Palm Sunday

What is Palm Sunday? 

The Sunday before Easter is known as Palm Sunday.

Lets hear about the first Palm Sunday ever in the world: ( Taken from  Mathew 21: 1-11)

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem

When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples,  saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately. This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying,“Tell the daughter of Zion,Look, your king is coming to you,    humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.  A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,“Hosanna to the Son of David!    Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!Hosanna in the highest heaven!” When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Lesson: 

So you see, the people knew when they saw our Humble Jesus, the King of Kings  coming riding on a Donkey that this Simple Prophet was in fact a King!!

They welcomed Him amidst joy and happiness and to show their great love for Him they threw their cloaks on the ground as decoration they had Palm that they cut off from the Palm trees that grew there. 

What joy! What happiness - and Jesus of course felt happy :) 

We too can make Jesus happy- by expressing our love for Him when we pray tonight- tell Jesus you love Him and that you want Him to be your friend. Tell Jesus you believe in His love for you!Your love will remind Jesus again of the first Palm Sunday he had thousands of years ago. 

This day marks the preparation of Jesus coming back to life on Easter Sunday - we too are preparing for Our King and Saviour to come as King on Easter Sunday. 

When we go to Church on Palm Sunday, we too will be given Blessed Palms that we can make into a Cross and keep on our Altar. 

The remaining Palm will be preserved for next year and burnt - the ashes from this is used on  Ash Wednesday next year!

Colouring Page from

Temptation of Jesus

We know that Jesus fasted for 40 days in the desert. After he fasted, liked any of us, Jesus too was tired and hungry. The devil wanted to tempt Jesus. Lets listen to what the Bible says:


Bible Story from

" After His baptism, Jesus spent time alone with God in the wilderness. For forty days, He ate no food. He grew very, very hungry. "Jesus," called a voice, "if You are really God's Son, why don't You turn these stones into bread so that You can eat?"

Jesus recognized Satan's voice, and although He was hungry, He said, "It is written, 'Man does not live by eating only bread, but by every word that comes from God's mouth.'"

Then Satan showed Jesus the peak of the temple and said, "If You are really God's Son, You could jump from here and Scripture says angels would catch You."

"It also says, 'Do not tempt God,"' answered Jesus.

So Satan took Jesus to the top of a tall mountain and said, "Look down there. See all that lies below You, every kingdom, every single thing on the earth. Bow down and worship me, and I will give it all to you."

"Get away from me, Satan!" commanded Jesus. "It is written, 'Worship God alone, and serve only Him.'"

At that, Satan fled, and angels came down and cared for Jesus." 

Season of Lent

AIM: 

To explain to small children the meaning of lent and its importance.

What is Lent? 

Lent is a season of preparation. While we wait for Jesus's birth and prepare for it during Advent-  We prepare for the most joyous time for us as Christians - Jesus coming back to life 3 days after His death on the Cross- during the season of Lent.

Easter is a very joyous celebration - we celebrate the rising of Jesus after His death on the cross. With Easter we know we don't have to ever be afraid - because will always and forevermore be part of lives and with us. But before we get to Easter, we have to prepare ourselves for 40 days - so that we can "clean" ourselves during those few days.

Lent starts on Ash Wednesday and ends with Easter. We can prepare for Easter by giving up something we like and sacrificing a few things. Lent is a time for praying, loving God more, caring for others like us and those who are not as lucky or fortunate as us. Lent is a time to try and love God more.


Ash Wednesday - is always on a Wednesday. On that day, we go to church to receive a Sign of the Cross made with Ashes.
The Priest blesses the Ashes and says ,
"Repent and believe in the Gospel"
or
" Ashes to ashes , Dust to dust"
or
"Remember, man that thou art dust and to dust you shall return"

He says that to remind us that we are not here forever, and the time God has given to us - we must love everyone around us , like we love ourselves.
Even Jesus loved us so much that He died for us on the Cross.



Always remember ,  "Pray like no one is watching you. Fast like no one is watching you. Do good like no one is watching you. God knows."


A good way of learning about Lent is through learning about Jesus suffering by the Stations of the Cross.

the Site below has a good way of explaining this.

Stations of the Cross for Kids.

Another good way of practicing Lent is by doing little acts of Kindness and Charity every day of Lent.

Here is a good example courtesy Teacher Suzette of Class 1A

The community song

It’s I. It’s I. It’s I who builds community.
It’s I. It’s I. It’s I who builds community
It’s I. It’s I. It’s I who builds community.
It’s I that builds community…oh, oh, oh, oh



Chorus:

Roll over the ocean, roll over the sea,

Go and do your part to build community.

Roll over the ocean, roll over the sea(Hey!),

Go and do your part to build community.

It’s you.It's you.It's you who builds community …etc
(chorus)


It’s us…etc
(chorus)


It’s love…etc
(chorus)


It’s Christ… etc
(chorus)

It’s me, it’s you, it’s us, it’s love, it’s Christ who builds community,
It’s me, it’s you, it’s us, it’s love, it’s Christ who builds community,
It’s me, it’s you, it’s us, it’s love, it’s Christ who builds community,
It’s me, it’s you, it’s us, it’s love, it’s Christ who builds community.
(chorus).

The House Built on a Rock

Aim: 

To enforce in children that Jesus is Our Rock, Our strength . We need to go to Jesus in every sad, happy, good, bad moment in our life. Especially when we are sad or something upsets us, or we feel our studies or a situation is hard - we need to got to Jesus. That way, we will always be perfectly capable of dealing with different situations in our life.

Bible Passage: 

Luke 6:46-40 (NRSV Version)

The Two Foundations

⁴⁶ “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I tell you? ⁴⁷ I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. ⁴⁸ That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.^[a] 49 But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”

 Colouring page from Calvary Kids

Lesson: 

Imagine, you are in the beach with your little Beach toys- sand buckets and little shovels etc. Imagine you make this lovely sand-castle. It is nice and big - with little towers etc. You are so proud of your work ,you run to show it to mum and dad.

Just as you are showing it ot them - a huge wave comes and washes right over your sand castle!!!

What happens to your castle? Does it remain nice and strong as it was? 

No? Why? 

Because it was made of sand and built on sand!!

Now, imagine you built that same castle a little higher up on a rock- would the wave have been able to reach it? would it have been destroyed that easily? 

Imagine  you built a strong house with bricks and all on Big Rock or a mountain? Would a wave destroy it?

This is what this parable is about. Remember we told you that Parables are stories Jesus told us to teach us a lesson. 

What Lesson was Jesus was trying to teach us??

Jesus was trying to tell us that we , or Our Lives are like the houses in the story. 

The waves are the problems, sadness, difficulties in studies, or problems with our friends. 

The Rock is our faith and Love for Jesus with our prayers. 

Jesus was trying to tell us that we need to build our lives on our Love for God. When the waves of sadness , difficulties come we are supposed to go to Jesus and get strong knowing that Jesus will help us - all we need to do is ask Him!!!

Then no matter what happens - Jesus will carry us up - He will lift us and put us high up - so our problems will look small!

Let us remember then to pray everyday and ask God to help us everyday!

Prayer: 

Dear Lord, 

Thank-you for being my Father and making me your child!

Help me to remember that You love me and that I need to come to you whenever I feel sad or find things difficult. Give me strength and help me to love you more. 

I Love you Lord, 

Amen