I made this to use with under fives to tell the story of Zacchaeus. He moves up the tree which is great for keeping the young children interested. We are doing the story as part of our Bible Alphabet series. It’s from Luke 19:1-10.
The tree is a Pringles container covered in brown construction paper with large leaves stapled around the top. It’s important that the brown construction paper is taller than the Pringles container by about 4cm so you have space to staple on the leaves. Also leave the lid on so that Zacchaeus doesn’t fall inside while you are telling the story! The leaves were made from construction paper and lightweight card in two contrasting greens.
You can slide Zacchaeus up the tree trunk by blue tacking him to a piece of brown construction paper that has been folded and wound round the tree trunk and stapled to make a circular collar for the tree. This should be tight enough to stay in place but slide smoothly. When Zacchaeus has climbed the tree take him off the brown slider/collar and blue tac him in the leaves.
The well known children’s song ‘Zacchaeus was a very little man (or very wee man) is great to sing. There are lots of versions on the web; some have music to sing along to and others also have animation.
M is for Moses is a story in our Bible Alphabet. The story of Moses being hidden in the basket is found in Exodus 2. It is a lovely story to tell to children as children take centre stage. I’ve included a craft idea too.
Sometimes people point out that the Nile would have been a crocodile infested river but I think that the area that Moses’ mum chose to place her son in his reed basket must have been quite safe or Pharaoh’s daughter wouldn’t have gone to bathe there.
Story Idea – M is for Moses
A long time ago there was a very bad King in Egypt. He was very bad. He wanted to get rid of all the baby boys. That was very awful.
But there was a family who didn’t think that the very bad King was right. And they had a brand new baby boy. He was so lovely! He gurgled and he burped! He wriggled and he slept. It was good that he slept a lot because his mummy and daddy had to keep him a secret. (Everyone go ‘shush’)
But as he grew and got bigger he began to make more noise! When he cried it was LOUD. Oh no! They weren’t going to be able to keep him a secret for much longer.
His mummy had an idea. It was a good idea. She made a basket. She made a waterproof basket with a lid.
And then she wrapped her lovely baby son up and placed him in the basket and tucked him in. She and her daughter went down to the river. They carefully picked a spot where they knew someone very important would come to wash in the river. They put the basket in the water and the mum went home. But big sister hid and watched.
And sure enough the women came to wash in the river. The bad kings daughter and her servant. Down into the water they went. Oh! What’s that? Can you get me that basket? I wonder what’s inside?
They lifted up the lid …. and there … inside.. was a beautiful baby boy with big tears, crying for his mummy.
Now the big sister did something very brave. She came and said, ‘Shall I go and find someone to look after the baby you have found?’
‘Yes’, said the bad kings daughter.
And the big sister ran home and called her mum to come.
‘Take this baby and look after him for me’, said the bad kings daughter, ‘and when he is older he can come and live in the Palace. And she gave him the name Moses.
Craft Idea – M is for Moses
The craft could be made in stages. The ‘basket’ is made from salt dough and so needs a few days to air dry (or a few minutes in a microwave). The lid is made from brown paper or card. It’s quite an involved craft so for a toddler group setting have a look at this simpler version
Make the reeds by drawing round the children’s hands and then cut out the hand shapes.
‘Moses’ could be drawn by older children or prepare this yourself. He has tears because he was crying when Pharaoh’s daughter opened up the basket.
Trace a line along the edge of the ‘reeds’. Cut along the line and slot the ‘reeds’ through the hole. Tape on the other side of the paper to secure. You want to have the ‘reeds’ close together but you need to leave some space so the slots aren’t right next to each other.
Above is the wrong side of the paper.
Making the salt dough basket
Salt dough recipe
2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water.
Mix the above together. If you need to make it ahead of time you can but wrap it in cling film (plastic wrap). I think you will get about 5/6 baskets out of this amount.
Give each child a ball of the dough and show them how to create a basket shape by holding the dough in one hand and pressing the dough between their fingers and thumb.
If you are making this at a toddler group you could explain to the adults that this story is where we get the term ‘Moses Basket‘ from.
Here’s a link to some more Moses craft ideas on Pinterest
K is for King David is a story in our Bible Alphabet series. We focus on David being anointed King by Samuel.
The story is found in 1 Samuel 16. I used a story bag that contained a crown and pictures of Samuel, Jesse, the seven brothers and David. The pictures were based on the ideas for illustrations in this book (which is full of great ideas about teaching the Bible to young children)available from Amazon (affiliate link – if you click on the link and purchase the item I will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you)
K is for King David Story Idea
Although the story is about David being anointed we did use the idea of a crown to help explain David being chosen as the new king. You also need pictures of David’s brothers and David with a sheep to take out of the story bag as you need them.
Have a crown to show. Who wears a crown? A king wears a crown
God told Samuel that he had chosen a new king and that he would show Samuel who the new king was.
