I've wanted to add something like this for a while but wasn't quite sure where to start. One day as I was reading the discussion group some of our viewers were giving lists and lists of great ideas. So I want to thank them for all of these ideas! I'm sure there is something in here everyone can use.

Feel free to send in any suggestions you might have!

Huge thanks to Sarah for all these fantastic ideas!

Play Doh with cookie cutters and mini rolling pins
Magnet sets featuring animals, dress up, or Bible scenes
Plastic or cardboard lacing cards
Picture books and/or easy reader books
A video about the days lesson
Music to dance along and sing along to
Blocks or Lego's to build with
Simple board or card games: Bible memory, Candy L and spin offs with bible themes, etc
Plastic Bible figures/sets such as Noah's Ark with animals
Toy people and butcher paper for kids to draw a scene on and play with the characters on
Chalk with black construction paper to draw on
White crayons black construction paper to draw on
A basic shape such as a house, tree, ark, etc and magazine pictures that are already cut out to glue onto it, using glue sticks
Bubbles and bubble wands for each of the children

Band Aids
Okay, I know this one sounds a little strange at first, but Band Aids are actually something that most children can easily identify with, and that can be a lot of fun to play with. Remind children that we only play with Band Aids when we are instructed to do so, and that we do not play with them, without asking our parents first. Here is an idea to use Band Aids in Sunday school.

Healing - the theme of healing can be expressed in this fun game that is very similar to Pin The Tale On The Donkey. You will need a large sheet of paper or poster board, and one Band Aid for each child. Draw a large circle on the piece of paper. Give the circle eyes, a nose, and a frown or sad expression. On the chin (the part of the circle beneath the mouth), use a red marker to draw a little line (this will be the cut, boo boo, owie, whatever you want to call it). Children take turns closing their eyes and trying to stick the Band Aid as close to the red line as possible. Helpful Hint: Take the Band Aids out of their wrappers ahead of time, most preschoolers can peel the little white tabs off themselves, but cannot open the wrappers. Talk about how Jesus heals.

Bean Bags
Preschoolers love to play games with beanbags, whether they are store-bought or homemade. You can purchase bean bags at most learning type toy stores, as well as Toys R Us. Some bean bags even come with mini books that are full of easy to play games. To make your own beanbags you will need two squares of felt, burlap, or fabric cut to the same size, sewn together on three sides (best to turn the material upside down first and work inside out), once the sides are sewn together, turn it right side out, fill with beans or rice, and sew the fourth side shut. You can make basic square beanbags, or cut the material you are working with in various shapes using cookie cutters as templates. You can have everything from Christmas Trees to circles, and everything in between. Just keep in mind that the more intricate the design you chose, the more sewing that you will have to do. Here are just a few ideas of things to do with bean bags

Thank you God for - in this game, children sit in a circle and pass the beanbag to each other, whoever is holding the beanbag says "thank you God for ______" and then says something they are thankful for and passes the beanbag to someone else. Encourage children to give everyone a turn with the beanbag and not just pass it back and forth to the friends next to them. Also, when children say something, never criticize what they are thankful for. Preschool aged children often think of things we forget about/take for granted from pets to pillows, to their beds to thank God for.

Thank You God For My Friend - this is a good game to help children learn each others names. Kids stand in two lines, facing each other, and pass the bean bag back and forth, the child with the beanbag says "Thank you God for my friend _______" and the child standing across from him/her says his/her name. Then the child passes the beanbag to that child and repeats the name. Kids pass the beanbag back and forth, and then change partners. You may want to make small groups of four - six kids and see how quickly children can learn everyone's name in their group.

Basket of Beanbags - for stories that include a basket, such as the story of baby Moses, put a basket on one side of the room, take about six steps from the basket and mark a masking tape tape line on the floor, have children take turns tossing the beanbags into the basket.

