Money in a Fish

I love teaching toddlers and preschoolers. For the past 8 weeks, our small group has been learning about the miracles of Jesus. This past week we did the Miracle of the Fish and the Coin found in Matthew 17:24-27. I used The Beginner's Bible: Timeless Children's Stories to tell the story.

Usually I don't have a problem finding suitable activities/printables already made on the internet. But for this miracle, I was having a problem finding something that preschoolers could make that wouldn't take long. I remembered making a fish out of paper plates years ago when working in a daycare center. When I found giant plastic coins, I knew this would work (and I'm probably not the first one to think of this either--lol). You can make this craft as neat or as messy as you would like. For my preschooler class, we used crayons. For my toddler, I decided to let her paint (and it was her first time painting!)

The Supplies:
2 paper plates
scissors
2 giant wiggle eyes
stapler
glue
crayons, markers or paint
coin

Holding the two plates together rim to rim (so that it is 3-D), cut out a large triangle for the mouth.

Next staple around the edge of the plate. Staple one of the triangles on the back for the tail-fin.

Decorate the fish any way you want. You can use crayons, markers, paint glitter--whatever floats your boat. :)

These are the "ginormous" coins I found at the Dollar Tree. So they aren't a drachma coin, but I think they are pretty cool. They really are big. I like that I don't have to worry about my dd swallowing them. She can easily pull it out of the fish's mouth when retelling the story. If you can't find them, you can use any Plastic Gold Coins.

Next glue the eyes and other fin onto the fish. Place a coin in its mouth and you have a perfect prop for telling and retelling the story.