Bible stories, crafts and creative ideas for toddler groups, children's ministry and families
Give your listeners something to do
Think – ‘are there any actions we could do during this story?’ Actions are a good way of getting everyone involved (especially the adults). Looking, walking, running, sleeping, hidingclimbing – all these things can have actions. You don’t need too many. But add a few actions if they naturally fit the story.
Keep it short
Do your best to keep the story short. Toddlers aren’t going to listen to a long story. Practice your story – time yourself. Aim for your story to feel short to the listeners. It shouldn’t drag or go on and on…
Be prepared for Christmas!
Invite your pastor or a staff member from your church to come to toddler group to tell the Christmas Story. It’s an opportunity for them to meet people at the group. And it gives you time to think about the special craft and festive food that you will probably be busy sorting out! Book them early 🙂
Share the load
If you can, share the telling of Bible stories with others. We can learn from each other. Be supportive of one another and offer encouragement. It’s sometimes really helpful to have an extra pair of hands to hold a storytelling prop; ask for help from others in the team.
Begin storytime with a song
Instead of announcing storytime with, ‘It’s storytime’, start with a song. It will become your theme song that tells everyone that it’s time for a story. Choose something simple and easy to join in with. Familiar tunes with your own words are great. Once you have your song stick with it. Young children like the familiar.
Involve others
Ask for help in collecting items for storytelling props and craft resources. Involve people in your church. Explain what you need and give people the opportunity to join in by collecting cardboard tubes, christmas cards etc. Use your churches’ notice sheet to make the needs known and share pictures of the made crafts too.
Collect craft ideas for your planned Bible stories
Keep your eyes open for craft ideas that fit in with the Bible Stories you are planning to tell. Pinterest is full of ideas that can be used or adapted. There are even some on this blog 🙂 Ideas can come from anywhere! Try out any ideas to see if they really are makeable. Process is important but having a finished product that is a keepsake for parents is good too. Collect things that will come in useful – christmas cards, wrapping paper, leaves, cereal boxes, cardboard tubes, yarn, material, pictues for gardening catalogues. All sorts of lovely crafty stuff!
Plan your stories for the year
Plan ahead. Look at term dates (use your local school dates) and work out your timetable. Note down any special dates you want to celebrate – Harvest, Christmas, Easter, summer party. Plan your stories for the year ahead. Start with a theme for each half term. Some ideas – Creation, animals in the Bible, people Jesus met. Note down a story (use the Bible reference) for each week. Add a craft idea and some songs. You can always adjust your plan but having an outline for the year relieves a lot of stress .
Knit some storytelling characters
Knitted toys are some of the best storytelling props you can have. If you can’t knit find someone who can. Acrylic yarn is inexpensive and comes in lots of colours. You don’t need loads of knitted toys – just a few men and woman with different hair (some grey for older Bible characters) and different clothes. Here’s a link to a great pattern.
Start a file of your storytelling ideas
Keeping a collection of ideas is great – if you have a few weeks and you don’t know what to do you have ideas to fall back on. Think of themes – homes Jesus visited, stories people told, things God made. Under these headings add specific stories, prop ideas and craft ideas. Keep in a file, notebook or card file holder.
Sort out storage for your storytelling items
If you can, store your storytelling props in a box. Take a photo of each item and stick it to the outside of the box. You will be able to see at a glance what you have. This should save you time! No more hunting high and low the night before toddler group 🙂
Collect items that you can use in storytelling.
Taking items from a story bag is great for keeping attention. Props help understanding. Build a collection of items you can use. Blue cloth for sea or sky, toy tools (lots of stories about building), toy animals (creation), a tent to transform into a big fish, a rock and some sand (houses on sand and rock), a globe, purple cloth (Lydia). Keep a look out for items you can use. Charity shops are great places!
Buy or make a story bag that you will love using
Taking items out of a storybag during a story builds interest. Use a bag that’s large enough and attractive for the children and easy for you to use. No plastic bags!
