Religious crafts for children are a great way to learn about God through reinforcement of Bible stories. Reading a Bible story to a young child first and then having them complete a craft to reinforce the lesson is the best way to teach young children. Below are two religious craft ideas that are perfect for Sunday school or religious education teachers, as well as homeschooling parents. Best of all, these religious craft ideas are budget friendly and don’t require a huge investment in supplies not readily on hand.
Religious Craft Idea for Children: Daniel’s Rocks
The story about Daniel is a Sunday School favorite and making the Bible story a religious craft is easy and inexpensive. A list of supplies includes:
- Brown paper lunch bag
- String
- Smooth, flat rocks (4-5 per child)
- Bible quote (pre-printed in small font)
- Elmer’s glue or glue stick
- Hole puncher
- Crayons, markers or colored pencils
- Clip Art of Daniel themed objects (optional)
- Scissors to trim bag or pre cut them prior to craft, removing approximately 3 inches off the top of each bag.
Allow the children a few moments to decorate their paper lunch bag with crayons, markers or colored pencils. Use of clip art of Daniel themed objects is optional and can include clip art of Daniel, his rocks, or a leather pouch. Next, fold the cuff inward on itself about one and one-half inches. Take a hole puncher and punch approximately five holes on the front and back sides of the bag and three holes on each side of the bag, making sure to punch where the bag has been folded over.
Take the Bible verse and cut it into 4 or 5 equal parts so that each rock will have part of the Bible verse on them. Glue the Bible verse pieces to each rock and let dry. Some suggestions for Bible verses can be found in Psalms, such as Psalm 18:1, Psalm 46:1 or Psalm 34:17. Next, when the glue is dried, place the rocks inside the bag and use string, weaving it through thepre -punched holes, to tie it closed. The use of flat, smooth rocks is recommended not only because the paper Bible verse pieces adhere better, but also to lessen the chance of choking hazard. This religious craft idea for children is best suited for children 8 and older, based on personal experience with this particular craft.
Tip: Have the children assemble their rocks to be able to read the Bible verse. Ask them what the verse means to them and how they can be like Daniel in their everyday life.
Religious Craft Ideas for Children: Noah
The Noah religious craft idea is perfect for preschool children. Children will enjoy building an ark just like Noah and the craft is a fairly easy and mess free one to complete for Sunday school or religious education teachers. To create a Noah religious craft, these items are needed:
- One piece of light blue construction paper per child
- Dark blue construction paper cut in a wavy pattern
- Noah’s ark, cut out of brown construction paper for younger children or traced on to brown construction paper for older children
- Small black squares for windows; alternatively, use large buttons (use best judgment to determine choking hazard)
- Glue
- Crayons
- Clip Art Noah, animals
The blue piece of construction paper will be the background onto which the Ark is glued.
To prepare Noah’s ark beforehand, use a compass to draw a circle with a diameter of at least eight inches onto a piece of brown construction paper. Each circle will make two arks by cutting it in half. Taking scissors, flatten out the rounded curve on the bottom of the ark. Next, cut a rectangle that is three inches by two inches. For the roof of the ark, cut a triangle that is five inches at the base and three inches long on each side. This will be the roof.
Assembly of craft: Glue the dark blue, wavy construction paper on the bottom on the light blue piece. Next, about one-third of the way down and toward the middle of the light blue paper, glue the brown rectangle. Then glue the triangle on as the roof and the brown bottom ark piece, but using only a thin bead of glue around the edges so that the ark itself will be a pocket. Adorn the ark with either the black squares for windows or the large buttons. Also good to use as round portals would be foam smallo’s if there are any on hand. Have the children color their clip art Noahs and any animals they wish to put on the ark. White crayons can be used to draw clouds in the sky or fish in the sea.
Tip: Once the ark craft project is complete, discuss God’s promise to Noah and have the children draw a rainbow over their ark.
These two religious craft ideas for children are easy to do and don’t require a small fortune to produce. Many of the items needed for these crafts are already on hand or can be purchased inexpensively at stores such as Dollar Tree, as in the case of the smooth, flat rocks used in the Daniel craft. Using crafts as an extension of a Bible lesson are a fun way to reinforce the lesson and work well immediately after the Bible story has been read to them.
Sources:
- Personal experience with these crafts, Vacation Bible School teacher
