Birth of Jesus

Here are several more ideas and printables for preschool to help with the Birth of Jesus. There is just too many to add to the lesson!  New lesson & more coming next week!

The lesson plan divided the Birth of Jesus into 3 parts. The first is Gabriel telling Mary and Joseph that Mary would have a baby and to name Him Jesus. The second is Jesus being born. The third is The Shepherds Visit. This post is divided into these 3 parts.

The manger that I used for a visual for this class is easy to make! You can see the directions here.

Since Mary & Joseph are traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem, we did this quick count to explain to the kids what a census or registration is. I explained that they had to go to their family's city to be counted (or registered). They understood it this way, and the bonus is practicing counting and seeing numbers being used.

For the Birth of Jesus, I used these mangers. Very simple to put together and fun for the kids. I printed one template and used the heavier brown Kraft cardstock here to cut the mangers. The directions are included in the download. Click here to download.

Click here to download pictures to color of the Birth of Jesus.

Because these lessons are divided with so little teaching information for each, I decided to set up an area in the classroom and let the students act out the final Birth of Jesus lesson. We reviewed what we had learned, and added the shepherds. First, I set up a large piece of green felt for grass.

Then, I leaned these sheep I cut from poster board along the wall. I cut 2 per poster board sheet so they were a good size, especially for preschool. These would be cute for VBS also. I kept them simple. The download has the 2 for enlarging for the poster board. But, I also added a full sheet sheep if you would rather just print onto cardstock as is. Click here to download.

Note for the sheep: I used a black Sharpie to draw the sheep. I used a scrapbook pink pen for the nose and a sponge dauber (see here) to make a really cute circle and pink ink pad for the cheeks.

Since the angel came at night to tell the shepherds about the birth of Jesus, I printed these stars onto yellow cardstock. The classroom has coat hooks along the wall and I added a loop of ribbon and hung them on the hooks. You can tape or staple if you'd like. Click here to download.

To finish the items for the students, I cut sections of white muslin 18" and cut in half at the fold and cut a 45" piece of 4 mm piece of brown craft cord (yarn, string, ribbon, whatever you want). Simple shepherd head gear! Lay the fabric on students' head, and wrap the string around the forehead like a headband. Tie in the back.

Before class: I had the manger with Jesus set up in a different corner of the room and hid these pictures of Baby Jesus around the class. Once the kids had the shepherd head gear on and picked their sheep, and we reviewed the angel telling them about Jesus being born. Then, we had the students 'Seek Jesus!' They found the pictures and we finished the review by the manger. Click here for the hide & seek pictures. ( I also do this with the Lost Coin Parable and the kids LOVE it!

The post above is last year's ideas and printables. They are not all shown. Click here to see them.

I used this simple Birth of Jesus Bulletin Board for the quarter. The graphics are from a Nativity Bulletin Board Set here.  I used this paper for the night sky as the background. I have used these Moroccan letters for several bulletin boards.

Click here for the preschool lesson and more.