play-through-the-bible

Week seven of Play Through The Bible is about Moses and the story of the Exodus. There’s a lot happening in this story, so I tried to break it down to toddler level through the activity and craft. Thankfully, it ended up going over really well!

There is so much rich theology in the story of the Exodus, but first you’ve got to lay the groundwork – and that’s exactly what we start doing here.

Something fun that I found happening this week was that whenever I would ask K a question about the lesson, he would run for his Bible to find the answer. I hope this is a habit we can keep going for his whole life!

If you haven’t read the introduction to this series yet I recommend going here. For all the plans in one place, go here.


Week Seven – Moses and the Exodus


Focus Point

God sent Moses to set His people free.

Story Time Tips

  • We read “Out of Egypt” starting on page 92 of The Rhyme Bible Storybook and “God Helps Us” starting on page 60 of The Rhyme Bible Storybook for Toddlers.
  • This story has a lot going on! We spent a lot of time going back through the pages to talk about what was happening. We mainly used the original Rhyme Bible because the toddler version didn’t give very much detail. If your child isn’t quite ready to go through all the details, though, definitely focus on the simpler version.
  • On the first page I emphasized that Moses lived with the king, but then he got in big trouble and he ran away. Then I had K run away like Moses. He loved that and does it every time we read the story now.
  • The page with the burning bush was a little confusing for K. First, we had to talk a little bit about how God talks to people in different ways and here God used fire to talk to Moses (he wondered if we were going to set a tree on fire – haha). Even though it was confusing, he really liked the idea of a burning bush.
  • This is also the first time he was being introduced to the concept of God’s people. I didn’t delve into it too much, but we did talk about how God’s people were slaves and had to work really hard for mean Pharaoh.
  • On the page with Pharaoh we talked more about God’s people working for mean Pharaoh. We also pointed out who was Pharaoh and who was Moses. I asked “when Moses said let the people go what did Pharaoh say?” It didn’t take him long to remember to shout “no!” and he had fun with that.
  • We didn’t focus on the plagues too much, since there is already so much information. I just said that God sent frogs and bugs and stuff to get Pharaoah to let the people go. We talked about it a little more when he did the plague craft.
  • On the last page I tried to explain what it meant for them to go through the sea. Also a tricky concept! The activity definitely helped a little bit.

Activity

Using two blue blankets or sheets, drape them over chairs to create a walkway between. If you want you can cut out a few construction paper fish and tape them on the blankets. I found a robe and a wooden dowel rod to use as a Moses costume and we were set! This pretend play for crossing the sea is a great time to further explain that concept.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Discussion

Parent: “Who talked to Moses from the burning bush?”

Child: “God.”

Parent: “Yeah, thats right. He told Moses to go set his people free from mean Pharaoh. Did Moses do it?”

Child: “Yes!”

Parent: “What did Pharaoh say when Moses said to let the people go?”

Child: “No!”

Parent: “Yep, but he changed his mind did he? What did Moses and the people go through when they left?”

Child: “The sea.”

Daily Craft

Day One – Moses Coloring Page

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3tMT5wHHkCE/T4iK27NuRmI/AAAAAAAACLA/n9EbSyPHKTU/s1600/Moses%2Band%2Bthe%2Bburning%2Bbush.jpeg

Day Two – Burning Bush #1

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Materials needed:

  • Burning bush printout (ours was from here)
  • Orange and red construction paper
  • Scissors
  • Glue

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

First, take your orange and red paper and cut into strips. From there, it needs to be cut into smaller squares. This is a great cut for a beginning scissor user because the wonky looking shapes just add to the fiery look!

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

I chose to cut out the bush and paste it onto another piece of paper since it was printed a bit off center. This is optional!

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Cover the bush in glue. A glue stick would work here too.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Place the cut up pieces of red and orange paper onto the glue.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

All done and very fiery looking!

Day Three – Burning Bush #2

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Materials needed:

  • Red paint
  • Play doh/clay/salt dough
  • Small sticks
  • Paint brush (not pictured)

Since K loved the concept of the burning bush so much, we decided to do two burning bush crafts!

