Christmas Nativity Craft

Christmas is near!  Being Christian I LOVE this time of year, and it is a perfect time to celebrate and teach about the birth of Jesus to our little ones.  Today I helped the kids create their own Christmas Nativity using paper, scissors, straw, paint and a black colored pencil.

First, I prepared gold paint and had the children put their painted handprint for baby Jesus's manger.

Second, have the children cut out the peoples bodies and heads.  Use cream or white and cut out CIRCLES for Joseph, Mary and Jesus' heads.
   
     I used brown paper and had the kids cut out a TRIANGLE for Mary's body.

     I used red paper and had the kids cut out a RECTANGLE for Joseph's body.
 

Third, once the paint was dry, I had the kiddo's arrange the people in their proper places.   Then I gave them dark brown speciality paper with a lot of fibers in it for baby Jesus's blanket.  I had the

children tare around the edges to create a different affect.

Forth, I helped the children put a couple of pieces of straw underneath the hand print.  I used a drop of glue from the glue gun to secure the straw. (help them out with this so no one gets burned!)

I could have "precut" all of these pieces, and the perfectionist in me may want to, BUT the kids want/NEED to practice cutting.  Children take more pride in their work the more you let them do on their own.  Let them!!! ;)

Lastly, we practiced some writing skills on the top of the paper by asking each child to write something about Jesus.  They came up with some really cute ones:

Jesus is our Lord. 

Jesus never makes mistakes.  

Jesus loves me!  

Tender huh?!

There you go!  My kids loved it, and they liked the message in the picture that---We all have the gift of Jesus in our hand.  We just need to hold on to that gift!