Baptism - Sensory Bin

This idea comes from Hubbard's Cupboard here. I used her print-outs and made the following stick puppets/signs:

Jesus
John the Baptist
Map of Judea
sign that says "Jordan River"

In advance, I filled a bin with water and put a dot of velcro on one side of the bin. I put the counterpart end of the velcro on the back of the "Jordan River" sign.

For the activity, I sang the song while performing the following actions:

Jesus came to John the Baptist - Pick up Jesus and John and have the Jesus puppet "walk" towards John.

In Judea long ago - Move both puppets over so that they are standing in front of the map of Judea.

And was baptized by immersion - Put the puppets in the water with John standing upright. Slowly make Jesus lay down in the water, then bring him back up. Place the puppets on a towel on the table.

In the River Jordan's flow - Pick up the sign that says "Jordan River" and attach it to the velcro on the bin.

Ask for a volunteer to come up to the front and repeat the actions while the song is sung. If your primary is small, repeat for each child. Or ask for one child to act out Jesus while another child acts out John the Baptist.

Jesus Stick Puppet

I printed out the image of Jesus from here. I "laminated" it using clear packaging tape so that it wouldn't break down in the water. Then I hot glued the image to a popsicle stick.

John the Baptist Stick Puppet

For John the Baptist, I used the same method, and created a base so that he could stand in the water. I cut a popsicle stick in half and glued the two halves in a cross. Then I cut off the round edge from the bottom of the stick and used a generous amount of hot glue to stick it to the base.