in Daniel 6.

Daniel in the Lions’ Den story idea

Daniel lived a long, long time ago. He loved God and often talked to God, we call that praying. He prayed to God three times every day. What do you think he said? The Bible tells us that he thanked God. He lived a long way from his home in a foreign country but he worked hard and he was always doing his best.

He worked for the King. (Say hello to king Darius). Now king Darius had lots of people who worked for him. But he knew that Daniel was the most hardworking and trustworthy person so he made Daniel the boss over all the other servants.

Well they weren’t happy about that at all! They were grumpy. They were jealous. ‘Why is Daniel the kings favourite and not us?’ they said.

Then they thought. ‘Let’s get daniel into trouble.’ But that was going to be difficult because Daniel worked hard and always did his best.

But these other servants were full of jealously and determination. ‘Let’s trick the king into making a law about praying to God. Then we will see what happens to Daniel!’

They went to the king and said, ‘ Oh most wonderful King make a new rule that everyone must only pray to you for a whole month or be thrown into the den with the lions’.

Well the king liked the sound of that. It made him feel important. So he made the new rule; and it couldn’t be changed.

So what was Daniel going to do? When Daniel heard about the new rule he didn’t start praying to King Darius. Oh no – why do that? He went home and he did what he had always done – he knelt down by his window and he prayed to God.

The jealous servants were so happy! We’ve got him ! Off they went to see the King. They told him all about Daniel breaking the new rule.

King Darius was sad. He spent all day trying to find a way to save Daniel from being thrown to the hungry lions. But he couldn’t think of anything. He couldn’t save Daniel.

When evening came Daniel was taken to the lions den. ‘I hope you God can save you,’ King Darius said.

King Darius went to his beautiful palace. But he didn’t eat. He didn’t listen to music. He couldn’t sleep.

As soon as morning came he hurried to the lions’ den. He called out , ‘Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God saved you?’ He waited. He listened. He heard something! It wasn’t the roar of a lion it was a voice..

‘Yes, he has saved me’, Daniel called back!

King Darius was a very powerful king but only The living God could save Daniel. The living God still saves people today!

Daniel in the Lions’ Den storytelling prop ideas

Choose some props to take out of the story bag as you tell the story. It’s great to have everyone say hello to the different characters as they come out of the bag. I had three props; Daniel, King Darius (made from a Cardboard tube – instructions here) and a lion (which is also a craft idea)

Storytelling props for Daniel in the Lions' Den

Daniel in the Lions’ Den craft idea

Lion paper plate craft for Daniel in the Lions' Den

If you don’t have any paper plates there is another idea here (with a printable lion) that uses paper curls for the mane.

NOTE – my example has stick on eyes. Be careful with these. You can use stickers for eyes instead.

Noah built the Ark

‘Noah Built an Ark’ is the third story in our ‘What’s in God’s Big Book?’ series that we have used with under 5’s. We began by making a big book that could be used to hold each page. Take a look here. It is really oversized – you could get away with making a smaller big book (especially if you need to take it on the bus!)

The first story was God made everything. The second First sad day. We now move on to Noah based on Genesis 6-8.

Noah built an Ark Story

In the story bag – Noah, a tool kit, wood, a variety of animals

Say hello to Noah! He lived a long tome ago. All around him and his family people were always cross. They argued, they shouted, they sometimes started fighting! It was horrible. No one cared about anyone else. No one listened to God anymore. They ignored him.

But God saw them! God sees everything. So God decided to wash everything way. He was going to end all the arguing and fighting.

Now Noah was not like everyone else. He did care about what God thought. Do you think God noticed Noah? Yes, he did. And God decided to save Noah.

He told Noah what to do – and Noah started to build! He sawed wood, he hammered, he measured.He sawed more wood! He was making something really, really big! It wasn’t a house. It wasn’t a tower. It wasn’t even a boat. It was an Ark.

It was like an enormous wooden box with rooms inside that would float.

It took a long time.

Then the Ark was finished. God sent some of the animals to go inside. (You can show some here – and maybe make the sounds they would make). Then Noah and his wife and family went inside too. And God shut the door – bang!

They waited – and then it started – the rain poured down. There was so much rain! Soon the whole world was covered in water. Everything was washed away except for Noah and his family and the animals in the Ark.

Days and days went by. Then God stopped the rain. Slowly the water went down until it was finally safe for Noah to come out of The Ark. Noah was very grateful. He said, ‘Thank you God’. And God made a very special promise to Noah, ‘I won’t destroy everything again. While the earth is here, there will always be seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.’ And God put the rainbow in the sky to remind Noah of his promise.

That special promise is for us too! When you see a rainbow in the sky remember that God always keeps his promises.

Noah built an Ark craft ideas

A great craft to go with this story is a paper plate Ark that rocks! If making with under 5’s pre-cut the Ark shapes. You can also make the water using tissue and crepe paper on a blue sheet of sugar/construction paper. There are some great animal stickers that the children can enjoy adding to their Ark. These stickers are often sold on a roll so cut them into singles beforehand. Or use cut outs of animals for the children to colour and glue to the Ark.

We’ve also made a large Ark that you can use during the story and decorate with animal stickers.

Older children can have a go at making the rainbow cloud. We used cloud shaped gift tags and rainbow ribbon.

Celebrate Epiphany

Celebrate Epiphany with some lovely crafts and tell the Bible Story of the Visit of the Magi. The visit of The Magi (also known as Wise Men or kings) is found in Matthew 2.

Celebrate Epiphany Bible Story

Celebrate Epiphany story Wise Men knitted dolls

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.

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.

Celebrate Epiphany Craft Ideas

Decorate crown shapes made from air- drying dough. Make crowns from card of buy crowns to decorate with circle stickers. The King is make from a Pringle Container.

Decorate wooden stars with paint and/or sequins. Put the decorated star on named envelope to dry and then put in the envelope to take home. The sequins stick best with PVA glue.

Use a square black paper plate to make these star stained glass windows. Cut out the star shape and then glue brightly coloured tissue paper over the gap on the reverse side. To make this even easier for young children use some clear sticky back plastic in the gap and then add small pieces if tissue paper (it won’t be as neat but it is easier)

A similar craft to celebrate Epiphany using a paper plate – take a look here for instructions!

Enjoy celebrating Epiphany!

