Use this secular YouTube video to hold a creative discussion with the children about the Bible story.

A robot falls in love with a doll. They even get married, but one day the doll can’t do anything anymore. Her batteries are empty. As the doll comes back to life, we see the robot sitting lifelessly next to her. He has given her his batteries so that she can come back to life.

This idea is part of a complete Sunday school lesson on the Easter Bible story in Luke 23:26-56.

This video will help the children in your Sunday school lesson, youth ministry, Bible lesson, VBS, kidmin, children’s church or children’s ministry to reflect on this powerful Bible passage.

Why is this film applicable to the story of the crucifixion of Jesus? 

In our story today Jesus gives his life for us. He died so that we can live again.

Important questions:

It’s important to always watch the film yourself beforehand and to ask yourself:
- do I want to show this to the children?
- does this film work in the context and age-range of the children I am working with?

If you choose to show this YouTube video, we suggest you use the following three steps:

Step 1: Test the battery

What do you need:

- a battery tester
- new and old batteries.

What do you do:

Do:
Give each of the children a battery

Ask:
How do you know if the battery has any energy?

Tell:
You could put the battery into a clock to see if it will work, or you could test the battery with a battery tester.

Do:
The children can take it in turns to test their battery. Is it empty, half empty or completely full?

Tell:
You can’t tell just by looking if a battery is empty. Today we’re going to watch a video in which empty batteries play an important part, and are also part of the Easter story. Shall we watch?

Step 2: Watch Toy love story: 

 
Step 3: The Easter battery

What do you need:

- two torches

What do you do:

Ask:
What does this video have to do with Easter, do you think?

Tell:
Just as the robot gave his life to the doll he was married to, Jesus gave his life for us. The example of the batteries is a lovely one.

Do:
Show the children a torch that works because its batteries are full, and a torch whose batteries are empty. Take the batteries out of the working torch and put them in the torch that was empty.

Tell:
This is just like Jesus. He knows that our batteries are empty and gives his own life giving energy to us, so that we can shine again.

Ask:
- What are the empty batteries in our lives?
- How come our batteries are empty?
- What sort of light to Jesus’s batteries give?

With the help of a secular YouTube film and a creative activity you can explore Jesus’ sacrificial love.

This YouTube film shows the story of a paper creature that is attacked by a pair of scissors. Rock sees what is happening and he attacks Scissors out of compassion for Paper. Rock wins from Scissors but gets wounded. Rock carries Paper to a safe place, but because in the game Paper always beats Rock, he starts to crumble even as he is carrying her to safety. He therefore demonstrates sacrificial love.

It’s easy to find a link between this story and the incident when Jesus touches the leper and makes him promise not to tell anyone. The leper does tell everyone that Jesus touched and healed him. It has been centuries since anyone healed a leper – back in the time of the prophet Elisha, when general Naaman was healed. If Jesus can heal even a leper, surely he can help anyone! As Jesus had expected, large crowds came to see him – so large that he was no longer able to go into the villages and towns. His compassion for the man with leprosy, and the fact that the man was too excited to keep it to himself meant that Jesus was forced to retreat to more remote places. Jesus experienced a degree of suffering because of his compassion for this man.

Of course you can also use this video to teach on Jesus' death on the cross and his resurrection!

Themes:

Jesus healing the leper, sacrificial love, Jesus' death and resurrection

Important question:

It’s important to watch the video yourself first and to decide if you want to show it to the children? Does it fit within your context and the age of the children?

What do you do:

Step 1: Have the children play the game ‘Rock, paper, scissors’. You could play it for a few minutes and have them change partners half way through.

If you don’t know the game, you can watch this link.

Step 2: Watch the video together, and possible one more time after completing step 3.

Step 3: Discuss the video using six worksheets which you can download here: Broken---Rock-Paper-Sciccors.pdf

The worksheets consist of the following images: 

- rock
- scissors
- paper
- the illness leprosy
- Jesus
- the ill man

1. Print the six images out and show them to the children
2. Ask the children to make three pairs of the images – which ones belong together?
3. Who represents Jesus in the video? (the rock) – why do you agree or not agree?
4. Who represents the ill man? (the paper) – why do you agree or not agree?
5. Who represents the illness? (the scissors) – why do you agree or not agree?

