The Power of Play

How Wooden Dolls Can Help You Teach Bible Stories

in your SRE classes.

Take inspiration from our K-2 teachers at Catholic Schools Broken Bay by presenting bible stories as Godly Play using wooden dolls you make yourself.

Keep brushes clean

It’s a good idea to have 2 sets of jars, one for dirty water and one for clean

Use paper towels to wipe brushes

Protect the wood with spray varnish at the end

When finished, keep your dolls in a labelled container/box ready for next use

Enjoy using the dolls to complement your lessons!

We have many more tips and suggestions to share – please contact CCD on 8379 1642 and we’d be happy to help!

Last December, during our Advent Reflection Days at The Entrance and Terrey Hills there was a session on how to design, paint and use ‘Wooden Dolls’ as a tool for ‘Godly Play’ in the classroom

For those who attended and need a refresher, and for those who didn’t attend, we want to provide some brief instructions and images to inspire you to create and use these dolls Parish Coordinators have been provided with details of how they might obtain a supply of these wooden dolls, so that interested catechists can create dolls, or sets of dolls, in various themes (e g The Nativity, The Last Supper) to be used to complement the lesson plans in your teachers' manuals

Think about which character/s you need to make

Sketch out each design on paper first

When happy with the design, sketch on to the doll

Materials needed:

Wooden dolls – various sizes, buy from Spotlight, craft suppliers, ebay, Amazon

Paint brushes – various sizes

Paint

Marker pens

Paper towel

Jars for water

Pencil and paper

Spray varnish

Paint body first

Paint the clothes – hold the doll by the head

Paint as if you are “dressing” the doll, i e first layer of clothing first

Next paint hair

Then paint face if you wish

Lastly paint in any of the finer details

For small details use a small fine liner brush or paint pen

To paint eyes or dots use the end/tip of the brush