First Sad Day Story and Craft

First sad day story and craft is the second ‘page’ in our ‘What’s in God’s Big Book? ‘ story series. We began with ‘God made everything‘. This story is based on Genesis 3

To tell the story

We had our Big Book with this page inside to show at the end of the story and read. We used props to tell the story – Adam, Eve, an apple (it was just fruit in the story but an apple is easy to take a bite from), a toy snake.

First sad day story

Adam and Eve lived in the beautiful garden. Everything was very good (thumbs up). There were trees and flowers and animals. They were happy (can you look happy?).

God had made everything and he had one rule for Adam and Eve to keep. Just one! He said to them, ‘Don’t eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. If you do you will die.’ They listened and they heard what God said.

Everything was lovely. But then one day a snake began to talk to Eve! ‘Did God really say that you can’t eat the fruit from all the trees in the garden?’

‘We can eat all the fruit from all the trees, except from the tree in the middle of the garden’, Eve replied. ‘If we eat from the tree in the middle of the garden we will die’

‘No you won’t’, said the snake, ‘you’ll become just like God’.

Eve looked at the tree in the middle of the garden. The fruit looked good! So she reached out her hand and she …. picked some of the fruit …. and she …took a bite! (you can ask another leader to play the part of Eve and act this out as you tell the story)

Adam was with her so she gave some to him and he took a bite too!

Adam and Eve had broken the one rule that God had given them. And everything changed. They felt sad. (Can you look sad) They had to leave the beautiful garden. And one day many years later they would die. It was a very sad day.

But God still loved Adam and Eve and he promised that he would send a Saviour to make everything good again.

First sad day craft idea

To make the spiral snake you need fairly sturdy paper plates (you need to be able to cut them but you don’t want them to fall apart when the toddlers start glueing on tissue paper!), tissue paper squares in lots of colours, snake tongue shapes cut out and some crayons/felt tips to draw on an eye. Adults can add the wool/string at the end of the make.

(You can add the string/wool beforehand if you prefer. An easy way to do this is to thread a darning needle with the wool and punch it through the plate. Tie a knot and cover the knot with cellotape.)

Let’s Make a Paper Plate Basket!

Make a basket using a large paper plate! This is a great basket to make for an Easter Egg Hunt. See end of post for some other ideas too! Baskets are really useful!

All you need

Paper plate (9in/23cm diameter)
Scissors
Stapler
Hole Punch
Pipe cleaner (12in/30cm length)
Stickers to decorate
Tissue paper to put inside
Small Easter eggs/chocolates hidden – to find!

How to make the baskets

If making these with young children you may want to do several of the stages beforehand. Older children can cut the plate and use the stapler (with supervision – make sure they can use it safely). Punching the holes needs supervision just to make sure they aren’t punched too close to the edge of the plate. You want the pipe cleaner handle to hold!

Mark out where to cut the plate (picture 1)
Cut along the lines
Fold the small section inwards and bend round the two longer sides. Secure with a staple. Do this twice.
Punch holes
Add pipe cleaner handle (Twist around the punched hole to secure)
Decorate with stickers
Add tissue paper lining
Collect eggs!

The basic basket can be used as a craft for the story of Feeding the 5,000. Just add the five loaves and two fish. If you click on the link you’ll find a post with a Pdf with loaves and fish that you can print.

You could also make it to celebrate harvest. Add some pictures of fruit and veg to your basket.

If you leave out the pipe cleaner handle you could use the basket for a Baby Moses craft too! here’s another idea about Moses.

Once you have a basic craft idea it’s great to be able to adapt it for different age groups and Bible Stories and Seasonal crafts. I’m sure you can think of other ways to use a basic basket shape!

Weaving Craft

Weaving craft is a great activity for an after school club for children aged 4-plus. It needs a bit of prep but is well worth the effort. We made these at our children’s club and everyone joined in; there was lots of concentration!

Try to have yarn of different colours so the children can make some choices. We used a double knitting weight for the centre of the flower and then changed to aran weight. But chunky or aran weight yarn for the whole flower would be great too. Just don’t use really fine yarn as it will take forever to complete. If you want to you can use ribbon which would look lovely (just make sure that it works and stays put – satin ribbon might be a bit slippery). It’s always a good idea to test out a craft activity and any materials you are hoping to use to double check that the craft is makeable.

All you need for the Weaving Craft

Paper plate (cut the petals – we have 11. It’s best to have an odd number as it makes the weaving easier. It’s always ‘over, under,with an odd number!’)
Yarn – we used Double Knitting for the inner circle and Aran for the outer circle. Look at the photo below to see the difference. It’s helpful to have the yarn in small amounts as this helps with the weaving.
Cellotape to secure the yarn at the back of the plate
Ribbon (optional)

How to make

Cut the petals – have a look at the photos to see how far to cut into the plate.
Thread the loom – use any colour but one that stands out will make a great contrast when you are weaving.
To start weaving knot the first colour of yarn at the centre and then start weaving alternating ‘over, under’.
Change colour as often as you like by knotting a new colour to the old colour.
Use the Aran weight yarn as the circle gets bigger.

Here’s a link to another craft using yarn that is also really fun to make.

I often buy yarn from Wool Warehouse – stylecraft DK comes in many colours and is very good. You can also find yarn in charity shops and ask friends and family for any small amounts they might have that you can use for crafts.

Paper Plate Fish Craft

Paper plate fish craft to make. There are so many Bible Stories with fish! You could use this craft for Creation, the Calling of the first disciples, the Great catch of fish, Jesus making breakfast.

Paper plate fish craft – all you need

Paper plate (inexpensive and not too sturdy)
Cut out a triangle from the plate to make the mouth. (Do this beforehand)
Use the triangle for the fish tail. Attach this with glue or staple. (The stapling needs to be done by an adult)
Glue
Glue lots of shiny paper to the fish. We used a variety including cellophane, tissue paper with a glittery finish, shimmer paper and left over Christmas wrapping paper. (It’s always worthwhile keeping used wrapping paper for crafts)
Add an eye. Older children could use googly eyes. I prefer not to use them with toddlers so we draw on eyes instead.
Encourage lots of layering of the different types of paper and cellophane to blend the colours.

Here’s a link to another fishy craft. This post also has a story idea.

Easter Stained Glass

How to make your own Easter Stained Glass picture

You will need

Black paper plate
Tacky back
Tissue paper in bright colours
Cross cut from the plate centre or black paper
Glue

To make

Cut out the centre of the plate (use this to make the cross)
Add the tacky back – you need the sticky side to be the same side as the black plate rim
Stick tissue paper all over the tacky back to make the stained glass effect
Add the cross on top of the tissue paper using glue.

