Bible Play Dough Mats courtesy of Flame Creative Children's Ministry

Recently I stumbled upon an idea that I just love!  Flame, a children's spiritual development blog, had these amazingly awesome and so developmentally appropriate playdough mats they were sharing!  I knew this was perfect for my kids--for a bit of guided playdough time and response to Bible stories.

First off, I printed all of the mats relating to the crucifixion and communion and Jesus rising from the dead--I placed them each in a page protector to keep the playdough off the paper, and I will be bringing them to church on Sundays for my kids to interact with during communion time.

In this current season we are in, our kids are expected to sing/pray and participate in the first portion of church.  During communion I like to bring some type of manipulative/book/activity specifically related to some aspect of communion/remembering Jesus' sacrifice so they can participate on their own developmental level.  I have a basket of several different objects that I choose from each week.  You can follow the label link to my other posts on this.

These playdough mats are perfect!  I will bring a small can of playdough (1 color) per child and I don't see this being too messy.  Each child has a parent sitting with them, so we can help if needed.

I also printed off all the other mats for the kids to use at tablework time (like when I am making lunch, etc.)  The first time I introduced them they spent about 2 total minutes and weren't that into them.  As with any new activity, the more I bring them out, model how to do them, and talk through the activity, the more engaged they are.  I just love the tactile way these invite young children to respond to Bible stories.

Are you sold?  You have GOTTA print these off and add them to your toolkit!!
CLICK HERE to go to the Flame Playdough Mats Page

And below are photos of my Quinn using the mats (again, I did not create the mats--I printed them off the fabulous Flame site linked above).

I have made a couple of my own in the style of Flame's, click 

HERE to check them out!

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.