Bible Teaching Activity: Craft Stick Bible Verse

As teachers, we’ve all experienced the need for an additional activity during a teaching session. Maybe you needed an additional early arrival activity, the children finished the other activities faster than you had planned, a child preferred to work alone for an activity, or the class was longer than usual. Bible verse activities can fill that need. Prepare the activity below to teach or review any Bible verse any time you teach preschoolers.

Supplies Needed:

• Bible
• Craft sticks
• Washable markers
• Plastic ziplock bag

Prepare:

1. Gather craft sticks. Consider the age of children you teach when deciding how many craft sticks to use. For instance, with older preschoolers, use 4-6 craft sticks. Additionally, larger craft sticks will be easier for the child to handle.
2. Write the Bible phrase/verse for the teaching session on the craft sticks horizontally, writing one or two words on each craft stick.
3. Place the craft sticks in order of the Bible verse horizontally.
4. Beginning with the first stick, use a marker to make a circle on the right end of the stick. Then, using the same color of marker make a circle on the left end of the next stick.  
5. Continue this process for each of the sticks, using a different color for each pair of
   matching circles. Remember to select colors a preschooler can easily recognize and distinguish from other colors. 
6. Then, write the Bible phrase/verse on a blank craft stick to use as a Bible marker. Place it in the Bible at the reference.

Teach:

1. Place the Bible with Bible marker on a table.
2. As you talk about the Bible story for the day, encourage the child to put the verse in order side-by-side by matching the colored circles on the end of the craft sticks.
3. When the child has placed the verse in order, say the verse aloud, pointing to each word of the Bible verse.
4. Invite the preschooler to open the Bible to the Bible marker and read the verse from the Bible.
5. Store the puzzle in a ziplock bag.

Optional Activity: For older preschoolers that need a more challenging activity, place blank craft sticks next to each other, side-by-side. Place a small piece of tape joining each craft stick.

Then, turn the group of taped craft sticks over and write the Bible verse using a washable marker. Next, remove the tape from the craft sticks. Encourage the children to put together the Bible verse puzzle. It may be helpful to write the verse on a notecard and place beside the puzzle for some children. This will allow the child to refer to the verse as he puts it together.

Delanee Williams serves as a Ministry Specialist with Lifeway Kids. She is a graduate of Baylor University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  Delanee has served in kids ministry for over twenty years and is passionate about developing, equipping and encouraging leaders.