Display in a window!

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

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.

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.

How to make a shepherd

How to make a shepherd printable instructions.

You can make a shepherd to add to a Nativity display or use when telling the Christmas Story. Below is a photo of a nativity to give you an idea of how you can use paper plate Christmas characters to build a Christmas scene. In the picture we have Mary and Joseph, angels and shepherds. The manger is a party bag with yellow tissue paper inside – see this post for instructions and a printable baby , the stable is made from a cardboard box lined with yellow tissue paper on the inside and covered with brown tissue paper on the outside.

How to make a shepherd printable

You can print the above by clicking on download…

how-to-make-a-shepherd-1 Download

There is a similar printable all about making an angel available in this post

Enjoy making a Christmas scene to use in storytelling or as a decoration.

Angel tree topper instructions

Angel tree topper instructions that are easy to print. We made these angels last year in our toddler group. There are some instructions here on the blog in a previous post but this printable instruction leaflet is much easier to print and share. It can be handy to have some instructions for the adults to look at on the craft table. You could also make them available as a take home for parents and children to make during the Christmas holidays.

Printable instructions showing how to make an angel tree topper

how-to-make-a-christmas-angel-1-2 Download

Easter Garden to make at home

Easter garden to make at home is a great way to celebrate Easter. The garden is a reminder of the Easter story and is also fun to make. Traditionally an Easter Garden would be made using soil, moss, flowers etc but this version is made entirely from paper and card – if you haven’t got easy access to soil and plants this is for you!

What I used to make the Easter Garden

paper plate (a piece of card would do too)
cereal box to make the cross (make two cross shapes and glue together so it will stand up)
paper ice cream tub for the tomb ( a roll of paper with card glued over an end would be fine)
a paper circle for the stone
tissue paper for the path and grass
pictures of flowers from magazines/garden catalogues.

How to make a cross for an Easter Garden — To attach the cross add a fold and glue the tab

Instructions for making a paper plate Easter Garden — Add the tomb – this might need to be glued and then held in place till it has stuck. Make a fold on the edge of the circle for the tomb then glue the tab that you have made and glue down. If you want to add the words do that first.

Here’s another Easter Garden idea that uses play dough and weetabix

Take a look at this telling of the Easter story for young children.

More Easter craft ideas..

We’ve arrived at Easter!

We’ve arrived at Easter! We have traveled along the road to Jerusalem to reach the first Easter. Each week we’ve met different people that Jesus met on his journey and now we are at the end of our journey.

This weeks story is the Easter Story .. to tell it you need puppets or dolls to represent Peter, John and Mary and the paper plate visual (or something similar.) If you have been making the paper plates display all of them together and then add the one from this final story.

The Story from Luke 23 and 24

Bible truth for toddlers – Jesus died and came alive again

‘Our story has a sad beginning – can you look sad? Jesus died on the cross on the Friday. He was put in a tomb (cave) and a big stone was put over the entrance.

His friends were very sad and frightened. A whole day went by – that was Saturday.

The next day was Sunday. A woman called Mary went to the tomb very early in the morning. When she got there something had happened. The big stone had been moved. What could she do? Who would help her?

Mary knew someone who could help her – Peter! She went to find Peter and John and told them what had happened.

They listened. Then they started to run. They were running as fast as they could to the tomb. John got there first and looked inside. It was empty.

Then Peter got there. He didn’t just look inside. He walked right in to the tomb. It was empty!

Jesus wasn’t there anymore. The Bible tells us that that he had died and then come alive again. This is happy news for you and for me.’

Paper plates decorated to tell the story of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem at Easter — **The paper plates that have been used to show Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem can be displayed altogether!**

Here’s the link to the introductory post for this story series with links to the blog posts

Easter Craft Idea

Easter shapes craft using crepe paper printing. This is really fun! Have a look at this post for how to use crepe paper to print pictures.

On the Way to Easter…Palm Sunday Story

Jesus rides into Jerusalem

On the way to Easter Palm Sunday story can be told as a stand alone story or used as part of the series ‘On the Way to Easter’.

Bible story from Luke 19:28-40 and Mark 11:1-10

Bible truth for toddlers – Jesus is the King!

‘Jesus and his friends were almost at the big city of Jerusalem. Lots of people wanted to see Jesus. But how was Jesus going to arrive in the city? Was he going to arrive in a car? No! Was he going to arrive in a helicopter? No! (they didn’t have those!) Was he going to ride into the city on a big, strong horse? No!

Jesus sent two of his friends to borrow a donkey. (What noise does a donkey make? Hee-haw) They bought the donkey to Jesus and put their cloaks on it’s back. Jesus sat on the donkey and he rode into the big city.

Crowds and crowds of people were there. There were mums and dads, grandmas and grandads and children just like you! Some of the people took their cloaks off and put them in the road for the donkey to walk on. They called out, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ as Jesus passed by. They shouted, ‘hosanna!’ (which means ‘God saves’). Can you say ‘hosanna’? They waved palm branches in the air. The people in the crowd were welcoming Jesus into the big city. They were excited!

They welcomed Jesus – the King sent from God.’

Some pictures to use to tell the story

On the way to Easter Palm Sunday story visual aid — Palm Sunday

Dowload the links to make the street scene

People pictures are available in this blog post

The donkey to make

https://lettheirlightshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/leglessdonkey.pdf

The street scene https://lettheirlightshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/streetscene.pdf

The trees and palm leaves

https://lettheirlightshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/palmleafsceneparts.pdf

I cut the cloaks out of material.

On the way to Easter Palm Sunday story visuals

Craft ideas

You could use the printouts as a craft if telling the story at home or with older children.

The pegs for legs donkey is a fun craft to make. Print and cut out the donkey shape. Colour and add wooden clothes pegs for legs.

There are some Palm Leaf craft ideas here

On the Way to Easter…Mary

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!

God made the stars spiral

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.

Spring is coming!

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.

At toddler group there will be lots of sticking, selecting blossom and leaves. It’s up to the children how much blossom to place on their spiral.

Paper Plate Nativity

Angels, Mary, Joseph, shepherds and the manger with the baby. Great for a nativity decoration and for telling the Christmas story.

