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.
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!
a pre-school teaching resource to win!
This term we’ll be using Scripture Union’s Tiddlywinks ‘The Big Green Book’ each week at toddlers.
We will adapt the different ideas each week to suit our group. We are starting with ‘God’s Wonderful World’. It’s all about water. So here’s my craft idea – with a PDF for you and my collection of wet weather gear that I’m planning on dressing up in.
PDF – Umbrella & Rain
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.
For the Bible story we used Luke 7:36-46. This is a difficult story to tell as it probably seems strange to us that someone would anoint a persons feet. You need to explain that in those days people would wash their feet when they went into a home as they would be dusty and hot. But when Jesus went for a meal at this man’s house he wasn’t given any water to wash his feet. Explaining this helps to make sense of what happens when the woman pours the expensive ointment or perfume on Jesus’ feet. The man didn’t really like Jesus all that much but the woman knew that he could forgive her and she showed how grateful she was.
I used a story bag to tell the story- the perfume bottle is a miniature dove moisturiser!
The craft was perfume pictures – collect lots of collage material – tissue paper shapes, wool etc and beforehand spray with perfume. Put in a sealed container until needed. The collage material is then used to make pictures that are scented. I had some flower pot and flower shapes left over from a previous craft but you could use any shapes. It’s the scent that you want!
Alternative craft with playdough idea can be found here and an alternative story idea and craft here
This past week I needed a large -ish visual aid to use at Toddler Group that was a change from a story bag. So I made a big book. Well, it’s nearer to an envelope really. Very simple to make. All you need is A3 cartridge paper (it does need to be strong paper) x2, some double sided tape, string and cellotape. The basic idea is that you gradually take pictures out of the book/envelope by pulling on the string that has pictures attached.
To make – print out pictures of the things you are thankful for. On one of the A3 sheets of paper secure the string. Then attach your printed pictures onto the length of string – make sure you space them well. Better to have loads of string rather than very small gaps between pictures. Leave a length of string to hang outside the book/envelope. Decorate your front cover. Then using double sided tape stick the A3 sheets of paper together on three sides only. I also used cellotape around three sides.
The person is meant to be me! I used large people shapes from Baker Ross. These are OK but a bit tricky to colour with crayons as they are shiny. The pictures were from the internet – food, a home and a family.
If I was doing this with over three’s I would get enough supplies for each child to make their own and then use the ‘book’ as a prayer help. Older children could select their own pictures or write. If doing the latter an A4 or A5 sized book would be fine.