Jonah Beanbag Toss - Paint a cardboard box light blue, black, or gray. If you are not interested in painting, cover the entire box in light blue, gray, or black wrapping paper. You will need a square of rectangle box that has "flap style" lids on both the top and bottom of the box. Flip the box sideways (so that the bottom of the box becomes the front of the box (the whale's mouth), cut a large circle (trace around a paper plate) using a pencil to trace it, and then an X-acto knife or craft saw to cut out the hole. Add two large eyes, cut from white construction paper with black marker dots in the center. Attach these with tape or glue above the circle you cut for the mouth. On the top of the box, take a thumb tack or needle and poke two or three small holes into the box, then put a white chenille stem (pipe cleaner) in each hole, slightly curved at the end that sticks up to look like the whales spout. Lastly, add a tale to the whale by cutting a paper plate in half, and stapling the two halves, flat sides facing inward top to bottom to resemble a V shape. Tape or staple the tail to the back of the box (top of the box), the end opposite the circle mouth. Walk about six steps from the whale and put a masking tape line on the floor. Children stand on the line and try to throw the beanbags into the whales mouth. Children can then go and get the beanbags out of the whale by pulling them out of his mouth. When children throw the beanbags into the mouth, talk about Jonah being swallowed, when children take the beanbags out of the whale's mouth, talk about Jonah being spit out.

Well Beanbag Toss - You will need a cardboard box with "flap style closures" on both the bottom and top of the box. First, cut the two flaps off of the top of the box, save these flaps for later. You can cut them off with a strong pair of scissors, a craft knife, or an X-Acto knife. Then, cover the entire box with gray construction paper, wrapping paper, or paint. Cover two paper towel rolls and the two flaps you removed from the top of the box with either the construction paper, wrapping paper, or paint. Then pinch the bottom of the two paper towel rolls and staple the pinched bottom to the side of the box so that it stands up next to the wall. Staple it on the inner wall of the box, just at the top of the box. Do the same on the other side. Using packing tape, tape the two flaps together at the top to form a triangle or V shape. Then, use some masking tape to attach the v shape to the top of the two tubes to make a well shape. Take six steps back from the well and place a masking tape line on the floor. Have the children stand on the line and try to throw the beanbags into the well.

Coloring
    One of the best things about the Internet is all the free coloring pages that are out there. Preschooler's have a really hard time staying in the lines, and therefore, I think that it is best to provide them with something called no-lines coloring pages that have a basic shape that they can color in anyway they like. You can also use these coloring pages to let the children glue fun foam shapes, felt shapes, glitter, sand, cotton balls, or any other material to them. If you plan to use them solely for coloring purposes, they can be printed on regular white paper. If you plan to use glue and add 3-dimensional objects to them, I would recommend using either construction paper or light-weight cardstock. Some regular coloring pages for older kids: Bible Coloring Pages.
    My favorite site for these no-line coloring pages, which are also known as patterns or templates is at first-school.ws in fact, that link will take you directly to the no-line coloring pages. Here are just a couple of ideas of crafts to do with these special coloring pages:

Angel - spread a thin layer of glue onto the angel shape, and let the children cover it in gold or silver glitter.

Apple - pre-attach the leaf to the apple (a task most preschoolers find too challenging) let children color it in and use with the theme of Adam and Eve. Another idea is to print out one per child on construction paper, take a photo (whether Polaroid, digital, or regular 35 mm) of each child, attach the photo to the apple with double stick tape or acid-free glue sticks, and put them up on a piece of green butcher paper or poster board on a wall. Use letters to spell out "Sunday School Is Barrels Of Fun" across the top of the paper. Then add a construction paper barrel shape, on it's side to the side of the apples to make a cute bulletin board, even if you don't have a bulletin board. Another alternative, for a take home craft, is to take the photos as suggested, and put each photo on an apple using double-stick tape or an acid-free glue stick. Then cut out a mini barrel shape and have the kids use a glue stick to put it on the side of the paper with the apple close by. At the top of the paper, use a marker to write "Gods Word Is Barrels Of Fun!"

Bell - spread a thin layer of glue onto the bell shape, and let the children cover it in gold or silver glitter. For a cute, fun, Christmas gift that children can make for their parents, trace the pattern onto light-weight cardstock or cardboard (such as the kind that cereal boxes are made from) or poster-board. Take a photo of each child and center it in the middle of the bell (Polaroid's work really well for this, or digital photos where you can crop them to a small square size), and then spread a thin layer of glue all around the rest of the bell and let the children put gold or silver glitter on it. Once it dries, use a one-hole-punch to put a hole in the top of the bell. Attach 6 inches of red or green ribbon or yarn, and tie it in a knot to make an ornament suitable for hanging.

