Favorite Preschool Small Group Bible Story Activities

03 March 2015



Some of you have probably heard me mention that I lead a preschool small group during an adult small group on Wednesday nights. I prep the lessons and activities each week. Right now there are three regular preschoolers who are there. Occasionally we have the older sister of the one family there as well. In the fall I had four preschoolers, one toddler, and an infant each week. I have come to regularly accept the help of my pastor's kids when it comes to helping the kids get crafts done or keeping the baby entertained.

If you have ever worked with preschoolers you know that they need tangible activities that connect with the stories each week. We try to follow the adult small group material so that we are doing the same story as the parents. This allows parents to more easily talk with their children about the stories on their way home, when they get home, or throughout the week. Each week I try to find one or two activities that connect with our story. Today I want to share some of the ones that the kids enjoyed the most!

1. David & Goliath || David's Stones


When I was prepping for the story of David & Goliath I thought it would be fun to have some real stones for them like David's. However, since we are inside someone else's home for group and children are notorious for throwing things, I decided to make them. I got on Pinterest and was looking for something and I came across this post on BibleCraftsandActivities.com. It looked really cute and it was really fun to make. All I did was make the stones at home, cut down the paper bags I had, and print and cut out the verses. The children glued the verse on and they threaded string through for a handle. The children loved it! They were so excited to show their parents and everyone else the stones that they had that were just like David and they were talking about the story.


2. David Cuts Saul's Robe


One week we talked about David & King Saul. We talked about how David was so close to Saul while he was hiding that he was able to cut off a piece of Saul's robe without him knowing. We talked about how that must have been kind of scary but that David knew that God would protect him. After our lesson we did this craft which I found in this post on the Flame: Creative Children's Ministry blog. It was easy to prep and it was pretty easy for the kids to do themselves, which is important with one of the kids being around the three year old range. I have a ton of scrapbooking supplies and a ton of leftover scraps of printed paper which made it really easy to have a variety of papers for the kids to use. They loved doing this and talking about David & Saul and how God protected David while they were gluing the paper.

3. Paul and Silas in Prison


Another story that we did was the story of Paul & Silas in prison and how an earthquake shook them free while they were singing songs to God. I came across this idea on Pinterest, but unfortunately was unable to find any website or blog that had the details for making this. I took the idea and ran with it, adapting it to fit my supplies and such. I was able to find the image of Paul & Silas here and it is free a free PDF. I then drew the bricks using a sharpie and a ruler on the back page. I used a sharpie to draw he stones for the front page. I precut the bars for the "cell" out of black construction paper. I wrote the verse on the front page as well. I manage to find music note stickers at Dollar Tree.

I had the students glue Paul & Silas down and stick the music note stickers around them. Then we glued the bars on the back of our front page. We then only glued our front page down on the left side of the paper so that they could lift the front page and set them free from jail. You could also tape the pages together which might make it easier for the pages to stay together with the constant opening and closing. The kids absolutely love this one!

***If you happen to know where this idea came from please let me know! I would really love to give credit to whoever came up with it! :)

4. Jonah & the Whale


By far everyone's favorite story was the story of Jonah & the Whale. The kids had all heard the story before, so we quickly retold it and we talked about how Jonah disobeyed God in the beginning but ended up following God's will in the end. I came across this activity idea in this post on the Thoughts From The Hill blog.

I tweaked it a little bit just to make it easier to put together and to fit the supplies I had available. I searched and found a blank picture of a whale and I blew it up and printed it out. I had already bought the party favors (noise makers...I'm not sure what they are officially called) and was able to measure the whale against one to make sure it was covered. Once the sizing was right I printed out the whales on blue cardstock and cut them out. I also printed out the little Jonahs and cut them out ahead of time. Our whales already had eyes, so I brought crayons and markers and let them color/decorate their whales. We then taped our Jonahs to the end of the party favors. We also taped our party favors to the back of the whales using masking tape. It held up really well!! What didn't hold up was the cardboard tubing of the party favor because the kids were spitting as they were blowing so it was getting wet and soggy.

Overall it went well and the kids loved it!! They were walking around 'spitting' Jonah out until they left to go home. I actually still have mine sitting on the TV stand in my living room and my roommate's boyfriend came over the week after we made these. He was intrigued and was entertained by it for a good twenty minutes! So if it is entertaining for a 22 year old college student then you know your preschoolers should enjoy it!

Anyways, these were some of the kids favorite activities from the fall. We had some fun snacks as well and I look forward to sharing those with you as well!

Have you ever used any of these activities or similar ones in your preschool or children's ministries? Have you done any different ones that your kids loved?

Sincerely,
Shelbi

Design by | SweetElectric