DLTK's Bible Songs for Kids
Sunday School Time Fillers
I've wanted to add something like this for a while but wasn't quite sure where to start. One day as I was reading the discussion group some of our viewers were giving lists and lists of great ideas. So I want to thank them for all of these ideas! I'm sure there is something in here everyone can use.
Huge thanks to Sarah for all these fantastic ideas!
Band Aids
Okay, I know this one sounds a little strange at first, but Band Aids are
actually something that most children can easily identify with, and that can be
a lot of fun to play with. Remind children that we only play with Band Aids when
we are instructed to do so, and that we do not play with them, without asking
our parents first. Here is an idea to use Band Aids in Sunday school.
Healing - the theme of healing can be expressed in this fun game that is very similar to Pin The Tale On The Donkey. You will need a large sheet of paper or poster board, and one Band Aid for each child. Draw a large circle on the piece of paper. Give the circle eyes, a nose, and a frown or sad expression. On the chin (the part of the circle beneath the mouth), use a red marker to draw a little line (this will be the cut, boo boo, owie, whatever you want to call it). Children take turns closing their eyes and trying to stick the Band Aid as close to the red line as possible. Helpful Hint: Take the Band Aids out of their wrappers ahead of time, most preschoolers can peel the little white tabs off themselves, but cannot open the wrappers. Talk about how Jesus heals.
Bean Bags
Preschoolers love to play games with beanbags, whether they are store-bought
or homemade. You can purchase bean bags at most learning type toy stores, as
well as Toys R Us. Some bean bags even come with mini books that are full of
easy to play games. To make your own beanbags you will need two squares of felt,
burlap, or fabric cut to the same size, sewn together on three sides (best to
turn the material upside down first and work inside out), once the sides are
sewn together, turn it right side out, fill with beans or rice, and sew the
fourth side shut. You can make basic square beanbags, or cut the material you
are working with in various shapes using cookie cutters as templates. You can
have everything from Christmas Trees to circles, and everything in between. Just
keep in mind that the more intricate the design you chose, the more sewing that
you will have to do. Here are just a few ideas of things to do with bean bags
Thank you God for - in this game, children sit in a circle and pass the
beanbag to each other, whoever is holding the beanbag says "thank you God for
______" and then says something they are thankful for and passes the beanbag to
someone else. Encourage children to give everyone a turn with the beanbag and
not just pass it back and forth to the friends next to them. Also, when children
say something, never criticize what they are thankful for. Preschool aged
children often think of things we forget about/take for granted from pets to
pillows, to their beds to thank God for.
Thank You God For My Friend - this is a good game to help children learn
each others names. Kids stand in two lines, facing each other, and pass the bean
bag back and forth, the child with the beanbag says "Thank you God for my friend
_______" and the child standing across from him/her says his/her name. Then the
child passes the beanbag to that child and repeats the name. Kids pass the
beanbag back and forth, and then change partners. You may want to make small
groups of four - six kids and see how quickly children can learn everyone's name
in their group.
Basket of Beanbags - for stories that include a basket, such as the story
of baby Moses, put a basket on one side of the room, take about six steps from
the basket and mark a masking tape tape line on the floor, have children take
turns tossing the beanbags into the basket.
Jonah Beanbag Toss - Paint a cardboard box light blue, black, or gray. If
you are not interested in painting, cover the entire box in light blue, gray, or
black wrapping paper. You will need a square of rectangle box that has "flap
style" lids on both the top and bottom of the box. Flip the box sideways (so
that the bottom of the box becomes the front of the box (the whale's mouth), cut
a large circle (trace around a paper plate) using a pencil to trace it, and then
an X-acto knife or craft saw to cut out the hole. Add two large eyes, cut from
white construction paper with black marker dots in the center. Attach these with
tape or glue above the circle you cut for the mouth. On the top of the box, take
a thumb tack or needle and poke two or three small holes into the box, then put
a white chenille stem (pipe cleaner) in each hole, slightly curved at the end
that sticks up to look like the whales spout. Lastly, add a tale to the whale by
cutting a paper plate in half, and stapling the two halves, flat sides facing
inward top to bottom to resemble a V shape. Tape or staple the tail to the back
of the box (top of the box), the end opposite the circle mouth. Walk about six
steps from the whale and put a masking tape line on the floor. Children stand on
the line and try to throw the beanbags into the whales mouth. Children can then
go and get the beanbags out of the whale by pulling them out of his mouth. When
children throw the beanbags into the mouth, talk about Jonah being swallowed,
when children take the beanbags out of the whale's mouth, talk about Jonah being
spit out.
