Bible stories, crafts and creative ideas for toddler groups, children's ministry and families
Learning to pray Bible story idea based on the Lord’s Prayer found in Matthew 6:5-15 and Luke 11:1-13. Jesus often prayed to his Father in Heaven and he taught his disciples a model prayer to help them to know how to pray. It’s a very short prayer and the story idea for toddlers takes a … Read More “Learning to pray” »
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” »
Joseph and the Angel is from Matthew 1:18-25. In Luke’s Gospel we hear about the Angel visiting Mary and in Matthew’s Gospel we find out how Joseph knew that the baby was from God. In this story we have the special name – Immanuel, a name that only appears a couple of times in the … Read More “Joseph and the Angel” »
In the beginning God made – days 4-6 – craft ideas suitable for using at toddler groups and with young children in church or at home. Genesis 1 tells us how God made the world. Everything was made in a precise order and all of creation was good! These crafts are easy to make. You … Read More “In the beginning God made – days 4-6 – craft ideas” »
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” »
Craft supplies you need! – or would really like come in all shapes and sizes (and price ranges!). Here are some ideas of what you need (or would really like) when doing crafts with young children. Some craft supplies can be bought especially for doing crafts at home or in toddler group but there are … Read More “Craft supplies you need!” »
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 … Read More “Easy to make finger paint” »
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” »
Paper plates are just so great for craft ideas (and can be used as storytelling props too) This simple paper plate idea can be used as both. The craft is for a child and adult to make together while talking about the Easter Story. You need – paper plate, tissue paper or similar in green … Read More “Easter Story Paper Plate Craft” »
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” »
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” »
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!” »
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
‘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” »
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
To make this angel all you need is – paper plate (cut out a triangle for the angel’s body), circle for the angel’s face, shredded tissue paper for the hair, black felt tip to draw a face, ribbon to make a hook so the angel can be used as a decoration and yellow tissue paper, … Read More “Angel to make” »
One of the great things about blogs and facebook groups is the sharing of ideas. My facebook friend Rhoda posted some pictures of her toddler group looking at autumn leaves and it looked so great that I ordered some magnifying glasses and tweezers from amazon and went into the garden to collect fallen leaves and … Read More “celebrating harvest and autumn” »
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 boardÂ
We did a paper plate craft for this week. Â All you need is paper plates, tissue and crepe paper, green paper for seaweed and lots of fish in bright colours.
This craft has a bit of preparation – there is some cutting out for an adult or older child to do. I made a template to speed the process up! All you need to make the ‘baby in the manger’ scene is :- Good quality paper plates – preferably with a definite rim. You will … Read More “Simple Christmas Craft – baby in the manger” »
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” »
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” »
To make this wreath you will need a paper plate with the centre cut out. Paint this red or green. Leave to dry. Cut out lots of hearts in christmasy paper – a paper punch like the one in the photo will save a lot of time. Older children could use one but I … Read More “Christmas heart wreath” »
Paper plates are great for crafts. They are cheap to buy and can be recycled when no longer needed. If you are telling a Bible Story with a boat in then this is an easy make to add to your Story Bag. All you need: Paper plate, tissue paper squares or pens/crayons, card or a … Read More “Make a Paper Plate Boat” »
To make this simple wreath you will need Paper plates with the centre cut out Leaf shapes cut from sugar paper (construction paper) Petits fours paper cases Buttons/Tissue paper Glue (preferably PVA as everything will stick better) Glue spreaders To make Begin by gluing leaves to the paper plate ring. Add the petits fours cases … Read More “Spring/Easter wreath craft (DIY)” »
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 3Â 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 … Read More “Bible alphabet – E is for Eve” »
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. … Read More “Lion craft – Daniel” »
