Sweet Easter

"Sweet Easter" is a short talk about Easter for children which may told at a school assembly, a church service or shared as a family devotion.
 Link :  Sweet Easter Talk

Also check out the Easter 'pass the parcel' game on the same page above
https://www.eliab.com/sweet-easter.html

AWESOME EASTER IDEAS

Check out these awesome Easter resources for worship or children's programs-

http://sa.uca.org.au/uyp/church-resources/all-age-worship/easter-services

http://request.org.uk/restart/2016/02/03/the-easter-story-pairs-game/

http://lapbooklessons.com/ResurrectionLapbook

http://www.biblestorycartoons.com/easter-story-resources/

http://eliab.com/Puppets/The-shape-of-Easter.html

http://eliab.com/Chants/Easter-chant.html

http://eliab.com/Chants/Easter-march.html

http://eliab.com/Poems/Jellybean-prayer.html

The Lost Coin Poem

LOST COIN POEM- (Luke 15:8-10)  (c) Eliab.com

Free Christmas Resources and ideas

Check out my free Christmas resources including the story "My Christmas Pillow" at my website
Eliab.com
Christmas page

Christmas Plus

Please check out my Christmas website ChristmasPlus for many Christmas stories, reflections, Assembly ideas, Christmas jokes plus much more!
Christmasplus.blogspot.com

Easter picture series

I found a wonderful series of pictures which tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. They are free to download and use.
Easter Pictures
Biblestorycards.co.uk

Sweet Easter

• Sweet Easter

  If you ask some children what Easter is all about they will invariably reply that it is to do with chocolate or Easter Eggs. Here is a fun way to teach the true meaning of Easter to your children’s group.
  The leader enters carrying either a large box marked “chocolates” or a large decorated basket. Build some suspense as to what’s in the box etc… As you remove each item from the box or basket use the item to teach about the meaning of Easter.
  1. A bag of gold covered chocolate coins. (Jesus was betrayed by Judas for thirty pieces of silver).
  2. Chocolate Rooster. ( Peter’s three denials of Jesus before the rooster crowed).
  3. Chocolate Cross. ( Use sticks of a “Kit-Kat” bar – or equivalent, to make a cross. Ask the children to tell you why some people where crosses around their necks then tell them the the crucifixion story as appropriate to the age group listening). As a kind of competition you might like to get two or three children to come out the front and eat a small Easter egg and then make a cross out of the silver paper. ” Now hold up your crosses to show everybody. Here’s one thing you can do with the silver paper next time you eat an Easter egg as a reminder of Jesus.”
  4. Hollow plastic egg. In Australia we have a sweet called “Kinder Surprise” which has a plastic egg which opens into halves with a small toy inside. If you don’t have  something equivalent then use a medium sized Easter egg ( unwrapped) and ask someone to come and take a big bite out of it. (Tell the events of the empty tomb on Easter morning).
  5. Marshmellows or chocolate chickens or bunnies. (Jesus offers us new life and a new birth just like the baby chickens coming out of the eggs).
  6. Gold foil covered Easter egg. ( The Bible gives a picture of the streets of heaven being paved with gold. If we believe that Jesus died and came alive again we can look forward one day to spending forever with Jesus in heaven).
  Don Stott, http://eliab.com

Easter Pass the Parcel

• Easter Pass the Parcel

  A variation on the well known game.
  This is played in the same way as at children’s parties except you have a number of parcels circulating according to the size of your group (say one parcel per ten children).
  Get everyone into a large circle and give out the parcels with an even number of people between each. Then as the music is played, the parcels are passed around the room from one person to the next as quickly as possible.
  When the music stops the people holding the parcel can unwrap one layer of paper. Make sure each parcel is unwrapped to exactly the same point. This way the game will finish with the three or four people getting to the centre at the same time.
  For Easter – Between the layers place: a palm cross (talk about why we have a cross on the top on hot cross buns or why people wear crosses around their necks) , an Easter card( What would you write about Easter in a card to a friend ?), a large nail (Jesus didn’t deserve to die -crucifixion), an easter egg (tomb), a clean sheet of paper (nothing on it- Jesus forgave our sins) . The gift could be a a small box of chocolates (celebrate that Jesus is alive).
  Use the items to recap the Easter story.

Colours for Easter

• Colours for Easter

  An All- Age Worship Activity
  You need : Green, Red,Black, White and Yellow balloon bunches or streamers or flags.
  Call forward any of the congregation or children’s group who are wearing a green top (t-shirt, jumper, sweater…). Give them the green props and ask them to stand in a group on the far left side of your stage or up-front area. Talk about how the colour green may remind us that Jesus came… and on the way he was welcomed into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Ask the green group to practice their phrase. Continue this process with the following colours and phrases.
  “Jesus came- and suffered- and died- but came alive again- to bring new life…
  GREEN —-         RED —-   BLACK —           WHITE —              YELLOW
  Finally invite all those remaining in the congregation wearing other colours to add “for everyone” to finish the phrase. Those holding the balloons can form a rolling Mexican wave of colour as they circle the balloons in front of them as they say their phrase.