Use the Bible – not your memory
When preparing a Bible story rely on the Bible rather than your memory. Read the story a few times. Get it into your head. Read it out aloud. Sometimes we think we know a Bible story but we’ve forgotten somthing or added something. So, start with the Bible.
Know how you are going to begin
Facing an audience can be nerve wracking. To avoid going blank be really sure of your opening sentence. Learn it. Write it down and have a last minute look at it just before you begin. Some ideas – ‘There was once a…’ ‘A long time ago…’ Say hello to..(name of puppet/doll taken from a storybag)’ or ‘One day there was…’
It’s better to get straight on with story rather than spend time on an ice breaker style question. Toddlers need a short, to the point story. So, just jump right in with the narrative.
Storytelling tip for toddler group
Make sure everyone can see you
It’s much easier to listen to the story when you can see the storyteller. Think about where the chairs are placed. If everyone is sitting on the floor kneel or sit on a low chair when you tell the story. You want to be a little higher than the audience so that you can be seen by everyone. If you are using props or puppets make sure they are visible to the whole group.
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
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
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.
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!
“Hello friends, hello friends. How are you, how are you? It’s time for a story, time for a story. Come and listen, come and listen.”
We sing this song to the tune of ‘Frere Jacques’ every week at toddler group. We gather round the story chair in a semi – circle; some sit on the rugs and others on chairs and then we share a story together.
By saying ‘share a story together’ I mean that I don’t just read a story from a book or recite a story script. It is story telling – a much more interactive group activity. We are ‘in it together’, taking part, joining in.
There are different ways of creating a joining in experience when telling a story. Here are a few ideas
So how do you choose which stories to tell?
As a church-based group (although we meet in a community hall) we tell stories from the Bible. It can help if each story is connected to a theme for half a term. Animal Bible stories, Homes Jesus Visited, Stories Jesus Told, Creation. Choose stories that you feel comfortable with and will enjoy telling.
When to have Story Time?
Pick a time in your session when there are less distractions. If you want the children to join in, then serve snacks before or after. Try to time things so that hands are free to take part in the story actions. If possible, have a space where there are no toys or do Story Time at the beginning or towards the end of the session.
Create a space
The storyteller needs to be seen and to be on the children’s level. Choose a low seat and create a semi – circle. Clean rugs encourage parents/carers and children to sit on the floor, but chairs are good for adults who need a higher seat.
The idea is to know the story well and encourage interaction with the group. The Bible is full of the most wonderful stories. Enjoy sharing them!
(This is an article I wrote for CEF Britain’s Newsletter)
Here are some of the items I use when telling stories…
Baby Moses 3D craft for young children. This is a lovely Baby Moses craft that is easy to make and very effective. It uses easy to find materials that take just a little bit of time to prepare.
(This story is based on Exodus 2)
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! The baby 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! (Everyone say this together)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 his big sister hid and watched.
And sure enough the women came to wash in the river. The bad king’s 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 king’s 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 king’s daughter, ‘and when he is older he can come and live in the Palace. And she gave him the name Moses.
There are lots of Moses craft Ideas on this Pinterest Board
To make – sugar paper, tissue paper, cut up petit four cases, heart shapes, wool, crayons, glue, people shapes
(bought from Amazon – girl shapes and boy shapes) These can be cut into individual people.
Let the children choose how many people to add to their family and friends picture.
The content narrates the ascension of Jesus after Easter, emphasizing that He lives forever and will return. It explains Jesus’ instructions for His followers to spread the Good News and includes details about visual aids used in storytelling. The narrative concludes with a promise of His eventual return as King.
Jesus goes back to heaven is the retelling of the ascension. After Easter it’s good to continue the story to explain what happened next. There are several stories that you could tell; The Road to Emmaus, Thomas and/or Breakfast on the Beach but you can also go straight on to the Ascension.
