A fun introduction activity about the Easter story
You can use this idea as the children are arriving, before the programme has started.
This idea is part of a complete Sunday school lesson on the Easter Bible story in Luke 24: 1 - 12.
This introduction activity 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.
What do you need:
- hardboiled eggs - felt pens
What do you do:
Do: Give each child an egg to decorate as they arrive.
Once everyone is there, you can either eat the eggs together or you can give them another boiled egg to eat and they can take the decorated ones home.
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.
- 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?
You can create a magical moment by bringing a stick figure to life.
This is ideal for when you do a talk about:
Easter As a visual demonstration of the resurrection of Jesus!
Creation Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. (Genesis 2: 7)
The raising of Lazarus Rrecounted in the Gospel of John (John 11:1-44), a miracle of Jesus in which Jesus brings Lazarus of Bethany back to life four days after his burial.
The raising of the son of the widow of Nain Recorded in the Gospel of Luke. Jesus arrived at the village of Nain during the burial ceremony of the son of a widow, and raised the young man from the dead. (Luke 7:11–17)
Being alive in Christ But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ (Ephesians 2:5)
Watch the two video's below to discover how you use this great object lesson!
Fun crafts idea
Of course you can also use it as a fun crafts idea, as shown in the video below!
How does it work?
As you can see in the videa all you need is a whiteboard marker and a flat, shiny surface. Use a whiteboard marker to draw a stick figure on a flat, shiny surface and drop a little water on it. Then you'll see the drawing slowly lift off the surface and become one with the watery bubble.
This is because the ink in a whiteboard marker, unlike a permanent marker, includes an oily silicone substance. Because oil sits on top of water so does this ink, which will also move as the puddle moves. By gently blowing on the puddle the stick figure will swish and dance around according to which way you blow on it.
The final product may look like an intricate optical illusion, but the stick figure comes to life thanks to only a whiteboard marker, some water and a shiny surface.
Themes:
The resurrection of Christ, raising of Lazarus, the resurrecrtion of Lazarus, the raising of the widow's son, creation of mankind, being made alive in Christ
On Sunday the people go to the church. It’s not a normal church, but it’s quite a high building. On the third floor, at the top, there’s a large room, and everyone gathers there, because that’s where Paul is going to talk.
There are lots of people there. Everyone wants to hear Paul speaking. Eutychus is there too. He’s a boy and he wants to listen to Paul too.
It’s very busy and the whole room is full. There’s no space for Eutychus to sit, so he goes to the window and sits on the window sill.
Paul talks about Jesus. He talks for a long long time – there’s so much to tell and he is going away again tomorrow. So he talks, right on into the night.
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 from Acts 20: 7-12 was written by Ellen Zuijdwegt for a Dutch Sunday school method, but you can use it at home, within a church service, Sunday school setting or anywhere you like
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