A great story to tell about the power of Easter

"Barabbas was listening hard.  The crowd went quiet and he could hear a man's voice speaking.  The next thing he heard was a great shout "BARABBAS, BARABBAS, WE WANT BARABBAS!"  (Get the children to shout it out, really loudly).  "Wonderful!"  thought Barabbas. "It must be my mates, come to get me out of prison!"  He began to feel much more cheerful.  But then the crowd went quiet again, and again the man spoke.  He couldn't hear Pilate's words, but Pilate was asking "What do you want me to do with Jesus?"

Themes:

The gospel, Jesus dying for our sins, Jesus dying in our place, to live for Christ

An easy to tell Bible story

We at Creative Kidswork want to make storytelling as easy as possible for you. That’s why we provide you with tons of easy to tell Bible stories. You can read this story aloud or tell it in your own way. 

This Bible story was (re-)written by Korky and Anni Davey (OAC ministries) for a school assembly, but you can use it at home, within a church service, Sunday school setting or anywhere you like 

Download the story:      The-story-of-the-prisoner-Barabbas.pdf

Create an unforgettable experiment for your Sunday school class

Did you know that you can create the most beautiful colour effects, even a rainbow, in a bowl of milk? The only things you need for this is a bowl of milk, different colours of food colouring (liquid) and a drop of washing up liquid.

This is not just a really fun craft, it is also a cool science experiment that will appeal to both the girls and the boys in your Sunday school class or your children’s ministry.

You can combine this experiment with several Bible stories or Christian themes:

The story of creation - creating something that is beautiful  (Genesis 1)
The story of Noah and the rainbow – creating a rainbow in the milk (Genesis 9:8-17)
The story of the Bethlehem star – creating a star in the milk (Matthew 2: 1-12)|
The theme of light conquering darkness – this works really well if you use lots of dark colours in the milk.
The theme of the cross – maybe it is an accident, but most of the effects in the video below change into a cross.

Demonstrating the love of God through a melting heart of ice

How can we demonstrate the power of Gods love to our children in the church or within our family? How can we make something so beyond our understanding visual and tactile during a Sunday school lesson or as visual aid during a sermon? God's love is so amazing. Can we help our children and teenagers to experience a little bit of it?

Maybe you can use the melting heart of ice.

Discover more below...

It is very easy to do. You take a large silicone heart mould, fill it with chicken wire, add water and leave it in the freezer for 48 hours. After two days you take it out of the freezer and you got yourself an heart of ice.  You attach a wire to it, hang it from the ceiling and place a container underneath. 

During a Sunday school lesson, a sermon or during family meeting at home a you create a moment of silence. Hopefully the only thing you'll hear is the water dripping down from the heart of ice into the container.

This melting heart of ice is a brilliantly simple illustration to show that God’s love can melt the hardest of hearts. His love can break through to the hardest hearts. And God's tears are like the drops of water  that flow from this heart. 

Use it as a creative prayer opportunity

It is important not only to show this melting heart of ice, but also to give everyone the opportunity to feel this melting heart for themselves. We all know someone who is in great need of God's love. As you touch this melting heart of ice and as you feel the drops of water you can pray for this person. Maybe it is you. Then you can pray for yourself or ask someone else to pray for you.  

Introduction:
So many things seem to happen between the arrest of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. How can you help the children to make sense of all that happens?

Korky and Anni Davey (OAC ministries) have written a short script that you can use to 'walk' through all the events of Good Friday with the children.

Download the story:      Interactive-story---Good-Friday.pdf

Introduction:

In this creative task the children are going to decorate a cross. This is a follow-up of writing and drawing prayers on the cross (see idea 4).

Themes:

Light of the world, the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This idea can be used for:

- Creative prayer or interactive moments during a service
- Prayer rooms
- Teaching concerning the death and resurrection of Jesus

Bible text: 

For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Description:

A big wooden cross is lying on the ground. In small groups the children get a few minutes to decorate part of the cross. Every child can glue beads to the cross, paint on the cross, or find another creative way of expressing what Jesus’ cross means for him or her. Within the preparation of this creative task around 50 holes have been drilled into the cross. After the decorating is completed fairy lights can be put through these holes. The cross can then be hung up somewhere and become a cherished memory, or be referred to within future settings.

You will need:

- A wooden cross (with holes drilled into it for fairy lights).
- Glue
- Beads
- Paint
- Fabric
- Scissors

Most of these ideas are members only. To give you an indication of the quality and content of our material we have made a number of ideas available for free - see below.

To get access all the ideas you can become a memberfor only $25 per year. Click on the button on the right for more information.