It’s important that we teach that The Lord Jesus didn’t die again. He lives forever! And he will come back again. The story is based on Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:6-11
We have used a set of pictures from Lamp Bible Pictures to help tell the story. They are a powerpoint but we print the pictures onto card and add a lollipop stick so they can be held easily when telling the story. I put them in a story bag/basket and take them out when I need them. We have also used the set of disciple pictures (omit Judas) also from Lamp Bible Pictures. These can be used for lots of stories so worth having. If you can have someone to help hold the pictures do.
Jesus had died but was alive again! His friends saw him and spoke to him. Lots of people saw him. He wasn’t a ghost. He could eat food! He was really alive again.
He had a job for his friends to do, ‘I want you to tell other people all about me. Tell them about the things that I said and the things that I did. Tell them how I died for them and came alive again.’
Jesus told his friends to tell everyone the Good News that he was the Saviour. They were to tell everyone in all the world starting right where they were. Jesus was going to send The Holy Spirit to help them.
When Jesus had spent time with his friends they went for a walk together. Then something very special happened. As they were standing Jesus blessed them. And as he was blessing them Jesus began to go up, up, up and Jesus was taken back to heaven. He went up, up, up and into the sky and was gone. They couldn’t see him anymore.
While they were looking up into the sky two angels came and spoke to them, ‘Why are you looking up into the sky? This same Jesus who has gone up to heaven will come back again. ‘
Jesus is still alive. He is the King over everything and is seated on his throne in heaven. But one day Jesus will come back to earth again. He won’t come as a baby. He will come as the King of everyone.
Adam and Eve break God’s law
Journey to Bethlehem – Adam and Eve disobey. We are travelling to Bethlehem for Christmas starting at the very beginning…
Week one was creation – God made everything good and Adam and Eve were friends with God and each other.
The idea for the creation paper plates came from here – https://ithappensinablink.com/paper-plate-the-days-of-creation/
This week the story is all about how things went from being ‘very good’ (thumbs up) to very bad (thumbs down). The creation plates will be part of the large picture board and the next story will be added.
Bible truth for toddlers – Adam and Eve broke God’s one rule
‘God gave Adam and Eve one rule. ‘Don’t eat the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden’. They could eat from every other tree but not that one.
Then one day a serpent began to talk to Eve! ‘ Just look at the fruit on that lovely tree in the middle of the garden! It looks so deliciousssss. I’m sure God won’t mind if you take a bite. Nothing bad will happen!’
Eve looked at the tree. It did look lovely. Eve looked at the fruit. It did look yummy. She reached out her hand…. and she took the fruit. She could smell how delicious it was and then…… she took a bite. Then Adam took a bite too!
They had broken God’s one rule and everything changed. They weren’t friends with God anymore and they tried to hide.
But God found them. He still loved them and he promised to send a Saviour so that people could be friends with God again.’
In the storybag
Use a paper plate to make a spiral. Make sure the spiral is fairly wide. Decorate with squares of tissue paper. Add some string to the snakes head, an eye and a tongue.
A friend has asked for some ideas on what happens when at toddler group. So here are a few examples. I go to three groups a week at the moment and each one is different. Mondays and Thursday we are in community halls and on Tuesday we are in a church.
Monday group ( venue has one large hall with extra space for buggy parking)
10am Doors open and bubbles
10.15 Story time and welcome/notices
10.20 Snacks for the children
10.25 Free play and tea/coffee and cake for adults
11.15 Singing time and finish at 11.30
Tuesday group (venue has two rooms with extra space for buggy parking)
9.15 -10.15 Free play
Half way through the session snacks for the children ( everyone sits on the floor) followed by story and singing (One room is cleared of ride on toys to create space for this). The story is 5 minutes long and singing time varies.
Free play with tea/coffee and cake/biscuits for adults and finish at 11.15
Thursday group (venue has large hall, two smaller rooms and extra space for buggy parking)
9.30 Free play – with painting in side room. During this time tea/coffee is served – adults come to the kitchen door (we use a stairgate to keep it safe) and ask for their drink when they arrive or at any time up to about 10 minutes before tidy up time.
