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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