The Baby Jesus Scene

Step 1—Making the Barn
Give each child two white paper plates. Instruct them to glue the two plates together with white school glue. Explain that we are making a barn and remind them that Jesus was born in a barn. Next have them use brown crayons to completely color the inside of the paper plate. Encourage them color in the same direction as much as possible.

Step 2—Baby Jesus
Hand out the precut manger with baby Jesus and the little lambs. Have the children carefully color it, reminding them to use real-to-life colors. They should not color the little lambs. Then have them glue the manger to the paper plate.

Step 3—Wooly Lambs
Help the children carefully cover their little lambs with white school glue. Be sure not to put glue on the lambs’ faces, though. Let the children pull apart cotton balls and place it on their little lambs for wool.

Step 4—Soft Bed
Most barns have hay in them, and the baby Jesus scene wouldn’t be complete without it. After all, the manger was filled with hay. Help the children use white school glue on the “floor” around the manger, and maybe even a little on the manger itself. Have them select some hay (can use Spanish moss or get a small bag of grass hay from your local feed store) and place it on the glue. They may need to use scissors to cut the hay to usable lengths or you can have this done in advance.

Step 5— Shining Star
Give each one of the children a precut yellow star. Use a glue stick on back of the star, and have them place it near the top of their “barn.” Next help them cover it with white school glue and sprinkle gold glitter on it. Have a bag nearby in which to bounce off the excess glitter. Alternatively, you can use gold glitter glue.

Step 6—The Promise
This is the most important part of the craft. We want the children to take home with them not only the story, but also the precious words of the Bible. Have the memory verse, Matthew 1:21, printed out (approximately 1”x2”) on colored paper of your choice and precut. They look nice cut out like little clouds. Give each child one of these, and instruct them to glue them on their “barn” with a glue stick. Let them be creative with where they position it, but make sure it’s within reason (i.e. not on top of Jesus’ face, etc.