Links to ‘how to make’ the characters (specifically the angels but the same basic idea is used for Mary, Joseph and the shepherds too) and the manger

The stable is a cardboard box covered in tissue paper. If you cover the inside of the box with yellow paint or tissue paper the characters will show up better. You can add battery powered tea lights too!

You could make this over several weeks in toddler group or Sunday School or make at home.

Shepherd craft

Luke tells us that shepherds were told that the Saviour had been born!

‘For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord’ Luke 2:11

So here are some shepherds to make … using paper plates

All you need to make these shepherds – paper plates,pipe cleaners, wool, tissue paper and circles.

This is how to cut, fold and stick the paper plate so that your shepherd will stand up. Once you have done this add two holes to slide in the pipe cleaner crook. Then add the face and clothes etc.

Angel!

There are lots of Bible stories that include angels so this craft isn’t just for Christmas! But obviously we often make angel crafts at Christmas so here is a paper plate angel that stands up and could be used as a tree topper.

All you need – paper plates (cheap and quite thin as you want to cut them in half and fold them), doilies (not too large and cut or folded in half), wool for hair, stars and shiny paper to decorate, glue and crayons to draw on features and glue.

If you are making these in a toddler group do all the cutting out prep beforehand and have a made angel to give an idea. If you want to do the folding of the plate ahead of time you could.

Enjoy!

Jesus stops the Storm

‘Jesus stops the Storm’ was another of our weather themed stories at toddler group. It’s from Luke 8. It’s a great story to tell – lots of drama with the wind blowing and waves crashing, frightened disciples, dark skies and Jesus sleeping!

Craft Idea

This craft is in two parts; the lake made from a paper plate – square paper plates with two shades of blue tissue paper – and mini boats. Round plates would be just as good but they need to be a bit sturdy. The boat is cut from card (done beforehand) and has a tab so it can be glued in place but still stand up. The label says ‘Jesus stopped the storm’.

It’s a very effective craft that’s quite easy to make.

Make the boat first and attach to the paper plate. Then add the waves and the label.

Jesus stopped the Storm Bible Story Idea

Introduce actions for the children to do during the story. It’s helpful to explain these actions before you start. Include them as you tell the story.

1. Move arms to represent waves (vary the size of the waves in the story)

2 Blow into closed hands for the wind

3 Pretend to be sleeping

4 Say, ‘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.

‘ One day Jesus asked his friends to get in a boat and go to the other side of the lake. It was very calm and the water was gently moving the boat. Jesus was very tired. He laid down in the boat and rested his head on a pillow and went fast asleep. The boat moved slowly out across the lake. Some of Jesus’ friends were fishermen and they knew all about rowing boats.

Suddenly a the wind began to blow. the waves got bigger and bigger and bigger! Water was starting to come inside the boat! It was so scary. But Jesus was fast asleep.

Jesus’ friends felt the wind blowing, saw the waves getting bigger and bigger and they were frightened. ‘We are going to die!,’ they said.

Jesus was still fast asleep. So his friends woke him up. ‘Don’t you care about us? they said.

Jesus cares very much.

He got up and stood up in the boat. And then he did something that no one else could ever do. He told the wind and the waves to ‘STOP! Shush – be still.’

It was suddenly all quiet and still. No more wind blowing and waves crashing.

Jesus’ friends were afraid and shocked. ‘Who is this?’ they said to each other, ‘that even the wind and waves obey him!’

Jesus is God. He is the only one who can stop the storm’.

Downloads for the craft

Jesus-stopped-the-storm-Sheet-of-labels-3-x-8 Download

Bible town scene to make

Making a Bible town scene is one of my favourite Holiday Bible Club crafts. It fits with so many Bible stories as it is just a scene of a town. It’s fun to make and 3D.

All you need is

Square paper plate (needs to be quite sturdy)

Tissue paper/sugar paper

Background scene printed onto card – same size in width as the centre of the paper plate with about an inch of card that can be folded to make a flap which will be glued so the scene stands on the paper plate

Felt tips for colouring the scene

Square block of wood to make a house – doors and windows and outside steps to be added by the children

To Assemble the children need to –

Colour the background scene and stick onto paper plate to make a back drop
Add doors, windows and steps to house (wooden block) and glue onto the plate in the foreground
Add tissue paper/sugar paper to make paths/grass/sand

We bought the background scene from creativeforkids.com (as of 2023 I don’t think they sell it anymore.)

Animal Bible Stories and crafts

I thought I’d put all the animal bible stories and crafts that we’ve done at toddler group in one place! These are all suitable for under fives. We have ravens, bees, big fish, lions, fox and sheep. Of course you could add Creation and Noah to the list for even more animals!

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Ravens

This Animal Bible Story is from 1Kings 17.

To put the story in context we had King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in the story bag and explained that they were a bad king and a bad queen who were horrible to people.

Elijah was also in the story bag.

At the beginning of the story these three people are introduced to the children.

Telling the Story

Elijah went to see King Ahab. He had a message for him from God. ‘King Ahab, God has said that there isn’t going to be any more rain for the next few years’.

There was going to be no more rain for King Ahab or Queen Jezebel. There was going to be no more rain for Elijah.

But, God told Elijah what to do. Go and hide in the valley. I will send ravens to give you food. You can drink water from the stream.

Elijah did what God said. He went to the valley where the stream was.

When he woke up in the mornings the ravens came and bought him bread and meat for breakfast. (Take ravens from story bag)

When it was getting near to going to bed at night the ravens came with bread and meat for tea.

God took care of Elijah. God is able to look after you too.

Raven made from a paper plate.

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Bees

Telling the Story

The story can be very simple – this was the basic outline (Judges 14:1-20)

1.God’s people were in trouble because they had ignored God

2. God still loved them so he sent someone to help them

3. God sent Samson. (At this point Samson is taken out of the story bag and we all say ‘hello Samson!’)

4. Samson wasn’t very tall, or very small, or very young or very old – he was very strong. (and we all flex our muscles)

5. One day Samson was walking along (make walking noises by patting hands on knees) when he heard a buzz, buzz, buzz. (everyone make a buzz sound)

6. He had found some bees (take paper plate bee from story bag) inside a dead lion – and they were making honey. ( I did mention that we should leave bees alone and then they won’t bother us)

7. God was going to help Samson use what he saw to rescue his people from trouble.

At the end of the story I told the children that they could find this story in Tesco, Asda etc and showed them the Lyles Golden Syrup tin.

