Activity
If you can obtain a puppet or two, bring them to your class. Using paper lunch sacks, or socks, provide children with materials to make puppets of their own. Have children design and name their puppets. You might give them a couple of stories to act out with their puppets. Another options is to have the children each make the puppet introduce itself to the rest of the class. You might give awards for the most unusual, best dressed, funniest, puppets. etc.
After all the puppets have been created and all the kids have used them a bit, ask the children the following question:

Debrief
“Who decides what the puppet does, the puppet or the person who’s hand is in the puppet?”

Application
Of course the puppet can’t make any decisions. It can only do what the hand makes it do. Nothing can hold back God’s “Hand” as He does what he pleases like a hand in a puppet. But God gives us some choices and we can resist the hand of God in our lives.

Our task in doing God’s will is to present ourselves to him (Romans 12:1&2) and to be filled with Him (Ephesians 5:18) so he can accomplish the tasks for which we were created. (Daniel 4:35, Proverbs 21:1)

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materials
Egg (Hollowed out)

Carefully poke 2 holes in an egg, one at each end, and blow out the contents. After it has dried inside, take a lot of 1/4 inch wide slips of paper, write on them such phrases as ,”Jesus loves you,” “Jesus died for you,” ‘Jesus lives” and so on. Thread the slips of paper into the egg. You can get many inside.

Ask children what they think of at Easter. Many will say, Chocolate, Eggs, Candies, Bunnies etc. (some will make the right connection) Hold the egg and talk about how the egg was an Easter symbol – portent of new life and that Jesus’s rising from the dead meant that we too could have new life. I then said, “If ever I heard somebody give me the right answer right away, I would clap my hands ….” clapping my hands and squashing the egg. The children’s faces will be a mixture of horror and glee as they imagined your hands covered with goo. Instead, imagine their surprise when the egg contains, not yolk and stuff, but messages that tell the Easter story.

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Note: This one is not an original, but I cannot find the source. If you know the source I would be happy to give credit.

Materials
a pencil and bandage

As Christians we celebrate one day of the year more than any other. Do you know what day? [Easter] Easter is the day when Jesus rose from the grave. Today I want to share part of that story with you. [Read John 19:38-39]

On the Friday that Jesus was crucified Joseph of Arimathæa got permission from Pilate to bury the body. Nicodemus came with a large mixture of myrrh and aloes. The custom of the Jews was to take one-inch strips of linen and wrap them around the body. This was the same way Jesus was wrapped “in swaddling clothes” when he was born. Then burial spices were poured over the strips of linen and hardened like a plaster cast hardens around a broken bone. (John 19:40)

Watch this. Let’s take this pencil and pretend it is an arm. Now let’s wrap the bandage around it. [Do not wrap with the sticky side facing down. Wrap it with the sticky side up around the pencil and catch the leading edge as you go.] This is the way Jesus was wrapped in strips of linen and then aloes and spices were poured over the linen. Then one long linen sheet was laid down. Jesus was laid on this sheet so that his body was completely covered by it. Now let’s set this pencil aside until we hear more of the story.

Joseph and Nicodemus did not have time to finish the job before the Sabbath started. The sun was setting so the women who followed them saw where Jesus was buried and returned home. The would bring spices to finish the job later. Early on the first day of the week (Sunday), the “Spice Girls” brought their spices to put on the body of Jesus. They saw the stone was rolled away and entered the tomb but Jesus was not there. [Read Mark 16:5-7] Jesus had risen! They ran to tell the disciples the good news. Peter and John ran to the tomb. [Read John 20:5-8] The Bible says that John saw and believed. What did John see that made him believe that Jesus had risen? One thing was that Jesus wasn’t there. He also saw the empty linen strips without a tear in them. When Jesus rose from the dead his new body was able to pass through things (John 20:26). His body went right though the burial clothes without tearing them.

[Slip the bandage off the pencil and hold the bandage so they can see the hole in the hollow area where the bandage was.] The clothes were there but Jesus was not. He had risen!

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The excitement and apprehension of the disciples on Easter day can be re-created among the children. One of the cardinal rules of most sanctuaries/churches is NO RUNNING. Imagine people running up to join the church or running up to take Communion! Begin the Easter story with Mary running to tell Simon Peter and the other disciple that the stone had been removed. Then Peter and the other disciple were running to the tomb, but the other disciple outran Peter.

Pair the children off and let them run a race from the back of the sanctuary to the front. Take all the children who lost their heats and identify them with Peter. While reminding them of the empty tomb, allow them to go somewhere special in the sanctuary, where you have placed an empty white sheet rolled up in a place by itself. Then invite the winners to join you as you continue the discussion of the empty tomb. Depending upon the size of the group and the abundance of Easter dresses, you may want to use some of the girls to play the part of Mary Magdalene, running to tell the others ( a starting gun) and the subsequent weeping.

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Using a large bulletin board, place pins strategically to outline a cross. Wind a piece of string around the pins to create the form of the cross. Cut small pieces of black or brown construction paper. Explain to the children that Jesus died for our sins – things we do but know we shouldn’t do. Talk about the things we do that are wrong – sinful. (e.g. lies, taking something that doesn’t belong to us, hitting someone, talking bad about someone, etc) Let everyone write their sins on the small dark pieces of construction paper (one sin per piece) and pin it within the outline of the cross. Encourage everyone to add more of these pieces as they reflect on their sin, and when new sins are remembered.

Take off the sin papers, leaving the pins in place. These pins hold the memory of our sins which Jesus died for, and will now be used to hold decorations.

Create flowers out of construction paper and pin them on the cross with the same pins. An artificial vine with flowers could also be wound around the pins to create the triumphant cross.

The sin papers are then burned by the Easter fire: a white candle symbolizing the new beginning we have in Christ.

Variation
Instead of construction paper, use pieces of “flash paper” available from a local magician’s shop. When touched to a flame “flash” paper vaporizes in a flash of fire and leaves nothing behind. Warning: Have a teacher touch the papers to a flame and quickly let go to avoid getting burnt.

Easter Collection

Get more than 80 creative ideas for planning a Youth Easter celebration or Easter Party. You can immediately download my best Easter Icebreakers, games, illustrations, Easter activity ideas AND MUCH MORE in a useful ebook!

=> Tell me more about the Easter Collection