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Story Sequencing – The Nativity

One of my favourite ways to help children review and understand stories is my retelling them in their own words, through play or with activities. In this simple activity, we use a set of story sequencing cards based on The Nativity Story to order, retell and understand the reason that we celebrate Christmas. Please check through to the end as I have a suggestion for you to create a set of Sequencing Cards with your own child too.

Help your child understand the Christian meaning behind Christmas with this Nativity Story Sequencing Activity with FREE Nativity Story Cards to use.

The Nativity Story

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Many children love Christmas, but as we celebrate it’s important that they also have some understanding of why it is celebrated and the story behind how a pagan festival became one of the most important events in the Christian Calendar.  To help them understand a good version of The Nativity story in book form can help – one of our favourites is this Little Golden Book The Christmas Story which retells the events of the Christmas Story in a way that children can understand.

Nativity Story Sequencing

Help your child understand the Christian meaning behind Christmas with this Nativity Story Sequencing Activity with FREE Nativity Story Cards to use.

Check to the end of the post about involving your children to create your own set of story sequencing cards if you want your child to produce them as well as use our remade cards which you can download when you sign up for our Book Based Activities News Letter. Or you can purchase the set in our store.

Materials Needed for your Christmas Story Sequencing Activity

Help your child understand the Christian meaning behind Christmas with this Nativity Story Sequencing Activity with FREE Nativity Story Cards to use.

A set of the Story Sequencing Cards – you can purchase these in our store or subscribe today to the Rainy Day Mum Newsletter and get them as a welcome gift from me.

collage of different views of the Nativity story sequencing cards from Rainy Day Mum

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Printer – we have recently switched to an HP Envy with Insta Ink and love how easy it is to use and the quality of the printing.

White Cardstock

Paper Cutter

Optional – Laminator (I would recommend that you use this if you wish to keep the cards for a while or use with a group of students)

Making and Using your Nativity Story Cards

Once you have downloaded your card print onto white cardstock and cut out.

Laminate if you wish.

Help your child understand the Christian meaning behind Christmas with this Nativity Story Sequencing Activity with FREE Nativity Story Cards to use.

Once made then shuffle and lay out the cards – read out the different simplistic statements and sequence the story to help your children retell the Nativity Story.

Help your child understand the Christian meaning behind Christmas with this Nativity Story Sequencing Activity with FREE Nativity Story Cards to use.

How to create your own Nativity Story Sequencing Cards

In my crafting supplies I have a set of Christmas Stencils and within that set are some based on the Nativity Story, they are available on Etsy and we used these to create our own Nativity Story Sequencing Cards.

They are washable and easy to use – we attached them to the paper with some masking tape and then drew around the outside and coloured them in with the stencil in place as at the time my youngest was a toddler so it made it easier to produced coloured cards.

Nativity Story Sequencing Cards

More Nativity Activities for Children

Ideas for you on activities and crafts for The Nativity Story that you can help your children understand the true meaning of The Christmas Story.

Find all of our Nativity Story Activities and Crafts in one place.

More Resources for Helping Children Understand the Meaning behind Christmas


This Nativity Set from Fisher-Price was one of the first that we got. With figures that are easy to hold when combined with the story sequencing cards you can use them to retell the story and play out the Christmas Story.

If you prefer something not made of plastic then this Nativity Set from Melissa and Doug is ideal as it’s made of wood and with colourful pictures which is ideal for children to play with and tell the Christmas Story themselves.

Best Nativity costumes to DIY or buy for Children. With ideas for all the characters, these are easy DIY's to anyone can make for the Nativity Show.

Looking for costumes so that children can act out the Nativity Story themselves – then check out our collection of Best DIY and Store Brought Nativity costumes for kids.

Help your child understand the Christian meaning behind Christmas with this Nativity Story Sequencing Activity with FREE Nativity Story Cards to use.
Author
Cerys Parker

Cerys is a marine biologist, environmental educator, teacher, mum, and home educator from the UK. She loves getting creative, whether it is with simple and easy crafts and ideas, activities to make learning fun, or delicious recipes that you and your kids can cook together you'll find them all shared here on Rainy Day Mum.

6 Comments

  1. Oh this is great and very different to ours. I think the Nativity is very important.

    1. Fun post. The nativity relaly caught my eye. I bought one similar to this that I bought the first year we were married for thirty dollars. It was my big purchase that year and now thirty years later I still have it. I added this backdrop thing a few years ago that I bought at Hobby Lobby. It is kind of a tarnished gold. I’m thinking about painting it black. Is it wrong to make Jesus’s place a bit edgier? :0 Thanks for linking up to Motivated Monday at BeColorfulPam

  2. I like how you used the stencils to make story cards. We’ve been reading different books with the nativity story in it. My son connected most with The Birds of Bethlehem, a new book by Tomie dePaola. He tells the whole nativity story from the birds’ viewpoint.

  3. Oh I have an Nativity Pack (#2) coming out that has story sequence cards and scriptures so you can place them down and the kids can look at the cards and I can read the scriptures. I also have set so you can put the story in order! All coming on Friday.

    We are doing small daily reading right now so we complete the story when it is the day of Christmas and also have the play Nativity set out. 🙂

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