Baby Moses Craft

Before your lesson, make a sample craft from the patterns below, but do not glue Moses in the basket. Hold the basket and Moses visuals in your Bible until the story time. Also print the patterns for each child in your class.

During the lesson, ask the children to name people who help take care of them. Then say, "I’m glad God planned for people to care for us. Let’s listen quietly to a Bible story about a boy whose mother loved him very much. This is a true story from God's Word, the Bible." Hold your open Bible as you tell the story of baby Moses from Exodus 2:1-10. Hold up the baby Moses figure when you mention Moses. Hold up the basket when you mention how Jochebed made it. Then place Moses in the basket when you get to that point in the story. Open the basket (or have a a child open it) when you tell how Pharaoh's daughter found Moses in the basket.

After the story, give each child scissors, crayons, glue, and the activity sheets from below. Let each child color and cut out the basket and baby Moses. Show the children how to glue the basket pieces back to back and glue Moses in the basket. Help them fold down the basket lid. Point to the Bible verse on the basket as you say it, "Let us love one another" — John 4:7. Have the children say it with you. Talk about ways the children can show love to others. (being helpful, sharing, saying kind words, etc.)

(This activity is taken from Bible Foundations Downloadable Curriculum for Preschool. To download an entire Bible Foundations lesson for preschool, early elementary, or late elementary ages, visit our Bible Foundations Samples Page.)

Click on the image above to download the craft.

Mother's Day Craft: Bath Salts

Have your students prepare a special Mother's Day gift for their moms or grandmothers. Collect a small clear container with a lid for each child (such as a baby food jar or pimento jar or plastic muffin cup container). Cut a fabric circle larger than the lid for each child. Copy the sheet below onto heavy paper and cut out a circle for each child. Punch a hole at the top of each paper circle.

Cover the work area with newspapers. Bring a shirt box or box lid, a 10-inch ribbon, a rubber band, and a small scoop for each child. Also bring Epsom salts, (1 cup for each child), a sealable plastic bag for each child, and food coloring. Let each child print his name on the back of a directions circle. Give each child a small clear container with a lid and a plastic bag about a third full of Epsom salt (about 1 cup). Help the child put several drops of food coloring of his choice in the bag. Seal the bag and help the child knead it to spread the color throughout the salts.

Give each child a shirt box or lid to use as his work space. Place an empty clear container in the box. Then let each child scoop a small amount of the colored Epsom salt into his container. (The shirt box will catch the extra salts and you can recycle the salts for others to use.) Let the child trade salt colors with the other children until he has at least three or four layers of colored salt in his container. Add the lid and cover it with the fabric circle. Use a rubber band to hold the fabric in place. Tie a ribbon through the directions circle and then around the fabric to hold it in place. 

Make sure names are on the crafts. Say, This salt feels nice and soft in a bath. You can give this gift to your mother or to someone you love. When you are kind to your parents and family members, you are showing you love them. God is pleased when we show love to others.

Click the image above to download this fun craft.

Salt Dough Cross Craft

Let your students make salt dough crosses to remind them of Jesus' death and resurrection.

Before your lesson, make salt dough by mixing together 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup flour, and 1/2 cup water. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F. Have your students wash their hands.


Let your students take turns kneading the dough on a floured surface until it is elastic and smooth. Divide it into quarters and let the children roll out the dough to about 1/4-inch thick. Cut a small cross for each child (one batch makes about 20). Use a drinking straw to cut a hole in the top of each cross. 


Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 2 hours. Cool completely. Cover the work area with newspapers. Give each child a salt dough cross, a chenille wire, and a paintbrush. Let him paint the cross, initial the back, and thread a chenille wire hanger through the hole. Provide wet wipes for clean up and plastic bags for taking the crosses home.


Talk about the Easter story as the children work. Be sure to talk individually with any child who has questions or expresses interest in knowing Jesus as his personal Savior.

Parrot Memory Verse Craft

Let your students make a Colorful Parrot craft for your Sunday school or Bible club program. Choose one of the Bible verses your students are learning and print it on a sheet of poster board so the children can copy it onto their craft. (Or print the Bible memory verse  onto stickers or labels for younger children. Make one sticker for each child.)

Give each child a drinking straw, various colors of construction paper, glue, tape, a 9-inch piece of yarn, scissors, and crayons or markers. Bring a hole punch (or several, if you have a large group). Copy the Parrot pattern for each child. This pattern is a download you can purchase for just $1.99. Then print as many patterns with instructions as you need. 

Make sure names are on the parrots after they are completed. Let each child add a memory verse sticker to the craft or print the memory verse on the parrot as a reminder of the Bible story or lesson theme.

As the children work, talk about ways they can tell others about Jesus this week. Say the memory verse together a few times.

Click on the image above to download the Parrot Pattern and craft instructions.

The Empty Cross Craft

While the excitement of Christmas is still fresh in your student's minds, help them remember the reason God sent His Son Jesus to be born. Let your students review the Christmas story. Then explain that Jesus didn't stay a baby. Rather, Jesus grew up into a boy and then into a man. Remind the children that Jesus told people about God's love and then he was crucified on a cross to pay the penalty for our sin (the wrong things we say and do).

