Category: Toddler Group

On the way to Easter…paper plate pictures

On the way to Easter paper plate pictures that help to tell the story of the first Easter. In the Gospels Jesus meets several people when he is on his last journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the final time. So four of our stories are about the people that met Jesus as he was going to Jerusalem. Then we have the story of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

I’ll be using different props for each story but as we go there will be a paper plate picture for each week that will build a bigger picture.. (If you don’t want to use all the stories just pick and choose)

Our stories will be… (Click on the links to go to the stories and crafts)

This is how our big picture will look when we have told all the stories..

Pictures on paper plates showing the people Jesus met in the run up to the first Easter

These are paper plates covered in tissue paper with people and buildings and trees etc added.

The people are available to download – if you would like to make a contribution to the blog you are very welcome to do so but of course you don’t have to!

woman-smile-x4Download

man-smile-x4Download

man-small-smile-x4Download

man-sad-x4Download

children-x21Download

The pictures of trees and buildings are available in this post https://lettheirlightshine.com/2015/03/20/jesus-enters-jerusalem-palm-sunday/

On the way to Easter – some thoughts about telling the story

Easter can be a difficult story to tell to young children. It isn’t necessary to go into detail about how Jesus died. It’s always good to include the positive for example you can say – that although Jesus died and his friends were sad he came back to life again and his friends were happy! Be factual with sensitivity. Easter is a good news event!

A couple of Easter story videos – Palm Sunday and Easter!

The Big Tower up to Heaven

The Big Tower up to Heaven story comes from Genesis 11. This is part of our Story Series ‘What’s in God’s Big Book?’ We started by making a Big Book and then each week we take out a page for our story. So far we have done God made everything , First sad day, and Noah built the Ark

Big Tower up to Heaven story idea

(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 big tower that reaches up to heaven’ they said. Everyone understood. They all agreed that this was a really good idea!

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 the big tower up to heaven 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.

Big Tower up to Heaven building activities

This story is a great opportunity for the children to do some building! Use boxes, wooden blocks and empty cereal boxes! If you have the space create a building area and provide some toy tools and hard hats too.

a girl in a white dress and eyeglasses playing with cardboard boxes
Photo by Ron Lach on Pexels.com
boy building with toy blocks
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com
person holding yellow and pink lego blocks
Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com
Empty cereal boxes stacked to make a tower
baby in white onesie holding wooden blocks
Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com
child playing wooden blocks
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com
green and brown wooden blocks
Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com
boy in yellow t shirt playing with wooden blocks
Photo by Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels.com
selective focus photo of a kid stacking building blocks
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com
boy in yellow t shirt and blue denim jeans playing with plastic toys
Photo by Vika Glitter on Pexels.com

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.

Easy to make finger paint

Easy to make finger paint that uses three ingredients (and one of them is water!)

I spent quite a while searching on line for ready made finger paints but was put off by some of the reviews. I really don’t want children breaking out in a rash because of allergies. The best thing about making something yourself is that you know what’s in the end product.

I found several recipes for home made finger paint and decided to try out the one from Rainy Day Mum partly because I had quite a lot of Corn flour (cornstarch) left over from making crown shapes.

It’s a fantastic recipe. Really quick to make and if you use a mug for the measurements there is a lot. I cooked my finger paints without any food colouring. Once I was happy with the consistency I split it between four bowls and added different colours.

finger paints in bowls showing the bright colours

Finger paint can be used on paper or card or on a plastic mat. You can encourage children to paint with it, make marks on paper and/or just enjoy the texture by mixing the colours on a plastic mat.

A fairly sturdy paper plate makes a good canvas.

paper plate decorated with finger paint

You can also use these paints to add decoration to shapes and pictures. Here’s a crown made from Bicarbonate of Soda and Corn Flour dough with some finger paint decoration. You can see in the picture that home made finger paints add texture too!

You just need to be careful that the paint doesn’t get onto furniture or favourite clothes. If using in a toddler group let parents know beforehand so they can dress themselves and their toddler appropriately. Have some aprons for the children to wear and some baby wipes handy.

To store the finger paints use an air tight container. It will keep for a couple of weeks.

Let’s make crowns to decorate!

These crowns are made from a dough that has three ingredients – and one of them is cold water! It’s air drying so you need to make it a few days before you want to decorate the shapes.

If you are celebrating The Coronation Twinkl has some great ideas and resources here with lots of ideas for Coronation Parties and decorations. Twinkl also have loads of great Coronation themed crafts that would be great for an at home Coronation party. It’s free to join Twinkl and they have loads of resources and ideas. Well worth a look.

Ingredients for the dough

  • 3 Cups Bicarbonate of Soda (Baking Soda)
  • 11/2 Cups Cornflour (Cornstarch)
  • 2 Cups Cold Water

To make the dough

  • Mix everything together in a large pan (it will be watery)
  • Cook on medium heat – stirring all the time
  • Once it has formed a dough remove from heat and allow to cool slightly
  • Knead it on a surface (sprinkle some cornflour to stop it sticking)
  • Roll out
  • Cut into shapes
  • Leave to dry out for at least 24 hours

It’s a lovely dough to use. It did stick to my pan a bit but came off easily with hot soapy water. I have to admit that it was so watery at first that I thought it was never going to work but it did! At toddler group we will decorate the crowns – either with glitter or finger paints. If you wanted to make hanging decorations then you just need to add a hole with a skewer before the shapes have dried out.

Photos showing how to make a dough that can be used to make air drying shapes.

W is for Water from the Rock

The People of God were in the wilderness. They had escaped from Egypt but were thirsty. They moaned! God told Moses to strike the rock and out came water. The story is from Exodus 17:1-7

W is for Water from the Rock – story idea

Have you ever felt hungry? God’s people had been hungry and so God had given them food to eat.

Have you ever felt thirsty? God’s people felt thirsty. But instead of asking God to help them find water they moaned and groaned! Why isn’t God helping us? they said to Moses.

Why are you moaning and groaning? Moses said

Then Moses asked for God’s help. What shall I do with all these moany and groany people?

God heard Moses. God helped Moses. God said, ‘Moses, take your staff and hit the rock’.

Moses did what God said. He lifted up his staff and struck the rock and out came water!

God gave the people water to drink. He looked after them.

God is able to look after you and me too.

Water from the Rock Craft Idea

A simple collage to make. Beforehand prepare the rock from brown paper, a sun, some blue paper strips for water and Moses (Pdf below). The children can build the scene.

Moses-Water-from-the-rockDownload

Here’s a link to another story about Moses

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