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

 

Using the red paint, paint some fire onto those sticks.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

We placed the sticks on a piece of wax paper to dry. If you wanted to hurry this process you could put them in a warm oven for a bit (but then I might use parchment paper instead).

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

After your sticks are dry, poke them into the play doh to make a bush.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

You’ve gotta stick quite a few in there to get it looking “bush-like.”

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

One of the best parts about little kids is their great imagination. K had no problem using this little race car driver as a Moses while playing with his burning bush.

Day Four – Frogs, Locusts, and Flies OH MY!

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Materials needed:

  • Pharaoh printout (we got ours here)
  • Frog, locust, and flies clip art (download the printable here – Moses Crafts Printable)
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.comIf your child wants, first color the Pharaoh page. K is hit or miss with coloring, so he didn’t want to. Then, you need to cut out the bugs and frogs (can be done beforehand). All there is to it after that is just gluing the bugs and frogs onto Pharaoh. We focused just on the plagues mentioned in the story and used this craft to talk a little more about how God sent them to get Pharaoh to let the people go.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Day Five: Crossing the Red Sea

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Materials needed:

  • Moses clip art (can be found on day 4’s printable – Moses Crafts Printable)
  • 2 sheets of blue construction paper
  • Glue stick
  • Scissors

When I saw this craft on Growing Kids Ministry, I knew that we were going to have to use it for our Moses week. Below is how we did it, but you can find the original craft here.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

First, cut the blue piece of paper in half long-ways.

Moses - Play Through The Bible - Toddler Bible study lesson plans - www.simplelifemessylife.com

Next, cut strips in both halves of the blue paper up until about an inch away from the edge.

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Put some glue on the back of the blue paper where you didn’t cut.

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Stick it down on lined up with the edge of the brown paper, with the strips facing in.

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Then, bend the strips up.

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Cut out Moses and bend up the paper underneath him. Then, glue Moses onto the edge of your “red sea.”

DSC_3134

 

Mr. Racecar driver makes another appearance! This time as an Israelite crossing the sea.

 

 

Extra Resources

– I wanted to have K watch The Prince of Egypt, but couldn’t get my hands on a copy. We will have to check the local library and watch it soon!

– K really enjoyed the song “Pharaoh Pharaoh

 


 

I hope you enjoyed week seven of Play Through The Bible. I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment below or use the hashtag #playthroughthebible on Twitter or Instagram! 

 

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5 Comments

  1. Elaine on May 2, 2016 at 11:04 am

    Hi, I love your bible lessons and im trying to do with my kid. I noticed there are pictures missing in subsequent posts. May I know where can I view the full post? And some broken links on printables too. Hope to hear from you soon

    Thanks



  2. Jennifer on June 6, 2016 at 4:15 am

    Hello Liz,
    First of all thank you so much for sharing these great and simple ideas for teaching the stories of the Bible to a toddler. Like previous people have commented, I am also having trouble opening some of the links. I hope it can be fixed because they are really helpful! I know you are very busy so I understand…. I’ll just have to fill in the blanks. God bless you!



    • Liz Millay on June 12, 2016 at 1:27 am

      Jennifer,
      So sorry, your comment got stuck in spam and I’m just now seeing it! I think I got this post fixed, let me know if anything is still not working! I’ll keep working on getting the other posts fixed, so leave a comment on any other posts that you need fixed and I’ll try to get to those first.
      Thanks for reading!
      -Liz



  3. Kaye Swain on May 8, 2018 at 9:48 pm

    Don’t you LOVE the internet changes that lead to those broken URLS 😉 I know that feeling well. I did find a couple issues – this link will get you to many Moses – or just search for Moses growingkidsministry.com/?s=moses ; Kidspot doesn’t seem to have Pharoah anymore but cbcgb.org has a good pix of Pharaoh and Moses – and supercoloring.com/pages/plague-of-frogs while this page has several Moses coloring pix 🙂 momjunction.com/articles/moses-coloring-pages-for-your-little-ones_0091897/#gref

    And THANK YOU – love your ideas. I don’t use all and I do add more – I have a younger grandtoddler. But we are having such fun and learning lots together. A sweet blessing. 🙂

    Kaye



    • Liz Millay on May 10, 2018 at 5:35 pm

      Thanks for the updates! 🙂