Samuel was told to go to Jesse’s home. One of Jesse’s sons would be the new king.
Show the pictures of Samuel and Jesse.
In a bag have the other pictures of the seven brothers and David.
Take out these pictures one at a time and each time say
‘Was this the new King. He was big and strong and handsome?’
No! He’s not the new king’
Repeat this till all seven brothers have been taken out of the bag.
Where’s the new king?
Are there any more sons?
Just one called David. But, he’s looking after the sheep.
Encourage the children to call for David. Then take him out of the story bag.
David wasn’t big but God had chosen him. God knew he was the right one to be King because God sees what we are really like. God knows everything about us.
God had chosen David. K is for King David chosen by God.
Crown Craft
Use strips of card to make a crown shape.
Make sure the card strips are long enough to fit around a child’s head but decorate them first with stickers, pieces of paper etc and then glue the ends together to make a crown. You may need to use sticky tape too!
This is a very easy craft to prepare. Cut out a stocking shape using sugar/construction paper. Leave a space at the top for the child’s name. Make a hole with a hole punch so the stocking can be hung up as a decoration. (This is optional)
The children can decorate the stocking with crayons/felt tips/ sequins/ stickers/ glitter. Apart from the stocking shape this is quite an open ended craft activity. Give the children lots of different materials to choose from but let them decorate the stocking as they wish.
J is for Jesus is part of the Bible Alphabet series. I decided on the annunciation story for the letter J because we were so close to Christmas. It followed on from ‘I is for Immanuel’ really well.
To tell the story : Before you begin tell the children that there is something for them to say part way through the story. Get them to repeat ‘don’t be afraid’ a couple of times.
Long, long ago in a town that looked like this…
In a house that looked like this…
there lived a lady who was having a busy day. She was cleaning, she was dusting ..(do the actions for these tasks and ask the children to join in) when she had a big surprise (look surprised) . A big, strong messenger from God had been sent to speak to her. We call God’s big, strong messengers angels. The lady was frightened. She had never seen an angel before.
What did he say? (Are you ready? remember the words we practiced at the beginning) He said, ‘Don’t be afraid’. ‘You have been chosen by God to have a very special baby. He will be a king forever and you will give him the name Jesus.’
The lady’s name was Mary. She was going to have a special baby and call him Jesus.
J is for Jesus, the special King sent by God.
For the figures of Mary and the angel I used items from an old Early Learning Nativity. (This is similar from Happy Land ) and introduced them from a story bag at the appropriate time in the story. The pictures of Nazareth and the house are flannelgraph backgrounds. These were on a board one over the other. After using the first, flip over to the second.
I is for Immanuel is part of our Bible Alphabet series of stories for young children’
I just couldn’t think of what to do for the letter i in our Bible alphabet series at toddler group. I looked through Young’s concordance and decided on Immanuel. It fitted so well as we are approaching Christmas.
Bible references – Immanuel is mentioned three times in the Bible – Isaiah 7:14; 8:8 and Matt 1:23.
I is for Immanuel story –
In the story bag I had Isaiah (a knitted doll) and a scroll made out of sugar paper.
‘A long. long’ long time ago there lived a man called Isaiah (ask children to say the name and take Isaiah out of the story bag).
He was given a message from God to tell to the king. It was a promise. Isaiah wrote it down. What could the promise be? Let’s find out? (Take the scroll out of the bag and read what is says on the outside). Lets open the scroll and find out what God promised. (Open the scroll and read the words inside).
God promised to send a baby who would be called Immanuel (ask children to repeat the name). The name Immanuel means ‘God with us’. The baby to be born would be ‘God with us’.
Items for the story bag
Scroll
Message inside the scroll
You could of course use this for ‘i is for Isaiah’ but if you were teaching the children the sounds of the letters in English (phonics) it would not fit.
In Deuteronomy 5 Moses refers to the mountain where he received the ten commandments as mount Horeb. (In Exodus it is called Mount Sinai – same place; different name)
To tell the story I used a simple picture of a mountain drawn on to a large roll of paper (from Ikea). There was a ‘mini – Moses’ who ‘climbed’ the mountain, a cloud and the fire and smoke were added during the story using marker pens. There was also some actions for the children and parents to join in with. Actions are a great way of involving everyone in the story in a manageable way. As you do the actions say the phrase you are acting out.
Telling the story
Just before the story we practiced the actions we would need during the story. Once the group is settled I explain that during the story there will be something for them to do. We practice the action about twice and then we begin the story. I encourage the parents to join in too.
As the children are very young don’t include all the details – for example I don’t mention the Israelites at the foot of the mountain. The basics are focused on – Moses, Mount Horeb (everyone repeats the name. It’s included because we are doing the letter ‘h’), the cloud, smoke and fire and the ‘Ten good rules to live by’.