Well Beanbag Toss - You will need a cardboard box with "flap style
closures" on both the bottom and top of the box. First, cut the two flaps off of
the top of the box, save these flaps for later. You can cut them off with a
strong pair of scissors, a craft knife, or an X-Acto knife. Then, cover the
entire box with gray construction paper, wrapping paper, or paint. Cover two
paper towel rolls and the two flaps you removed from the top of the box with
either the construction paper, wrapping paper, or paint. Then pinch the bottom
of the two paper towel rolls and staple the pinched bottom to the side of the
box so that it stands up next to the wall. Staple it on the inner wall of the
box, just at the top of the box. Do the same on the other side. Using packing
tape, tape the two flaps together at the top to form a triangle or V shape.
Then, use some masking tape to attach the v shape to the top of the two tubes to
make a well shape. Take six steps back from the well and place a masking tape
line on the floor. Have the children stand on the line and try to throw the
beanbags into the well.
Coloring
One of the best things about the Internet is all the free coloring pages
that are out there. Preschooler's have a really hard time staying in the lines,
and therefore, I think that it is best to provide them with something called
no-lines coloring pages that have a basic shape that they can color in anyway
they like. You can also use these coloring pages to let the children glue fun
foam shapes, felt shapes, glitter, sand, cotton balls, or any other material to
them. If you plan to use them solely for coloring purposes, they can be printed
on regular white paper. If you plan to use glue and add 3-dimensional objects to
them, I would recommend using either construction paper or light-weight
cardstock. Some regular coloring pages for older kids:
Bible Coloring Pages.
My favorite site for these no-line coloring pages, which are also known as
patterns or templates is at
coloring.ws
in fact, that link will take you directly to the no-line coloring pages. Here
are just a couple of ideas of crafts to do with these special coloring pages:
Angel - spread a thin layer of glue onto the angel shape, and let the
children cover it in gold or silver glitter.
Apple - pre-attach the leaf to the apple (a task most preschoolers find
too challenging) let children color it in and use with the theme of Adam and
Eve. Another idea is to print out one per child on construction paper, take a
photo (whether Polaroid, digital, or regular 35 mm) of each child, attach the
photo to the apple with double stick tape or acid-free glue sticks, and put them
up on a piece of green butcher paper or poster board on a wall. Use letters to
spell out "Sunday School Is Barrels Of Fun" across the top of the paper. Then
add a construction paper barrel shape, on it's side to the side of the apples to
make a cute bulletin board, even if you don't have a bulletin board. Another
alternative, for a take home craft, is to take the photos as suggested, and put
each photo on an apple using double-stick tape or an acid-free glue stick. Then
cut out a mini barrel shape and have the kids use a glue stick to put it on the
side of the paper with the apple close by. At the top of the paper, use a marker
to write "Gods Word Is Barrels Of Fun!"
Bell - spread a thin layer of glue onto the bell shape, and let the
children cover it in gold or silver glitter. For a cute, fun, Christmas gift
that children can make for their parents, trace the pattern onto light-weight
cardstock or cardboard (such as the kind that cereal boxes are made from) or
poster-board. Take a photo of each child and center it in the middle of the bell
(Polaroid's work really well for this, or digital photos where you can crop them
to a small square size), and then spread a thin layer of glue all around the
rest of the bell and let the children put gold or silver glitter on it. Once it
dries, use a one-hole-punch to put a hole in the top of the bell. Attach 6
inches of red or green ribbon or yarn, and tie it in a knot to make an ornament
suitable for hanging.