Butterfly - spread a thin layer of glue onto the butterfly shape, and let children cover it with tissue paper squares, construction paper scraps, or foam mosaic tiles. Or children can color it in with crayons, can be used with the theme of Creation.

Candy Canes - have the children color the candy cane shape (Hint: only set out red crayons, and print the pattern on white paper). You can leave it on a whole sheet of paper, and add the Candy Cane Poem.

Clover - spread a thin layer of glue over the clover shape, and let children cover it with green glitter. Or, you can have the children color them in. On the backside, on each leaf, write the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Great project for Saint Patrick's Day.

Gingerbread Man/Woman - these are great to decorate for Christmas, and make into ornaments using the same idea you would if you were doing the bell ornaments, minus the glitter. Also, I love to use these at Halloween time to make into scarecrows by letting the kids glue raffia (straw - colored, inexpensive at Wal Mart) and googly eyes on them to make an adorable scarecrow.

House - give the children magazine pictures of people at them use a glue stick to glue them onto the house shape. You can write "God made families" on the roof.

Oval/egg - let the children color in bright colors to look like an Easter egg, write "Jesus "Dyed" for our sins".

Snowflake - spread a thin layer of glue on the snowflake shape, and let the kids sprinkle it with white or clear sparkling glitter. On the backside, write "Jesus Loves You Snow Much"

Stocking - give the children magazine cut-outs of toys, games, and other items that they would ask for during the holiday season. At the top write "The Greatest Gift Of All Is Love". Let the kids glue the magazine cut-outs using glue sticks.

No Lamb/No One Left Behind
    Lay a green table cloth (paper or plastic, check local dollar stores) on the floor at one end of the room, put a masking tape line down at the other end of the room. Inflate 20-25 white balloons (more or less depending on the size of your class) you can use a permanent marker to add faces to these if you want, or leave them as is. Put the balloons behind the masking tape line. Have the children crawl on the floor and use their head to push the balloons from one end of the room onto the sheet (field), tell the children not to use their hands, to stay crawling on all fours, and to not leave any sheep behind.

Cotton Balls
    Cotton balls are an inexpensive way to have a big affect, and a large number of craft projects. You can purchase cotton balls at most drug stores, and they can also be found at most dollar stores. Here are quite a few crafts that can be used with cotton balls.

Handprint Lambs - these are easy and inexpensive to make, and is a really cute general project that can be used for many Bible stories. To make a handprint lamb you will need a half sheet of white construction paper for each child. I recommend purchasing construction paper at a Learning or Teacher Supply store (in our area it is Lakeshore), as it costs less than $1 per pack of 50 sheets and you can purchase individual colors when you don't want a multi-color pack of paper. Trace the child's hand using a pencil, and then outline the traced handprint with a black marker. You can let the kids do this themselves with a Crayola Washable Marker, or you can trace the handprint's with a black permanent marker. Do not trace the kids hands directly with the Crayola Markers, as when they lift their hand up, the marker ink will smear all over the place. Squeeze small drops of glue (if you are using bottled glue) all over the handprint, and let the child stick cotton balls to it. Or, using a paintbrush paint a thin coat of glue all over the handprint and then let the child put the cotton balls on. When it is finished, you can draw an eye with permanent marker on the thumb, or you can glue a googly eye on to make the eye move. If you are using these as gifts for Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter, etc for the kids to make for their parents. You can write the following on the back of the paper using a marker, or type it onto a piece of regular 8 1/2 x 11 white paper, cut it out, and scotch tape or glue it to the back:
This is a very special lamb
as you can plainly see
I made it with my hand
which God made a part of me
It comes to you with lot's of love
especially to say
I hope you have a very special (Easter holiday; Mother's Day; Father's Day; Christmas Day: etc...should end in day to rhyme)

Lamb paper craft - another idea using cotton balls is the Paper Lamb. It is easy to make all you have to do is print a copy of the template for each child, you can print it directly onto a sheet of construction paper to make it sturdier. I like the idea of printing them ahead of time and then trimming around the shape of the lamb, either before or after the children cover them in cotton balls, this way the parents can still tell that it is a lamb, even after the child has covered the entire thing in a thick mountain of cotton balls.