Main teaching point – God speaks to us – through the Bible.
The actions referred to the Ten Commandments which I referred to as ‘Ten good rules to live by.’
Ten
good
rules (shaped like a book because they were written down)
to live by (Walk your fingers over your hand to illustrate people walking/living)
Moses on Mount Horeb
To finish the story explain that today God doesn’t speak to us on mountains but from the Bible (have a Bible to show)
The Bible tells us that Goliath was over 9 feet tall. (Read the story in 1 Samuel 17). It isn’t always easy to imagine just how tall someone is so we made a life size Goliath.
The basic technique for doing this can be used for many pictures and would be very good for making scenery/background. (Don’t under estimate the amount of paper you need – like we did – and end up with a two tone background! This could be fixed by shading or painting the background)
You need:
An overhead projector
Acetate
The picture you want to enlarge in black and white – use one with a clear outline if possible.
A pencil
Permanent marker pens
Rolls of lining paper (plain wall paper). This is much thicker than the rolls of painting paper and so will stand up to being hung from a wall better.
A step ladder
To enlarge the picture
Photocopy or trace your picture on to the acetate.
Unroll your paper (We did this well in advance so it didn’t keep rolling up again!). You may need several widths of this tapped together. Use cellotape on one side only.
Hang your paper from a wall
Position the overhead projector so that your acetate image is projected on to the paper.
Trace over the projected image with pencil
Lay paper on the floor and go over the lines with marker pen. Use the original image as a reference for details.
Colour/paint your picture if you wish – we left Goliath black and white.
If you use a large picture of Goliath plan where you can display it. Refer to it during the story. The children can enjoy comparing their height with Goliath. You could have an adult dress up as David to show the contrast.
In the Bible Alphabet at Toddler group we are on to ‘f’. I decided to go with field – the story that Jesus told about the man who found treasure buried in a field, sold all he had, bought the field and then owned the treasure. You can find the story in Matthew 13:44.
To tell the story – I had a small treasure chest hidden under a green cloth and a spade. I went digging in someone’s field (it is important to mention that it belonged to someone else) and found the treasure – was anyone looking? No! So I hid the treasure and went and got all my stuff to sell. For this I had a bag of my stuff – a picture of a house, a toy car, my phone, a laptop, chocolate biscuits, a shirt – all sorts of things – to show that everything was sold. Then I went back and bought the field and dug up the treasure which now belonged to me.
Main teaching – knowing God is more important than anything else.
Note – the story is a parable so I felt quite happy to add a few anachronisms.
Simple craft – A4 brown sugar paper folded in half. From the folded join draw a treasure chest shape and cut so you have a treasure chest that opens on the join. Write ‘Can you find the treasure? on the outside. Children glue ‘treasure’ inside. Make sure they are left to dry open or they will stick closed.
I used some small glittery shapes that could be sprinkled over the wet glue. Very effective, lots of fun and messy!
A is for Adam! This is the start of our Bible Alphabet. We’ll have a Bible Story connected to each letter of the alphabet each story time for 26 weeks. There will be lots of variety as some letters will stand for people, others for places and some for jobs! This is a really fun story series with lots of flexibility.
A long time ago there was just God. Then God began to make everything. And one of the things he made was the very first man. Let’s say hello to Adam (take a doll or similar that represents Adam from the story bag) . Adam’s name begins with ‘a’ the first letter of the alphabet.
Now Adam was given a special job to do by God – he was to care for the animals that God had made. What an important job!
Let’s meet some of the animals that he had to look after – take different toy animals from the story bag and name them and make their sounds (if possible!).
Just like Adam we should take care of the animal that God made.
craft idea
This craft concentrates on things beginning with ‘a’. Children can stick, colour and add tissue paper decoration.
Play Idea
Collect lots of items that begin with the letter a and place them on a play mat or table for the children to play with. Encourage lots of chat about what the items are called – a small prompt written on card can help for example ‘can you name all the different things?’
Note – if acorns are too small use a picture of acorns instead of the real thing.
Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.comPhoto by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.comPhoto by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.comPhoto by Jethro C. on Pexels.comPhoto by mali maeder on Pexels.comlettheirlightshine.com
E is for Eve. Although the bible doesn’t say that Eve ate an apple we used an apple to tell the story from Genesis 3 as it’s a familiar fruit for the children. It worked well having two real apples to choose from held by a person pretending to be a tree. Then an adult playing the part of Eve chose the apples that they had been told they couldn’t eat and gave it to an adult pretending to be Adam.
With older children you could include the role of the serpent.
The craft is very simple.
Paper Plate Apple
You need
paper plate
red and green tissue paper squares – or crepe paper
sugar/construction paper stalk and leaf (you could stick these on for the children if they are very young – under threes may not place them at the edge of the plate – but that may not matter. It is the process of making that matters rather than an end product that an adult has altered!)
