For each passage, there is a collectable card alongside high-quality character images and a colouring page. All other graphics are extra’s!
Click on the images below to see a larger version. Save the images by right click + ‘save image as’ (computers) OR long press + ‘save image’ (mobile).
Additional images for projector and phone
These images are NOT copyright free.
These resources are provided for personal/classroom use only. Use can use them for teaching, games, publicity, decor, big screen presentations, flannelgraphs, stickers, or any other non-commercial activity in your church, school, home, or organised group. You may not use them in products you are going to sell — both printed and digital, or to upload the original images online, on websites, social media or in YouTube videos. Any questions, please reach out to me using the contact page link at the end of the page.
Here are the images you need for the hero’s attributes linked to Thomas (John 20)
For each passage, there is a collectable card alongside high-quality character images and a colouring page. All other graphics are extra’s!
Click on the images below to see a larger version. Save the images by right click + ‘save image as’ (computers) OR long press + ‘save image’ (mobile).
Additional images for projector and phone
These images are NOT copyright free.
These resources are provided for personal/classroom use only. Use can use them for teaching, games, publicity, decor, big screen presentations, flannelgraphs, stickers, or any other non-commercial activity in your church, school, home, or organised group. You may not use them in products you are going to sell — both printed and digital, or to upload the original images online, on websites, social media or in YouTube videos. Any questions, please reach out to me using the contact page link at the end of the page.
Today’s text is not a straight story but an interactive event. Start by gathering the children in a circle and putting as large a cross as you can find in the middle. Explain that today we are going to talk about what happened when Jesus was on the cross. It’s a sad part of Jesus’s story, but we know that it’s not the end of Jesus’s story. The witnesses to the event did not know this, though! Choose one of these three ways of sharing the story.
1. Split the large group into 3 small groups and give each group one of the accounts. Gather and share after 10 minutes of group discussion. 2. As a whole group, use three actors to read the three accounts. 3. Hand out one of the story cards and have the children read them individually. Give them a moment to be quiet before discussing as a large group. Repeat process with the next character.
This retold version of the Bible passage is supplied for inspiration, feel free to omit or embellish to give it your personal voice.
Main Passages : John 19, Matthew 27, Mark 15
Salome’s Story:
When Jesus left after the evening meal, we knew whatever was going to happen would be soon. When one of the disciples finally returned, he was alone. Jesus had been arrested. We stood in the streets and heard the whip hit his back, watched as he carried the wooden cross to Golgotha wearing that stupid crown of thorns. Would he save himself from the cross? Mary Magdalene, Jesus’s mother, and I edged closer and closer and saw him looking at us. Three hours we waited until he shouted the words, “it is finished.” Jesus was gone. It was over. They laid him in a tomb, and I went to collect spices to put on his body. But it was too late. The Sabbath was coming, and the spices would have to wait. That Sabbath was so quiet. We were so afraid. We were so lost. Our lives had become all about Jesus, and now he was gone.
The beloved disciples Story:
Jesus called me the one he loved, but I ran just as fast as the rest of the disciples. I ran when I saw Judas turn up with the crowd of men. I ran when I saw their swords. I was scared they would take me too. I didn’t stand up in court or plead with Herod or Pilate. For 3 years, he was my family, and I did nothing. The crowds in Jerusalem were thick with people. I followed at a distance, keeping my head down. I saw the men with gold coins for those who shouted “crucify,” and I did nothing. Why am I so afraid? I can see him looking from the cross for his friends. I got near enough to see his mother and the women. He wanted to say something to me. He told me that I am to take his mother as my own and that she is to take me as her son. Even as he left, he gave me a new family.
The Centurion’s Story:
We got handed this man straight from the steps of Pilate’s house. He’d been whipped already, but he was still standing. Pilate looked irritated. This was the crowd’s decision, not his. It was about half a mile to Golgotha, but we didn’t think he’d make it. The crowd was crazy. There were a few weeping, but most of them were shouting abuse and spitting in his face. He had this good robe on and a crown of thorns. We gambled for the robe and put up a sign saying “King of the Jews.” The Jews didn’t like that. He was nailed up to the cross as the sky went black. It was midday. He didn’t say much up there, and he didn’t last long. But he asked God to forgive us and said we didn’t know what we were doing. When he died, I realised this was no ordinary man: We’d killed the son of God.