God made clouds - give each child a piece of blue construction paper, drop a few random drops of glue on the paper, and let them cover the paper in cotton ball clouds.

Feelings And Senses
Preschooler's love to explore things, especially things that are slimy, sticky, gooey, squishy, soft, hard, rough, etc. Provide plenty of opportunities for children to feel new things, try new things, and use all of their senses, here are just a few ideas:

Taste - for the lesson of Jonah or any other lesson that involves a sea or ocean, fill a small cup with water, add about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt to the water, and stir it up using a popsicle stick or spoon. Provide children with plastic spoons to taste the salt water, to know what it would have been like to swallow salt water, like Jonah would have done when he was almost drowning before the whale swallowed him.

Touch - for lessons about roads (the road to Damascus comes to mind immediately), bring in a piece of smooth sand paper, and let the children walk barefoot on it, explain to them, that the sandpaper is probably how the dirt roads felt. Do not use really course sand paper as you would not want anyone to get hurt.

Soft - for lessons about sheep, lambs, and other animals that are soft, bring in a piece of furry (plush) felt. It is like regular felt, but it is furry, with hair, and really soft. You can purchase it at Wal Mart or craft stores. Cut the felt into the shape of the animal you are talking about by tracing around a coloring page or cookie cutter.

Ocean in a bottle/storm in a bottle/wave in a bottle - make an ocean, wave, or storm in a bottle by filling a two-liter soda bottle with the label removed 3/4 of the way with water. Then add about 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and three-five drops of blue food coloring, screw the lid on tightly, and then reinforce with a piece or two of packing tape. Let children shake the bottles up to make storms. For young children, 1 liter bottles or the small single serve water bottles work well and are easier for them to shake themselves.

Squishy - for lessons about storms, waves, and other parts of the ocean or seas, make blue Jell-O and then put it in Ziploc bags once it has hardened, dump in some fish confetti (party supply or craft stores), or some fish cut from construction paper, or small boats cut from construction paper. Then, zip the bag shut, and use a piece of packing tape to reinforce it closed. Let children squish and feel the bag. If you are worried about leaks, double bag it, zipping and using tape to seal both bags.

Finger plays and Songs

Finger plays are a great way for preschoolers to play along. However, some finger plays have so many finger motions that it is difficult for even adults to keep up with them. Here are some easy Bible finger plays that can be used for a variety of lessons. This section also includes standard and play-along songs, most of which are sung to familiar tunes (the songs) so that preschoolers will have no trouble learning them.

Check out the Bible Songs from this site and here are a few others from other sites:

Fruit Loop Necklaces
A great project to use during lessons about food or Noah's Ark (rainbow). You need a length of elastic cording (Wal Mart or craft supply stores down the bead isle) approximately 12" long for young children, and 18" long for adults and older children. Take a Fruit Loop (purchase generic, they usually come in a large bag at most grocery stores, taste just as good, you get more, and they are a whole lot cheaper), and knot one end of elastic cording around it. Let the children string Fruit Loops onto the other end of the cording. When it is finished, tie the other end of the cording just below the end with the Fruit Loop already tied in place for an easy and edible necklace. Older children can be encouraged to sort by colors, follow patterns, or follow the colors of the rainbow.

Painting
Painting is a great way for kids to express their creativity, however with preschoolers, you have to worry about them putting it in their mouth's, eating the paint brushes, etc. If you make your own paint, you can control the ingredients, which will also allow you to control what is/is not put into the paint to make sure that it is 100% safe. If you choose to purchase store-bought paints, make sure that you always use non-toxic, washable paints (tempera paint works well) or water colors to prevent children from becoming sick should a brush make it's way into a mouth when you are not closely supervising. Any of the paint recipes below can also be made into "mess free" no-brushes required paints by purchasing envelope sealers (the kind that are the plastic tube with the little sponge on the end that you add water too) or dish washing sticks (plastic tube with large sponge at the end). Just fill the tube up with paint for mess-free painting.