Butterfly - spread a thin layer of glue onto the butterfly shape, and let
children cover it with tissue paper squares, construction paper scraps, or foam
mosaic tiles. Or children can color it in with crayons, can be used with the
theme of Creation.
Candy Canes - have the children color the candy cane shape (Hint: only
set out red crayons, and print the pattern on white paper). You can leave it on
a whole sheet of paper, and add the
Candy Cane Poem.
Clover - spread a thin layer of glue over the clover shape, and let
children cover it with green glitter. Or, you can have the children color them
in. On the backside, on each leaf, write the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Great
project for Saint Patrick's Day.
Gingerbread Man/Woman - these are great to decorate for Christmas, and
make into ornaments using the same idea you would if you were doing the bell
ornaments, minus the glitter. Also, I love to use these at Halloween time to
make into scarecrows by letting the kids glue raffia (straw - colored,
inexpensive at Wal Mart) and googly eyes on them to make an adorable scarecrow.
House - give the children magazine pictures of people at them use a glue
stick to glue them onto the house shape. You can write "God made families" on
the roof.
Oval/egg - let the children color in bright colors to look like an Easter
egg, write "Jesus "Dyed" for our sins".
Snowflake - spread a thin layer of glue on the snowflake shape, and let
the kids sprinkle it with white or clear sparkling glitter. On the backside,
write "Jesus Loves You Snow Much"
Stocking - give the children magazine cut-outs of toys, games, and other
items that they would ask for during the holiday season. At the top write "The
Greatest Gift Of All Is Love". Let the kids glue the magazine cut-outs using
glue sticks.
No Lamb/No One Left Behind
- Lay a green table cloth (paper or plastic, check local dollar stores) on the
floor at one end of the room, put a masking tape line down at the other end of
the room. Inflate 20-25 white balloons (more or less depending on the size of
your class) you can use a permanent marker to add faces to these if you want, or
leave them as is. Put the balloons behind the masking tape line. Have the
children crawl on the floor and use their head to push the balloons from one end
of the room onto the sheet (field), tell the children not to use their hands, to
stay crawling on all fours, and to not leave any sheep behind.
Cotton Balls
Cotton balls are an inexpensive way to have a big affect, and a large number
of craft projects. You can purchase cotton balls at most drug stores, and they
can also be found at most dollar stores. Here are quite a few crafts that can be
used with cotton balls.
God made clouds - give each child a piece of blue construction paper, drop a few random drops of glue on the paper, and let them cover the paper in cotton ball clouds.
God made us special - god made us each a unique person just like snowflakes -- cotton ball snowman is a good craft to go with this message
Handprint Lambs - You can write the following on the back of the paper using a marker, or type it onto a piece of regular 8 1/2 x 11 white paper, cut it out, and scotch tape or glue it to the back:
This is a very special lamb
as you can plainly see
I made it with my hand
which God made a part of me
It comes to you with lot's of love
especially to say
I hope you have a very special (Easter holiday; Mother's Day; Father's Day; Christmas Day: etc...should end in day to rhyme)
Feelings And Senses
Preschooler's love to explore things, especially things that are slimy,
sticky, gooey, squishy, soft, hard, rough, etc. Provide plenty of opportunities
for children to feel new things, try new things, and use all of their senses,
here are just a few ideas:
Taste - for the lesson of Jonah or any other lesson that involves a sea
or ocean, fill a small cup with water, add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt to the
water, and stir it up using a popsicle stick or spoon. Provide children with
plastic spoons to taste the salt water, to know what it would have been like to
swallow salt water, like Jonah would have done when he was almost drowning
before the whale swallowed him.
Touch - for lessons about roads (the road to Damascus comes to mind
immediately), bring in a piece of smooth sand paper, and let the children walk
barefoot on it, explain to them, that the sandpaper is probably how the dirt
roads felt. Do not use really course sand paper as you would not want anyone to
get hurt.
Soft - for lessons about sheep, lambs, and other animals that are soft,
bring in a piece of furry (plush) felt. It is like regular felt, but it is
furry, with hair, and really soft. You can purchase it at Wal Mart or craft
stores. Cut the felt into the shape of the animal you are talking about by
tracing around a coloring page or cookie cutter. (See coloring.ws
simple shapes.)
