7 Nativity Learn and Play Activities

This post is the grand finale of our 12 Days to a Montessori Christmas series. I promised to share a nativity tutorial and lesson plan in this concluding post. So here is 7 nativity learn and play activities for your children to enjoy this Christmas. Most of the activities featured are simple and can be reproduced if you have a printer and laminator. The wooden peg people craft can be accomplished in an hour or two, depending on how many peg people you desire to craft. Please visit, Biblical Wooden Peg People Craft Tutorial for detailed instructions on how to craft your very own peg people and let your children enjoy them for hours of hands-on play.

Nativity Wooden Peg People

In the photo above are examples of two different sets of wooden nativity peg people. The tall skinny clothes pin peg people were crafted for an entire Christmas series entitled, 25 Hands-On Nativity Lessons for Kids. These tall skinny peg people are great for the older preschool aged child as the peg people can actually ride on cardboard animals. Please visit, Cardboard Animals for Kids for an example. The shorter chunkier peg people are great for toddler hands to play with. My toddler finds it difficult to stand the skinny peg people up, but has no problem with the short chunky peg people.

For worship time, each morning for the month of December, we read or talk about the nativity story and act out the story with these adorable peg people. It’s a wonderful way for children to have a hands-on experience with the stories in the Bible.

In the photo below are several of our favorite books on the nativity story that we read in the morning for worship time. The book that is open is part of a series of Bible stories called, “My Bible Friends.” This series is held near and dear to my heart as I also grew up reading these same books. The other books are a “Stable in Bethlehem,” which is a sweet countdown book to the birth of Jesus. Also, featured are my favorite two toddler Bible books – “Little Lion’s Bible” and “Touch and See Bible.”

Stars and Angels Mobile

To learn how to craft this cute nativity mobile please visit, DIY Stars and Angels Mobile for Kids. This is an easy DIY craft that children can see and touch to better understand a Bethlehem night sky filled with stars and singing angels.

Star Matching Tray

This is a fun star matching activity. I didn’t know there were so many star shaped objects! I would love to do this activity again with the “real” objects for matching, but that will take some searching. I do have several beautifully colored plastic starfish. I just need to find them. I’m sure you know how that is with a toddler in the house. Small objects are placed in mysterious spots like under the couch. However, I did find several “other” three dimensional star shaped objects and placed those in a star shaped basket on our Montessori shelves for our toddler to explore.

Shape Matching Printable Montessori Cards (free printables) – Teachers Pay Teachers

Toddler Matching Farm Animals

Jesus was born in a stable full of farm animals. This is a great opportunity to introduce farm animal matching cards. I printed these lovely 3-part cards, placed colored card stock on the back of each one and laminated them for a durable toddler safe card. Next I matched up several of our plastic (Schleich) animal figurines with each card. If you do not have animal figurines, then print off two sets of the printables for matching cards.

Farm Animals: 3-Part Cards ($0.99) – Teachers Pay Teacher

Animal Mom and Baby (with velcro) Matching

We also enjoyed learning about mothers and babies. We talked about how Mary is the mother of baby Jesus. I introduced several farm animal mother and baby sets to my toddler.

You can also add another element of toddler fun to this free printable, by simply placing velcro on each matching pair (see the photo above.)

Toddler and Preschool Educational Printable Activities (free printables) – Totschooling

Matching the Nativity Shapes

I found this cute nativity printable at www.teacherspayteacher.com and I was super excited because it matched my hand-made wooden nativity set purchased from Etsy (see below for information). The printable came with nativity figures and also figures/objects that did not belong to the nativity scene. For an older preschool aged child, this would be a fun “what belongs to the nativity” game. However, I decided to use the printable for a toddler matching game instead.

In the photo above, I traced each figure onto cards for my toddler to match the shape to the cut out printable. In the photo below, we also matched the hand-made wooden nativity set to the printables. Finally, we enjoyed placing the nativity printable figures into a timeline.

Who was at the Stable: Nativity ($3.00) – Teachers Pay Teacher

I purchased this gorgeous handmade wooden 12 piece nativity set from the Grumpa and Me shop on Etsy.

Handmade Wooden 12 Piece Nativity Set

Nativity Story Timeline for Kids

This activity is wonderful for a toddler or preschooler to have a hands-on learning experience regarding the timeline of the nativity story. There are five control cards for each set of printable figures. The first control card contains Mary, the angel, Joseph, and the donkey. This control card begins the nativity story. I will outline the nativity story below for each control card.

– Mary is visited by the angel first and then the angel visits Joseph. After that, Joseph and Mary journey to Bethlehem on the donkey.

– Baby Jesus is born

– Shepherds bring their sheep to visit baby Jesus

– A star leads the wise men to baby Jesus

– Three wise men come from the east with their camels to visit baby Jesus

Thank you for visiting!

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