Edible finger paint - this is one of my favorite finger paint recipes, because it can also be a paint brush recipe. You need Vanilla pudding and food coloring to make it, just follow the instructions on the pudding package, separate it into small containers (cupcake liners work wonderfully and can be thrown away when you are finished painting) and let the kids either paint with their fingers or with foam applicator brushes. If you are going to let the child paint with their fingers, provide them each with their own "set of paints" to avoid spreading germs. As for the surface they can paint on parchment paper, wax paper, and freezer paper all work really well. You don't have to worry about brushes in mouths with this paint recipe.

Non - toxic finger paint - Here's a great finger paint recipe that you can make yourself that can be used on standard white paper, construction paper, or finger paint paper. This paint is 100% non-toxic, so you do not have to worry about the kids putting it in their mouth. If you want to use it as a regular paint, purchase foam applicators from Wal Mart or a craft store. Store the paint in baby food jars for the best results, and the longest shelf life.
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
4 cups cold water
food coloring
Directions:
Mix flour and water together and cook over low heat until thick. Let cool completely. Add a small pinch of salt (prolongs shelf life). Separate the mixture into baby food jars. Stir 3-4 drops of food coloring in each jar and stir until the color is well blended.

Kool - Aid Finger Paint - here's a cute little finger paint recipe, that can also be used with foam applicators as regular paint. I would strongly recommend storing it in baby food jars.
Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 packs unsweetened Kool-Aid
1/2 cup salt
3 cups boiling water
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Directions: combine all wet ingredients together in a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Pour wet ingredients slowly into dry ingredients and mix well. The color of Kool-Aid that you use will determine the color, scent, and "taste" of the finished paint.

Puffy Paint - this recipe make three dimensional paint that is non-toxic and great for products that require texture. Kids love it because it puffs up when it dries for a bumpy feeling.
Ingredients:
Flour
Salt
Water
Food Coloring
Directions:
Mix equal amount of flour, salt, and water. Add food coloring for color. Pour mixture into baby food jars and use foam applicators or brushes to paint with. Roll on deodorant dispensers that have been washed out, can be used to make this paint into a roll on paint. Simply remove the roller ball, bleach out the container, pour the paint mixture in, and put the roller ball back into place.

Paper Bag Vests - Joseph's Coat Of Many Colors
    This project sounds like a lot of prep-work, since as a teacher you would have to prepare the paper bags ahead of time, but honestly, once you make one, it doesn't take more than a few minutes to master the art of cutting them out, and they are so effective for teaching the lesson of Joseph's Coat Of Many Colors to preschoolers. You need a grocery paper bag (ask for paper instead of plastic next time you do your grocery shopping, hey, you are recycling them!), and a pair of scissors to prepare the vests, following the directions found at Danielle's Place.
    When it comes time to decorate them, you can either let the children color them with crayons, or you can purchase Crepe Paper (a.k.a. party streamers) and cut them into short lengths and let the children use a mixture of 1/2 water and 1/2 white glue and foam sponge applicators (Wal Mart, less than $0.50 each) to paint the glue mixture on the bag and put the strips down. This really makes a bright, colored, coat of many colors that the children can really wear. You can also use construction paper strips, but you will need to use regular white school glue (no water added to make them stick). Another cool way I found to do these, is to purchase inexpensive Washable Highlighters from Wal Mart or Office Supply Stores (on sale in late September when back-to-school is over and there are clearance items. Take the lids off the Highlighters ahead of time, and let the kids color all over with them, they make cool straight lines, even if they color randomly, to make it look like a striped coat of many colors.

Paper Plates
    Paper plates are an inexpensive crafting tool that is a great "canvas" for many cool craft projects for preschoolers, here are just a few of my favorites:

Fish - make a fish by cutting out a triangle "slice" from a paper plate, then, take the pointed end of the slice and staple or tape it to the backside of the paper plate, on the opposite end of the opening that the slice came out of. The slice becomes the fishes tail and the opening becomes the fishes mouth.

