Box Bear Bedroom

 When helping my parents put the Christmas decorations away my dad found this under the stairs. This was one of my favourite projects for my NNEB (Nursery Nurse/ Child care qual) and it was only a quick insignificant one! But one that inspired me more than most of the theorists - "Create something in a box"

So I present my bear box bedroom, made when I was about 17! I still love it!

Journey to Bethlehem

This post was supposed to be on "all play on sunday" but accidently wrote on here, I was going to delte but thought it may be of interest to some of you (check out "all play on sunday" for similar ideas)So todays session was called "Journey to Bethlehem" inspiration given from Tidily Winks Red Book. However only limited aspects of session were used.

For play session we had :

King's Town playmat, (inspired by Filth Wizardry) complete with "The Kings Inn" and stable next door, a farm with sheep fields... get the idea modern day applications of what was around when Jesus was born.

Journey to Bethlehem matching cards (images obtained via google, I will add a link for all the printables at alljoinin.net in week)

Transport sorting, this proved way more popular than I anticipated. We were to use these later in one of the stories.

Nativity desert box (really popular, had some great conversations)

Another activity at the free play time was colouring "tiny" Mary on a donkey pictures. To first of all use in the story and then to complete an journey advent calendar. The donkey and Mary were an edited image available from Activity Village

The children coloured the advent calendar and drew Mary and Joseph in the stable.

After play we sat down in a circle like usual and discussed what we had been playing with as an intro to the story, which went in the direction of we have that story at home (nativity, its baby Jesus), we played with sand and trains... we played with all of it etc. and we focussed in on, on the table with the nativity we were playing with a place in the sand and on the mat we were playing with a place with concrete roads. We talked about the story we were going to think about was about a journey on a road, a sandy road.

I then told our special story from the Bible, from before Jesus was born using the nativity props, sand tray and wooden blocks to create shelters.

I then read this story I created for this week, to tie in the transport theme I was focussing on. (I will post more details of this in the week)

We said the prayer (minor edits) from the tiddlywinks book.

The other craft option was decorating this donkey with fabric and sand (for dust). My crafts this week were rather prescriptive, this was for several 1. lacked inspiration for a simple yet purposeful craft 2. I wanted the children to take something home that showed a real link to session so parents could discuss it further 3. I realised that the children would likely be so engaged in the play they wouldn't want to spend ages engaging in craft (I was correct for some children)

All Play On Sunday - My new blog

Right guys, I realise I have been posting a lot on here re: Sunday school type stuff which wasn't the original intention of this blog. So I have created a new blog dedicated to just that. That will hopefully make it easier for followers to search and try to encourage me to post on here too with Early Years/ SEN/ Inclusion stuff.

So new blog is .... www.allplayonsunday.blogspot.com

Breakfast with Jesus

Using the little bible people seen previously, in a set up used to tell the story of Jesus appearing on the beach to his friends.

Initially used as a prop to tell the story. "Put your net on the other side"

And then allowed to play with the story. The only thing is, not too happy that the sand does not come off of felt very easily!

Paul at Sea

There are sooooo many Bible stories featuring boats! Here's one that isn't a "classic" children's Bible story, and certainly not one that has an abundance of ideas relating to it on the web.

Paul at sea snack: Boats made out of small slices of cake with half a bread stick with a rice paper triangle stuck on with melted chocolate pushed in the top to represent a sail.

I am a passionate believer in giving children the freedom to express themselves creatively and not stifling or constraining their creative and exploitive interests. I think this is particularly relevant in "christian responses" where creativity and exploration in many forms mould our understanding and indeed our application of Biblical messages,and even more so in childhood. This theory is well established through the theological model of Godly Play and catechesis of the Good Shepherd, but are probably not widely acknowledged beyond these circles. For those not following these models due possibly in many cases to the high levels of structure and "rules" which possibly put many people off and do not fully express the church, family or individuals character fully, I think there is a middle ground to be found. One that incorporates the nature and ethos of Godly play but expresses the character of the church, family or individuals exploring the Bible with children. The middle ground exists when one acknowledges the foundational theories of Godly play, that is (I believe) the freedom to respond to and explore theological/ biblical stories/ ideas within a safe and accepting environment in a personal and sometimes group dynamic, through the medium and depth one chooses to. Two publications which explore the ethos underpinning Godly play are Playful Orthodoxy and Church at Play and are well worth a read if you are interested in giving children the freedom to respond to and explore the Bible in a meaningful and respectful way.

With regard to my response to Godly Play I think you will realise that whilst I am not a stoic puritan on the programmes application I believe there is significant merit in the ethos and its use as a foundation for any programme that is biblically responsive. In particular relevance to craft I feel the more freedom we can allow children to have when responding to bible stories the better (that is not to say that on occasion a pre designed craft does not have relevance, but feel the question should always be (as with all childhood planning) why am I doing this?)