This lion craft is great when telling the story of Daniel praying to God and being thrown into the lion’s den. We’ve been going through a Bible alphabet and have used Daniel for the letter d. You could also tell this story to teach children about prayer as Daniel prayed each day and didn’t stop.
The story below is written for three’s and under. If you use it then you can add counting to three on your fingers and of course use a made up lion paper plate at the right time in the story.
Lion Craft
You will need –
1. Paper plates – turned over and resting on the rim
2. Yellow and orange tissue paper/ crepe paper squares
3. Yellow wool cut into 5cm lengths ( or thereabouts!)
4. Glue sticks
5. Black paper triangles
6. Black crayons (for the children to draw on the lion’s mouth and whiskers – or you may want to do this in advance)
7. Googly eyes – if working with under fives an adult MUST supervise the use of these. Don’t leave them on the table for children to use as they are a chocking hazard. Of course you don’t have to use them at all!
Daniel in the Lion’s Den Story
Bible reference Daniel 6
‘Daniel lived a long time ago. Every day he would talk to God, On Sunday he talked to God and on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Every day he went into his room and knelt down and talked to God. He talked to God in the morning, and at lunchtime and at night time. One , two , three times a day he talked to God. God loved to listen to Daniel talk to him. He heard everything that Daniel said.
But some people made trouble for Daniel. They went to the king and they got him to make a new rule that no one should pray to God.
Well, Daniel loved God and so that day he went home and he did what he always did – he knelt down to talk to God.
He was in BIG trouble. He was taken away from his house and put in a big pit in the ground and a stone was put over the top. It was dark. Daniel wasn’t on his own. Inside the pit there were lions! but God had sent an angel to keep the mouths of the lions shut. They could see Daniel and they could smell Daniel but they couldn’t hurt him.
God is very powerful. He is in charge. He kept Daniel safe.’
Following on from where Jesus was born – Bethlehem – who took care of him? Mary and Joseph. In this story we concentrated on Joseph and the job he did.
With young children I sometimes like to have some objects in a bag – it keeps them interested and watching what is going on and objects help to explain words and concepts.
Last week we started a new term at Toddler Group. For the Bible stories we will take a letter of the alphabet each week and tell a story based on something or someone whose name begins with that letter.
A- Adam
B- Bethlehem.
For B the craft is a picture of Bethlehem. Parts of the picture are provided to add/match to the right part of the picture. for little children this is quite a tricky thing to do but mums/dads/carers usually help. Children can also colour the picture.
For the story? Come back later and find out!
Obviously this is the English alphabet – but as an idea you could adapt it to any language.
One of the homes Jesus visited was the place where the paralysed man was healed. Luke 5:17- 26. If you look very closely you can just see crowds of people in the model of the house. To tell the story to young children you could use lego duplo figures.( Of course avoid the clearly identifiable charcters such as Bob the Builder) The mat is brown paper and material – chosen because it has to be rolled up. It fits really well in the duplo figures hand.
If you didn’t want to use duplo for telling the story you could let a small group play with the figures and model afterwards to retell the story to you.
At toddler group this half term each bible story will be about a house that Jesus visited. Today I talked about the homes where we live. The craft was a collage of different types of homes and the collage I had made was my introduction.
I talked about how Jesus didn’t stay a baby in a manger (I showed a picture of this) but he grew up and became a man. He visited lots of peoples homes but they were quite different to our homes today.
The model of a Bible Times house was hidden in a bag – I explained that we were going to hear lots of stories of the homes Jesus visited – and showed the model. I explained about the flat roof and the steps at the side.
Next week we begin the stories. With older children I would have gone on to tell a story right away.
To make the house – and I’m sure you could do better – I used a shoe box with a lid and covered it with brown paper. The steps were a bit tricky – I used corrugated card from some packaging and folded it concertina style.
We are all wonderfully made! David writes in Psalm 139, ‘I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made’.
There are lots of different crafts you can do that are all about people. Here’s a couple of ideas..
Use people shapes!
For this craft you need to make or buy people cut outs. (The ones in the picture are bought). Try to use the shapes that are different skin colours if you can. Paper shapes are best – there are some that are foam which aren’t suitable for young children so be careful when buying online. Provide shapes for clothes and crayons or felt tips for added detail. You could also add yarn for hair. Have variety for the children to choose from.
Make a collage of faces – I used photos from magazines (you may recognise some famous faces!). It’s useful to collect free magazines form places like Tesco if you can or ask for donations. It’s much cheaper than printing pictures out at home.
Some song ideas
Head, shoulders, knees and toes
From my head down to my toes God loves me
Open shut them, open shut them, make your hands go clap
I’ve got a body, a very busy body – have a look at the video – it’s a great tune and you could add your own lyrics.
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