Rainbow - Cut a paper plate in half, and let children color it in, or glue fruit loops on it to make it look like a rainbow. You will need one paper plate for every two children

Noah's Ark - Cut a paper plate in half, from one half of the paper plate, cut out a simple shape of a house (square that comes to a triangle point on top), staple the house shape to the flat side of the other half of the paper plate, let children color it in, and add animal stickers, animal crackers using glue, or small magazine pictures of animals.

Listening Ears - one of my favorite paper plate crafts (smiling) a great way to get children to pay attention during story time. You will need one paper plate for each child, cut in half. Children color the paper plate halves anyway that they like. When story time is about to start, tell children to put on their listening ears, (holding the halves flat side facing their ears) up to their ears to prepare for Bible story time. Repeat this poem with children, and then collect the listening ears before telling the story.
Turn on your listening ears
Zip up your lips
Give your hands a clap clap clap
And put them in your lap, lap, lap.
Encourage children to criss cross applesauce (sit Indian style) like they would in Awana's, Girl Scouts, preschool, etc.

Plastic Toys
    Many Sunday School preschool classrooms already have plastic toys in the classroom for children to play with. Here are some ways to incorporate the existing toys into your lessons and playtime.

Toy people - a couple of toy people (check dollar stores) and some butcher paper makes it easy to create new story play times each week. Lay a sheet of butcher paper out on the floor or a table, and give children crayons. Talk about the days Bible story, if the story is on creation, encourage children to color the sky, grass, animals, plants, people, etc. If the story is on the road to Damascus for instance, draw a road down the middle of the paper. With preschooler's, you can draw the items out ahead of time and let them color them in, or you can have them use stickers to decorate something you have already drawn, such as a black line to mark off the sky, they can color above the line black and then stick sticker stars in the sky. Have the children play with the people on the story scenes.

Blocks - small blocks are great to build small buildings, walls, and wells out of. Give the children a theme, such as a city to build, a wall to build, or whatever else the story is about, and help children use the blocks to build the city, wall, well, etc out of. Large blocks can be used to build towers, the wall of Jericho, etc. We use the cardboard blocks (already in the classroom) to build entire cities and walls out of, of course the funniest part at this age is when it can all come tumbling down.

Play Doh
    Play Dough always works for preschoolers, however clean up can be exhausting if you do not use a little ahead of time preparation. Purchasing a roll of inexpensive painter's drop cloth from Wal Mart, Target, or K Mart, will give you enough painter's drop cloth for months of Play Doh fun without having expensive cleanup. Putting the painter's drop cloth on the floor where children will be playing with it, covering tables where children will be playing with it, and underneath a table where children will be playing with it, will make for easy clean up. When children are finished playing with Play Doh, simply start at one end of the painter's drop cloth, roll it up, and throw it in the trash. For a reusable method, if you are on a budget, plastic tarps can do the same exact thing that the painter's drop cloth can do, and when they are finished, you just wipe it down with a wet sponge. I would not recommend purchasing store bought Play Doh, instead, make your own Play Doh using the following recipe:
2 cups plain flour
2 cups cold water
1 cup salt
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
4 tsp cream of tartar (white powdery stuff in the spice section)
food coloring or pack of Kool-aid for good smell and color
Cook on low to medium heat while stirring all the time. Cook until it makes a lump like thick mashed potatoes. Dump out and let cool down. Then knead until it feels like Play-Doh. This makes a little over 2 pounds of Play Doh.
    You can make it in any color you use, you will need to add enough food coloring to make the color you desire, or add some Kool-Aid to the Play Doh to make it colored and smell good. This Play Doh is also 100% non-toxic, and if kids put it in their mouth, it is completely edible, and if you use Kool-Aid, it will actually taste good, just don't tell the kids that *laugh* This Play Doh keeps best in butter containers with lids, or in disposable ZipLoc or Gladlock plastic containers. Do not store it in a Ziploc style bag because it will stick to the edges if it gets too hot or too cold. It will keep for months and stay soft, if it is kept in an airtight, lidded container, not to mention the fact that it costs a fraction of the cost to make then store-bought Play Doh.
    Play Doh can be used in a variety of ways with Bible lessons. One of my favorite ways is to make Play Doh cubes and let the children build walls, wells, and buildings with the cubes. To make Play Doh cubes, spray some ice cubes from a dollar store with some non-stick cooking spray and stuff Play Doh into the tray, use a plastic knife to trim off the excess Play Doh. Then dump the tray over for some instant Play Doh cubes. If you want to be able to create permanent walls, building, wells, etc with Play Doh cubes, then make the cubes ahead of time, pop them out of the tray, and set them out for 1-3 days until they are completely dry. If you plan to make permanent Play Doh cubes, mix about 3 tablespoons of white school glue into the Play Doh recipe, this will make the permanent Play Doh cubes hard without cracking. Play Doh cubes also make great, lead-free building blocks for young children. One last note on Play Doh...Play Doh cutters and tools can be very expensive. Go to a craft store such as Michael's, or the craft department of a store like WalMart and purchase a giant set of cookie cutters (I bought one at Michael's that has 100 cookie cutters and paid around $10). If you plan to purchase it at Michael's, wait for their sale ad that comes in the Sunday circular of the newspaper, it has a 50% off any one item coupon that you can use to make the cookie cutters cost about $5 instead of $10. This is much cheaper than purchasing Play Doh cookie cutters.
    When I use Play Doh in my classroom I limit the number of children that can play with Play Doh at any given time to eight. I set up eight separate work areas on a table, each with a smile pile of cookie cutters that is in their reach, and a ball of Play Doh. I have found that separating Play Doh into individual balls ahead of time cuts down on the fighting over who has more, and also cuts down on one child having all the Play Doh keeping others from playing.

