HARE'S EASTER PUPPET SCRIPT

I have just posted a short Easter puppet script (or interview with someone dressed as a rabbit or hare).

download file here :   HARE'S EASTER

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

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.

An Easter Rose

• An Easter Rose

  The young boy came home after Sunday School on Easter Sunday and told his mother he could understand about Christ but not about the roses. So he asked his mum, “Why was Christ a rose?”

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.

Easter Chant

• Easter Chant

  Easter is…
  Easter is a time of joy
  For everyone, girls and boys.
  Rejoice, be glad, let’s all sing,
  Jesus is our risen King!
  Jesus is living!
  Yes he is living!
  Jesus is living!
  The Bible tells me so.
  ( You can also sing this to “Jesus Loves Me”)

Joseph of Arimathaea

• Joseph of Arimathaea

  Someone asked Joseph of  Arimathaea , “That was a great tomb. Why did you give it to someone else to be buried in?” “Oh,” said Joseph, “he only needed it for the weekend.”

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“

Reaching out at Easter

• Reaching out at Easter

  You may get your group of children or your family to think of ways in which they can reach out ot others with the hope that Easter brings.
  • Make some home made biscuits. Put a cross made of icing on the top and give them to someone in your family or friend who needs some encouragement.
  • Get some bulbs which are in flower as a reminder of new life. Make your own Easter wrapping paper around the flower pot and give them as gift to a neighbour or friend.
  • Attach a homemade Easter card (hand drawn or take a photo) which simply explains the Easter message.
  • Visit a nursing home or people who are shut in and don’t get our much. Perhaps take a gift to those who have lost loved ones during the last year.
  • Put up an Easter poster in your home.
  • As family make up a special ‘Easter Email ‘with some family news, a photo or two and include a bible verse or some thoughts about what Easter means to you. Send the email to your family and friends.
  • As family or group make up a special Easter Grace to be said before meals over Easter.
  • Learn how to make Palm crosses and give them away as bookmarks to people.
  • Organise a Christian Passover meal and invite your neighbours or friends.
  • http://www.wf-f.org/Seder.html
  • Invite people to your home after an Easter service on Good Friday or Easter Day.

History of the Easter Egg

• History of the Easter Egg

  As Christianity spread, more familiar traditions. symbols and celebrations of spring were associated with Easter -Christ coming back to life after death. One of the oldest spring symbols is the egg. The oval shape of the egg was the same shape for a raindrop and a seed. These two were important life-giving elements. the egg itself promises new life as in spring, birds, and many other animals are hatched from eggs. In fact, the Persians, Hindus and Egyptians believed that the world began with a single egg. In ancient China, Rome, and Greece, eggs were given as springtime gifts. In Poland and Russia, hours are spent on drawing intricate designs on Easter eggs. In England, members of the royal families gave each other gold covered eggs as Easter gifts in the Middle Ages. The most famous Easter egg decorator was Peter Carl Faberge. He designed eggs from gold, silver and other precious gems for the kings of Europe and czars of Russia. These eggs are priceless now and can only be found in museums and private collections. in early America, children decorated their eggs by using dyes made from fruit and leaf colouring.

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

EASTER TALK - The Good News

Easter Talk- The Good News

I’d like to share a short talk I did as a part of an Easter presentation this week for a primary (elementary) school. Here is the summary.

I began the talk by holding up a newspaper and talking about some news items. In the paper we find both good news and some bad news. Which kind of news do you like to hear about most?

Hold up just one sheet of newspaper. I’d like to share with you one news story which is good news for everybody. Fold the sheet as per photo. God sent his son Jesus from heaven (hold top corner and run fingers or other hand down the side to the bottom corner) to earth to show us just how much he loves us. This is the good news of Christmas when we remember about Jesus being born.

Fold again to form the “house shape”. Jesus grew up in a family ( Mary & Joseph…) and when he became older he healed people, helped people, and taught people about how to know and love God.