Ocean in a bottle/storm in a bottle/wave in a bottle - make an ocean,
wave, or storm in a bottle by filling a two-liter soda bottle with the label
removed 3/4 of the way with water. Then add about 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and
three-five drops of blue food coloring, screw the lid on tightly, and then
reinforce with a piece or two of packing tape. Let children shake the bottles up
to make storms. For young children, 1 liter bottles or the small single serve
water bottles work well and are easier for them to shake themselves.
Squishy - for lessons about storms, waves, and other parts of the ocean
or seas, make blue Jell-O and then put it in Ziploc bags once it has hardened,
dump in some fish confetti (party supply or craft stores), or some fish cut from
construction paper, or small boats cut from construction paper. Then, zip the
bag shut, and use a piece of packing tape to reinforce it closed. Let children
squish and feel the bag. If you are worried about leaks, double bag it, zipping
and using tape to seal both bags.
Finger plays and Action Songs
Finger plays are a great way for preschoolers to play along. However, some finger plays have so many finger motions that it is difficult for even adults to keep up with them. Check out the Bible Songs from this site. Many of them include actions to get your students involved.
Fruit Loop Necklaces
A great project to use during lessons about food or Noah's Ark (rainbow).
You need a length of elastic cording (Wal Mart or craft supply stores down the
bead isle) approximately 12" long for young children, and 18" long for adults
and older children. Take a Fruit Loop (purchase generic, they usually come in a
large bag at most grocery stores, taste just as good, you get more, and they are
a whole lot cheaper), and knot one end of elastic cording around it. Let the
children string Fruit Loops onto the other end of the cording. When it is
finished, tie the other end of the cording just below the end with the Fruit
Loop already tied in place for an easy and edible necklace. Older children can
be encouraged to sort by colors, follow patterns, or follow the colors of the
rainbow.
Painting
Painting is a great way for kids to express their creativity, however with
preschoolers, you have to worry about them putting it in their mouth's, eating
the paint brushes, etc. If you make your own paint, you can control the
ingredients, which will also allow you to control what is/is not put into the
paint to make sure that it is 100% safe. (See
all of the fingerpaint recipes on DLTK's.) If you choose to purchase store-bought
paints, make sure that you always use non-toxic, washable paints (tempera paint
works well) or water colors to prevent children from becoming sick should a
brush make it's way into a mouth when you are not closely supervising. Any of
the paint recipes can also be made into "mess free" no-brushes required
paints by purchasing envelope sealers (the kind that are the plastic tube with
the little sponge on the end that you add water too) or dish washing sticks
(plastic tube with large sponge at the end). Just fill the tube up with paint
for mess-free painting.
Paper Bag Vests - Joseph's Coat Of Many Colors
This project sounds like a lot of prep-work, since as a teacher you would have to prepare the paper bags ahead of time, but honestly, once you make one, it doesn't take more than a few
minutes to master the art of cutting them out, and they are so effective for teaching the lesson of Joseph's Coat Of Many Colors to preschoolers. You need a grocery paper bag (ask for paper
instead of plastic next time you do your grocery shopping, hey, you are recycling them!), and a pair of scissors to prepare the vests, following the directions found at
https://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/earth/mvest.htm .
When it comes time to decorate them, you can either let the children color
them with crayons or scraps of tissue paper (I use it once it gets too wrinkled/torn for gift bags) or Crepe Paper (a.k.a. Party streamers) and
cut them into short lengths and let the children use a mixture of 1/2 water and
1/2 white glue and foam sponge applicators (Wal Mart, less than $0.50 each) to
paint the glue mixture on the bag and put the strips down. This really makes a
bright, colored, coat of many colors that the children can really wear.
You can also use scraps of gift wrap, scrapbooking paper or construction paper strips, but you will need to use regular white school glue (no water added to make them stick).
Another cool way I found to do these, is to purchase inexpensive Washable Highlighters from Wal Mart or Office Supply Stores (on sale in late September when back-to-school is over and there are clearance items. Take the lids off the Highlighters ahead of time, and let the kids color all over with them, they make cool straight lines, even if they color randomly, to make it look like a striped coat of many colors.
