Teaching children about the Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel isn’t as easy as teaching about popular heroes like David, Joseph and Paul. But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. In fact, you can teach kids about the life of Ezekiel using fun and creative crafts.

After the Lord called Ezekiel to preach, he gave him a scroll containing the word of God and commanded Ezekiel to eat it. Tell children this means that God’s word should be inside us. Make edible scrolls using your own favorite bread recipe or store-bought croissant dough. Flatten and cut the dough into small rectangles, one for each child. Let children roll two edges together to form a scroll. Bake the scrolls in the oven, and let children eat them. You can make a no-bake scroll by wrapping a sheet of fruit leather around a large pretzel.

Tell children how Ezekiel had a vision that he was preaching to a valley of dry bones. When he preached, the bones grew flesh and became living people. Make “dry bone” skeletons using pasta shapes. Give each child a piece of construction paper and model how to draw a large stick figure. Provide the pasta shapes, and show children which shape to use for which bone. Use a wagon wheel for the head, elbow macaroni for the shoulders and ribs, spirals for the arms and legs and small shells for the elbows and kneecaps. Let children glue the pasta shapes to their stick figures.

The Lord told Ezekiel that he would replace his heart of stone with a heart of flesh. Give each child a wooden heart shape, and talk about what it means to have a hard heart. Have children write “Hard Heart” on their wooden shapes and color them black or gray. Discuss what it means to have a soft heart. Give each child a piece of red felt, and let them use their wooden hearts to trace a new “soft” heart from the felt and cut it out. Write “Soft Heart” on the felt shape, and glue it to the other side of the wooden heart. Let children flip the hearts back and forth to show how God can change a hard heart to a heart of flesh.

When the Lord called Ezekiel, he told him to stand up and listen carefully to what he said. Explain how important it is that we listen to God’s voice. Do a listening activity with children. Have them close their eyes and listen carefully to various sounds that you make with objects. Ring a bell, rub sandpaper together, crinkle a piece of cellophane and clap two wooden sticks together. Next, use a seashell to show children how to hear an ocean-like sound with careful listening. Give each child a plastic bag and small versions of the noise-making objects. Let them write “Listen to God” on their bags, decorating them with pictures of ears. Put the noise-making objects in the bag for them to take home.