10.45 Tidy up time immediately followed by children’s snack time that we serve at tables.
At 11 we finish the morning with story, singing and musical instruments. Home time is at about 11.15.
The big downside of this timetable is that the parents don’t get any cake!
Some things to think about…
The space that you have for you group can make a difference to what you do when. If you want toddlers to be involved in story time you may need to have snacks first so that they can join in without holding a drink and a bread stick. It’s easier to tell a story without the distractions of toys around.
If parents help with tidying up toys it can be a real help if there aren’t many people in your team. In each of the three groups I help at the team of leaders tidy furniture once everyone has left.
If you have a craft table or do painting the items that are made need time to dry before home time. This is especially true when it comes to painting!
It can be hard to get a toddler and new baby out of the house to arrive at a group for 9.15. If people arrive half an hour after you’ve started will they have missed the chance for a drink or the story?
It’s useful for everyone attending your group to have an idea of what happens when. At the Thursday group we have a large print out on our noticeboard of our timetable with the heading ‘What happens in toddler group’. There was a lot of laughter the morning we found that someone had written ‘stays in toddler group’ underneath.
How does your group look? Please share your ideas!
This term we are thinking about the good things that God has given to us. The idea is borrowed from Christ Church Dunstable (big thank you to them!!). Each week we discover something that God has given to us. We aren’t exactly telling a story each week but are taking things from a story bag. This week we were thinking about animals and so I had a selection of toy animals to take from a bag. We named them and thought about stripes, colours, the sounds they make and whether they had a long tail or a long neck. The last animal was – a wild animal but one that we all might see. Any ideas? A fox. We are in an urban area where it’s not unusual to see foxes in broad daylight.
Here are the different story bag items from the last three weeks…
God gives us a beautiful world
God gives us family and friends
God gives us animals
It’s nearly summer! This term we are thinking about the things that our Good God has given to us. This idea is borrowed from a Toddler Group scheme from Christ Church Dunstable. Last week we thought about the world. We had a globe (that lit up!) and lots of pictures. All the pictures were freely available from the internet. I just used Word and then inserted pictures from the web. No problems with copyright!
This week we are thinking about how God has given us family and friends. Last weeks pictures will be used again and the people added. Then we will wave at our friends, smile and shake hands. For song time we’ll include Row, row, row your boat’ that needs a friend to row with.
Lovely crafts were made today ..
Q is for Question is part of our Bible Alphabet series. Starting at A we have told a Bible Story for each letter of the alphabet. It can be anything – a person, place or object – so long as the letter we are doing comes somewhere. Q was a bit tricky! There are names we could have used (but not many) so we went with question.
The question, ‘who is this, that even the winds and waves obey him?’ was asked by the disciples after Jesus stilled the storm. (Mark 4:36-41).There are other questions in the story – ‘Teacher do you care that we are perishing?’ and ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?
The question about who Jesus is is at the heart of the story.
Have a story bag with a boat and the twelve disciples (you could use duplo figures or cut out pictures. Below are lego mini figures because that is what we have! Don’t look too closely at the characters as they are a strange bunch!)
Piece of blue cloth to represent the sea.
Cushion or pillow
Or
Introduce actions for the children to do during the story
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.
There’s a fuller version of the Story here and a craft idea too.
Do you have a cosy corner for sharing books? Does your toddler group have a special space for parents and children to read a book together?
Last week I spotted a mum sitting in our comfy book corner with her son and baby daughter. They were surrounded by books and were, in her words, having a ‘book fest’. Even though it was time for snacks I left them to it – they had to finish the book!
When my own children were small we had a favourite book – we can still quote parts of it to each other. It’s ‘So Much’ written by Trish Cooke and illustrated by Helen Oxenbury. When I joined the Toddler Group Team at my church I bought a copy for our group. Everyone should have a chance to enjoy this book.
It’s all about a family and how that family love the new baby – they love him so much. As the book goes on we are introduced to all the family – mum, dad, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmas. The illustrations are fab.
Do you have a favourite children’s book? Please share!