Paper Plates
Paper plates are an inexpensive crafting tool that is a great "canvas" for
many cool craft projects for preschoolers, here are just a few of my favorites:
Fish - make a fish by cutting out a triangle "slice" from a paper plate,
then, take the pointed end of the slice and staple or tape it to the backside of
the paper plate, on the opposite end of the opening that the slice came out of.
The slice becomes the fishes tail and the opening becomes the fishes mouth.
Rainbow - Cut a paper plate in half, and let children color it in, or
glue fruit loops on it to make it look like a rainbow. You will need one paper
plate for every two children
Noah's Ark - Cut a paper plate in half, from one half of the paper plate,
cut out a simple shape of a house (square that comes to a triangle point on
top), staple the house shape to the flat side of the other half of the paper
plate, let children color it in, and add animal stickers, animal crackers using
glue, or small magazine pictures of animals.
Listening Ears - one of my favorite paper plate crafts (smiling) a great
way to get children to pay attention during story time. You will need one paper
plate for each child, cut in half. Children color the paper plate halves anyway
that they like. When story time is about to start, tell children to put on their
listening ears, (holding the halves flat side facing their ears) up to their
ears to prepare for Bible story time. Repeat this poem with children, and then
collect the listening ears before telling the story.
Turn on your listening ears
Zip up your lips
Give your hands a clap clap clap
And put them in your lap, lap, lap.
Encourage children to criss cross applesauce (sit Indian style) like they would
in Awana's, Girl Scouts, preschool, etc.
Plastic Toys
Many Sunday School preschool classrooms already have plastic toys in the
classroom for children to play with. Here are some ways to incorporate the
existing toys into your lessons and playtime.
Toy people - a couple of toy people (check dollar stores) and some
butcher paper makes it easy to create new story play times each week. Lay a
sheet of butcher paper out on the floor or a table, and give children crayons.
Talk about the days Bible story, if the story is on creation, encourage children
to color the sky, grass, animals, plants, people, etc. If the story is on the
road to Damascus for instance, draw a road down the middle of the paper. With
preschooler's, you can draw the items out ahead of time and let them color them
in, or you can have them use stickers to decorate something you have already
drawn, such as a black line to mark off the sky, they can color above the line
black and then stick sticker stars in the sky. Have the children play with the
people on the story scenes.
Blocks - small blocks are great to build small buildings, walls, and
wells out of. Give the children a theme, such as a city to build, a wall to
build, or whatever else the story is about, and help children use the blocks to
build the city, wall, well, etc out of. Large blocks can be used to build
towers, the wall of Jericho, etc. We use the cardboard blocks (already in the
classroom) to build entire cities and walls out of, of course the funniest part
at this age is when it can all come tumbling down.
Play Dough
Play dough always works for preschoolers, however clean up can be exhausting
if you do not use a little ahead of time preparation. Purchasing a roll of
inexpensive painter's drop cloth from Wal Mart, Target, or K Mart, will give you
enough painter's drop cloth for months of play dough fun without having expensive
cleanup. Putting the painter's drop cloth on the floor where children will be
playing with it, covering tables where children will be playing with it, and
underneath a table where children will be playing with it, will make for easy
clean up. When children are finished playing with play dough, simply start at one
end of the painter's drop cloth, roll it up, and throw it in the trash. For a
reusable method, if you are on a budget, plastic tarps can do the same exact
thing that the painter's drop cloth can do, and when they are finished, you just
wipe it down with a wet sponge. I would not recommend purchasing store bought
play dough, instead, make your own play dough using any of these recipes
https://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/recipes/playdoughrecipes.htm.
