4 April 2021

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Bible readings for today

• Acts 10:34-43
• Isaiah 25:6-9
• Psalms 118:1-2,14-24
• 1 Corinthians 15:1-11
• Acts 10:34-43
• John 20:1-18
• Mark 16:1-8

Collect

Alleluia!
God of new beginnings,
your resurrection brought darkness into the fullness of your light;
shed that light into the dark places of our lives,
that we may grasp the promise of eternity
and live as your resurrection people,
created, redeemed and empowered through you.
For you are alive and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen

John 20:1-18

The aim of today is to understand that Jesus rose from the dead and brings us hope of new life in him, and that something happy and wonderful can come out of something very sad.

Intergenerational Services

Scripture Union NZ
Intergenerational Services: 
The rocks will cry out: Palm Sunday
The Mercy Tree: Good Friday
The Colours of Easter: Easter Sunday
Breakfast on the Beach: Jesus appears to the disciples

​Easter: Not your typical Love Story
​A resource produced by the Presbytry of South Australia in 2013, but ties really well with this year's lectionary readings (on a 3 year cycle), so this may be helpful in planning intergenerational worship
The kit includes: general notes about planning intergenerational worship; Bible texts about love, a Bible study for adults and teens, a puppet sketch, a colouring page for children and a sample worship format.
Not Your Typical Love Story (669 kb PDF)

I wonder questions

• "I wonder what Mary was thinking when she saw the empty tomb?  Turn to the person next to you (if you have many kids) and tell them"  or ( with a small group) "Would anyone like to share what they're thinking?"
• "I wonder why Mary didn't recognise Jesus when she first saw him?"
• "I wonder what you would have been thinking if you'd gone to Jesus' tomb and found it empty?"

Easter Egg Relay Race

This is a great game for people of all ages; children and adults can both be accommodated easily.

What you need:

• 1 teaspoon, tablespoon or soup ladle per 2-4 players
• 1 hard boiled egg or plastic egg that's weighted with lollies per 2-4 players
• Tape, rope or chalk to mark the two starting points- point A and point B
• If desired, kind of small prize for the winning team

What you do:

1. Divide the players into teams of 4.  If you have a small group, you can have teams of 2.  
2. Divide each team into two groups, 2 players at Point A, and 2 players atPoint B. 
3. The first player at point A is given an egg in a spoon to carry from Point A to Point B. At that point the egg and spoon are handed off to the next player in their team who carries it back to Point A to the third player and then to the fourth.  If players are using different sized spoons, allow them to use their fingers to move the egg between the implements. A dropped egg means that the person carrying the egg must go back to where he or she started from. The first team to complete the relay wins.

Variations:

• For younger children, allow them to carry the egg in a ladle. 
• Adults and old children can use a teaspoon or tablespoon.
• If the teams are mixed age (which is fun) give each team one of each kind of spoon so that play is fair.
• If you fill plastic eggs with lollies, allow each team to eat their lollies at the end.

Bead Necklaces

For our craft activity today we are going to make bead crosses which you can take home and hang up somewhere, or wear to remind you that God loves you, even you, always, even when you forget about Him, He never forgets about you!

The Easter Story Cross

Easter story sequence cards to colour, cut out and paste into the form of a cross. Found on the Teachers Pay Teachers website (you'll need to sign up for a free account) here

Cross Crafts

Danielle's Place website has a page dedicated to making different cross crafts, including:

• Cardboard and Yarn Cross Craft
• Snowflake Cross Craft for Kids
• ​Chalk Marker Doodle Cross Pictures
• Aluminum Foil Tape Cross Craft for Sunday School
• Glowing "He Lives" Easter Cross Sunday School Craft
• Plastic Canvas Cross Bible Craft
• Paper Mache and Wire Cross Craft for Kids
• Stained Glass Window Cross

Hand printed cross

This activity could be done on a large sheet of newsprint paper, to include everyone's handprints on the one sheet, or each child could have their own smaller piece of paper to make a cross.  It could be done as described, with the hands forming a cross, or in reverse, with the handprints providing the background to a white cross (as per the pictures below).
Craft idea was taken from this website
​
"PAINTED HAND PRINTS: Spread some paint on each child's one hand and let them place their painted hand print on a poster board and all the hands need to be in a formation of a cross when the prints are completed. When I did this activity, I did these cross-formation-hand-prints on our class room wall for decoration. The kids loved it and enjoyed it for years!"

Papier Mache Tombs

Note: These tombs take a long time to dry.  If possible, children should take them home still wet on their paper plate. Those that are left will be dry by the following week. 
What you need:

• A partially blown up balloon for each child and a few extras
• school glue watered down a little in shallow bowls
• newspaper to spread on your work surface
• scissors
• lots of string and yarn cut into 10-15 cm pieces (older children will be able to handle slightly longer pieces)
• paper plates or trays for drying the tombs
• a bucket of warm water (or access to a sink) and paper towels for washing and drying hands
• Felts for naming the plates

What you do:

1. Put the cut pieces of string and yarn and the bowls of glue on the newspaper on each table.
2. Give each child a balloon, explaining that everyone is going to make an empty tomb to help remind us of the empty tomb that Mary found.  When we see what we make, we'll be able to remember that Jesus was dead, but then he was alive again.
3. To make the empty tomb, dip one piece of yarn in the glue and then wring it out gently by sliding your fingers down the length of the yarn.  
4. Wrap the yarn around the balloon. 
5. Repeat this process until the balloon is about 3/4 covered with yarn. 
6. Leave to dry.  
7. Once the yarn framework is completely dry, pop the balloon and pull it out through any of the openings to create the empty tomb.

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