In response to Paul at Sea, free collages relating to God being with us all the time.


Paper plates used for snack to make snakes, in relation to Paul getting bitten by a snake once docked.

Making dolls AKA "Bible Dolls"

So here goes an attempt at demonstrating the very simple process of making the dolls without confusing or making it seem complicated...You need: 2 pipe cleaners, 1 bead, cotton/ thread, felt, scissors and needle (a hot glue gun would also be very useful)
Fold both pipe cleaners in half, choose the one that will be the legs/ body and push bead on top.
Slide other pipe cleaner and over the body and position just below head.
Bring ends of pipe cleaner to meet in the middle.
Twist arms to secure and create hands (if you hold the "hand" between your fingers and twist it usually creates a good shape) squeeze to secure further.

Bend the end of the legs up (about 1cm) and then do so again (to create a rounded end and no sharp bits) and bend to a right angle to create feet.

The basic doll is now made, below is a simple costume. You of course can be creative with your costumes (I would love to see finished creations)
Cut felt into this shape by folding and then cutting so you have a perfect tabard. Cut a little slit (0.5 cm) on the crease. Remove the head and poke neck through the slit.
Sew up edges, I usually use a blanket stitch, but if short of time a running stitch or even a glue gun.
For simple head dress cut a T shape out, ensuring the top of the T is the same width "ish" as the bead.
Sew the right angles of the stick of the T to the top along the right angle >T. (Hope that makes sense can't make it sound obvious)
This is what the head dress should look like?
At this point you need PVA or a glue gun (defiantly preferable). Squeeze glue into the top of the head inside until a little ooses out of the hole, this will hold head in place. Then stick on the head dress, you may need to use a bit more glue on the sides of head but if using a glue gun the prior should suffice.

If you are not wishing to use glue I suggest you sew the head on several times to the clothes/ neck by sewing in and out of the bead hole. Then sew the head dress to the top of the clothes along the bottom of the head dress.

I hope you found this useful and not too confusing, feel free to contact me for questions. I'm sorry the picture quality is not brilliant. Happy making

Colour sheep and shepherds

I had promised a doll making how to today, but have been at church all eve and not enough time now to write it. So... What to post today? More dolls... Shepherd colour matching dolls to compliment the David story. Just an idea I had when I was sorting out the sheep from the other sorting animals.

The dolls were made in exactly the same way as the bible dolls, (which I will show how to make tomorrow) and in fact I think the blue one will make a perfect Mary

Godly Play (David and Goliath dolls)

As I said in my previous post I would add different characters as and when I needed them. Here's the first one- Goliath, simply using a larger bead and longer pipe cleaners, and a few embellishments.

Goliath here pictured against another doll to show the hight difference.

David and some sheep- which were incredibly easy to make simply rolling up to woolen fleece sewing together, poking pipe cleaners through fabric underside and sewing on a face.

I am advocate of the concept of Godly play when "sharing" bible stories with children, which is based upon Montessori's principles and ideas. But I am not purist and simply love the opportunity for children to engage and explore stories and concepts at their level. Having resources available for children to explore at their own leisure (including in the home) feels to me comparable to an adult pondering the greatest theological questions. There are a couple of good links that explore this in greater depth Godly Play at Home and Watkins Every Flavour Bean, I particularly agree with "watkins..." views on Godly play.

"Religious ideas and stories are given tangible form that encourages the child to 'handle' and work out the ideas and their feelings for themselves. This helps the children to really get 'in' to the story in reflective and 'playful' frame of mind - the mode in which they do their deepest 'work', engaging with their whole selves - mind body and spirit.
Every story or 'lesson' has its own handcrafted set of figures or objects, made from wood or fabric wherever possible. The children are encouraged to handle these things (just as the ideas they symbolize) with great care - as things of beauty, meaning and which will last. There is nothing plastic, disposable or broken. The quality of the materials is matched by an attempt to strive for simplicity of design. Figures do not have detailed features or colorful clothes, for example, to allow children to project imaginatively their own feelings and ideas about the narrative." (Godlyplay.org)

David and Goliath play scene ready for children to play with.

David's seven brothers "chillin" before Samuel visits and David in the background.

David minding his sheep, I could have added a staff but I ran out of brown pipe cleaners (hence why david has black arms).

Saul and Samuel, with Goliath in the background.

Bible dolls

Pipe cleaner dolls are so simple to make, yet produce pleasingly simple results making them ideal props for stories. I've created a set of "generic" bible story people which are useful for many stories, with additions made as and when. I was in a bit of a quandary about the skin tone to use but opted in the end for a bit of a mixture. I have purposefully not added facial features so that they can illicit a range of emotions and the character is illicited through the story or play rather than the facial features/ expression.