Palm Sunday Story Video is a short retelling of Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. You can read the story in John 12:12-19
I made this video for toddler group. You are very welcome to use it 🙂
Here’s a link to a post with a Palm Sunday Story idea and some palm leaf crafts to make.
This leaf craft for Palm Sunday is to make at home. All our groups are closed – so this is somthing to make that uses a cereal box, crayons, pens, green pictures cut from magazines (I used a gardening catalogue) and some glue. Hopefully these are things that we have at home. If you don’t have any glue then crayons, pencils and pens will be great.
Cut a leaf shape out of your cereal box – make it as large as the box shape will allow! And decorate.
There is a short toddler group Palm Sunday story here.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem
On the way to Easter Palm Sunday story can be told as a stand alone story or used as part of the series ‘On the Way to Easter’.
Bible story from Luke 19:28-40 and Mark 11:1-10
Bible truth for toddlers – Jesus is the King!
‘Jesus and his friends were almost at the big city of Jerusalem. Lots of people wanted to see Jesus. But how was Jesus going to arrive in the city? Was he going to arrive in a car? No! Was he going to arrive in a helicopter? No! (they didn’t have those!) Was he going to ride into the city on a big, strong horse? No!
Jesus sent two of his friends to borrow a donkey. (What noise does a donkey make? Hee-haw) They bought the donkey to Jesus and put their cloaks on it’s back. Jesus sat on the donkey and he rode into the big city.
Crowds and crowds of people were there. There were mums and dads, grandmas and grandads and children just like you! Some of the people took their cloaks off and put them in the road for the donkey to walk on. They called out, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ as Jesus passed by. They shouted, ‘hosanna!’ (which means ‘God saves’). Can you say ‘hosanna’? They waved palm branches in the air. The people in the crowd were welcoming Jesus into the big city. They were excited!
They welcomed Jesus – the King sent from God.’
Dowload the links to make the street scene
People pictures are available in this blog post
The donkey to make
https://lettheirlightshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/leglessdonkey.pdf
The street scene https://lettheirlightshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/streetscene.pdf
The trees and palm leaves
https://lettheirlightshine.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/palmleafsceneparts.pdf
I cut the cloaks out of material.
You could use the printouts as a craft if telling the story at home or with older children.
The pegs for legs donkey is a fun craft to make. Print and cut out the donkey shape. Colour and add wooden clothes pegs for legs.
There are some Palm Leaf craft ideas here
Palm Sunday craft idea
It seems as though we only just celebrated Christmas and here we are a couple of weeks away from Easter! So at toddler group next week we are doing the Palm Sunday story (Triumphal Entry). The story we will be using is from John 12. There are some ideas for telling the story here
For the craft we’ll be making large collage/crayon leaves. The leaves are cut from A3 paper and then I added some detail with a black felt tip. The collage materials are a mixture of sugar paper, paper and tissue paper in various shapes. The children can also use green and yellow crayons.
To make these pictures I started with a roll of paper from Ikea and drew a road. The buildings and trees were added. As you tell the story you can add all the things you need. The cloaks were cut from material, the donkey has pegs for legs.
The people were copied from this book Their God is so Big by Stephanie Carmichael. It’s on offer at the moment!
The donkey with pegs for legs would make a good craft. help yourself to the free printables.
Palm Sunday craft to make. A few ideas that are fun to make!
The story of Palm Sunday (or the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem) is from Luke 19, Mark 11, John 12 and Matthew 21. It is the beginning of the end of Jesus’ life on the earth.
In Mark’s gospel we read that, ‘they (Jesus and his disciples and followers) were on the road, going up to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. And they were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. And taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was going to happen to him saying, ‘See, we are going to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.’ Mark 10:32-34.
These must have been difficult things for Jesus to talk about. The disciples don’t appear to have really understood – James and John are bothered about where they will get to sit in heaven!
But despite the fact that Jesus knows he is going to Jerusalem to die he stops to help a man who is calling out to him. Bartimaeus is sitting by the roadside and shouting out for help. And Jesus stops and helps.
And then the group arrive at the outskirts of Jerusalem and Jesus sends two disciples to fetch a donkey. He rides into Jerusalem at a time when the place would have been packed with people there to celebrate Passover. They welcome him – laying clothes on the floor and waving palm branches calling Hosanna.
For young children it would be good to ask them to shout ‘Hosanna’ at the right time in the story and wave palm branches that they have made.
If you use a story bag include a toy/model donkey, a cloak to lay on the floor and a palm branch.
For older children make the connection with Old Testament prophecy as highlighted in Matthew’s account. It’s also useful for older children to have a timeline of the Easter events.
A short retelling of the story
A couple of palm leaf crafts – a sun catcher and a collage. Both use paper plates. The sun catcher is a little more tricky and has tacky back and glitter! The palm leaf collage can be cut out and a pipe cleaner attached so it can be waved during the story.
Older children could design a sun catcher and cut out the shape and attach the tacky back etc.
Large+Palm+Leaf – PDF file
Small+Palm+Leaf – PDF file – template for palm leaf sun catcher