Hot Cross Buns

• Hot Cross Buns

  Hold up a hot cross bun and ask the group if they like to eat these buns at Easter. Say that many people all around the world like to eat these buns at Easter time and those that are Christians are reminded of Jesus death on a cross by the cross we find on the top of the bun.
  “Let’s think about the ingredients needed to make these buns. What are some of the things you think might be used? Flour? Water? Fruit? One thing that’s very important in making hot cross buns is yeast. What do we use yeast for? It helps the bun to rise otherwise they might be called “flat cross buns”. The yeast also might remind us that Jesus rose from the grave. He didn’t stay dead after he was crucified and put in to the tomb – he rose again. Dried fruits are also added to the mixture in making hot cross buns. These might remind us of the good things that come from Jesus’ death. Without his death on the cross we wouldn’t be able to enjoy new life.
  As you pass around some buttered hot cross buns for the children to eat. Invite everyone just to pause for a few moments and silently thank Jesus for being willing to die a slow and painful death so that we might have eternal life with him.
  Just in case you wondered about the history of the hot cross bun : We get the word “bun” from the Teutonic equivalent, “boun”, which was an archaic description of a sacrificial ox. The practice of offering animal sacrifices at the vernal equinox became frowned upon. Instead, the goddess in question was honoured with a cake, a sacred ox bun. Imprinted on the cake were the crossed horns of a ox. Christians reinterpreted this as the cross of Christ.
  Puppet script from Eliab.com “Hot Cross Buns“

Easter Reflections

• Easter Reflect

  ions

• 1. When a tree is cut through you see the ring pattern that runs right the way up and down the trunk. Good Friday is a slice through history that allows us to see the pattern of God’s love stretching forwards and backwards to infinity.
  2. “Nails were not enough to hold God-and-man nailed and fastened to the cross, had love not held him there.” Catherine of Siena 1333-1380
  3. A father shows his young daughter a bird’s egg:
  “Use all your imagination! What do you think it will grow into? the little girl stares at the egg she cannot make up her mind whether it is beautiful or not. What might it become? She guesses. A rock? A football?
  Her father smiles and points to the sky. A sparrow flutters into the garden right near where they are sitting.  The girl is open mouthed with wonder as only an small  child can be. How could there possibly be a relationship between the simple egg in her father’s hand and the bird in flight.. How could something with wings like that come from something as ordinary as an egg?  How could her father recognise that the bird in the air was born as the egg in his hand, when the two are so different?
  She doesn’t question these things. Because her father told her, she accepts them as fact. Wondrous, yes, but true! One day she will understand the answers to all those questions, and they will seem just commonplace realities of existence. But for now, her curiosit is satisfied; she can’t understand but she can marvel.
  And so we try to understand what it will mean to have a body transformed, but recognisable, in eternal life.
  4. “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf of springtime.’ Martin Luther
  5. “Jesus has forced open a door that has been locked since the death of the first man. He has met, fought and beaten the King of Death. everything is different because it is so.”  C S Lewis

Extraordinary Jesus

Extraordinary Jesus ( A chant for children)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it!

Tell the world. Let’s hear you shout it.

Phenomenal, remarkable, wonderfully unique.

The must read good news story of the week.

Extraordinary Jesus, amazing but true

Wants to be very best friends with you.

Front page, headline. Good news for all to see.

Extraordinary Jesus calls ‘come follow me’.

(Mark 9:2-13)

(c) Don Stott, Aug 2007, http://eliab.com

Simplified Lord's Prayer

Simplified Lord’s Prayer

The children may stand and face the front and then join in the words and actions-

When I touch my head, I think of you, Father God.
When I put my hand over my heart, I remember to show you my love.
When I put my hands together, I ask you to come and make everything right.
When I touch my mouth, I ask you to give us the food we need.
When I bow my head, I say sorry for the wrong things I’ve done.
When I lift my head, I know you forgive me.
When I open my arms, I ask you to help me be friends with everyone.

When we say this prayer, we are asking God for things we need and he is pleased

Worship resources for school assemblies

Worship resources for school assemblies

• cowo.culham.ac.uk/ Collective Worship Resource – from the Culham Institute, in association with the National Society
• www.culham.ac.uk/storykeepers/ These resources are based on the Storykeepers television / video series.
• www.assemblies.org.uk Assemblies Website (SPCK)
• www.blackburn.anglican.org/cw/ Diocese of Blackburn Board of Education – Collective School Worship
• www.ely.anglican.org/education/schools/collective_worship/ Diocese of Ely Education and Training: Schools – RE and Collective Worship Resources
• www.saled.org/worship Diocese of Salisbury Board of Education – Collective Worship
• www.hibbert-assembly.org.uk The Hibbert Assembly – Material provided by the Hibbert Trust.
• www.retoday.org.uk/sfr/ RE Today: Space for Reflection – Assemblies and guidance for collective worship (password required – available to RE today subscribers).
• www.assemblingcitizens.co.uk Assembling Citizens – Secondary school assembly materials on citizenship issues from The Stapleford Centre (subscription required).
• www.angelfire.com/trek/annegordon/ Anne’s Page – Exploring Christian Faith with Children – Includes general advice and some starting points and suggestions for Collective Worship, along with ‘Times and Seasons’, a brief guide to the church’s year, again with suggestions for Collective Worship.
• www.cist.org.uk/ay/ Christians in Schools in the Stockport Area: Collective Acts of Worship – Outlines for Collective Worship suitable for Key Stage 1 children.
• www.schoolassemblies.btinternet.co.uk – School Assemblies for Busy Teachers – Assembly ideas, scripts and other resources contributed by teachers.
• www.teachernet.gov.uk/teachingandlearning/assemblies/ – Teachernet – Assemblies – A bank of over 100 resources written by teachers for teachers.