Nativity Banner

This is a project I did 2 years ago with Kindergarten.  We needed a quick project for the front display case and we had tons of felt and burlap.



It was amazing to see them all finished with each child adding their own interpretation to the Nativity.  Some had the Mary and Joseph outside with the sheep inside, one had the sheep on the roof....


Now this can easily be adapted for older kids just don't give them the templates....see what they can create on their own.

I had thought I had posted this project but I guess not so here is the How To:

You need the following:

- burlap
- a natural bamboo plant stake from the Garden store
- tacky glue
- felt in white, black, yellow, orange, green, dark blue, light blue, pink or a flesh tone, and brown
- glitter glue in gold and/or silver
- Pattern Template
- scissors

Cut your burlap in a rectangle 12x19 inches or 30x50 cms.

Fray your edges a little bit and fold over the top edge by 2 inches or 5 cms and either sew a pocket for your stick or glue one.

If you are not a sewer you can easily hot glue a whole classroom set.

I really love these natural bamboo stakes. A package of 24 is only $2.00, cut to fit with your pruning nippers. A branch from the garden would also be fine.

Download pattern and cut out the pieces.

Felt can be a bit tricky for Kinders to cut. Their scissors are usually not sharp enough (dulled from all that paper cutting) so I keep a set of classroom scissors for fabric cutting only....but this is also a lot of pieces so I enlisted the help of the Mom volunteers.

I sent the felt home with a couple of patterns and the #  I needed in a ziploc bag, I wrote down the due date as well.

We did the gluing as a class.  Put some wax paper down first as the glue can seep thru the burlap.

We did it step by step and I handed out the felt pieces as we went.

First up the manger, I asked them to place it down into position first so we can check where it is and then we start gluing.

Nothing worse then a manger roof too far down on the banner!

Add the star and then the cradle as well as the yellow halo for the Baby Jesus.

Add the body and then the head for Baby Jesus.

Add the bodies and heads of Mary and Joseph.

Add Mary's scarf and Joseph's hair/beard.

and then add the sheep.

Finally you can add some extra stars in the sky with the silver and gold glitter glue.  I always tell the kids "less is more" as they love their glitter!

As you can see my sidekick Tika is in on the action again and she ended up with some glitter on her feet.  You could add further embellishment if you wanted (eyes, etc.) but I kinda like them on the simple side.

Let dry and hang up with a piece of yarn tied onto the ends of your bamboo stake.


That's it.