Play dough can be used in a variety of ways with Bible lessons. One of my
favorite ways is to make play dough cubes and let the children build walls, wells,
and buildings with the cubes. To make play dough cubes, spray some ice cube trays from
a dollar store with some non-stick cooking spray and stuff play dough into the
tray, use a plastic knife to trim off the excess play dough. Then dump the tray
over for some instant play dough cubes. If you want to be able to create permanent
walls, building, wells, etc with play dough cubes, then make the cubes ahead of
time, pop them out of the tray, and set them out for 1-3 days until they are
completely dry. If you plan to make permanent play dough cubes, mix about 3
tablespoons of white school glue into the play dough recipe, this will make the
permanent play dough cubes hard without cracking. Play dough cubes also make great,
lead-free building blocks for young children. One last note on play dough...play
dough cutters and tools can be very expensive. Go to a craft store such as
Michael's, or the craft department of a store like WalMart and purchase a giant
set of cookie cutters (I bought one at Michael's that has 100 cookie cutters and
paid around $10). If you plan to purchase it at Michael's, wait for their sale
ad that comes in the Sunday circular of the newspaper, it has a 50% off any one
item coupon that you can use to make the cookie cutters cost about $5 instead of
$10. This is much cheaper than purchasing play dough cookie cutters.
When I use play dough in my classroom I limit the number of children that can
play with play dough at any given time to eight. I set up eight separate work
areas on a table, each with a smile pile of cookie cutters that is in their
reach, and a ball of play dough. I have found that separating play dough into
individual balls ahead of time cuts down on the fighting over who has more, and
also cuts down on one child having all the play dough keeping others from playing.
Puzzles
You can make your own Bible Story puzzles by pulling
coloring pages off of
DLTK or other popular sites. If they have a colored version, print the colorized
one, if not, then color it yourself, or save the file to an easy to find
location (such as your My Documents folder or your Desktop) and open the picture
in Paint (usually found under Accessories in the Start Menu). Then use the paint
bucket tool to color in the areas, and print the colored version. Once they have
printed, use a pair of scissors to cut it into two, three, four, or even five
pieces (I wouldn't go more than six pieces), and put the pieces in a Ziploc
style bag, label the bag with the lesson or theme and use them year after year.
If you plan on using them year after year, a good idea is to laminate them
before you cut the pieces apart. You can have them laminated at a copy store, a
teaching supply store, or laminate them yourself using clear contact paper. If
you do not want the laminating costs, glue the finished picture onto light
weight cardboard, such as cereal boxes, or another light weight cardboard item,
and then cut the pieces out.
Snacks
Everyday snack items can
be used easily with a Bible theme. (See
Bible snack recipes for suggestions.) For instance, goldfish crackers are perfect
for Jesus feeding the 5,000 and the Jonah lesson. Cheez - Its, Wheat Thins, and
other square crackers are perfect for lining up end to end on napkins for
building roads. Marshmallows and pretzel sticks can be used to build people for
a cute snack for almost any lesson. Marshmallows are also good for lessons with
sheep or lambs in them. Do not give Marshmallows to children who have not
learned to chew their food well yet. Vanilla wafers make good suns for lessons
about creation, or Jesus is the "Son" of God.
Stickers
It may come as no surprise that preschooler's love stickers, but what may
come as a surprise is that you can create simple, cute, fun, easy, inexpensive
crafts by purchasing stickers, lot's and lot's of stickers. I like to keep my
eyes peeled at dollar stores, Wal Mart, clearance racks, for clearance sales on
stickers. Office and teacher's supply stores are also a great place to find
stickers inexpensively. One of the best times to buy stickers is immediately
following a holiday, all of the brands of stickers (with the exception of
American Greetings) clear out
their seasonal merchandise and you can find lots of dollar and two for a dollar
packs of stickers during those times.
Noah's Ark - Use the
Simple Animal Cracker Ark and let the children put stickers of animals in
the ark.
Ten Commandments - Cut out an oval from a piece of gray construction
paper, then fold the oval in half and cut down the fold (make sure you fold it
top to bottom). Write the number 1 with permanent marker on the top of one of
the halves, the number 2 on another half, repeat until you have 10 of these half
ovals. For older children, you can write the commandment on the top next to the
number, preschoolers should not be as concerned with what the commandments are,
but just that they exist and how many of them there are, and that they are
special rules to follow. You can make these into a book by hole-punching the
left hand corner, and using a paper fastener (brass fasteners), yarn, or ribbon
to attach them together. Have the children put the correct number of stickers on
each "stone". Small reward stickers such as smiley faces and stars work
wonderfully for this project, just keep an eye on the kids that tend to put
things in their mouths. A great way to encourage counting.
