The Nativity puppets, printables and play

Share the story of the Nativity with your children, through puppets, printables and play.  

QUICK RESOURCE >> Download your ready-made Nativity Unit here

 

The Nativity puppets, printables and play

Bringing stories to life through play is a really good way for children to engage with the story, on many levels.

:: using puppets and models to act out a story lets children explore the narrative and the characters involved. As they play and direct the story, they’re more likely to think about what it might have been like to be one of the shepherds sitting on the hill side. To imagine how Joseph might have taken care of Mary. To wonder at what it would be like to see an angel.

:: this playful storytelling is also full of benefits for the children’s literacy. They learn about stories having a beginning, middle and end. They incorporate new vocabulary, and think up dialogue.

:: they also meet the creativity and imagination associated with a story and are encouraged to move beyond the everyday to special lands, passed times and amazing happenings.  

 

 

And at this time of year, the story of the season for us is the Nativity.

We have used our fairy land setting, and transformed it with wooden characters, to make Bethlehem. (Click through to see how we added the stars in the sky).

We have read the Nativity story together both from the Bible, and from a version of it I wrote at school when I was five!

And then, using our little set of wooden characters, the children have been acting out the story themselves – sometimes with very funny dialogue and twists in the tale.  

 

 

     

Download your ready-made Nativity Unit

Download the Play Academy’s ready-made Nativity Unit and you’ll have everything you need to lead a set of activities to introduce your children to the Nativity story.

This Unit includes artist-drawn puppets/colour-in nativity scene characters and printable Bible verse cards, that your children can use year after year.

In this Nativity teaching unit your children can:

:: learn about the Nativity and create their own Nativity book or small world scene using colour-in puppet / nativity scene characters

:: learn about Mary and Joseph’s journey, and explore junk modelling

:: learn about the shepherds role, and explore loose parts

:: learn about Jesus’ birth

:: learn about the three wise men, and complete their book / re-tell the story in their small world  

Bonus Nativity thematic unit printables

The Play Academy’s thematic units come with practical printables that make the lessons more engaging for your children and easier for you to teach.

No need to go searching for printables to accompany your lessons, they’re all included when you download your chosen unit.

In this Nativity Unit you’ll receive these bonus printables:

:: My Nativity Story book to write, colour and complete to tell the Nativity story

:: a set of artist-drawn My Nativity Puppets to colour, cut out and use to re-cap and act out the Nativity story

:: Nativity Vocabulary Cards to recap and consolidate learning

:: Nativity Bible Verse Cards to read, narrate your own acting out of the story, and perhaps to memorise

How to download this Nativity thematic unit

You can download this unit along with over 50 more from NurtureStore’s Play Academy.

If you are already of the Play Academy, you can download this unit straight away from our Library here.

If you are not yet a member, find out more and choose your first unit here. Your teaching is about to get a whole lot easier!