The craft was a simple paper plate cut in half. I painted them yellow at home and the children added the stripes, head and wings. I found the idea on Pinterest – it’s from Happy Home Fairy. My bee is slightly different – I tend to steer clear of googly eyes as they are quite easy for an under three to choke on. I didn’t bother with feet either as I like to keep crafts as simple as possible.

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Pigs

This Story is The Prodigal Son from Luke 15.

To tell the story – use some props including money, party streamers/hats, pretend pigs, new robe/coat/ring/shoes.

Telling the story

Jesus told the people a story

‘There was a man who had two sons (count to two). The younger son wanted his father’s money. So the father decided to share all his things between his two sons. Now they had a lot of money. (jingle the money).

A few days later the younger son got his money and packed his bag and went far away. He loved spending is money! he had lots and lots of parties (show party streamers/hats). One day he looked in his pocket for more money but it had all gone! He had spent every last penny! He was in trouble.

He needed a job. He went to work looking after pigs. What noise do pigs make? oink,oink! He was so hungry that he could have eaten the food that the pigs ate. No one helped him. He was sad.

‘I will go back to my father’ he said. ‘He will give me a better job than sitting here with these pigs.’

So he walked and walked and walked till he could see his old home far away in the distance.

Someone saw him coming. Someone had been looking and hoping that he would come back home. It was his father. His father was so pleased to see his son that he ran down the road to meet him and hugged him.

‘I’m sorry’ said the son

‘I forgive you’ said the father. ‘Now let’s celebrate that you have come back home!’

The father gave his son new clothes to wear, new shoes and a ring.(show these items) He was so happy that he had a party.

‘My son was lost,’ he said,’but now he is found.’

When we come back to God it is like we were lost but are now found.

Craft Idea – paper plate pink pigs.

All you need

Paper plate

Pink tissue paper and crepe paper cut into square (roughly)

Glue

Circles from pink sugar paper for snout (I use a paper punch from hobbycraft.)

Ear shapes cut from sugar paper

Stickers for nostrils and eyes

Pink crayons (optional)

We allow plenty of self expression!

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Fox

Nehemiah was given the job of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. His enemies made fun of him, ‘if a fox climbs on your wall it will fall down!’ (Nehemiah 4:3) they said. But Nehemiah kept building and with God’s help the wall was finished!

In the story bag – wooden bricks for the wall (not in the photo – I used our toddler group bricks), two men – Nehemiah and Sanballat and a fox.

Craft Idea – fox collage – crayons and crepe paper. Free fox PDF to print – fox

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Lion

Daniel in the Lion’s Den from Daniel 6.

In the story basket there were Daniel, the King, an angel and some lions.

Craft idea – Paper plate lion

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Big Fish/Whale

For the telling of the Story of Jonah I’ve used a large prop. I saw a tent made into the big fish on Handsonbibleteacher.blogspot.co.uk so thought I would have a go at making one – my attempt doesn’t look as neat – I think my pop up tent was a little too square – but you have to use what you have! Jonah is made from a Pringles carton – I saw that idea on Pinterest. It’s originally from this blog Preachmanswife.blogspot.co.uk

Telling the Story

Say hello to Jonah! Jonah was given a job to do. God told him to go and tell the people living in Ninevah that God loved them.

‘No, I won’t’, said Jonah. ‘I don’t like the people who live in Ninevah’

So Jonah packed his bag and went the other way. He walked to the boat (make walking sounds by tapping hands on knees) and he bought a ticket and off he went.

Jonah was tired (yawn) so he went inside the boat and settled down for a sleep. (put hands on side of head as if sleeping)

Do you think God knew where Jonah was? God knows everything. He knew that Jonah was on the boat.

God sent a storm. The waves got bigger, the wind blew, the rain came down. The sailors were worried. ‘Someone has done something wrong’, they said, ‘and God is angry.’

They went to wake Jonah up. ‘Wake up Jonah!’ (ask children to repeat this)

Jonah opened his eyes. ‘Oh dear’, he said, ‘this is my fault. You must throw me into the sea.’

‘No!’ the sailors said.

But the storm got worse and in the end they had to throw Jonah into the sea. Splash!

The storm stopped.

Jonah sank down,down, down into the water. But God loved Jonah and he had somthing there to save him. A great big fish swam up and swallowed Jonah. He was safe. (Place Jonah inside the big fish)

Jonah knew he had done the wrong thing and he talked to God. ‘I am sorry’ he said.

Could God hear Jonah? Yes, God hears when we say sorry to him.

God sent the great big fish to the beach and it gave a big hiccup and out came Jonah. (take Jonah out of the big fish)

God said, ’Jonah go and tell the people of Ninevah that I love them.’ This time Jonah did what God said.

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Sheep

Luke 15:1-7. Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep.

To tell the story

Very young children will probably benefit from using smaller numbers – maybe just up to ten with the number ten sheep missing. Before you begin hide a sheep but unless you have a small group give the task of looking for it to a helper (who knows where to look!).

You could dress as a shepherd or take have a picture of a shepherd to show (we had a shepherd’s crook to show too). Ask the children what sort of animal a shepherd looks after and if they don’t know after one or two tries tell them – a shepherd looks after sheep. Ask them to make the sound a sheep makes. Explain that Jesus told a story about a shepherd who had 10 (100) sheep. He looked after them. At the end of the day he counted them. Have some sheep to count and count them altogether 1,2,,3,4,5,6,7,8,9…..Oh no one is missing! Where can he be? At this point pretend to look for the sheep and find him.

Explain that Jesus told the story to tell everyone that he has come to look for people – to help them to know and love God.

Craft Ideas

Pegs for legs sheep – print on to card and cut out for young children. They can decorate their sheep. make sure an adult adds the legs.

Sheep collage – print on to paper and decorate with cotton wool and wax crayons.

Sheep – Pdf file – free to use

Sheep_(peg_legs) – Pdf file – free to use

Daniel in the Lion’s Den – animal stories

We are doing stories based on the theme ‘Animals in the Bible’ this half term at Thursday Toddler Group. We started with creation – lots of toy animals in the story bag that we named.

The following week we did Daniel in the Lion’s Den from Daniel 6.

In the story basket there were Daniel, the King, an angel and some lions.

Craft idea

Christmas story paper plates

These paper plates can be used to tell the Christmas story and/or as craft ideas. They need some prep so I’m posting them now!