 

Begin to tear the paper downwards in a straight line. Talk about how some people believed in that Jesus is God’s Son but there were others who wanted to kill him. Talk briefly about Jesus capture and trial. Tear the other side slowly while talking. Jesus was nailed to a cross. Jesus friends were very sad. This seemed like bad news to them and good news to those who wanted Jesus dead. With the torn off bits of paper, crumple them in your hand and hold them up as you talk about getting rid of Jesus and how his body was placed in a tomb and sealed in the tomb.

Now open the center piece of paper to reveal the paper cross. Though Jesus suffered and died on the cross he was prepared to do that so that we could be forgiven for the wrong things we do (sins). Place your palm over the cross. Jesus wants us to be friends with God and to follow him today. On “Good Friday” we remember all that Jesus did for us. The Good News is that Jesus came back to life again and he promise those who believe in him eternal life-life forever with God. That’s good news (show the newspaper in one hand and the cross in the other) that’s certainly worth sharing with everyone.

Read all about it! Jesus is alive!

(c) Don Stott, http://eliab.com , 2008

Looking for an Easter Family Service idea?

Looking for an Easter Family Service idea?

A Family Service address with considerable involvement is as follows:

Worship leader begins telling a story (let’s say about a lost rabbit) only to be interrupted by two young folk offering a chocolate Easter Egg (as a thank-you or whatever).

Worship leader thanks young folk, notices that it is an Easter Egg with sweets (say, chocolate buttons) inside, and asks children (and adults) if they would like to open it in church so that the egg and the sweets inside could be shared.

Invite a child out to open the egg but youngster finds out that the egg is empty.

The shocked congregation soon grasp the surprise of the disciples who found an empty tomb. Opportunity for details to be offered by worship leader.

On a pre-arranged cue the original two young folk come forward with an apology and with the bag of chocolate buttons. They thought that they would eat them themselves and that worship leader would never notice they were missing. They didn’t think it would be opened in church!

Those in the congregation particularly the children – who had been hoping for a sweet are pleased at the discovery of the chocolates. As they are shared, the congregation is in a receptive mood to reflect on the joy of the disciples when they discovered that Jesus was alive again.

This idea is from The Church of Scotland website. Prepared by Rev Douglas Nicol .

The Ascension – Craft idea

Check out some great resources for either Sunday School or family devotions.
ChristianityCove.com

Here is one really good idea for a Craft activity at Easter which 

focuses on The Ascension.

Willing to die

A story to share at Easter

He died for another

Over two hundred years ago, the French Revolution brought fear and terror to France. Rich and powerful people – even the king and queen -were killed by the revolutionaries. Every day, hundreds of people were arrested, dragged from their homes and flung into horrible prisons. They were given hardly any chance to defend themselves, but were sent off to the guillotine to be killed.

Some of those who died probably deserved to be punished, for they had been cruelly thoughtless of the poor and hungry peasants and city workers. But in those terrible days, many good and honest people suffered, too.

Francois-Simon Liozerolles was a young man of twenty two when he and his father, General Loizerolles, were arrested.

First, young Liozerolles was tried. The case went against him and every morning he wondered if it would be his last.

One afternoon, tired and miserable, he flung himself on a couch to rest. His father sat beside him and talked calmly till he fell asleep. When he awoke he looked around for his father and excitedly asked some friends what had become of him. They told him.

While he slept, the tumbrils* had arrived and the warder entered with the list of those who were to die. The name of Francois-Simon Loizerolles was called. The General promptly stepped forward, saying, “I am Loizerolles”. He walked out and climbed in to the cart and was carried away to die.

It was then too late to correct the error. Within a week the reign of terror came to an end and young Loizerolles walked out free!

But he was a changed man and for him the world was a changed world. Everything seemed different after that awakening. He went to sleep, unwilling to die and longing to live. We awoke to love life less and understand it more, because by dying in his place, his father had shown him how to live. All his days he lives as a man for whom another gave his life.

(*Tumbrils were carts used to take prisoners to be executed.)

Easter Message - Bible Theatre

More Easter resources for children’s ministry

A Glorious Easter
Probably one of the best list of Easter resources for children’s ministry online.

See also my other websites – http://easterplus.blogspot.com and http://eliab.com