Triumphal Entry Archives - Let their light shine!

God Knows when I feel….excited!

God knows when I feel excited is all about Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. Children are often excited so it’s great to tell a story they will relate to. This story from Matthew 21 is about the excited crowd who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. Traditionally this event is called Palm Sunday. It begins the week of Easter. We’ve told this story many times at Toddler Group. The following is an idea…

God knows when I feel excited story idea

In the storybag you might like to have a large leaf and a donkey..

‘I wonder if you have ever felt excited? In today’s story from the Bible there are lots of excited people. Let’s find out why they were excited.

Crowds and crowds of people were all along the road. There were mums and dads, grandmas and grandads and children just like you! ‘Can you see? Is he here?’ They looked along the road. And then they saw him! 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’) They waved palm branches and threw their cloaks into the road. They were so excited to see King Jesus!

Jesus wasn’t riding a big, strong horse – he was on a donkey. He was the king but he was the good King who had come to save and rescue the people.

They people welcomed Jesus – the King sent from God.’

Craft Ideas

God knows when I am excited craft for Palm Sunday story

A palm leaf sun catcher made with a paper plate and sticky back plastic. Add green tissue paper and glitter!

God knows when I feel excited Palm Sunday craft — A palm leaf to wave – made using the shape cut from the paper plate suncatcher!

Another idea using large pictures to tell the Palm Sunday story This post includes printables to make your own street scene.

Palm Sunday Story Video

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.

On the Way to Easter…Palm Sunday Story

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.’

Some pictures to use to tell the story

On the way to Easter Palm Sunday story visual aid — Palm Sunday

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.

On the way to Easter Palm Sunday story visuals

Craft ideas

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

Jesus enters Jerusalem – Palm sunday

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!

Legless+Donkey

Street+Scene

Palm+leaf+scene+parts

The donkey with pegs for legs would make a good craft. help yourself to the free printables.

Palm Sunday craft

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.

Ideas for telling the story to children

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

Palm Sunday Craft

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