Doing The Bible With Play Dough: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

I'm just going to get this right out in the open:

Yes, 

I am doing a series

on teaching kids about the Bible through play dough.

No, 

I do not have even the slightest of talents 

in the art of play dough creations!

Even still, I'm just so excited about the idea (thank you, children's church group!), and I'm super encouraged by my daughter's reception of it!

During the series, we'll be studying a new story from the Bible each week and reenacting it via play dough.  (So, if you've got any stories you'd like to see unfold, let me know!)

Materials:

Play dough - We used store bought, because, as you can see, we have A LOT!  If you're looking for a homemade recipe though, here's one that I pinned from Living Well Mom.  I haven't tried it yet myself, but it looks very simple!

Bible - This week's story comes from Daniel 3.  It's a huge plus to have read the story prior to trying to recreate it with your kids.  I have found that, while I certainly do read straight from the Bible to my daughter, her attention stays with me a lot better if I can give her an excited and animated summary instead. 

This all is really very easy.

I told my girl a 30-second version of the story first, and then suggested different things we could make with the play dough. 

We went for the obvious and started with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

And, of course, don't forget the angel!  

Why, yes!  Shadrach does look just like a jedi!
(Hey, you work with what you've got!)

My daughter was amazed by this part - that there was a fourth "person" in the flames with them.  

Over the years, we have collected a ton of play dough tools.  We just fished around and found what would fit with our story.  If you don't happen to have any tools, you could always just make the flames yourself...Even if you're challenged like I am, simply making blobs of orange and red for the fire will do just fine..if your kids are anything like mine, they'll just love the fact that you got the play dough out!

Once everything was all set, I told my daughter the story once more, but this time I used the figures we had made.  When we got to the part about their hands being bound, I squooshed their hands together.  When we got to the part that they were walking around freely in the fire, I just pulled their hands back apart.  You get the idea..

So there you have it!  Our first Bible reenactment via play dough!  Despite my lack of play dough know-how, my daughter absolutely loved this project!  She actually said in the middle of it all that "this was the best day ever!", so really, a chance to teach my child about God AND a chance to do it in an exciting way for her is really a complete win-win in my book!

We'll be doing these reenactments each week, so be sure to check back in!  Got any play dough reenactments that you guys have done at your house?  Send those pictures my way!  I'd love to see!