Crafts and Activities About Jesus for
Sunday School

Bible Themes on this Page: Name for Jesus Posters, Isaiah predicts Jesus' Birth, Jesus was a Special Baby, Mary tells her Good News, Jesus Goes to Church, Jesus Grew and I am Growing, and Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness, Jesus said, "Let the children come unto me.

Names for Jesus Posters

What you will need: Printer Paper, construction paper, religious foam shapes, and glue sticks.

What to do:

1. Print out names for Jesus using colorful letters and interesting fonts. Patterns for the following names are available to members on The Resource Room: Mighty God, Lord, Savior, Son of Man, Prince of Peace, Messiah, Mighty God, Christ, and Son of God. (Some are pictured above and to the right.)

2. In class have your children glue the letters to a piece of construction paper. Give them stickers or fun foam shapes to decorate the rest of the page.

3. If you have younger children, don't cut the letters apart. Just have them glue the whole name the construction paper and then decorate. If you have older children, cut the letters apart and mix them up. Have them try to put the letters together to figure out what they spell and then glue them to the paper and decorate.

You can buy religious fun foam shapes from Oriental Trading Company. Go to Oriental Trading Company and type in 48/21010 in the search box at the top of the page to find them on th web site. I think the fun foam shaped pictured where purchased from Wal-Mart.

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Isaiah Predicts Jesus' Birth
© 2004, Carolyn Warvel

Scripture Reference: Isaiah 7:14

I teach 4 - 6 year olds and they are so much fun. Two weeks before Christmas, I gave a Sunday school lesson incorporating Isaiah 7:14 and how Isaiah had predicted so many years before about Jesus' birth. I tried to get them to predict what they thought would happen on earth 100 years from now. I got so many responses like: living in glass bubbles in the air, living on the moon, thinking of where you want to be and then appearing there, no more hunger anywhere, no sickness, etc. We made the scroll (Go to Christmas Crafts Page 2 for directions and a pattern) and it was so easy for them to do. They were astounded on how a clean white sheet turned into an old-time scroll. Using the concentrated tea was easy and not too messy for cleanup. I heard a few parents' comments on how genuine they looked. The kids got to put them up on their Christmas trees. Sent in by Anita

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Jesus was a Special Baby

Scripture Reference: Matthew 2:1-12
Concepts - Jesus was a special baby

1. See Moses lesson for activities about babies.
2. Make a baby covered with a blanket picture - Before class cut out pictures of babies and baby things from magazines. Cut out small squares of fabric for blankets.  In class have the children glue the baby picture and baby things onto construction paper.  Give them each a scrap of material to glue on top of the baby for a blanket. Write on the top of the paper: "Jesus was a Special Baby."
3. Scribble like a baby - Have the children scribble like a baby all over a piece of construction paper.  When they are finished scribbling, let them use water color paint to paint over the scribbles.  The paint will not stick to the crayons and will make a very pretty picture.
4. Taste baby food - Bring in several bottles of baby food and let the children taste them.
5. Also see Christmas Crafts Page 1 and Page 2

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Baby Jesus in an Envelope Manger
© 2004, Carolyn Warvel

This pattern is available to Members Only.

What you will need: Letter-sized envelope, yarn or straw, crayons, pencil, and glue.

What to do: Use the pattern available to members only or cut out a manger shape as shown from an envelope. Color the envelope to look like a manger. Draw a picture of baby Jesus, cut him out and place him in the manger with cut up pieces of straw or yarn.

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Poem about Jesus - Look on the Christmas Page for poems about Jesus

Mary Tells Her Good News

Scripture Reference: Luke 1:26-56
Concepts:  Mary was happy and shared her good news about Baby Jesus.  We can tell people about Baby Jesus too.

Crafts and Activities

1. Make a whispering tube out of a paper towel roll.  Cover the roll with pretty paper and have the children decorate them with stickers, crayons, or markers.   Instead of using paper towel rolls, you can cut pretty colors of poster board and roll it up to form a tube. Glue it together using a hot melt glue gun. Tell the story about how Mary told her good news.  Discuss how we can tell people about Jesus. 
2. Whisper bible verses or short sentences through the tube and have the children repeat what you said.
3. Bring in baby items and discuss what each item is used for.  Play a guessing game by removing one item when the children aren't looking and have them guess which one is missing.

  Jesus Grew and I am Growing Too

Scripture Reference: Matthew 2:19-23, 13:55-56 and Luke 2:4-7, 40, 51-52
Concepts: Jesus grew and learned many things; you are growing and learning to do many things.  God made me special. 

1.   Outline each child's body on a big piece of paper (butcher paper used to cover bulletin boards) and then let them color it.  Write the scripture verse Luke 2:40, "And the Child  continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him," on each sheet or paper before class.
      This idea comes from Cindi VanWingerden of Cincinnati, Ohio. She says, " I had one parent tell me that they were happy to have a new one to replace one they had for a year or so that the child would not get rid of until they got a new one!"

