Using flannel graphs to tell a Bible story is very effective. Kids love them. What they really love though, is doing it themselves. Sometimes that is feasible. Sometimes, there are too many kids to let all of them help or there is not enough to time let all of them help. Here is a solution that lets them tell the story and control the flannel graph at their own pace. I use Soul-ly For Kids pictures to make most of my flannel graph box stories. If you can’t get hold of this curriculum, any pictures would be fine.

The box is made from a plain pencil box. The kind I used here is pretty difficult to find. The inside of the top needs to be as flat as possible. All you need to do is cut a piece of flannel to fit the inside and glue it in place. I recently found a similar box that was made of metal at our local Office Depot. If you decide to use these you just need to put magnets on the back of the pictures instead of felt.

The pictures are printed on card stock. I use a cold laminator with laminate on top and sticky stuff on bottom. The laminated picture can be stuck to felt and cut out. If you don’t have access to a laminator that will do this you can use clear contact paper on the front an glue on the back to get the same effect.

Each set of pictures is stored in a snack baggie that is labeled and then all the sets are stored in a labeled pencil storage box. Snip the corner of the snack baggies to release the air inside.

Before class, put a set of pictures in each box so they are ready to go when the time comes to use them. The kids love to put the pictures on their flannel board and tell the story as they’re doing it. I kept this very informal and allowed the students to share their thoughts about the story as they worked.

The story below is very simple — just 3 pictures. More can be used but the pictures need to be smaller. I tend to add too many pictures which makes it difficult for the kids to put all the pictures on their board. Three – five pictures is probably the best.

These are examples of a few more:

Elijah
There are parts of several stories about Elijah in this box. You can just pass out the ones for the story of the day or use them to review what you’ve studied in previous weeks.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
This one has a background added to represent the furnace. It is a piece of colored foam sheet that is cut to fit snuggly in the box. A few details were added with a sharpie.