Reviewed by Kristin Stiles
Big Picture Bible Crafts by Gail Schoonmaker is a companion resource for The Big Picture Story Bible. Schoonmaker is the illustrator for both of these books and so there is a clear crossover between them. The crafts match up with the stories in The Big Picture Story Bible, and the illustrations are very similar.
This book contains 101 crafts that correspond with both Old Testament and New Testament stories. Each craft lists the Bible story with reference and a key verse to go with it. Each craft is designated with a level of complexity. There is also a supply list and instructions. The instructions include tips for “Make it Simple” and “Make it Amazing” to further tailor the craft for the age or level of ability of the children. Templates are included that can be copied and cut out.
While I appreciate the wide range of Bible stories that are covered in this book, I can’t say that it is one that I would use with my children or my class. Overwhelmingly, these crafts are simply cut, color, and paste activities. There are some that involve folding and adding embellishments, but overall, they are the same type of craft just modified slightly. To use with preschool and younger elementary children, this would require a tremendous amount of preparation work by the teacher to cut out all of these pieces ahead of time. For children who do not like to color, they would be tasked with doing that again and again. The amount of photocopying or scanning would also be an issue with using this book. Since it is bound, getting the book flat enough to make a clean copy or scan would be very difficult. The resulting printouts would be skewed or shadowy. Having a digital version of this book would be much more useful.
Big Picture Bible Crafts would not be my personal choice for Bible Story crafts because of its lack of craft variety and because of the difficulties that would be presented with trying to copy or scan the templates.
Kristin Stiles is a home-school mom, a Sunday School teacher, and helps lead the “Young, Reading, & Reformed” children’s ministry at Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia, PA.