Jesus Without Language

 
The five day mini series exploring holy week is one of my favourite traditions and I’ve loved introducing it to my toddler. However, many of the activities are not so toddler friendly so last year I went exploring practical alternatives. I kept with the same format, each day a small activity is linked to an event from the days leading up to Easter. Generally speaking, the days get more involved as you go.
 
As before, the days all have individual cards but these are modified for younger ears. Print them out (click on the image to get to the printout) and hang them up either as a ladder or string to show each day passing. The daily activity can take as little as 5 minutes but could easily be built upon if needed.
 

…continue reading about Holy Week | Toddlers and preschoolers

This is a special Lent theme solo post. Lent is the lead up to Easter. It lasts for 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (Sundays are not included in the tally) and represents the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert. To follow Lent is very much a personal choice. While advent is about preparing our minds with the big story starting from the beginning and leading up to Jesus, Lent is about preparing out hearts to engage with the Jesus that we see in holy week, the confusing God-man, the one who invited us into a radical new way of loving, the one who really did take up his own cross and walk, leading the way for us to do likewise. It’s not a new idea, but sadly my purse strings didn’t stretch for the beautiful wooden ones. NOTE, the pictures are of my original.

 
…continue reading about Lent Walk

 

This worksheet about Miriam is all about reflecting on the risks that the story involved, while it has some light relief with the simple maze at the bottom most is discussion based. It would be easy for some groups to draw a sad face on Miriam’s mother and give her a quick scribble of hair and shower her costume with vivid decorations, but challenge the older groups to really think about how both her heritage and identity as a slave in this land may have dictated her look.

To complete the worksheet you will need something to write and colour with and to turn your imaginations on!

The PDF can can be downloaded by clicking on the image.
 

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This story of Miriam is all bout chasing the basket, keeping up with a moving object and not losing sight of it. That ties nicely into games and activities. If you are working through Moses as a series then I’ve included 2 of the games from the previous lesson on the Egyptian midwifes which would also work well and if enjoyed once could easily be repeated.

Moses baskets – This activity involves a large dish of water. Print out the pdf and fold every tab inwards to represent the basket. Place Moses inside the basket and drop it on the water all folded up. The basket should slowly open each petal to reveal the child inside. Turn this into a game by racing your baskets to see which opens the quickest, or using multiple baskets and having the children guess which one has Moses inside.

 
…continue reading about Miriam (Exodus 2) | Play

These is a moment of wonder in this story that this really simple little craft encompasses, it’s the moment when, as Miriam watches, the basket is opened and the baby Moses is revealed. This is one of those super quick crafts you could give the children to do themselves or it could easily be used as a game where you set off lots of baskets and get the kids to guess which one holds Moses.

 
…continue reading about Miriam (Exodus 2) | Make / Play