Story – (I used the above pictures – found via google- as puppets)
Jacob and Esau were brothers. In fact they were twins! Esau had been born first and then Jacob. They were very different to look at. They liked doing different things. Esau loved to be outside and to go hunting. Jacob liked to stay at home.
Their dad liked Esau the best. Their mum liked Jacob the best.
There was a big problem in this family. Even though Esau and Jacob were grown ups they tried to trick each other. Jacob really wanted all the great things that were going to belong to Esau, who was born first.
One day Jacob and his mum tricked Esau and this made him very angry. Esau was so angry that Jacob decided to go far away and stay with his Uncle Laban.
He said goodbye in a big hurry and he was off. It was a long walk. A long, long walk. He was getting tired. The sun was going down and it was getting dark. There were stars in the dark sky.
‘I’ll have to sleep here where I am’, thought Jacob.
So he got a stone to put near his head and he lay down to go to sleep. It doesn’t sound very comfortable does it! But Jacob was so tired and was missing home that he went off to sleep.
And then something extraordinary happened. He had a dream about angels. He could see a ladder that started on the ground but reached up and up and up right to heaven. Walking up and down the ladder were angels.
Then God spoke to Jacob, ‘I am the LORD. I won’t leave you. I will give you this land on which you are lying.’
Then Jacob woke up.
God knew where Jacob was. God cared about Jacob. God loved Jacob.
God knows where you are. God cares about you. God loves you.
Craft – angel pictures to colour and decorate
On Saturday we drove to Wembley nice and early to go to a Toddler Group leaders conference. I was leading a couple of workshops about Crafts. It was a really good day. The Keynote speaker, Mary Hawes drew our attention to how toddler groups should be places of generosity, relationships, accessibility, community and encouragement. She encouraged us to be confident about being church based and to share Bible Stories. In the afternoon there was a music workshop that everyone was able to attend.
Very importantly tea and coffee and great pastries kept me so well fed during the breaks that I didn’t really need my packed lunch!
The day was really well organised and I came away enthused about running a Toddler Group and encouraged.
Here’s a picture of the Christmas craft we made
Sunrise – best time of day to drive on the north circular!
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 were a perfect size.
I decided to focus on edible plants for this story time. In Genesis 1:11 it says ‘ And God said ‘Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed..’
I had a fennel plant to show to the children – they are very touchy feely plants! Then we had vegetables and fruit to take from the story bag. We named them and I explained where they grow – under the ground or above the ground or on a tree. I talked about how all these plants were made by God for us to eat.
Note – it is worth telling the children that they mustn’t eat all the plants that see in the garden and that they must always check with an adult first.
Some plant craft ideas from pinterest
A leaf craft to try..
A flower card to make..
A paper plate apple to make..
We’ve been gradually going through all the things that God made using SU’s Tiddlywinks ‘The Big Green Book’ as a starting point. We aren’t sticking to a 1-7 day order here. But if you would like to do that then have a look at the creation plates in this post.
We’ve learnt about God making water, the sun, moon and stars and the sky. This time it was all about the land. The story time was very simple. We used actions to talk about how God made the land – move hands from side to side to make a flat line. God made mountains – hands form a point. God made hills – move hands to make up and down shapes and the valleys in between. God made all of these by just speaking and it was all very good. Thumbs up! The children really enjoyed joining in with the actions 🙂
You can also have some pictures to show to help the children understand what the story is about.
Our craft was very easy to prepare too. We built up a simple landscape using mountains and hills. Cotton wool was used to add some clouds.
Meet the gang! Knitted Bible people!
Say hello to my trusty Bible people. My mum knitted all of these from an Alan Dart pattern for a nativity Available from Amazon set. They are perfect for telling stories at Toddler Group. Although I don’t use them every week (as variety is good), I wouldn’t want to be without them! They are very versatile and a good size – 31cm/12in tall. They can easily fit in a story bag and everyone can see them during story time. All of these knitted dolls were make with Stylecraft Special DK which comes in loads of colours and is a reasonably priced acrylic yarn.