The Angel Gabriel visits Mary – Luke 1:26-38

Jesus is born – Luke 2:1-7

The shepherds are told about the birth of the Saviour – Luke 2:8-21

You can tell the story a little at a time over three weeks or use the plates altogether

They are made from sturdy paper plates that have a rim (not the cheapest but they need to stand up to being taken out of a story bag). The picture backgrounds are made from tissue paper and the scenes and people use paper, sugar paper, crepe paper, cardboard rolls (stable) wool, cotton wool and shiny paper. The angel wings are hearts cut out using a paper punch. The bodies of the people are triangles and the head scarfs (I can’t think of a better word!) are material. Lots of different textures and colours! Use what you have 🙂

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

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.

Noah’s ark

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.

dinosaur craft

There are lots of versions of this in my house (!) – this is my favourite

How to make – paper plates cut in half. You can easily cut the dinosaur spikes/plates a few plates at a time. Older children who can safely use scissors can do this part themselves.

Each dinosaur needs a tail and a head – there is a free printable here – Dinosaur Head and Tail (1) Colour these and then attach with glue.

Decorate the dinosaur with tissue paper, crayon, pens – whatever suits you. I like to give children a choice.

Decorate the pegs and attach. The dinosaur should stand up!

Paper plate lion

I’m putting together some paper plate crafts for a Noah’s Ark themed family event. I’ve made a lion before with wool for the mane but fancied a change so have used mini cup cake liners. As parents are there to make the crafts alongside their children there will be minimal prep –

all you need – cake liners in orange and yellow, yellow tissue paper, googly eyes……..…….black sugar paper, black felt tip pen, scissors, glue and paper plate.

Use the wrong side of the plate to make the lion.

God made big animals – paper plate craft ideas

Paper plates, tissue paper, glue and a bit of preparation = animal crafts that look great and are fun to make. You can add googly eyes, wool, stickers for eyes, triangles for a nose…

Here are a couple that I’ve made –

2015-06-18 16.19.56 — Paper plate pigs made by me to give children and parents an idea of what to aim at.

There are loads of ideas on my paper plate pinterest board

5 loaves and 2 fish craft

A 5 loaves and 2 fish craft to go with the Story of The Feeding of the 5,000 from John 15. There is an idea for telling the story here.

To make this easy craft all you need is

Construction paper or light card
loaves and fish – printed on paper and cut out. I cut all the loaves as a group which saved a lot of time. Children who are able/old enough to use scissors could cut out their own. Here is a PDF file of the loaves and fish.5-loaves-and-2-fish-2
orange/yellow tissue paper in small squares
crayons
PVA glue and glue sticks
sequins (I love using sequins!)
paper plates cut in half
a sticky label that explains what Jesus did with the loaves and fish

Preparation – attach half a paper plate to the construction paper/card beforehand. I used a stapler.

5 loaves and 2 fish craft using a paper plate basket

Jesus is born – craft

We made these last year and in a couple of weeks time will make them again at our Holiday Bible Club Christmas Special. The paper plate is cut to form a simple manger shape and then the plate is decorated using coloured tissue paper, a star and some shredded tissue paper. Once this is all done you fold the plate in half so it stands up! This is very simple to make and looks great.

This would be a lovely craft to make at home.

Here’s the one I made last year….

Jesus feeds five thousand people

This story is from John 6 ( and the other gospels too). In the story basket we had Jesus, Andrew, the young boy, a paper chain of people to represent the crowd and the lunch of two fish and five loaves. In John 6 Philip is also mentioned by name but we kept to just Andrew as he bought the young boy with the lunch to Jesus. Sometimes too much detail can make a toddler group story too long. The paper plate lunch was also our crafty make – we did the craft before the story. The loaves and fish were cut from sugar paper. We weren’t strict about how much ‘lunch’ everyone had on their plate.

Paper Plate Christingle

I so wanted to make something like this last year but just ran out of time. So this year I was determined to make a craft focusing on Christingle. This is not necessarily instead of making the real thing. This craft could be done as an extra activity or used for very young children that you would rather didn’t have a candle.

The basic shape is drawn on a paper plate (this needs to be sturdy) and then I used paint. I would have used red ribbon but it was being elusive! The ‘sweets’ are beads on pipe cleaners. Do this for young children or alongside them as the beads are small. I attached these with cellotape.

Have a look at The Children’s Society website for more about the history of the Christingle.

Baby Moses paper plate craft

Here’s some simple instructions for making the Baby Moses paper plate craft. I’ve made a baby Moses paper plate craft before (you can find it here) but wanted something a little simpler for our Holiday Bible Club as we don’t have a lot of time per age group. So this time there was no drawing round hands and the paper plate is a square plate.

To prepare the Baby Moses paper plate craft I pre cut a slit in each square plate, prepared a piece of green card the right size to slot into the slit and printed lots of baby Moses’s (there is a link to the download below) and basket lids.

The children needed to cut the green card to make reeds, slot into the plate (a leader then used cellotape to secure the green card under the plate), the children mould a plasticine basket and place a coloured in Moses inside. The plate was decorated with blue and white tissue paper. A label was added ‘God kept Moses safe’ by ________ ; the children fill in the blank with their name.

You could use air drying clay to make the basket but the plasticine was pretty much mess free. There is a softer version of plasticene for young children.

Moses has a sad face because he was crying when the basket was opened.

Square blue paper plates are from here

Plasticine also from here and also Hobbycraft and WHSmith.

Two free downloads of the baby Moses and lids for the baskets Baby Moses (x 24) Baby Moses Basket Lid (x 12)

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Harvest celebration

It’s harvest celebration time! At toddler group we often mark this event at story and craft time. The story is usually focused on saying ‘thank you’ for our food. I have a basket of various fruit and veg (all real) to show to the children and as I take the fruit and veg out of the basket we name them and I mention what we can use the veg for – eg potatoes can be mashed or made into chips! And sometimes where the fruit or veg grows; potatoes in the ground, apples on a tree. It’s also good to have some wheat or flour and a loaf of bread. But choose things that suit where you are. Our aim is to say thank you for the food that God gives us.

Harvest Craft Idea

This is a paper plate craft of a basket with fruit and veg inside (these can be made from card) – The two plates are cut beforehand to create a handle. Then at toddler group they are glued together so that the paper fruit and veg can slot inside and be carried in a harvest ‘basket’. The basket can be decorated – we used tissue paper and foam stickers. You need fairly sturdy paper plates so the handle doesn’t tear. PVA glue is best for sticking the plates together. You could have some cellotape to hand if needed.

