This is a lovely lion craft using paper curls that are surprisingly simple to make. The paper curls add a lot of texture for the mane. If you use a variety of yellow and orange colours it adds some depth to the finished craft. It’s really important that you use light weight paper to make the curls or you won’t get curl effect.
We used this craft to accompany the story about Daniel in the Lion’s Den. You can find a toddler friendly version of the story here.
All you need to make the lion craft
Print out of the lion (see below)
Yellow and orange paper cut into 1cm wide strips that are about the length of A4 paper and then curled. Simply hold one end of the paper and then pull a scissor blade along the length. I used this paper. You ideally want a low weight paper to make the curls
Followers of Jesus – Tabitha toddler bible story to tell in toddler group.
In Acts 9:36-43 we meet Tabitha (her Aramaic Name) or Dorcas (her Greek name), a follower of Jesus who sews clothes for the women in the church. The simple toddler group craft is a printout of a T-shirt that the children can decorate with fabric pieces. Use any fabric that you have!
When Tabitha dies the church leaders send for Peter. He comes to visit and seeing the sadness of the women he sends them out of the room, kneels down and prays. He takes Tabitha by the hand and says to her, ‘Tabitha, arise’. And Tabitha opens her eyes and sits up! It is a wonderful story.
Followers of Jesus Tabitha toddler bible story
To tell the story to young children have some dolls/puppets to represent Peter and Tabitha. Show something that has been sewn (a dress, or blouse). Take the items out of the story bag as you need them.
Tabitha and Peter
‘Say hello to Tabitha! She was a follower of Jesus. She cared very much about the other women in her church and she made them beautiful clothes. But one day something very sad happened – Tabitha died.
Everyone was very upset. They sent for Peter – one of the friends of Jesus. He came to see them straight away. He was sad too. He saw how much everyone missed Tabitha.
He knelt down and he talked to God. Straightaway something amazing happened. Peter looked at Tabitha’s body and he said, ‘Tabitha, get up.’ She opened her eyes, she sat up! Peter took her by the hand and helped her. Then he called out to the women – Come and see, Tabitha is alive and well again!’
How could Peter do that? Peter didn’t bring Tabitha back to life. Jesus did. And many people who heard about what had happened believed in Jesus.’
Tabitha Toddler Group Craft Idea
Tabitha T-shirt craft
This is an idea I’ve posted about before but this time it’s a download! A simple T-shirt outline for the children to cover in fabric.
All you need
Print out the T-shirt shape and photocopy for your group
Fabric cut into shapes that toddlers can handle (if you have pinking shears use them to prevent too much fraying. If possible have a variety of colours. Toddlers won’t necessarily cover the whole T-shirt so you may not need as much fabric as you imagine.
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Elisha and the widow’s oil is a story from 2 Kings 4:1-7 where we read about Elisha helping a widow who needed to pay her debts. He told her to borrow as many empty jars of oil as she could from neighbours and then go inside her home and close the door. What happened next shows us God’s care for his people.
Elisha and the widow’s oil Bible Story
Bible Truth for Toddlers – God cares about us
To tell the story to young children – you need a bottle of oil.
‘There was once a woman who had two sons. Sadly, her husband had died and she was in trouble. She owed some bad people money and she had no way of paying them back.
She went to see Elisha. He was God’s prophet. ‘I am in trouble. Can you help me?!’ she asked
What do you have at home? Elisha asked
I have one jar of oil. (Show the oil)
Elisha told her what she must do. ‘Borrow as many empty jars as you can from your neighbours. Then go home. Shut the door and start to pour the oil into the empty jars and then sell the oil and pay your debts’
What would the woman do? She started to borrow empty jars. She went to one home and then another and then another. Soon she had lots of empty jars.
Then she went home and closed the door.
Her sons helped her start to pour the oil into an empty jar. And something amazing happened. As they filled the empty jar the oil that they had started with didn’t run out. They filled another jar and still it didn’t run out. Soon all the jars were full of oil. And once they were all full the oil that they had started with stopped flowing.
Now oil is expensive and the woman was able to sell all this extra oil. She had enough money to pay her debts and money left over for her and her sons to live on.
Elisha was able to help because he was God’s prophet. God cared about this woman and her sons. God cares about you and me too.’
Craft ideas – free downloads
One idea is to colour/decorate jars of oil. The other is to add more jars of oil to the picture and then colour or decorate.
Spring song to make and sing. This made up spring song is to a well known tune – always a safe combination. The tune is ‘the wheels on the bus’. At the bottom of the post there are pictures you can print out to colour and/or decorate.
The song is about these guys.
Spring song to make and sing
The owl in the garden goes twit, twit, twoo, twit, twit, twoo, twit, twit, twoo
‘The owl in the garden goes twit, twit, twoo all day long.
The snail in the garden goes slurp, slurp, munch, slurp, slurp, munch, slurp, slurp, munch
The snail in the garden goes slurp, slurp, munch, all day long.
The bee in the garden goes buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz
The bee in the garden goes buzz, buzz, buzz all day long.
The frog in the garden goes hop, hop, splash, hop, hop, splash, hop, hop, splash
The frog in the garden goes hop, hop, splash all day long.’
How to make the song puppets
Below are the pictures in PDF.
To make the song puppets –
print out the coloured PDF or the black and white PDF to decorate
laminate (or print onto card)
attach lolly pop sticks or similar so you can hold the pictures.
The children can do actions or buzz around like the bee, hop and crawl for the different verses.  🙂
You can also print the black and white pictures for children to colour/decorate as they like.
If you are feeling like you want a more involved craft for older children or something to make with a young child at home then have a go at a spring flower spiral.
These A4 Easter Egg designs can be coloured or made into collages. Whatever you feel like doing! I’ve used wax crayons (you can blend the colours!), felt tips, tissue paper and some sugar paper circles. Cut out the egg shape after you’ve decorated it. If you want to paint the eggs then maybe print the shape onto card. Enjoy!
All you need to make an advent calendar with Bible verses that help us to prepare for Christmas
Advent calendar on a long piece or stringAdvent calendarMake your own advent calendarDisplay your advent calendar with some fairy lights!
Are you looking forward to Christmas? One way of helping our children understand the real meaning of Christmas is to point them to what the Bible has to say about the Birth of Jesus. This ‘make your own advent calendar’ is a simple way of helping us to re-focus on Jesus as we get ready to celebrate Christmas. There is one picture for each day (tree, sheep, star and a manger for Christmas Day) with a Bible reference to look up and read as a family.
How to make this advent calendar
You will need…
A print out of the three parts of the advent calendar (see end of the post)
Print the symbols onto card and cut out. Place each one in an envelope with a number on the outside (you can buy inexpensive special advent stickers for this), add small treats to the envelope too. At the beginning of December put up some string or ribbon and use pegs or paper clips to attach the picture each day during advent. You can leave the pictures black and white or colour them. There are Bible verses to read each day – help the children to find the verse in the Bible (some are a bit tricky to find) and read the verse with them.
You can add a chocolate treat too if you wish. When our children were small we’d have eaten the chocolate treat either straight after breakfast or straight after school and read the Bible verses at bedtime. But you pick a time that fits in with your family life!
The envelopes, pegs, stickers and string can be used another year and you can print out as many of the Christmas shapes as you like.
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