It’s worth noting that these knitted dolls aren’t toys and so it’s advisable to let toddlers look but not touch. I’ve never had any problem with this rule.
Here’s a link to a Bible Story that uses a member of the knitted doll gang – God knows when I feel..busy
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.
In the story bag I had Peter and some friends (there are seven disciples in the story but use what you feel able to hold) a boat (a cardboard box was great for this), a net and some fish and a small BBQ with some charcoal. The children loved having a look at the charcoal.
Telling The Story-
Say hello to Peter! Peter was one of the followers of Jesus. This story happened after Jesus had died and come back to life again.
One day Peter said to his friends ‘I am going fishing’. ‘We’ll come with you’, his friends said.
It was night time. All the stars were twinkling in the sky (everyone make twinkling star shapes with their fingers). Peter and his friends got in their boat and rowed out onto the lake and threw their fishing nets over the side of the boat. And they waited. And they waited. And they waited. The men were in the boat all night long but there were no fish in the nets. The sun began to wake up in the sky. They looked in their net – no fish.
Then someone on the sand called to them ‘Have you caught any fish?’ They looked in their net – no fish.
‘No, we haven’t’, they called back.
‘Put the net the other side of the boat’, the man said. ‘and you’ll find some fish’
So they threw the net over the other side. Suddenly it filled up with fish. Lots and lots of fish!
One of Peter’s friends realised who the man was – ‘It’s the Lord Jesus!’ he said to Peter.
Now, Peter was so pleased that it was Jesus that he jumped out of the boat and started to wade through the water to Jesus. His friends carefully pulled the net and bought the boat to the sandy shore. And there waiting for them was Jesus. He had made a BBQ and was cooking some fish for breakfast. Jesus was alive. He knew where his friends were and what they were doing. He knew that after a long night fishing they needed some breakfast. He cared for and looked after his friends.
Jesus is still alive today and he cares about you!
Print out the picture. Children can colour and use tissue paper to decorate the fish. Cut strips of cellophane or crepe paper for the waves.
You need
If making with young children prepare the plate and mast first.
This story from John 21 is very similar to an incident that takes place at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. Have a look at the story here where there is another fish themed craft.
Making a paper plate fish is also a fun craft.
The Christian Resources Exhibition is on at the Excel in East London. So this morning I took the train to go and have a look around.
I’ve come home with a few goodies and some ideas!
Now in case you aren’t able to go along I picked up some of the free books from The Go Teach stand – they are samples of Bible stories and crafts for toddlers – if you would like one then get in touch via email or in the comments. We are quite happy to post anywhere. (it’s first come first served 🙂 )
You don’t need to leave your email in the comments – wordpress have a way of letting me know that. 🙂
The story of the Rich Young Man (Mark 10:17-22) has a sad ending. He loves his money more than Jesus. With older children you could talk about things that get in the way of them following Jesus. You could also add a question mark symbol and talk more about why the young man asked the question, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Did he already think he was good enough?
With young children the story lends itself to using actions – running, kneeling and walking. Make a money bag using real coins as they are weighty and jingle! Or use an action to represent money such as rubbing your thumb and fingers together.
One day a young man came to speak to Jesus. He didn’t walk up to Jesus. He ran to Jesus. (Run on the spot) He wanted to ask a question. He thought that Jesus was important so he knelt down in front of him and asked ‘Teacher, what must I do to have eternal life?’ (kneel down)
It was a good question and the young man really wanted to know the answer.
Jesus said to him, ‘ You know what the Commandments are that God gave us, to tell us how to live to please him.’
‘I’ve kept them all since I was a young boy,’ he replied
Jesus looked at the young man. Jesus cared about him. Jesus wanted to help him. Jesus said to him,’Go, and sell all you have and give your money to the poor and then you will have treasure in heaven and come and follow me.’
But, oh dear, the young man had a lot of money.(Show money bag) He loved all his money very much. (Hug money bag to yourself) What a choice! Sell everything and give all his money away and follow Jesus or keep all his things and his money and go back home. What would he do?
