Lost Sheep Paper Sack Book

Lost Sheep

Matthew 18: 12-24

 

 

Surprise the kids with a paper sack book that has flaps and hidden pictures.  Look for the lost sheep until you find him!

 

Shown here is only one page of the book. For instructions to make this simple take home, click here.

 

All you need is two paper sacks, some scrapbook paper (or other colored paper or discarded wallpaper samples), some computer pictures of animals, scissors, and glue.

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Basket from Paper Sack

 Jesus Feeds the 5,000 (John 6:1-24)

or

Ruth 

Materials:

Paper Sack (size depends on how big you want the basket to be)

Pen or pencil

Scissors 

Instructions:

1. Fold a paper sack in half lenghthwise.

 2.  Draw a curved line at the top corner that is NOT on the fold (the word written   in the corner says "cut".)
3.  Draw a line on the fold where you will cut the handles out as shown in the picture.

 4.  Cut on the lines you drew and open it to look like this.

 5.  Stand it up and you have a basket. The children put shredded tan colored paper for wheat or Shredded Wheat cereal in the basket for the story of Ruth.  They put loaves and fish for the story of Jesus Feeding the 5,000. Under the tab marked Jesus' Miracles, there is a craft for Jesus Feeding the 5,000 that this would work very well for.

If you want shorter handles, cut the top of the paper bag down to a smaller size before drawing and cutting the handles. 

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Abraham Offers Isaac

Abraham Offers Isaac

Genesis 22:1-19

This is a picture of a blacklight/glow in the dark painting a friend made. For the background, she used a twin sized creme colored bed sheet cut in half(white sheets allow the glow in the dark paint to show up too much).  For the picture, she found two different coloring pages and put them together to make the scene.  (Make a transparency from the coloring page and use an overhead projector or use a computer projector and project the screen on the wall to trace.) She painted the picture with acrylic paint.  Then she painted the angel and the ram with glow in the dark paint.  When telling the story I show the scene at the top.  When it gets to the part about Abraham sacrificing Isaac,  turn on a blacklight (or turn off the lights if I don't have a blacklight) and the angel and ram appear.  It really makes a big impression on the children!

I look for Bible coloring books everywhere to find patterns for making things like this.  I have found them at the grocery store, Dollar Tree, Everthing's a Dollar, as well as places like Mardel's and Wal-Mart.  I look any place they have children's books.

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Jesus Feeds the 5,000

Jesus Feeds the 5,000

John 6:1-15

 When telling this Bible story, I show the children my small basket, 2 fish cut outs and 5 pieces of bread cut out. 

As I am telling the story, I place the 5 loaves and 2 fish inside the basket. After telling about how Jesus gave thanks, I pull on a string that is hidden on the back of the basket. See picture below:

 When I pull slowly on the string, the loaves and fish keep coming and coming and coming and coming!  There are many, many more than are pictured below:

The children are always asking, "How did you do that?"  Then I let them make one so they can retell the story for their parents, grandparents, and friends.

Materials:
Small basket (paper or plastic - I have another post under Jesus' Miracles which shows how to make a basket from a plain paper sack)
Lots of paper fish and loaves cut out
String
Tape

Instructions:

• Set aside 5 loaves and 2 fish cutouts.
• Lay out a long piece of string on the table.  Tape many small fish and loaves cut outs to the string.  (Make sure it is not super super long or it will get tangled). Leave some space at one end of the string so it can hang over the back of the basket without being seen.
•  Very carefully put one end of the string into the basket and slowly let the fish and loaves (that are taped onto it) ease into the basket.
• Hang the other end over the edge of the basket as seen in the picture.
• Take your basket and your fish and loaves and tell the story! Make sure the kids cannot see the string.  (You can put your thumb over it).

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Jesus Turns the Water to Wine

Water to Wine

John 2:1-11

 

 

This PowerPoint tells the story of how Jesus turned the water to wine in His first miracle.  There are no words on the PowerPoint.  The words come from the NIV Bible.

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Idols for Retelling Stories

 Stories Which Include Idols

This is obviously a fake idol used to tell stories which include idols (a few of which are listed below).  I would never recommend anyone make their own idol for any reason. 

Jacob taking Laban's household gods
Gideon
King Ahab
Elijah and the Baal Worshippers
Jeroboam (when he sets up the high places)
Solomon's Wives
Micah

This was made from an empty 8 quart Kool-Aid container and a plastic toy.  

1. Peel the label off the Kool-Aid container.
2. Wash and dry the Kool-Aid container.
3. Hot glue the toy to the lid.
4. Spray paint the entire thing gold. 

For these stories, several idols could be made with different toys on top of each one.  You could explain how silly it would be to worship something like this.  It is nothing like the real, living God.



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Clothesline Storytelling

The Miraculous Catch of Fish and Breakfast on the Beach

John 21:1-14

The children act out the story by standing behind the clothes that belong to their character in the story.  As I tell the story, they say their lines (prompted by me) and act by moving their hands or picking up props.  The children thoroughly enjoy this type of storytelling activity because they don't actually have to put the clothes on.  They just stand behind them.  I started with these simple "clothes" made simply by draping fabric over the clothesline - no sewing at all.  I started out with just a few props such as the net and some homemade fish. 

I created clothesline poles to hold my clothesline rope.  (Make sure these poles can hold a little weight without tipping over.)  Then I hung a rope between the two poles low enough for the children to see over.  For these "clothes", I just draped striped and solid fabric over the rope and made a small belt from the same fabric. (Just a strip of fabric - no sewing.)

For Jesus, since he was standing alone, I just draped the fabric over a chair and draped a small piece of blue fabric on top.

After doing this story, I went to garage sales and picked up some cute dress-up clothes such as a Belle costume (from Beauty and the Beast) that I use clothespins and pin on the line for Esther, some king costumes as well as many others that work for other Bible stories. The ideas are endless! I found some crowns they can wear as well as some cute beards (on sale right after Halloween) that I glued onto card stock and put a tongue depressor on the bottom as a handle.  The children can hold this in front of their face like a handheld mask. 

I got the idea for this from a book entitled Crazy Clothesline Characters by Carol Mader (available at Amazon). 

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