Puzzles
    You can make your own Bible Story puzzles by pulling coloring pages off of DLTK or other popular sites. If they have a colored version, print the colorized one, if not, then color it yourself, or save the file to an easy to find location (such as your My Documents folder or your Desktop) and open the picture in Paint (usually found under Accessories in the Start Menu). Then use the paint bucket tool to color in the areas, and print the colored version. Once they have printed, use a pair of scissors to cut it into two, three, four, or even five pieces (I wouldn't go more than six pieces), and put the pieces in a Ziploc style bag, label the bag with the lesson or theme and use them year after year. If you plan on using them year after year, a good idea is to laminate them before you cut the pieces apart. You can have them laminated at a copy store, a teaching supply store, or laminate them yourself using Clear Contact paper. If you do not want the laminating costs, glue the finished picture onto light weight cardboard, such as cereal boxes, or another light weight cardboard item, and then cut the pieces out.

Snacks
While there are lots of Bible snack recipes, and also at perpetualpreschool.com for even more ideas. Everyday snack items can be used easily with a Bible theme. For instance, goldfish crackers are perfect for Jesus feeding the 5,000 and the Jonah lesson. Cheez - Its, Wheat Thins, and other square crackers are perfect for lining up end to end on napkins for building roads. Marshmallows and pretzel sticks can be used to build people for a cute snack for almost any lesson. Marshmallows are also good for lessons with sheep or lambs in them. Do not give Marshmallows to children who have not learned to chew their food well yet. Vanilla wafers make good suns for lessons about creation, or Jesus is the "Son" of God.

Stickers
It may come as no surprise that preschooler's love stickers, but what may come as a surprise is that you can create simple, cute, fun, easy, inexpensive crafts by purchasing stickers, lot's and lot's of stickers. I like to keep my eyes peeled at dollar stores, Wal Mart, clearance racks, and Oriental Trading Company for clearance sales on stickers. Office and teacher's supply stores are also a great place to find stickers inexpensively. One of the best times to buy stickers is immediately following a holiday, all of the brands of stickers (with the exception of American Greetings) clearance out their seasonal merchandise and you can find lots of dollar and two for a dollar packs of stickers during those times.

Noah's Ark - Use the Simple Animal Cracker Ark and let the children put stickers of animals in the ark.

