This Moses and the burning bush craft is simple enough for younger kids if pre-cut and open ended enough to allow older children to experiment with colour placing techniques. The burning bush did not burn and yet it was engulfed in fire, it is the central symbol of this story. I’ve gone to great lengths to make sure this craft needs no craft knife or windows cut into the paper, it works perfectly well on printer paper or thin card and is available to print in colour, partial colour (Moses left blank) or outline.
I couldn’t resist adding this little ‘guess who’ inspired game to this lesson on Zipporah and her seven sisters. It’s a simple print and go game and is great for getting to know the characters.
Lots of biblical passages involve truly supernatural acts of wonder, but this story of Zipphorah and Moses is much more down to earth, it’s simplicity makes reenactment a great tool and so this shadow puppet theatre is ideal. This is an ideal small group or pairs activity.
Zipporah meets Moses at an interesting point in his life, she sees him through his act of chivalry, and yet the man she meets is broken, on the run. This act of chivalry is what is depicted in this craft, it’s a really simple foldable that helps the kids focus on the story and retell it to others.
Miriam’s simple acceptance of the situation, her fast feet and logical thinking are really what ties this story together. So often this story becomes all about baskets and babies and the comparative opulence of the palace over the slave-hood of the mother, but Miriam’s simple and straightforward actions are more easily grasped for a child.
Lent is the lead up to Easter. It lasts for 40 days from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday (Sundays are not included in the tally) and represents the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert. To follow Lent is very much a personal choice.
While advent is about preparing our minds with the big story starting from the beginning and leading up to Jesus, Lent is about preparing out hearts to engage with the Jesus that we see in holy week, the confusing God-man, the one who invited us into a radical new way of loving, the one who really did take up his own cross and walk, leading the way for us to do likewise.
It’s not a new idea, but sadly my purse strings didn’t stretch for the beautiful wooden ones.
NOTE, the pictures are of my original.
These is a moment of wonder in this story that this really simple little craft encompasses, it’s the moment when, as Miriam watches, the basket is opened and the baby Moses is revealed. This is one of those super quick crafts you could give the children to do themselves or it could easily be used as a game where you set off lots of baskets and get the kids to guess which one holds Moses.
Working in a 3D scene really helps the story come alive, this scene is when the 2 midwives, Shiphrah and Puah are called to face the Pharaoh – perhaps for the first time, perhaps for the second? It’s a simple craft though if you have younger children you may want to cut the characters out roughly rather than exactly!
