Palm Sunday Interactive Story

At Noah's Ark at St Nics on Monday I thought we'd engage with the Palm Sunday story, allowing us to think about Easter next week.  I had lots of leaves of various sorts cut out for the kids to play and make pictures with and I told them about how Jesus came into town on a donkey before Easter.  One of the older children (she's almost 4) drew a donkey on her picture as well as sticking the palm leaves on.  Isn't it a fabulous picture.

For the story I meant to read the Bob Hartman story about Palm Sunday, but I'd left my Lion Storyteller Bible at home so instead decided to do my own version with some interactivity for the kids and their parents.  It was a lot of fun doing the actions and noises and getting them wrong, I'm sure it will remain in their minds, which is after all the point of sharing these stories of our faith.  Here is my version, or what I think I said.

I'm going to tell a story and I need you to join in:
When you hear me say Donkey I want you to say hee-aw
When you hear me say Jesus I want you to say Jesus, Jesus, Jesus
When you hear me say Crowds I want you to clap your hands and cheer
When you hear me say Palms I want you to swish swish swish your hands

One hot day it was the festival of passover so Jesus and his friends walked all the way to Jerusalem.  When they got close Jesus told his friends that he needed a Donkey for the last part of the journey so that all the Crowds could see him.  Jesus' friends didn't know where to get a Donkey, but Jesus pointed them towards a village and said that they could find a Donkey there.  He was right and soon Jesus had a Donkey.  Jesus got on the Donkey and they rode into Jerusalem.  As soon as they were inside the city there were Crowds everywhere.  The crowds waved Palms and clapped their hands and cheered to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem.  Some of the people even threw their palms and coats on the ground for Jesus on the Donkey to walk over.  It was a wonderful welcome for Jesus, they were welcoming their king.

I was amazed by how the kids engaged with the story, and we had a little chat about how Mary went on a donkey and now Jesus was on a donkey.  I don't think I'd seen that connection before, but now it seems so obvious.  The humble donkey, a safe form of passage for the Messiah and his mother.