I always think that crafts are a great way to enhance any Bible story which you teach your children. Crafts engage children in a different way than a Bible story lesson; however, crafts help to reiterate the lesson the children have just learned. In the Bible class I teach, I use the craft time to ask the children about what they are making, and thus ask them if they really learned the lesson I just finished teaching. I also like to use what I call “craft-like” activities to employ the children to retell the Bible story they just learned. I have listed a few activities I think would work well with the story of Christ’s birth.
- Story book. I use this craft type in my classroom often. I usually cut a piece of paper into four sheets. Children can then create a different piece of the story on each piece of paper. The sheets are then connected through some means (staple, yarn, or brad) to create a story book. Sometimes I simply let the children draw pictures, other times I let them cut and glue pieces of the story, and even other times I cut pieces of the story for them to glue.
- Family Tree. Since the story of Christ’s birth in the book of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Christ, I thought creating a “family tree” of sorts would be fun for kids. The family tree can then be used to help children see many the many different people of the Bible who were part of Christ’s family. While it is probably difficult to include everyone listed in Matthew chapter one, you could choose key figures who the children might know something about already.
- Playdoh reenactment. The kids in my Bible class love this activity. After giving the lesson, I usually have each child make one of the characters or pieces of the setting of the story from playdoh. Then I go through the story with them again, moving the pieces accordingly. The next time I let them tell me the story.
What crafts do your kids love to do?