Tea with Jesus: the story of Zacchaeus

The story of Zacchaeus is something that children (and adults) can identify with on many levels: Jesus knew Zacchaeus by name, meeting with Jesus changed Zacchaeus, some children will have even climbed trees! For this activity focused on a different aspect of the story - Jesus wanted to be Zacchaeus' friend and He went to his house for tea. Playing through a story can help children engage with in a different way that if they have just heard it.

Because we were talking about sharing a meal with friends we had a playdough tea party.

First of all we read the story from our children's bible. We talked about what we like to eat when our friends come to tea.

We used some orange scented playdough (a recipe for which can be found on our 'other blog' here) and used some simple 'baking props' to make cakes.

As we were playing we talked about Zacchaeus and that Jesus had tea with him at his house.

Jesus calms the storm story stones

Story stones are a lovely prop to use when story telling.  Young children often have (very) short attention spans and using visual props in story telling can help them to listen and focus. You can also use them as a play prompt for children to explore after they have heard a story.

On one side of the stone I've drawn a picture of a storm  using Sharpies 

and the other side a calm lake (and boat).

Hopefully with time we will build our collection if miracle stones and have a collection of stones showing different miracles for the children to explore and remember the miracles that Jesus did.

Sharing stories through play: Nativity

Involving children in a story through opportunities to play can be a great way to help them engage with a story. A great place to start exploring the bible through play is through the nativity as there are loads of nice child friendly sets available (it's probably a good idea to not use a family heirloom version).

Using props when you read a story together can help young children focus. As you tell the story you can pull the relevant character out of a sack (or pillow case).

You could try reading the story together, then re-telling the story with the figures. Children will respond differently to this according to their level of development/ age.  Big little girl (5yrs) loves to act the story complete with songs she has learnt from her school nativity. Little big boy (2yrs) tends to name the characters as he plays whilst randomly shouting 'Good News!' Whilst it might seem that Little big boy is too young to understand much of the story he know the essence of the story (i.e. it's Good News) and that Jesus is a 'special baby'.

Leaving the toys set up and available during free play has the added benefit that children can come back and revisit the story when ever they choose (it can also lead to the house being slightly cluttered but that's a whole different post!)

You might also like to try
Sensory story telling from The Fairy and The Frog (our 'other' blog)
Nativity tree from Sun hats and Wellie Boots