Here is another harvest craft idea here.

Harvest craft pinterest board

Having Breakfast with Jesus

Having Breakfast with Jesus is a Bible Story from John’s Gospel. It took place after the resurrection of Jesus and before his ascension. Note – the Sea of Tiberias is another name for the Sea of Galilee.

Having Breakfast with Jesus – Story Idea

In the story bag I had Peter and some friends (there are seven disciples in the story but use what you feel able to hold) a boat (a cardboard box was great for this), a net and some fish and a small BBQ with some charcoal. The children loved having a look at the charcoal.

Breakfast with Jesus story BBQ bucket prop — BBQ bucket in the story bag

Breakfast with Jesus story. Disciples in a boat puppets. — BBQ bucket in the story bag

Telling The Story-

Say hello to Peter! Peter was one of the followers of Jesus. This story happened after Jesus had died and come back to life again.

One day Peter said to his friends ‘I am going fishing’. ‘We’ll come with you’, his friends said.

It was night time. All the stars were twinkling in the sky (everyone make twinkling star shapes with their fingers). Peter and his friends got in their boat and rowed out onto the lake and threw their fishing nets over the side of the boat. And they waited. And they waited. And they waited. The men were in the boat all night long but there were no fish in the nets. The sun began to wake up in the sky. They looked in their net – no fish.

Then someone on the sand called to them ‘Have you caught any fish?’ They looked in their net – no fish.

‘No, we haven’t’, they called back.

‘Put the net the other side of the boat’, the man said. ‘and you’ll find some fish’

So they threw the net over the other side. Suddenly it filled up with fish. Lots and lots of fish!

One of Peter’s friends realised who the man was – ‘It’s the Lord Jesus!’ he said to Peter.

Now, Peter was so pleased that it was Jesus that he jumped out of the boat and started to wade through the water to Jesus. His friends carefully pulled the net and bought the boat to the sandy shore. And there waiting for them was Jesus. He had made a BBQ and was cooking some fish for breakfast. Jesus was alive. He knew where his friends were and what they were doing. He knew that after a long night fishing they needed some breakfast. He cared for and looked after his friends.

Jesus is still alive today and he cares about you!

Having Breakfast with Jesus craft Ideas.

Fish swimming in the sea picture

Print out the picture. Children can colour and use tissue paper to decorate the fish. Cut strips of cellophane or crepe paper for the waves.

going fishing craft with waves and fish to colour

Fish-swimming-in-the-sea Download

Make a fishing boat using a paper plate.

You need

Paper plate
Lollipop stick
Triangle for sail
Tissue paper to decorate the boat
Card strip for the wave (I’ve used notice board trim)
Blue card for the lake
Net (fruit is often sold in net packaging)
Glue
Sticky tape to secure the mast

If making with young children prepare the plate and mast first.

This story from John 21 is very similar to an incident that takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Have a look at the story here where there is another fish themed craft.

Making a paper plate fish is also a fun craft.

The Prodigal Son – Stories Jesus Told

Paper plate pig craft — This little piggie went to toddler group!

This is one of the stories that Jesus told about the lost and the found. The younger son wants his money and spends the lot. He ends up feeding the pigs and comes to his senses. But when he goes home he is welcomed by his father. This son was lost but now is found!

To tell the story use some props including money, party streamers/hats, pretend pigs, new robe/coat/ring/shoes.

The Prodigal Son Story Idea

Jesus told the people a story….

‘Once upon a time there was a man who had two sons (count to two). The younger son wanted his father’s money. So the father decided to share all his things between his two sons. Now they had a lot of money. (jingle the money)

The younger son packed his bag and went far, far away. He loved spending his money! He had lots and lots of parties (show party streamers/hats) with his new friends. It was so much fun being rich! But one day, he looked in his pocket for more money and it had all gone! He looked in the other pocket – no more money! He had spent every last penny! He was in trouble.

What could he do?

He needed a job. So he went to work looking after pigs. Can you make the noise do pigs make? Oink, oink! He was so hungry that he could have eaten the food that the pigs ate. No one helped him. Can you imagine how sad he felt?

‘I will go back to my father,’ he said. ‘My father will give me a better job than sitting here with these pigs.’

So he walked and walked and walked till he could see his old home far away in the distance.

Someone saw him coming. Someone had been looking and hoping that he would come back home. Who do you think it was? It was his father. His father ran down the road to meet him and gave him a great big hug.

‘I’m sorry,’ said the son

‘I forgive you,’ said the father. ‘Now let’s celebrate that you have come back home!’

The father gave his son new clothes to wear, new shoes and a ring. (show these items) He was so happy that he had a party.

‘My son was lost,’ he said, ‘but now he is found.’

When we come back to God it is like we were lost but are now found.

Craft Idea – Paper Plate Pink Pigs.

All you need

paper plate

pink tissue paper and crepe paper cut into squares (roughly)

glue

circles from pink sugar paper for snout. Use a paper punch to cut circles

ear shapes cut from sugar paper

stickers for nostrils and eyes

pink crayons (optional)

Allow plenty of self expression when the children create their craft!

paper plate pigs made by me to give children and parents an idea of what to aim at.

Samson and the bumble bees.

We’ve been doing a few Bible stories at toddler group on the theme of ‘animals in the Bible’. We started with Jonah and have done the ravens feeding Elijah. Then we had a story about camels and today we thought about bees. ( I know they aren’t animals but I think it’s ok to be flexible :))

The story was very simple – this was the basic outline (Judges 14:1-20)

1.God’s people were in trouble because they had ignored God

2. God still loved them so he sent someone to help them

3 God sent Samson. (At this point Samson is taken out of the story bag and we all say ‘hello Samson!’)

4 Samson wasn’t very tall, or very small, or very young or very old – he was very strong. (and we all flex our muscles)

5. One day Samson was walking along (make walking noises by patting hands on knees) when he heard a buzz, buzz, buzz. (everyone make a buzz sound)

6. He had found some bees (take paper plate bee from story bag) inside a dead lion – and they were making honey. ( I did mention that we should leave bees alone and then they won’t bother us)

7God was going to help Samson use what he saw to rescue his people from trouble.

At the end of the story I told the children that they could find this story in Tesco, Asda etc and showed them the Lyles Golden Syrup tin.