 We used this project for a lesson about Jesus'  love for us.  We tapped two-feet pieces of butcher paper to the wall all around the room one right next to the other.  On the top of the paper we wrote, "Jesus loves  ______" whomever we happened to be tracing.  We traced the child's body and had them use crayons to draw in the face and clothes.  Most of the children seemed to enjoy the project. Some of the children spent at least 20 minutes on the project others were more interested in the play dough.  We probably should have put up the play dough first. Carolyn

Jesus Goes to Church - Honor Your Parents

Crafts:

1. Make a church and play with finger puppets - Draw a simple church outline with a mirror image of the outline above the roofline of the church.  You are going to fold the outline on what would be the peak of the roof so that the church stands up on it's own. 

Have children color the church, then  fold.   Attach it to a piece of cardboard for the floor.  If you make each outline large enough you can make simple stick figure puppets out of craft sticks and card stock people shape cutouts for Jesus, Mary and Joseph for the children to play with in the church. Sent in by Bethany Davis

2. Pipe cleaner People Puppets - Make 3 taller pipe cleaner people and 1 shorter pipe cleaner person. The shorter one would represent Jesus, of course. Cut out a circle for the face from construction paper. The children will draw a smiley face on it and then glue it to the pipe cleaner head on each figure. Also, cut out robes for each figure out of construction paper. The children will glue these to the pipe cleaner bodies. Tape each of the pipe cleaner people to a Popsicle stick. Purchase a small block of Styrofoam. Cut out a "wall" from construction paper and draw columns on it to represent the temple. You could even surround the Styrofoam on 3 sides with the walls. Glue the walls to the back and sides of the Styrofoam leaving the front open. The children can then stick the Popsicle stick people into the foam to represent the temple. Sent in by Susan Schultz

3. Sticker Fun - Oriental Trading Company has "Build a Church Stickers" (12 sheets for $2.95) that would work great for this theme. Type in 36/451 or "church stickers" in the search box on the left to find them.

Stained Glass Window Church Craft
© 2004, Carolyn Warvel

Even very young children will  enjoy  this project. Two and three year old children will enjoy making  the stained glass window paper and coloring the church. You can  complete the rest of the project for them.

Go to Church Crafts Page for a pattern and directions.

Church Stained Glass Window - Sent in by Juanita Bacon

What you will need: Card stock or construction paper, spray adhesive and rubber cement glue, several colors of the tissue paper cut into about 1 inch size pieces, (all kinds of shapes), a sheet of transparent plastic (This can be any transparency. The ones for overhead projectors work well.), yarn or ribbon for hanging, and a printed verse to go on bottom of the window shape. (Optional)

Note: If you have small children, do all the cutting and just let them the glue oo the tissue paper.

What to do:

1. Fold a piece of construction paper or card stock in half (hamburger fold). Cut a shape out of the center with an Exacto knife. You can use any shape.

2. Cut out a lot of the small pieces of multicolored tissue paper, store in Ziplock bags. You will need about 50 pieces for each project.

3. Cut a cross (All you need for a cross is a long and short strip.) or any other shape that will fit in the center of the cut out window. I used construction paper. Metallic paper would also look great.

4. Cut two pieces of the transparency so it will cover the center hole but not be larger than the construction paper half.

5. Spray one side of each piece of transparency with the spray glue.

6. Let the children place the color tissue paper all over the transparency so they are overlapping (Put tissue on one piece of transparency only, the other piece is to sandwich the tissue in between).

7. Glue the cut out cross or other shape you have in the center of the transparency.

8. Place the other piece of transparency over the tissue paper and cross,

9. Place both of these in between the large cut out shape so the cross shows in the center of the cut out center and glue the two folded halves of the construction paper together

10. Punch a hole in top center and put in the yarn to hang.

11. Glue memory verse on if you want.

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Jesus Tempted in the Wilderness
© 2004, Carolyn Warvel

I used the "King of Kings" banner. I copied it to my paint program and erased the "King of Kings" and replaced it with "Always Do Right". I am going to have the children make the banner out of fun foam or felt and have them glue the words onto it and then decorate with glitter glue and other sequins and cording.

Go to Crafts Page 6 for a pattern and directions on how to make this craft.

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Jesus Bingo Song
(Sent in by Dian Dodson)

Using the tune from BINGO try this song. Have one letter each on a sheet of cardboard or construction paper to spell the name Jesus.
5 children are chosen, each child holds one letter from the name Jesus, the following song is sung thru once before any letter is removed. We start with the final S as the first letter to be removed so that the capital J is always in the children's mind and sight until the end of the song. When a letter is removed a clap is substituted for the missing letter. All letters are returned when the final line of the song is sung, to spell out the name of Jesus. To keep the letters turned correctly a * is placed on the top of the paper to show the child which way the letter stands. (stars are above us, our star points up to heaven).

"I have a friend who's always there,
And Jesus is his name-o
J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S, J-E-S-U-S
And Jesus is his name-o"

(remove a letter and sing again, clap for missing letter-s)

After all letters have been removed, 5 claps are given for the letters then slow down and help children return all letters to finish the song and sing "And Jesus is his name-o"