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.

Bible Lesson: God Cares for Us

Help your students understand that God cares for us and helps through hard times.

Ask five good readers to each look up and read aloud one of the following Scripture verses. Print the Scripture references on a board or poster paper:
Exodus 12:21-23
Psalm 12:5
Psalm 32:7
Psalm 46:1-3
Psalm 91:14

Then ask for five volunteers for a short reader's theater. Say, "Each one of our readers will act like a person with a problem. Decide which Scripture passage the person is talking about."

Reader 1: When I am scared, I read the Bible, pray, and sometimes I sing hymns or praise songs. They help me remember that God is taking care of me and is a hiding place for me. (Psalm 32:7)

Say, "Just reading the Bible and praying can soothe us when we're upset or distressed." (Discuss how reading the Bible, along with singing, helps us to remember God's love and gives us comfort.)

Reader 2: God saved our whole family from the plagues when Moses told us to paint our doorframes with the blood of the lamb. (Exodus 12:21-32)

Say, "God protected is people during the plagues. God heard the cries of his people in Egypt and protected them while He tried to teach the Egyptians to be fair with them. When that didn't work, He sent Moses to lead His people out of slavery into their own land."

Reader 3: Because I truly love God and trust Him, God will help me when I am in trouble. (Psalm 91:14)

Say, "God promises to hear His people when they call His name and to help them."

Reader 4: It seems like my whole world is falling apart. Everything seems to be getting worse, but I know that God will give me strength. (Psalm 46:1-3)

Say, "When everything else seems shaky, God is always solid and firm. We can trust in the Lord God even when we are facing life-changing problems. Just reading and remembering these verses can bring us comfort."

Reader 5: I am poor and weak and needy, but God keeps me safe. (Psalm 12:5)

Say, "God promises to take care of Christians when they have physical needs like hunger and poverty, and to give them what they need. He often lays it on the hearts of other Christians to give them the help they need. Just like the people in our reader's theater, God doesn't always take away pain and trouble, but He is always there to give comfort and strength to His children."

Have your students learn Psalm 46:1-2 for their memory verse. Have a child read the verse aloud from the Bible. Say, "In times of trouble, it is important to know that God is with us, even if it feels like the whole world is falling apart."

Close with a time of prayer, encouraging your students to pray for each other's praises and prayer requests.

Beautiful Bulletin Boards

Here are some ways to spruce up your classroom with easy bulletin boards. 

When preparing an eye-catching display, you don't actually need a bulletin board. Just frame a large area of one wall with bulletin board borders or trims. However, backgrounds are vital. Besides colored construction paper, use textured fabrics, felt or flannel, crepe paper, newpapers, aluminum foil, sandpaper, colored cellophane, or maps.

Borders make the bulletin board. Use corrugated paper, twisted crepe paper, yarn or rope, pictures strung together, paper muffin cups, scalloped strips of poster board, wallpaper samples, and designs printed from your computer.

Lettering conveys the message. Make your letters big, and keep the message short and simple. Mounting the same letters in two colors, one on top of the other, gives a shadow effect. Cut your letters from corrugated paper, sticky-backed felt, patterned paper (such as that used for scrapbooking), textured paper,  Form letters from colored feathers, and drinking straws bent into letter shapes. You can add a short Bible verse or your lesson theme to the bulletin board.

Variety adds spice to your display. Add a third dimension to your bulletin board by placing a thick piece of cardboard or foam core behind the lettering. You can also glue cotton balls, twigs, feathers, yarn, rope, colored paper plates, holiday trims, or an old lampshade cut in half to your board. Make sure you take a photo of your completed board so you can easily recreate your artistic masterpiece in the future.

For pre-made bulletin board sets and lots of fun bulletin board ideas, visit our Classroom Decorations Store. You'll also find attendance charts, posters, borders, lettering, stickers, and lots more—many items 30% to 50% off.

Picture This!

Here's one way you can lead your students in group prayer. Collect a number of pictures that have to do with the theme of your lesson. Place the pictures on the floor and talk about each picture. Then ask the children to select one of the pictures they would like to talk to God about.

If the pictures are of nature items, they might want to thank God for all that He has created. If the pictures are of people around the world, they might want to pray for the missionaries ministering in that country. If the pictures are of vocations or activities, the children might want to pray for the people who do what is shown in the pictures. Or they might want to thank God for the people in that vocation.

If you support a child through Compassion International or World Vision, bring pictures of your child or other children in countries around the world. Let each child choose a picture of a child and pray for that child and his or her family. The pictures can help your students think of something (or someone) specific to pray about.

"God Loves Me" Cookies

To help your students understand God's great love for them, explain the salvation story. (See the blog post Leading a Child to Christ from May 17, 2010.) Conclude by saying, "When the serpent tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, she ate from the forbidden fruit. Since sin (the wrong things we say and do) came into the world, humankind has been separated from God. But God was not ready to forget about us. God made a promise to Abraham to rescue His people, but the payment the devil wanted for us was high—God's own Son's life! God allowed His Son, Jesus, to die for our sins (the wrong things we do) because God loves us. God paid the highest price possible to make sure we were free from the penalty of sin. As we celebrate Valentine's Day, we remember this great love God has for us, and we thank Him for sending His Son, Jesus."

Before the lesson, bake or purchase unfrosted heart-shaped cookies so each child can have two. Bring frosting, red sprinkles, cinnamon candies, plastic knives, wax paper, paper towels, and a plastic sandwich bag for each child.

Give each child a sheet of wax paper, a plastic knife, some frosting, and two cookies. Let the child frost and decorate the cookies for a special guest who will be attending your class. Label each child's wax paper with his name in permanent marker. Place his favorite cookie in a plastic bag and the other cookie on the paper.

When done, gather everyone in a circle, and have each child show the others his favorite cookie. Then have the child pass the cookie to the person on his left, so each child receives a cookie from another child.

Explain that the special guests for this lesson are all the people in the room. Say, Each person is very important to God. God loves each one very much. Let the child put his other cookie in the plastic bag and label the bag with his name for refreshments or to take home after your lesson.