God Made You Thumbody Special - Check out the Thumbody Loves
You craft. This craft is a big hit with preschoolers, you give each child a
piece of white construction paper turned sideways (so the long side is the top
of the paper) with the words God Made You Thumbody Special written across the
top. Let them dip their thumbs in washable ink pads and stamp all over the
place. With preschoolers the idea is not what they make, it's that they enjoy
making it, so if they choose to keep stamping one on top of another, don't be
discouraged. A great way to remind children that God made each of them special
and that God made every part of them including their thumb. I love to use
Lakeshore (a teaching supply store) jumbo washable ink pads for this project.
They are large enough for 4-5 kids to share at a time, come in bright colors,
and are 100% washable. Steer clear of washable inks that claim to be "dye-based"
because, even if it says washable, if it also says "dye-based" it is in fact,
not washable after all.
Here are a few things that I have found keep the attention of the
preschoolers in my class, most of these ideas have only been used with the four
year olds at the church I attend, but every once in awhile, I will try out an
idea with the three year olds, as I substitute in there occasionally.
Try adding basic sign language to songs, one of the songs we sing most often is
Jesus Loves Me, and the kids really enjoy using the sign language motions that
go along with it, if you do not know the motions, you can find them at
creative-communication.org
Creation - cover one wall with a giant sheet of blue paper, and let
the children put glow in the dark stars (either the plastic kind or stickers)
all over it randomly. Provide the children with a basic person cut-out (you can
use a
gingerbread man or
gingerbread woman outline which works well for preschoolers)
and let them decorate it to look like them with crayons, markers, yarn, etc.
Give the children animal stickers to put all over a sheet of green paper or let
them color in animal coloring pages which can be cut out.
Jericho - have the children build a wall with blocks (we use the
cardboard blocks that resemble bricks) or with cardboard boxes. Then, have all
the children stand back and let one child touch the tower to knock it over. Or,
you can knock the tower over.
Jesus Calms The Storm - use a parachute or a large sheet and let the
children wave it really fast, if you can use a blue sheet, all the better. Have
one person yell stop and have all the children stop waving the sheet or
parachute and explain how Jesus calmed the storm. For older children, you can
put a ball or other soft object on the sheet or parachute and make the object of
the game to keep the ball from falling off the edges.
Jesus Is Alive - Set up a card table or use a large table in the
classroom, and cut out a giant circle (stone) from a sheet of foam (check the
floral department of craft stores. You could also use a piece of gray poster
board to make the stone out of, but it will not "roll away" like the foam will.
Cover the top and three sides of the table with a sheet or blanket that you
cannot see through, let children take turns going into the "cave" while another
child "rolls the stone away". You may want to provide a flashlight for children
who are scared of the dark.
The Chariot Of Fire - build a chariot that the children can "ride in" by
taking a square cardboard box and cutting off one side of the box. Lay the box
on it's side (so that the bottom of the box becomes the front and the side of
the box is touching the floor) and paint the entire box silver or gray. Cut out
large round circles (2) out of the panel you cut off of the box to make wheels
and use a brass fastener to attach them to the front (bottom of the box) sides
(sides of the box) to make the wheels. You can then take some thick cording or
string, hole punch two holes in the front (bottom of the box) of the chariot,
and thread it through to make the reins that would be attached to the horses. If
you want to get really creative, we drew two horses on cardboard with wide
hooves, cut them out, and used a toilet paper roll in between them to make them
stand up and three-dimensional, and tied them to the string to make it look like
a real chariot. You could use a disposable camera to take pictures of the kids
taking turns riding in the chariot.
The Last Supper - buy a large loaf of French bread (the long kind that
looks like a stick), and some red juice such as fruit punch. Have the children
sit down at a table for snack, and pour the juice into small cups or plastic
goblets, then have a teacher or helper walk around the table breaking the bread
and giving each child a piece. Explain the significance of the last supper.
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