3 Wise Men Simple Shapes Craft
The visit of the 3 wise men to Jesus is celebrated on January 6 and is known as the Epiphany. The Three Wise Men were scholars who traveled from the East on a long journey to visit the newborn king. They were excited to celebrate the new king and brought with then gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. The Three Wise men were known as Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar.
Melchior is often depicted as an old man from Persia. Melchior brought with him a gift of gold to recognize Jesus's royalty. Caspar was a younger man from India who brought the gift of frankincense. Frankincense is an incense which represents divinity. Frankincense is still used as an incense in the church today. The last of the 3 wise men was named Balthazar, Balthazar was middle aged and came from Arabia. His gift to the newborn Jesus was myrrh. Myrrh is an embalming oil given as a foreshadowing of Jesus's death and morality. So, talk to your child after Christmas and explain the story of the Three Wise Men. You can also read aloud some books to tell their story.
" Three Wise Men" by Ananna Books tells the story of the 3 wise men's journey after Jesus was born.
"Journey to Bethlehem" by Pam Berger and Beth Breaux has the wise men narrate the story as they travel to meet Jesus. This book also shows kids how to use their family nativity set leading up to and after Christmas time.
"The Christmas Quest" by Janet Surette is a great book for younger children. It depicts the journey of the 3 wise men with historical accuracies of the time period.
After learning about the Three Wise Men, create any easy craft of their arrival to the stable where Jesus was born. Use simple shapes to make the wise men and Jesus. To begin this craft choose a piece of paper for your background. Next, cut out 3 circles for the heads of the magi. You can free hand draw the circles or use a paper punch. Use different shades of brown to represent the different places the wise men came from.
Use a paper punch or cut out 3 circles for the heads.
Next, select 3 different colors of paper. These will be used to make the bodies of the three wise men. I used scrap paper I save from other projects. This is a great way to use up these scraps. Next, cut triangles out of each color. Then glue each triangle onto the paper.
Cut out triangles for the bodies of the three wise men
Now, you will glue the three circles on top of the triangles. These will be the heads of the three wise men.
Add the circles on to the triangles.
Next, you will use several shapes to make a crown for each of the three wise men. The crown has several small pieces, you may want to help your child make these. You can also create them in advanced and talk to your child about the shapes that make them up. To begin, you will need to cut 3 small triangles out of yellow paper. These will be glued onto a rectangle which you will cut to size to fit the triangles.
Cut 3 small triangles and cut a rectangle to size to fit.
Now you will add small circles to the top of each triangle. You can cut these out or use a paper punch. Create 3 crowns and glue them on to the top of the circle heads. As an alternative, you can also have your child draw small circles at the top of the triangles with a marker or crayon.
Create crowns to glue to the top of the 3 wise men.
Next, you need to create baby Jesus in his creche. To make the creche, draw and cut out a hexagon shape out of brown paper. You will glue two thin rectangles at an angle to the bottom of the hexagon. These will create the legs of the creche.
Create a creche for baby Jesus with a hexagon and 2 rectangles.
Now use a small circle cut out of any color paper of your choice. Fold the circle in half and cut it in half. This half of a circle is the body of Jesus. Add a small brown circle for his head. Glue these both onto the creche.
2 circles make baby Jesus in his creche.
Now add the creche with baby Jesus onto the paper in front of the three wise men.
To complete this craft project, add some details to the picture. You can add a star to represent the star the three wise men followed. You can draw this or use any craft items you may have. I added a foam craft star and some gold sequin I had to create the look of other stars in the night sky. I also glued on some cut up raffi to the bottom near the creche. This represents Jesus's birth in a stable.
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