Click this image to get the printable story page. Split into 3 cards once printed.
This is a little bonus craft I made up for my friends over at Velvet Ashes. It’s added here as it’s simple enough to do with any age group.
Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 13 are a beautiful attempt at pinning down what God’s love is, and these games will help you explore the passage deeper with your youngsters.
Print the 2 pages of the card game included with this pack and follow the instructions on the printout pages. This simple card game is suitable for 1-3 players and is a great way of learning the different attributes that Paul assigns to love. (click on picture for file!) Link: The description of love.
Love is…
Under 7’s
Any size group
No Setup time
Noisy game
Can be seated
The leader calls out words. Those related to love (care, affection, like, etc), get no reaction, but when they say a word not associated with love (hurt, pain, mean etc), the kids make noise by pretending to crash cymbals or pounding on the table. Link: We know what love is, even though it’s sometimes difficult to describe.
Finding love
All Ages
Small group
Requires setup time
Noisy game
Space needed
Have a love hunt. Write the letters F,A,I,T,H,H,O,P,E,L,O,V and E on 13 hearts and hide them around your area. Have the youngsters find the hearts and make the three words. Link: The final verse: 1 Corinthians 13:13.
Mirror Muddle
All Ages
Any size group
Requires setup time
Noisy game
Can be seated
Use a small hand mirror to try to read something behind you( or look at a picture) and try to describe what you see to the rest of the group. The group could attempt to replicate the picture on their own piece of paper based on what the person looking at the original picture in the mirror says; see who can get the closest. Link: We might try to explain God, Jesus, Christianity to someone, but we’ll never do a perfect job because it isn’t clear in the mirror (verse 12).
Moving crafts are always a hit, and this one swipes from a very plain heart into one full of colour. It’s not got any tricky cutting, either! The hope, faith and love tie nicely into the passage, leaving the opportunity to use the piece as a conversation starter as to why Paul chose those 3 words.
For each passage, there is a collectable card alongside high-quality character images and a colouring page. All other graphics are extra’s!
Click on the images below to see a larger version. Save the images by right click + ‘save image as’ (computers) OR long press + ‘save image’ (mobile).
These images are NOT copyright free.
These resources are provided for personal/classroom use only. Use can use them for teaching, games, publicity, decor, big screen presentations, flannelgraphs, stickers, or any other non-commercial activity in your church, school, home, or organised group. You may not use them in products you are going to sell – both printed and digital, or to upload the original images online, on websites, social media or in YouTube videos. Any questions, please reach out to me using the contact page link at the end of the page.
This passage is so quoted and used, it’s a key part of understanding the “love” theme that echoes through scripture. It is, however, rather abstract, and this retelling used the instance of Paul writing it to frame the passage into a story.
This retold version of the Bible passage is supplied for inspiration, feel free to omit or embellish to give it your personal voice.
Paul was in the midst of writing to all the people in Corinth about the gifts God could send them through his Holy Spirit when he suddenly stopped and threw his hands in the air. In all his talk about the great gifts and the way they all worked together, he’d forgotten the most important things of all… Love!
It didn’t matter if you had every gift God could give; if you didn’t have love, then they were nothing, nadda, zip, diddlysquat, useless! Love was the thing that tied everything together.
But what kind of love. After all, there are many kinds. We may love chocolate or football, but we love our parents with a different kind of love. And God loves us with a love even greater than that. So, Paul tried to do the impossible: he tried to write out exactly what this “love” was.
Love is patient and kind. It does not envy, boast or be rude. Love thinks first of others and keeps no record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in brokenness but rejoices in the truth. It holds all things, believes all things, hopes all things, suffers all things. Love never, ever ends.
Paul sat back and read the long list of things about love. It was something he was still learning about. It was something too big for him to ever know everything about. It was like he could only see part of the picture.
He described it as looking at a reflection in a dull mirror. He knew it was God’s love, and he knew a lot about it, but the image was still blurry. His greatest wish was that one day he would see God’s love face to face, to discover what he already knew in part, but then to know fully.
Paul picked up his pen one last time for the day. He would stop after this and continue the letter tomorrow, but this last sentence needed adding:
Now these three remain: faith, hope, and love— but the greatest of these is love.
