I love using pop-up books in the pre-school class. Even the early elementary class enjoys them. They are my answer to all the take homes that I see kids walking out of class with. It’s good stuff but many times, it either gets stored away or thrown away. Each of the pages in this pop-up book can be used independently and sent home as a traditional take home. But if you glue them together, put a cover around them, you now have a book that is sturdy useful for review in class and after sending it home, review at home.
This pop-up book was used for a month in a pre-school class. As we learned about a new parable, a new page was added to the pop-up book. Each class the children read their books as we reviewed and then added something to the new page to make it their own.
This kind of book takes some preparation on the teacher’s part. It requires a little gluing between classes so the new page is ready for the student the following week. It’s not too difficult though.
Parables of Jesus Pop-up Book Front and Back pdf
Be sure to let the child write her name on the cover.
The Lost Coin
The widow can’t find her coin. She looks everywhere.
Lift the broom up slightly and let the child glue a penny underneath.
The Lost Sheep
The shepherd look everywhere for his sheep.
Spin the wheel and the sheep will appear. The children glued bushes to the base of the mountain. You might use flower stickers or something else appropriate to let them add to this one.
The Lost Son
I know this is not the most beautiful page. Thankfully, it was redone at a later date and in the pdf above this page is much more attractive. The father looks longingly down the road for his son. The child will glue the father in place.
Lift the flap and there he is — the son has come home.
The Sower
The pdf of this is black and white. I would color them with colored pencils or crayons before making copies.
In class, the student glues seeds on the different types of soil.
Lift up the flap and see the beautiful flowers that have grown in the good soil.
The Good/Bad Fish
A fisherman has caught a net full of fish.
The child takes the fish from the net…
…and puts the good fish in one basket and the bad fish in the other basket.
The Good Samaritan
The story of the good Samaritan can be acted out over and over with this one. The three pieces are laminated on top and have felt on the back. The black squares are the hook side of velcro. It would look better with white but we ha black in the resource room.
The child places the characters in turn on the velcro next to the injured man.
Each one turns away until…
…the Samaritan comes by and stops to help the injured man.
This picture shows the felt on the back of the figures.
This song was used during the month we studied this. You can hear it here: Parables of Jesus — the song
Diana,
I love this craft! Thank you so much for sharing it. On the Lost Son, the pdf is missing the story. Is there any way you could add that so the text will match the other parables.
Thank you,
Debbie
Thank you for bringing this to my attention Debbie. I’ll try to get to it but my plate is full right now. Diana
My families and their children are loving making this book. I need the story page by tomorrow! Friday, 3/25/2022. Is it available anywhere? Thank you so much.
Debbie, did you get a page or make a page for the Lost Son? My families and their children are loving making this book. I need the story page by tomorrow! Friday, 3/25/2022. Is it available anywhere? Thank you so much.
What a great project for the Sonseekers of our church! What a beautiful ministry you have. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this! You are such a blessing! I am going to share with the little ones using this pop up book & love the song you composed! May God bless you abundantly! Thank you!
I am making 25 copies of your parable book for Bible School. Well, the first four pages, that is. It’s truly delightful. My only suggestion would be to include a more complete template for the Lost Son page. I had to trim all four sides of both images and also recreate the text to match the rest of the book. The template for the fold-out portion and the part for the front side of the fold-out portion when in the closed position took quite a bit of figuring, but I think I’ve got it almost nailed down.
I would love to do these with my Kindergarten-aged Sunday School class. Do you have the templates in black and white so my kids could color them? Thank you so much! Theresa Bryant, Lynchburg, VA
Thank you for sharing stories of Jesus. I’m teaching 3 and 4 year olds. I think they’ll love your pop up ideas. Thank you!
You’re welcome! I’m always happy to hear someone is using one of the activities on this site.
I am teaching through some of the same Parables of Jesus and I am so thankful for your pop up book! I made the Parable of the Lost Son page for this week’s class and I did it based on your page. Thank you for all of the resources here. I also used the Life of Peter pop up book and the kids really enjoyed going through the lessons. The books are excellent for review as well.
thnks you so much for sharing Godbless
Thank you so much for sharing your pop-up ideas. I will be using one tomorrow with my Primary 2 class. from Catriona, Glasgow, Scotland
THANKS FOR SHARING…GREAT POP-UPS
Thank you for sharing these pop up parables. You have wonderful ideas! I used these for my Sunday School class and we just loved doing them. I did most of them at home, but let them put finished touches on so they felt they made them.
Thank you so much for your hard work . As a retired minister’s wife & retired teacher , I try to stay ahead , in case my husband is called back into the ministry or I’m asked to teach . Also , I want to help others in search of materials for their programs . Again , thank you for sharing . God bless .
Thank you, Linda.
Thank you so much! This is great!
Thank you for this book! Great class idea – the lost son does not seem to have all of the pages attached. – I do not see the top of the Lost Son (the words) only the road scene. Am I missing something
Thank you Tish. I printed it off for my class recently and realized the same thing. I have the corrected version ready to upload but I haven’t done it yet. I’m out of town and will do my best to get it done by the end of the week. Thanks for the push. I need to be pushed sometimes.
Were you unable to load the story for the Lost Son? Thanks!
I have just finished downloading and printing the lapbooks, but the Lost Son did not have any words with it and the son is just a black outline. Did I do something wrong? Thank you for your efforts – I am excited to teach these stories now!
The parable of the lost son is just a shadow and I tried refreshing the page too
I was wondering if I needed to use cardstock or regular paper for each card stock book. Love the idea and a “craft” that will be used.
I used card stock for every page unless otherwise noted on the instructions.
Hi Thanks for sharing!! In the lost son when clicking the link the son is just a black outline. Not like the example shown. You mentioned it was newly updated. Just wanted to ask you if it was supposed to be that way? Or was there supposed to be a view of son like in your example shown? Which is not just a dark outline.
Thanks,
Shelly
Love the popup books. The link to the good samaritan doesn’t seem to be working.
Hi Connie, It worked for me. Maybe you could try refreshing the page. Diana
For the Parable of the Lost Son, now that you have a fancier picture, the words for the actual Bible story are missing.
This is really neat! Thanks for sharing it. My daughter is teaching a pre-school class on the parables and I was helping her find things to use and this is helpful.
You are a gift from God. I have been searching for a craft for the Good Samaritan that would help the children understand the story and be able to repeat it to their parents. This is great but I think I will put Velcro squares on the back and not felt. God bless you for sharing this great idea.
Thank you, Pat. I hope it goes well.
The link to Good/Bad Fish does not work! ;0(
Thanks for letting me know. It should work now.
Can’t wait to use these the next time I teach the parables to my class. Thanks for sharing.