Easter is right around the corner, and I am looking forward to it. I love the shift in weather, joy of family, and gathering with community to celebrate our King! I often contemplate how I want to teach my children about God. Creating space for them to not only encounter who God is, but develop genuine relationship is important to me. The bible is complex, full of meaning that sometimes feel hard to understand as an adult, let alone navigate with children.
I feel blessed to guide my sweet little souls as God continues to be revealed to me, and I believe this responsibility of teaching is not to just be left to church, and others. Unsure where to start on the topic of Easter, I sought out a to guide to help. I found and love the simplicity and play based Easter Family Toolkit made by Meredith Miller.
To begin, we explored the story of Palm Sunday (Matt. 21:1-11). I think the last time I actually read this story was grade 5 christian ethics class. I have a feeling digging into these stories will be teaching me alongside the kids.
While we read the guide, the kids both worked on a colouring page (printed online for free.) This helped keep my 2 year old engaged and was a nice visual to connect with my words.
We turned on Easter worship music while my 3 year old and I talked about the reading. I am always intrigued how much little brains soak up and what stands out to them. We focused on the idea of King Jesus. Sunday School has our oldest already asking questions about why people wanted to kill Jesus. I’ve found this tricky to navigate but focusing on him as King now will help us tie together bigger concepts later. Example: Jesus being a threat to religious leaders (“How dare he claim he’s king!!”) and why that made him unliked by others.
Create your own Palm Branches
- White Card stock Paper
- Green Paint
- Paintbrush
- Thick Popsicle Stick
- Pencil
- Scissors
- Tape
After painting the hand cutout palm branches, we let them dry and reenacted Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey. We got our coats and threw them in the air pretending to lay them down for Jesus. We finished off with palm branch dance party, “Hosanna! Hosanna! Jesus is King!”
“Hosanna! Hosanna! Jesus is King!”
Hope you enjoy this simple idea for teaching littles about Palm Sunday! Definitely check out Meredith Millers Guide linked above and follow along in the weeks to come for more play-based, imaginative learning of the Easter story!
