I’m not an expert in that area, though I have taught Catechism to children in that age group. If they are also taking Catechism, you could perhaps try to coordinate your Bible readings with their lessons.
When they are preparing for Reconciliation, you could go over both Old and New Testament readings on sin, repentance, God’s mercy, and forgiveness. When they are preparing for First Holy Communion, you could spend several sessions going over both Old and New Testament readings (there are so many!) on making and sharing bread, sacrifice, Passover, Jesus feeding of the 5000, Jesus saying “I am the Bread of Life” (John 6), the Last Supper, and more.
Otherwise you could coordinate it with the liturgical year (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, other holy days).
Puppet show and crafts sound good.
Do you let the children perform in biblical plays? I’ve heard that they do that at VBS, and that sounds like a good way to get the kids engaged in the stories and lessons.
What about children’s Bible songs? Cedarmont Kids (
cedarmont.com/) has lots of inexpensive CDs including Bible and Gospel songs. To facilitate singing along, their CDs have a “split-track” format, where the vocals and instruments are separated to the left and right audio channels. Using a boom-box or other audio system with a balance control, you can play the instruments alone while you and your students sing along.
