Children of Israel stick puppets

In our K4/K5 jr. church, we just finished the lesson series on Joshua. Most of the time, we'll have the kids color a picture to go with the story, but sometimes, I'll come up with something different for them to do.

We made stick puppets yesterday, and the kids thought they were great! I drew a picture of Joshua, then drew a family to represent the children of Israel. After making photocopies, I cut around the pictures, then gave them to the kids to color.  We only had clothespins on hand at church, so that's what we used to clip the pictures on to. (We could have used popsicle sticks, too.) We told them that they could now tell the story to their parents or siblings when they got home. I have found a couple sites that have coloring pages and activities that correspond with Bible stories if you'd like to check them out.  Look here and here for inspiration!

I have found in my years of teaching that kids love the simplest things. This project was a simple one, but one that allowed them to be creative and to think about the stories they have learned.  Give them some paper, crayon and popsicle sticks and see where their imaginations take them.