Joseph's coat stick puppet craft

In the summer, things tend to quieten down a bit for our children's work and we need to find something that will work with a group of children aged 3-11.  This isn't always easy so we try to be as practical and visual as possible!

This summer, we are looking at the story of Joseph from Genesis.  Our first session told the part of the story where Joseph's brothers become jealous of him and sell him to some slave traders from Egypt.  We wanted a craft that would emphasise the change in Joseph's status so that we could talk about God being with us in the bad times as well as the good times.  Kylé came up with something great!

Here are instructions for our Joseph's coat craft...

Print off the template sheet (click here) and copy it onto card.

Cut out the Joseph shape 

Cut out the coat shape.  We used sticky back plastic (contact paper) but card would work just as well.

 Fold Joseph over so that the two halves fit on top of each other. Tape a lolly stick to the inside of the Joseph shape and then glue the two halves together.

 Decorate one half of the coat shape with lots of colours and make the other side brown.  Fold the coat over at the top and slip Joseph's head through the neck hole.  Tape the sides of the coat together so it won't come off the figure.

 Give the figure a smiley face (coloured coat side)

 and a sad face (brown coat side).

Use the puppet to talk about this section of the story and about how God is with us when we are sad and lonely as well as when we are happy.