Let your students make a cross craft to help them remember that Jesus didn't stay dead. Instead, He came alive again and now lives in heaven. Talk personally with each child and follow up with those who interested in learning more about becoming a Christian. (See the post from May 17, 2010 on "Leading a Child to Christ" for more helpful information.)

Click on the image below to see the cross craft. You have our permission to copy it for your students.

Preteen Spiritual Fitness

Your preteens are learning about physical well-being in school so this is a great time to teach them about spiritual health and fitness—relate it to their physical health. Around your classroom, put up posters and other information about physical health. Include material about nutritious food groups, good exercise principles, friendship principles, and developing individual talents. Some of your students may be able to make posters encouraging good physical health. If you know elementary school teachers, they may be willing to let you borrow posters from their classrooms.

Help your students relate these areas of physical health and fitness to their spiritual health. Emphasize a different area each week.

Nutrition
Bring a nutritious snack of whole-grain muffins, veggies and dip, or fruit. As your students eat, talk about the things our bodies need to stay healthy (vitamins and minerals, food, water, sun, exercise, etc.) Explain that just as our physical bodies need many vitamins and minerals to keep healthy, the body of Christ needs each member to stay healthy. Have your students describe what happens when a body is missing a vitamin or other essential element. Explain that when one member is absent, the body of Christ suffers. Hand out construction paper or poster board and markers. Let your students make posters that show how necessary each person is to the body of Christ, the church.

Exercise
Have your students do a few jumping jacks together. Then have them relax and sit on the floor. Explain that just as our bodies need exercise to keep them strong, we need to exercise our spiritual muscles to keep our spiritual life strong. Talk about responsibilities we have to serve and help others in the church. Let your students brainstorm ways they can help others. Give each child a large piece of felt, scissors, glue, fabric paint, fabric markers, and felt pieces. Let your students make banners that show ways they can help and serve others.

Relationships

Have your students name some of the important people in their lives. Explain that no one can be truly healthy unless he or she develops strong bonds with other people. This includes parents, siblings, friends, and adults such as teachers, pastors, neighbors, and parents of friends. The body of Christ can't be truly healthy without developing friendships either. Believers are part of an eternal family and must therefore treat each other with respect and care. Make up a class list of 3-4 rules to ensure each person in your group is treated with respect. Then brainstorm ways your students can make visitors feel welcome to your class.

Gifts and Talents

Invite a couple of your students to share their talents with the class (playing an instrument, jumping rope, telling jokes, displaying a work of art, etc.) Explain that just as each person has talents that allow him to excel in different areas, God gives us spiritual gifts. God expects us to use these spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ. Read I Corinthians 12:4-6 and 11 aloud. Tell your students that even though they may not yet know which spiritual gift(s) they have, all Christians have at least one spiritual gift, and some have more than one. Whatever your spiritual gift, it is beneficial to the body of Christ.

Cupcake Garden

Here's a fun way to reinforce your meeting on Creation, Nebudchadnezzar's sin, or any other Bible story that mentions grass. Before your meeting, mix together a bowl of coconut with a few drops of green food coloring. Have the children wash their hands. Cover the work table with a plastic tablecloth. Give each child a plain cupcake, icing, and a plastic knife.

Let the children cover their cupcakes with icing. Then have them spread the coconut grass on top of the cupcake (or simply use green icing, if they don't care for coconut). Encourage older children to help the younger ones.

Provide gumdrops, wax paper, toothpicks, rolling pins (optional) and clean scissors. Use scissors to cut notches in the tops of the gumdrops to create tulips and other flowers. Ask the children to save the green gumdrops for leaves. Poke a toothpick stem into the bottom of each flower. Have the children flatten the greengumdrops on wax paper (using rolling pins, if they wish). Then have the children cut the flattened green gumdrops into leaf shapes.

Poke the toothpick stem through the leaf and push it up the toothpick. Let each child make 1-3 flowers to put into his cupcake garden.  As the children are making their flowers, talk about the Bible story you have taught. For example, if your story was about Nebudchadnezzar, you could say, "The grass on your cupcakes reminds us of Nebudchadnezzar He ate grass while he lived like an animal for seven years. Then he finally admitted that God is King over all, and he gave God his wealth. Remember to always thank and praise God for everything you have."

Let the children enjoy their cupcakes or make one to eat now and one to take home. Provide sealable plastic bags for the ones they take home.

Personal Memo Board Craft

Let your students create their own erasable memo boards. Let them use the boards each week to print the week's Bible verse and then erase it little by little as they memorize the verse.


Give each child a sturdy paper plate, a 10-inch length of ribbon, and water color markers. Let him decorate the rim of the plate (both sides) with the markers. Have him print the memory verse and his name in the middle of the plate. 


Help the child punch a hole in the top and add a ribbon hanger. Let him cut a sheet of self-stick plastic to cover the back of the plate (the rim and the empty center). Have him draw a picture on top of the plastic with the watercolor markers. Let him put a wet wipe in a resealable plastic snack bag and tape it to the back of the plate. 


