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

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When cutting out the boats leave a small bit of plain card at the bottom of each boat to fold and use as a flap to stick the boat to the paper plate.

Here’s another Bible Story with a boat!

Here’s a link to some pictures based on the story from Free Bible Images

Noah in the Ark – a weather themed story

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There is a page of mini arks all ready for downloading and printing here Basic Noah’s Ark (x 8)

We did this craft a couple of weeks ago when we were doing Bible Stories on the theme of weather.

We used tissue paper, crepe paper, cellophane wrap, cotton wool and paper clouds.

Group craft to make!

Group craft to make! offers an alternative to having everyone make something to take home. Some things really lend themselves to a big group make. For example you can draw a large Goliath to decorate with collage material, make the Tower of Babel either build the tower with cardboard boxes or create a 2D version by sticking ‘bricks’ onto a roll of paper. Noah’s Ark makes a great large group craft too. We have enjoyed creating Noah’s Ark together in our toddler group.

All you need

  • Floor space or tables put together lengthways
  • Roll of wall paper/lining paper spread out
  • An outline of Noah’s Ark and the water
  • Glue sticks
  • Blue tissue paper shapes
  • Blue crepe paper shapes
  • Animal stickers (or animal pictures cut from magazines) or a mixture!

We just let children join in as they wished as the craft activity was set up during our free play time. We weren’t pernickety about the animals being in pairs!

The beauty of a group craft like this is that everyone owns it and you can display it afterwards and use it during the story time. If your group meets in a church building see if you can display what you’ve made for a few weeks for your church to see something that happens in the Toddler Group.

Give the children freedom to create!

If you would rather have an open ended large group craft then just provide the paper roll (either on tables or on the floor) and wax crayons and collage materials. Challenge the group to cover the paper! Adults can find it quite difficult to just go ahead and create but it’s a good thing to do! Encourage adults and toddlers to chat about the colours, shapes and textures that they are using.

You can do a cover the paper challenge on a small scale too. Just have a selection of collage materials, glue and paper on the craft table. For the collage materials here’s a list of ideas. It’s worthwhile asking for donations of yarn, fabric and greetings cards and magazines. Free stuff is great!

  • Tissue paper
  • Feathers
  • Yarn
  • Fabric
  • Sequins
  • Paper shapes
  • Crepe paper
  • Pictures from magazines – people, places, food, nature
  • Pictures from greetings cards
  • Wrapping paper scraps
Picture using a variety of collage materials

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