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 lollypop stick for the mast, patterned paper for the sail, cellotape, blue waves made from card or construction paper (optional)
Use Cellotape to secure the mast.
This is also suitable to make as a simple craft. It’s great for children to make and then use to retell the story as it stand up by itself.
Here’s a link to a Bible Story that has a fishing boat
And a Paper Plate Crafts Pinterest Board with some more ideas
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.
Story Idea – M is for Moses
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.
Craft Idea – M is for 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
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)
K is for King David Story Idea
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.
Crown Craft
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!
This is a very easy craft to prepare. Cut out a stocking shape using sugar/construction paper. Leave a space at the top for the child’s name. Make a hole with a hole punch so the stocking can be hung up as a decoration. (This is optional)
The children can decorate the stocking with crayons/felt tips/ sequins/ stickers/ glitter. Apart from the stocking shape this is quite an open ended craft activity. Give the children lots of different materials to choose from but let them decorate the stocking as they wish.
A is for Adam! This is the start of our Bible Alphabet. We’ll have a Bible Story connected to each letter of the alphabet each story time for 26 weeks. There will be lots of variety as some letters will stand for people, others for places and some for jobs! This is a really fun story series with lots of flexibility.
A long time ago there was just God. Then God began to make everything. And one of the things he made was the very first man. Let’s say hello to Adam (take a doll or similar that represents Adam from the story bag) . Adam’s name begins with ‘a’ the first letter of the alphabet.
Now Adam was given a special job to do by God – he was to care for the animals that God had made. What an important job!
Let’s meet some of the animals that he had to look after – take different toy animals from the story bag and name them and make their sounds (if possible!).
Just like Adam we should take care of the animal that God made.
craft idea
This craft concentrates on things beginning with ‘a’. Children can stick, colour and add tissue paper decoration.
Play Idea
Collect lots of items that begin with the letter a and place them on a play mat or table for the children to play with. Encourage lots of chat about what the items are called – a small prompt written on card can help for example ‘can you name all the different things?’
Note – if acorns are too small use a picture of acorns instead of the real thing.
Photo by Magda Ehlers on Pexels.comPhoto by Ylanite Koppens on Pexels.comPhoto by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.comPhoto by Jethro C. on Pexels.comPhoto by mali maeder on Pexels.comlettheirlightshine.com
Last week we started a new term at Toddler Group. For the Bible stories we will take a letter of the alphabet each week and tell a story based on something or someone whose name begins with that letter.
A- Adam
B- Bethlehem.
For B the craft is a picture of Bethlehem. Parts of the picture are provided to add/match to the right part of the picture. for little children this is quite a tricky thing to do but mums/dads/carers usually help. Children can also colour the picture.
For the story? Come back later and find out!
Obviously this is the English alphabet – but as an idea you could adapt it to any language.
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