Ten Commandments - Cut out an oval from a piece of gray construction paper, then fold the oval in half and cut down the fold (make sure you fold it top to bottom). Write the number 1 with permanent marker on the top of one of the halves, the number 2 on another half, repeat until you have 10 of these half ovals. For older children, you can write the commandment on the top next to the number, preschoolers should not be as concerned with what the commandments are, but just that they exist and how many of them there are, and that they are special rules to follow. You can make these into a book by hole-punching the left hand corner, and using a paper fastener (brass fastener), yarn, or ribbon to attach them together. Have the children put the correct number of stickers on each "stone". Small reward stickers such as smiley faces and stars work wonderfully for this project, just keep an eye on the kids that tend to put things in their mouths. A great way to encourage counting.

God Made You Thumbody Special
Check out the Thumbody Loves You craft. This craft is a big hit with preschoolers, you give each child a piece of white construction paper turned sideways (so the long side is the top of the paper) with the words God Made You Thumbody Special written across the top. Let them dip their thumbs in washable ink pads and stamp all over the place. With preschoolers the idea is not what they make, it's that they enjoy making it, so if they choose to keep stamping one on top of another, don't be discouraged. A great way to remind children that God made each of them special and that God made every part of them including their thumb. I love to use Lakeshore (a teaching supply store) jumbo washable ink pads for this project. They are large enough for 4-5 kids to share at a time, come in bright colors, and are 100% washable. Steer clear of washable inks that claim to be "dye-based" because, even if it says washable, if it also says "dye-based" it is in fact, not washable after all.

Here are a few things that I have found keep the attention of the preschoolers in my class, most of these ideas have only been used with the four year olds at the church I attend, but every once in awhile, I will try out an idea with the three year olds, as I substitute in there occasionally.

Try adding basic sign language to songs, one of the songs we sing most often is Jesus Loves Me, and the kids really enjoy using the sign language motions that go along with it, if you do not know the motions, you can find them at creative-communication.org

Creation - cover one wall with a giant sheet of blue paper, and let the children put glow in the dark stars (either the plastic kind or stickers) all over it randomly. Provide the children with a basic person cut-out (you can use a gingerbread man or scarecrow outline which works well for preschoolers) and let them decorate it to look like them with crayons, markers, yarn, etc. Give the children animal stickers to put all over a sheet of green paper or let them color in animal coloring pages which can be cut out.

Jericho - have the children build a wall with blocks (we use the cardboard blocks that resemble bricks) or with cardboard boxes. Then, have all the children stand back and let one child touch the tower to knock it over. Or, you can knock the tower over.

Jesus Calms The Storm - use a parachute or a large sheet and let the children wave it really fast, if you can use a blue sheet, all the better. Have one person yell stop and have all the children stop waving the sheet or parachute and explain how Jesus calmed the storm. For older children, you can put a ball or other soft object on the sheet or parachute and make the object of the game to keep the ball from falling off the edges.

Jesus Is Alive - Set up a card table or use a large table in the classroom, and cut out a giant circle (stone) from a sheet of foam (check the floral department of craft stores. You could also use a piece of gray poster board to make the stone out of, but it will not "roll away" like the foam will. Cover the top and three sides of the table with a sheet or blanket that you cannot see through, let children take turns going into the "cave" while another child "rolls the stone away". You may want to provide a flashlight for children who are scared of the dark.

The Chariot Of Fire - build a chariot that the children can "ride in" by taking a square cardboard box and cutting off one side of the box. Lay the box on it's side (so that the bottom of the box becomes the front and the side of the box is touching the floor) and paint the entire box silver or gray. Cut out large round circles (2) out of the panel you cut off of the box to make wheels and use a brass fastener to attach them to the front (bottom of the box) sides (sides of the box) to make the wheels. You can then take some thick cording or string, hole punch two holes in the front (bottom of the box) of the chariot, and thread it through to make the reins that would be attached to the horses. If you want to get really creative, we drew two horses on cardboard with wide hooves, cut them out, and used a toilet paper roll in between them to make them stand up and three-dimensional, and tied them to the string to make it look like a real chariot. You could use a disposable camera to take pictures of the kids taking turns riding in the chariot.

The Last Supper - buy a large loaf of French bread (the long kind that looks like a stick), and some red juice such as fruit punch. Have the children sit down at a table for snack, and pour the juice into small cups or plastic goblets, then have a teacher or helper walk around the table breaking the bread and giving each child a piece. Explain the significance of the last supper.

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