Bible stories, crafts and creative ideas for toddler groups, children's ministry and families
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 … Read More “Three women and a baby – women in the Bible 3” »
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 … Read More “Daniel in the Lions’ Den” »
‘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 … Read More “Noah built the Ark” »
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 To tell the story you need – some Wise Men, toy camels and a star. You can … Read More “Celebrate Epiphany” »
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 More “First Sad Day Story and Craft” »
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 How to make the baskets If making these with young children you may want to do several of the … Read More “Let’s Make a Paper Plate Basket!” »
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 … Read More “Weaving 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 Here’s a link to another fishy craft. This post also has a … Read More “Paper Plate Fish Craft” »
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 … Read More “Easter Stained Glass” »
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 Far away from where Jesus … Read More “The Wise Men find The King” »
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 … Read More “How to make a shepherd” »
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 … Read More “Angel tree topper instructions” »
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 … Read More “Easter Garden to make at home” »
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 … Read More “We’ve arrived at Easter!” »
Jesus rides into Jerusalem
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 … Read More “On the Way to Easter…Mary” »
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 … Read More “God made the stars spiral” »
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 … Read More “Spring is coming!” »
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 … Read More “Paper Plate Nativity” »
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
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 … Read More “Angel!” »
‘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 … Read More “Jesus stops the Storm” »
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 To Assemble the children need to – We bought the background scene from creativeforkids.com (as of … Read More “Bible town scene to make” »
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 … Read More “Animal Bible Stories and crafts” »
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, … Read More “Daniel in the Lion’s Den – animal stories” »
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 … Read More “Christmas story paper plates” »
Adam and Eve break God’s law
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 … Read More “Noah’s ark” »
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 … Read More “dinosaur craft” »
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 … Read More “Paper plate lion” »
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 – There are loads of ideas on my paper plate pinterest board
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 Preparation – attach half a paper plate to the construction paper/card beforehand. I used a stapler.
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 … Read More “Jesus is born – craft” »
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 … Read More “Jesus feeds five thousand people” »
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 … Read More “Paper Plate Christingle” »
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 … Read More “Baby Moses paper plate craft” »
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 … Read More “Harvest celebration” »
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 … Read More “Having Breakfast with Jesus” »
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! … Read More “The Prodigal Son – Stories Jesus Told” »
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 … Read More “Samson and the bumble bees.” »
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 … Read More “Easter chickens – paper plate 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 … Read More “Palm Sunday craft” »
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. … Read More “Calling of the first disciples – Mark 2” »
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 … Read More “Jesus is baptised” »
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 … Read More “In the beginning..God made people” »