Easter chickens – paper plate craft

I found this via Pinterest – it’s originally from this website http://krokotak.com/ which is full of absolutely great ideas.
The idea for my simple chicken came from here http://krokotak.com/2012/11/cut-away-some-paper-animals/. My version is a bit simpler as I was cutting out quite a few for our toddler group.

If you wanted to you could place these on the breakfast table on Easter morning and hide a chocolate egg underneath!

Chicken+Plate – PDF file with simple template.

We decorated the chicks with feathers and tissue and crepe paper.

Palm Sunday craft

Palm Sunday craft to make. A few ideas that are fun to make!

The story of Palm Sunday (or the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem) is from Luke 19, Mark 11, John 12 and Matthew 21. It is the beginning of the end of Jesus’ life on the earth.

In Mark’s gospel we read that, ‘they (Jesus and his disciples and followers) were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him saying, ‘See, we are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.’ Mark 10:32-34.

These must have been difficult things for Jesus to talk about. The disciples don’t appear to have really understood – James and John are bothered about where they will get to sit in heaven!

But despite the fact that Jesus knows he is going to Jerusalem to die he stops to help a man who is calling out to him. Bartimaeus is sitting by the roadside and shouting out for help. And Jesus stops and helps.

And then the group arrive at the outskirts of Jerusalem and Jesus sends two disciples to fetch a donkey. He rides into Jerusalem at a time when the place would have been packed with people there to celebrate Passover. They welcome him – laying clothes on the floor and waving palm branches calling Hosanna.

Ideas for telling the story to children

For young children it would be good to ask them to shout ‘Hosanna’ at the right time in the story and wave palm branches that they have made.

If you use a story bag include a toy/model donkey, a cloak to lay on the floor and a palm branch.

For older children make the connection with Old Testament prophecy as highlighted in Matthew’s account. It’s also useful for older children to have a timeline of the Easter events.

A short retelling of the story

Palm Sunday Craft

A couple of palm leaf crafts – a sun catcher and a collage. Both use paper plates. The sun catcher is a little more tricky and has tacky back and glitter! The palm leaf collage can be cut out and a pipe cleaner attached so it can be waved during the story.

Older children could design a sun catcher and cut out the shape and attach the tacky back etc.

Large+Palm+Leaf – PDF file

Small+Palm+Leaf – PDF file – template for palm leaf sun catcher

Palm Sunday Craft paper plate leaf sun catcher

Calling of the first disciples – Mark 2

Last week at toddler group we told the story about the Baptism of Jesus. This week we move on to the calling of Simon and Andrew to follow Jesus.

To help the children picture what is happening in the story I have made a boat and two disciples using an egg box and cardboard rolls.

The story will be very short and will be told from Mark 1:16-18.

The visual aids are easy to make – all you need is

Egg box (6 egg size)

Two toilet rolls or cardboard rolls

Two pieces of material for head gear and two pipe cleaners to fasten material

Felt pens or Sharpies to colour cardboard roll disciples

Paint to colour egg box

Pipe cleaner for mast and triangle large enough to fold around pipe cleaner to make sale (stick this with double sided sticky tape)

The pictures should give a clear idea of how everything was made!

For a simple craft make a paper plate fish

DSCN0540 — Fish craft using a paper plate

Jesus is baptised

We are planning on telling Bible stories from Mark’s gospel at toddler group from now till Easter. The idea is to link the stories about Christmas with Easter. For the children each story will be complete on it’s own but the adults will be able to follow the chronology.

The first story will be from mark 1:9 – the baptism of Jesus. To tell this I am using a simple visual aid that I found on Pinterest (link in the text below)

The following stories will be –

The calling of the first disciples (Mark 1:16-20)

Man through the roof (Mark 2:1-12)

Calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41)

Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5:21-43)

Feeding of 5,000 (Mark 6:30-44)

The rich young man (Mark 10:17-22)

Bartimaeus (Mark 10:46-52)

Triumphal entry into Jerusalem (Mark 11:1-11)

Easter (Mark 15-16:8)

For the baptism of Jesus I will be using a very simple visual aid that I found here. I have altered it a little. It could also be made as a craft. The figures for Jesus and John were taken from this book. (I would definitely recommend that you get a copy if you teach young children in sunday school)

To make the craft/visual aid you will need

Two paper plates

Colouring pencils and felt tips (I used Sharpies)

Cellotape and blue tac

One popsicle stick or wood skewer

Two figures to represent Jesus and John – both cut out and coloured in. Attach ‘John’ to paper plate and ‘Jesus’ to the popsicle stick

Stapler to attach plates together

Scissors to cut one plate into sky and water – making a gap between.

Once you have all the different materials this is very quick to make – just leave enough space for the popsicle stick/skewer to move so that you can demonstrate the baptism.

This is a very short Bible Story video – just two minutes. Let me know what you think…

In the beginning..God made people

A couple of simple crafts to accompany teaching about creation –

We made a collage of people surrounding a world map when we did the story of God making people from Genesis 1. The paper plate globe is a different version of the same idea – this time stickers are used to decorate the paper plate rim.

The pictures of people were downloaded and printed but you could use pictures from magazines and catalogues.

For a PDF and instructions on how to make a creation mobile take a look here

Three women and a baby – story idea

Moses in the basket craft idea

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Daniel in the Lions’ Den story idea

Daniel in the Lions’ Den storytelling prop ideas

Daniel in the Lions’ Den craft idea

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Noah built an Ark Story

Noah built an Ark craft ideas

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Celebrate Epiphany Bible Story

Celebrate Epiphany Craft Ideas

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First sad day story

First sad day craft idea

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All you need

How to make the baskets

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All you need for the Weaving Craft

How to make

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Paper plate fish craft – all you need

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How to make your own Easter Stained Glass picture

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How to make a shepherd printable

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What I used to make the Easter Garden

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The Story from Luke 23 and 24

Easter Craft Idea

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Some pictures to use to tell the story

Craft ideas

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Craft Idea

Jesus stopped the Storm Bible Story Idea

Downloads for the craft

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Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Ravens

Telling the Story

Raven made from a paper plate.

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Bees

Telling the Story

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Pigs

Telling the story

Craft Idea – paper plate pink pigs.

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Fox

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Lion

Craft idea – Paper plate lion

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Big Fish/Whale

Telling the Story

Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Sheep

To tell the story

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Journey to Bethlehem – Adam and Eve disobey craft

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Harvest Craft Idea

Harvest craft pinterest board