Fun, Learning, and Finger Skill Development
Those are the words that come to mind when I think of playing with playdoh and playdoh mats. Children of all ages need their learning to be interactive and playdoh is a perfect medium for young children’s needs. The free playdoh mat we are sharing is perfect as an interactive tool for learning about the shepherds who visited Baby Jesus (download below).
Preparation
Print one mat per child on cardstock (free download below). Take a few minutes to laminate your mats so the children have a nice working mat to use. Place each trimmed mat at each child’s seat. We like to put the mats on top of craft trays. These trays work well as the playdoh stays in one place and makes clean up easy. Purchase brown and white playdoh; brown for the shepherd’s staff and white for the sheep’s wool. We put a ball of each color of playdoh in a quart plastic bag for each child. The bags have the children’s names on them as we do not cross contaminate the playdoh with other children’s hands. This will cut down on germ contamination and illness.
Activity
To introduce the lesson tell the story of the shepherds visiting Baby Jesus. I like to use as many sensory items as possible to share this Bible event. You can use a soft sheep puppet for petting, a stuffed sheep with a sound button for identifying the sound of a sheep, flannel board story pieces, small plastic sheep, and angel and shepherd puppets. Pass out the playdoh mats and playdoh bags. Show children how to roll the brown playdoh into a rod for a staff. Then show them how to pull small pieces of the white playdoh off and place on the sheep for his wool. You can send these fun playdoh mats home if you choose. As the children work, stress that the shepherds visited Baby Jesus.
Songs to Use with this Lesson
Pat the Sheep
Tune: “Jingle Bells”
Pat, pat, pat
Pat, pat, pat
Pat the soft sheep
Shepherds watched their little sheep
When Jesus Christ was born.
The Shepherds Went to Jesus
Tune: “The Bear Went over the Mountain”
The shepherds went to see Jesus.
The shepherds went to see Jesus.
The shepherds went to see Jesus.
They went to Bethlehem.
Check out these other fun, interactive Baby Jesus activities featured on our site: Hunting for Baby Jesus and Nativity Snack.
