Bible Story Crafts

People who teach religious education classes or simply want to teach Bible lessons to their kids often find that they can keep children engaged by building Bible story crafts with them. These crafts help to illustrate stories in the Bible in ways children can understand and remember. They are often easy and quick to make, even for young children.

These cotton balls can become sheep.

The Noah’s Ark story, in which Noah helps gather together all of the animals two by two, is an excellent one for inspiring Bible story crafts. Children can build their own ark just as Noah did in the story.

The ark craft requires a paper plate, two sheets of brown construction paper, scissors, glue and five to 10 cotton balls. Once all the materials are gathered, the crafter can follow these instructions:

1. Fold the plate exactly in half, creasing it tightly.
2. Place the two pieces of construction paper in a stack and draw a house shape on the top sheet with a rectangle for a body and a triangle for a roof. Make sure the rectangular part at least 8” tall and no wider than half the diameter of the plate.
3. Cut out the shape, making sure to cut through both pieces of construction paper simultaneously.
4. Place cotton balls in between the two sheets of construction paper.
5. Glue the two pieces of paper together at the edges. This will make the ark appear full.
6. Cut a slit in the fold in the plate that it wide enough so that the house can slip inside.
7. Slide the house into the ark’s base until only about 4” of the rectangular piece is visible.
8. Stuff the remaining cotton balls into the plate.
9. Glue it shut along its curved edges.

Some people choose to draw images of Noah and his wife and the animals in the ark on its sides, although this may be too difficult for very young children.

When learning about the story of the Lost Lamb, where the shepherd searches for every lamb to come in safely, children can make their own lambs using an old egg carton and the following instructions:

1. Halve the egg carton and discard the top.
2. Cut the bottom of the egg carton up into 12 individual egg cups.
3. Turn one cup upside down and glue two to four cotton balls onto it until it resembles a sheep’s body.
4. Cut two U-shaped ears out of a sheet of black construction paper.
5. Glue each ears onto opposite sides of the sheep.
6. Add two googly eyes in front to complete the face.

It’s not necessary to give the lambs legs. Simply tell children that the sheep is too fluffy for its legs to be seen. The benefit of using the egg carton is that kids can easily maneuver the sheep without it falling over.

The Web is an excellent resource for more Bible story craft ideas. Here are just a few of the hundreds that are available:

• Making Friends has ideas for banners, jewelry, paper dolls and more, plus several downloadable patterns that are free to use.
• Ministry To Children has video instructions for several Bible related crafts, including a booklet related to the creation story and “resurrection eggs.”
• Bible Kids Fun Zone has some easy to make printable crafts. Many require simply that kids cut them out and color them. Crafts include stickers, jigsaw puzzles and paper dolls.

To enhance the Bible lesson, it’s a good idea to tell kids the story either before or while they make the craft. Some children will enjoy retelling the story afterward using the craft object that they made as a prop in their explanation.

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