Mary Magdalene is a great character, sometimes seen as the female Apostle she is the first witness of the resurrected Christ. These games link into various parts of the story, the way she mistook Jesus as a gardener, her role in the group, the oils she bought for a task she never fulfilled and more. Some of these activities are more suited to the start of a session, while others would work better later on.
Who am I? – This is a classic game involving a blindfold and lots of people trying to disguise their voice. Have the child playing ‘Mary Magdalene’ sit in a chair blindfolded, point to one other child and get them to call out “Mary Magdalene” – Can the child with the blindfold tell who it is?
Smell bags – Mary goes to buy oils to anoint the body at the beginning of this story. Use some kind of container, a cloth bag works the best but cardboard boxes with salt shaker holes are just as easy. Then find some familiar smells, shampoo’s, perfumes, soap, chopped vegetables, spices, cleaning products, candles, fruit, flavoured crisps, etc. Either place ‘the smell’ inside the container or onto a tissue inside the container and get the kids to identify it.
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