Explain that this memo board can be wiped clean on the plastic side and reused over and over with watercolor markers. Say the Bible verse together. Talk about how God made each person unique and special just as each piece of art on the memo boards is unique.

Teacher Appreciation Cards

Recognize your summer workers, teachers, and volunteers with handmade cards created by your students.

Give each child a half sheet of construction paper. Hand out markers, glitter glue, puff paints, scissors, and stickers. Talk about some of the people in your church who serve God on a regular basis or who have served during the summer months (missionaries, pastors, teachers, music leaders, custodians, volunteers, etc.) 


Explain that each child will make an appreciation card to give to some of these Christian servants, showing them they are appreciated. Print some Bible verses on the board for the children to include on their cards. As they work, have a volunteer read Mark 10:44 aloud. Explain that this verse teaches that the greatest people in the kingdom of God are those who serve. Say a prayer of thanks for each of the workers and their ministry.

Tell your students that Jesus is our best example. He came to give His life for us and to save us from sin. Invite any children who want to accept Jesus as Savior to talk with you afterward. Distribute the cards during the week along with a large candy bar, an All-Stars for Jesus Pin (item #14824), or a couple of balloons (item #14820) to each worker.

Psalm 5 Prayer Bookmarks

Before your lesson on prayer, print the bookmarks below onto heavy paper or card stock. Provide markers, a hole punch, and 8-inch pieces of yarn. Cut apart the bookmarks so you have one for each child. During the lesson, have a child read Psalm 5 aloud. Talk about how God hears and answers our prayers. Talk about how prayers do not have to be fancy or use big words for God to hear them. Have everyone say verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 5 together a few times. Then give one bookmark to each child who can say the verse from memory (with your help). Help the child punch a hole in the top of the bookmark and add a yarn tassel. Make sure names are on the bookmarks before they are collected.

NIV:

KJV:

Click on the image above to purchase.

Close with a time of prayer. Mention any prayers that have been answered during the week. Let each child pray for another one. Encourage your students to talk to God in prayer throughout the week.
The NIV or KJV version bookmarks are available for purchase for only $1.99! You can print as many as you need for your students.

Initial Poster Craft

Let your students know that just as God had a plan for Bible people, God has a plan for each of them, too. Give each child a 4- x 5-inch piece of poster board, a pencil, glue, scissors, a paper clip, glitter or colored sand, and an empty shirt box or shoe box.

Have the child draw his initial in thick block style to fill the poster board. Let him cut out the initial, print his name on the back, and glue or tape a paper clip to the back for a hanger. Have him coat the front with a thin layer of glue. Let him sprinkle glitter or colored sand on the initial to cover it completely, then shake the excess into the box. (If you have time, let each child make 2-3 initials—one for his first, middles, and last names.) Talk about how God has a special plan for each person. Encourage your students to hang their initials where they will be a reminder that God can use each person to tell others about Jesus.

Welcome Summer: Flower Craft

Have your students create colorful summer flowers to hang in front of your windows or from the ceiling, if your classroom is windowless. To make one flower, fold a piece of colored construction paper in half. Let the child cut out one half of a simple, symmetrical flower shape, starting at the fold. Then help him cut out the center of the shape, leaving an outline about ½-inch wide. Unfold the flower outline. (You can do this initial cutting for your preschoolers.)

Lay the flower outline on a slightly larger piece of wax paper. Make sure each child has a flower. Help the child print his name on the outline. Then let the child drizzle glue along the shape’s outline  and in the center of the wax paper. Use a sponge brush to cover the wax paper with glue (but do not spread glue on the flower outline). Let the child press tissue-paper squares onto the glue. When the glue is dry, help the child peel the flower off the wax paper and trim around the flower’s edges so no  tissue paper sticks out. Hang the flowers from the ceiling or in front of your windows for a blooming display of color. Help your students thank God for the beautiful colors in His Creation and for giving us eyes to see the colorful flowers.

Bible Club Crafts = Creative Learning

When selecting craft activities for your students, ask yourself these five questions:

1.   Does the craft help the children feel valuable and worthwhile?

2.   Can the children experience success with this craft or activity?

3.   Do the children do the work?

4.   Does the craft allow the children to express themselves?

5.   Does the craft encourage creativity?

When you turn your art projects and Bible club activities into learning experiences, you give the children worthwhile lessons that will be with them long after the project is gone. Here’s how: focus on what the children can learn rather than what they can make. As the children work, talk about the Bible lesson or theme of the day. Keep the focus on the Bible story or the memory verse. Tie the craft back into the day’s Scripture or Bible point.

Help the children have a fun time during your Bible club program. Don’t let them get frustrated. If a craft becomes too difficult, switch gears and adapt the craft to the child. For example, if threading yarn becomes tedious, stop the threading and let the child add stickers to the craft or decorate it with markers or jewels. Turn your time with the child back into a fun experience. If a child finishes early (or just gives up), let him move to a free play area or begin a coloring project or a pencil puzzle.

Let each child's creativity shine. As you keep the mood light and supportive, you allow each child to be the creative being God has made him or her!