This Animal Bible Story is from 1Kings 17.
To put the story in context we had King Ahab and Queen Jezebel in the story bag and explained that they were a bad king and a bad queen who were horrible to people.
Elijah was also in the story bag.
At the beginning of the story these three people are introduced to the children.
Elijah went to see King Ahab. He had a message for him from God. ‘King Ahab, God has said that there isn’t going to be any more rain for the next few years’.
There was going to be no more rain for King Ahab or Queen Jezebel. There was going to be no more rain for Elijah.
But, God told Elijah what to do. Go and hide in the valley. I will send ravens to give you food. You can drink water from the stream.
Elijah did what God said. He went to the valley where the stream was.
When he woke up in the mornings the ravens came and bought him bread and meat for breakfast. (Take ravens from story bag)
When it was getting near to going to bed at night the ravens came with bread and meat for tea.
God took care of Elijah. God is able to look after you too.
Telling the Story
The story can be very simple – this was the basic outline (Judges 14:1-20)
1.God’s people were in trouble because they had ignored God
2. God still loved them so he sent someone to help them
3. God sent Samson. (At this point Samson is taken out of the story bag and we all say ‘hello Samson!’)
4. Samson wasn’t very tall, or very small, or very young or very old – he was very strong.  (and we all flex our muscles)
5. One day Samson was walking along (make walking noises by patting hands on knees) when he heard a buzz, buzz, buzz. (everyone make a buzz sound)
6. He had found some bees (take paper plate bee from story bag) inside a dead lion – and they were making honey. ( I did mention that we should leave bees alone and then they won’t bother us)
7. God was going to help Samson use what he saw to rescue his people from trouble.
At the end of the story I told the children that they could find this story in Tesco, Asda etc and showed them the Lyles Golden Syrup tin.
The craft was a simple paper plate cut in half. I painted them yellow at home and the children added the stripes, head and wings. I found the idea on Pinterest – it’s from Happy Home Fairy. My bee is slightly different – I tend to steer clear of googly eyes as they are quite easy for an under three to choke on. I didn’t bother with feet either as I like to keep crafts as simple as possible.
Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Pigs
This Story is The Prodigal Son from Luke 15.
To tell the story – use some props including money, party streamers/hats, pretend pigs, new robe/coat/ring/shoes.
Telling the story
Jesus told the people a story
‘There was a man who had two sons (count to two). The younger son wanted his father’s money. So the father decided to share all his things between his two sons. Now they had a lot of money. (jingle the money).
A few days later the younger son got his money and packed his bag and went far away. He loved spending is money! he had lots and lots of parties (show party streamers/hats). One day he looked in his pocket for more money but it had all gone! He had spent every last penny! He was in trouble.
He needed a job. He went to work looking after pigs. What noise do pigs make? oink,oink! He was so hungry that he could have eaten the food that the pigs ate. No one helped him. He was sad.
‘I will go back to my father’ he said. ‘He will give me a better job than sitting here with these pigs.’
So he walked and walked and walked till he could see his old home far away in the distance.
Someone saw him coming. Someone had been looking and hoping that he would come back home. It was his father. His father was so pleased to see his son that he ran down the road to meet him and hugged him.
‘I’m sorry’ said the son
‘I forgive you’ said the father. ‘Now let’s celebrate that you have come back home!’
The father gave his son new clothes to wear, new shoes and a ring.(show these items) He was so happy that he had a party.
‘My son was lost,’ he said,’but now he is found.’
When we come back to God it is like we were lost but are now found.
Craft Idea – paper plate pink pigs.
All you needÂ
Paper plate
Pink tissue paper and crepe paper cut into square (roughly)
Glue
Circles from pink sugar paper for snout (I use a paper punch from hobbycraft.)
Ear shapes cut from sugar paper
Stickers for nostrils and eyes
Pink crayons (optional)
We allow plenty of self expression!
Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Fox
Nehemiah was given the job of rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. His enemies made fun of him, ‘if a fox climbs on your wall it will fall down!’ (Nehemiah 4:3) they said. But Nehemiah kept building and with God’s help the wall was finished!
In the story bag – wooden bricks for the wall (not in the photo – I used our toddler group bricks), two men – Nehemiah and Sanballat and a fox.
Craft Idea – fox collage – crayons and crepe paper. Free fox PDF to print – fox
Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Lion
Daniel in the Lion’s Den from Daniel 6.
In the story basket there were Daniel, the King, an angel and some lions.
Craft idea – Paper plate lion
Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Big Fish/Whale
For the telling of the Story of Jonah I’ve used a large prop. I saw a tent made into the big fish on Handsonbibleteacher.blogspot.co.uk so thought I would have a go at making one – my attempt doesn’t look as neat – I think my pop up tent was a little too square – but you have to use what you have! Jonah is made from a Pringles carton – I saw that idea on Pinterest. It’s originally from this blog Preachmanswife.blogspot.co.uk
Telling the Story
Say hello to Jonah! Jonah was given a job to do. God told him to go and tell the people living in Ninevah that God loved them.
‘No, I won’t’, said Jonah. ‘I don’t like the people who live in Ninevah’
So Jonah packed his bag and went the other way. He walked to the boat (make walking sounds by tapping hands on knees) and he bought a ticket and off he went.
Jonah was tired (yawn) so he went inside the boat and settled down for a sleep. (put hands on side of head as if sleeping)
Do you think God knew where Jonah was? God knows everything. He knew that Jonah was on the boat.
God sent a storm. The waves got bigger, the wind blew, the rain came down. The sailors were worried. ‘Someone has done something wrong’, they said, ‘and God is angry.’
They went to wake Jonah up. ‘Wake up Jonah!’ (ask children to repeat this)
Jonah opened his eyes. ‘Oh dear’, he said, ‘this is my fault. You must throw me into the sea.’
‘No!’ the sailors said.
But the storm got worse and in the end they had to throw Jonah into the sea. Splash!
The storm stopped.
Jonah sank down,down, down into the water. But God loved Jonah and he had somthing there to save him. A great big fish swam up and swallowed Jonah. He was safe. (Place Jonah inside the big fish)
Jonah knew he had done the wrong thing and he talked to God. ‘I am sorry’ he said.
Could God hear Jonah? Yes, God hears when we say sorry to him.
God sent the great big fish to the beach and it gave a big hiccup and out came Jonah. (take Jonah out of the big fish)
God said, ’Jonah go and tell the people of Ninevah that I love them.’ This time Jonah did what God said.
Animal Bible Stories and crafts – Sheep
Luke 15:1-7. Jesus told the parable of the lost sheep.
To tell the story
Very young children will probably benefit from using smaller numbers – maybe just up to ten with the number ten sheep missing.  Before you begin hide a sheep but unless you have a small group give the task of looking for it to a helper (who knows where to look!).
You could dress as a shepherd or take have a picture of a shepherd to show (we had a shepherd’s crook to show too). Ask the children what sort of animal a shepherd looks after and if they don’t know after one or two tries tell them – a shepherd looks after sheep. Ask them to make the sound a sheep makes. Explain that Jesus told a story about a shepherd who had 10 (100) sheep. He looked after them. At the end of the day he counted them. Have some sheep to count and count them altogether 1,2,,3,4,5,6,7,8,9…..Oh no one is missing! Where can he be? At this point pretend to look for the sheep and find him.
Explain that Jesus told the story to tell everyone that he has come to look for people – to help them to know and love God.
Craft Ideas
Pegs for legs sheep – print on to card and cut out for young children. They can decorate their sheep. make sure an adult adds the legs.
Sheep collage – print on to paper and decorate with cotton wool and wax crayons.
Sheep  – Pdf file – free to use
Sheep_(peg_legs) – Pdf file – free to use
…….black sugar paper, black felt tip pen, scissors, glue and paper plate.