The young man walked away from Jesus. (Walk on the spot, looking sad and dejected) He felt sad. He chose to keep his money.
We are almost at the end of our Bible Alphabet – next up is Zacchaeus!
Jairus’s daughter is a story from Luke 8: 40-56
Meet Jairus!
To tell the story I used some simple pictures. I introduced ‘Jairus’ first and asked the children to repeat his name and say hello.
The pictures I used were a selection of symbols and a photo of a house that I made from a shoe box, and one phrase. I realise that the children weren’t necessarily going to be able to read this but the adult listeners are there too! Plus is a useful prompt for the storyteller 🙂 They are all held together with string and so make one large visual aid by the end of the story.
In our story today something very sad happens but it has a happy ending!
Jesus was very famous and lots and lots of people crowded round him to see him. But one man in the crowd really needed Jesus’ help. He needed Jesus to come to his house straightaway.
This man’s name was Jairus (can you say that?). He was very sad.
He knelt down in front of Jesus and pleaded with him, ‘please come to my house and help! Mt daughter is dying and I need you to come and see her, lay your hands on her and make her better.’
What would Jesus do? He went with Jairus to go the house.
But on the way there Jesus stopped to help someone else and things were taking too long. Jairus knew they needed to hurry but Jesus had stopped walking!
Some one came from Jairus’ house, ‘Don’t bring Jesus back with you. It’s too late. Your daughter has died.’ It was such sad news.
Jesus heard what they had said. He looked at Jairus and told him, ‘Don’t be afraid. Just believe.’
They carried on to Jairus’ home and they went inside.
Jesus held the hand of the little girl and he said to her, ‘ Little girl, arise’
What do you think happened? The little girl got up! She began to walk around.
‘Get her something to eat’, Jesus said to her family. Can you imagine how happy they felt! They were amazed at what Jesus had done.
Jesus was able to bring the little girl back to life because Jesus is God the Son.
I like to use a story bag at toddler group story time. I find it holds the interest of the children and adults better than a picture. My mum is a great knitter and made some Bible characters for me.
If you are able to have a go at making some then the pattern is here. They are a good size and can be adapted by adding different clothes. A lovely reader of this blog asked about the pattern so as well as replying in the comments I thought I would share the info here too.
Happy knitting 🙂 and even happier storytelling
A bobble hat and mittens craft to celebrate the cold, wintry weather. There are two free printables for you to use. I printed the outlines of the bobble hat and the mittens onto paper but you could use card if you like. If you are using Pritt Stick the paper will be fine but if using PVA thicker paper or card would be better. This is a great craft for using up scraps of collage materials. Let the children choose the textures and colours that they like.
You can also choose to use mainly yarn. I have lots of small bits of yarn that I keep from crochet projects so that will be on the craft table to choose from. It’s always useful to keep collage materials if you can or ask friends that crochet or knit to save the odd ends of wool/yarn.
You could also add large pompoms or cotton wool make up remover pads to add some pattern and extra texture.
Older children can have a go at making the mitten decoration symmetrical.
For younger children there lots of fine motor skill practice and learning the names of colours. Lot’s of opportunities to talk about the cold weather too!
.
Mittens – free printable for mittens
Bobble_Hat – free printable for the bobble hat
Have a look at some winter inspired fake snow for sensory play here
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.
Here’s a link to a craft idea and a short video of the story.
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.
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.
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
L is for lost sheep – a parable that Jesus told (Luke 15:1-7)
To tell the story to young children
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!). If you have a very small group you could look together.
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.
Pegs for legs sheep – print the sheep on to card and cut out for young children. They can decorate their sheep with yarn or cotton wool.Make sure an adult adds the legs.
Sheep collage – print on to paper and decorate with cotton wool or yarn and wax crayons.
Sheep – Pdf file – free to use
Sheep_(peg_legs) – Pdf file – free to use
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)
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.
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!
