Mary and Joseph flee to Egypt with Baby Jesus (Godly Play Set)

We've moved on in our story of Baby Jesus this week.  

First to set up our story on Monday.

A throne room for Herod.  Columns were from the Wedding at Cana playset back over the summer--love how Godly play materials are repurposed for different stories so easily!  Wood flooring samples (from Ikea) make great floors and roads for Godly play, as well!  Little king and throne chair are from a Melissa and Doug set we have.  

Here is Q making a mean face since Herod is so mean.  It kinda rocked her world that Herod killed all babies two and under--when she realized that would have included her little brother.  Sobering moment.....

 We set up a little stable for the donkey.  We put away the rest of the animals from the nativity, but kept the donkey, as they might need this guy to get to Egypt, right?  He is also eating from the manger that Baby Jesus initially slept in, as "Joseph built Jesus a crib."  (according to Quinn).

 Here's the house--notice the wisemens' gifts from last week are still hanging around.  Those are popular items in play!  Then there is the angel that came.  Scripture says that God told Joseph in a dream to go to Egypt.  Q is just sure that means an angel came to his dreams.  I don't know, so I am not arguing.  One way or another Joseph got the message from God.

 We had to have a way to indicate when the house was in Bethlehem or Egypt, so we made a little clip to put on to indicate what town at the different parts of the story.  So when they are in Bethlehem, we clip on that one.  And vise versa.  I happened to have these nifty chalkboard clothespins.  Regular clothespins written on with sharpee would work, too!

 We read the story from our Children's Bible (ICB version).

 This guy loves switching the clips!  Great fine motor practice.  And pre-reading skills!

After Monday (we do the initial introduction in the living room, usually) we move the materials to the shelf in the breakfast nook under the window.  There they are open to be played with at any time, and we can move them back to the living room during the week when we reinact the story again.