Palm Sunday

 Hi everyone and welcome back to Christchurch Kids. We hope you've had a great week and that you are enjoying being back at school. 

Today is a day for celebration! It is Palm Sunday, which marks the beginning of a special time on the church called Holy Week, which is the week before Easter Sunday.

Here's the story of what happened on Palm Sunday.

Can you imagine what it must have been like to be in the crowds in Jerusalem when Jesus rode past on a donkey? 

There was cheering and waving of branches (just like when we wave flags at sports matches or when the Queen arrives for a visit). People were excited as they realised that Jesus was the one that they had been waiting for for hundreds of years. They knew what was written in the Old Testament and they could see it happening right before their eyes!

Towards the end of the video, we can see that the religious leaders were very uncomfortable with what the people were saying about Jesus. This was the start of what eventually led to the events of Good Friday.

We can celebrate with our own palm branches today - but we are going to make them out of newspaper!

Here are some simple instructions to make your palm branches (newspaper trees)

This video also shows you how to make newspaper trees. Look how tall they made one!

Prayer

Today we are celebrating that Jesus is our Saviour, the one who was promised in the Old Testament, but we are also looking ahead across the week. Holy Week is full of drama and it eventually leads to Good Friday but then also Easter Sunday.

Take a moment today to share with your family what Easter means to you. What does the word Easter make you think of? Are there things you remember about Easter celebrations past, things you did, things you ate or maybe a part of the Easter story itself that sticks with you? 

We can pray a prayer of thanks with our family today. We can thank God for sending Jesus.

We've got a great Palm Sunday song to share together today that tells us the story. We hope you have fun dancing around to this one. Maybe you can wave your newspaper branches as you dance.

Thank you for joining us today. We are looking forward to our Easter Sunday celebrations next week with a visit from No Strings Attached and a new play from the children at Christchurch as we join in with the rest of the church at www.christchurch-clevedon.org.uk