It’s All About Jesus: Opening Activities P a g e | 1

Opening Activities

Items Needed:

 White mural paper on the wall that says “It’s All About Jesus!”
 Coloring and Activity Sheets
 Crayons and colored pencils
 “It’s All About Jesus” posters

As Children Arrive

Warmly greet children and parents as they arrive. Collect lunches and make note of anyone who doesn’t
have a lunch, so that you can let the ladies in the kitchen know how many lunches you will need. Let
children color or work on activity sheets.

Introduce the students to each other as each child arrives, and help everyone learn newcomers’ names.
Engage everyone in conversation, using questions like these:

• What things make you feel happy at Easter?

• What things do you see outside at this time of year that remind you of new life?

• What things do you see outside that are green? Do green things grow? How do you know?

• What baby animals have you seen this spring?

• Have you seen any crosses? (Hint: Can you see a cross shape in any of the doors at home? in a utility pole?
at church?)

• How does the cross remind you of the new life Jesus gives?

When most of your students have arrived, say something like this:

We’re here today to learn about the true meaning of Easter.

Easter is the time we remember what Jesus did for us and to celebrate the new life Jesus has for us. The new
life Jesus gives will last forever! I pray you will have lots of fun as you celebrate!

Introduce Today’s Memory Verse: Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

“It’s All About Jesus” Mural

Point out the white paper on the wall that says “It’s All About Jesus!” Place crayons and colored pencils
there. Tell the children that they will be making an Easter mural during the day. Talk about signs of spring
and new life that we can discover in the spring. Encourage them to include other details like trees, grass,
clouds, sun, and so forth. You can assign groups to draw specific parts of the Easter story, or you can let
each person draw their own picture.

As the groups work, remind the children that Jesus died to take away all our sins—the wrong things we do
and the good things we fail to do. Even though Jesus never sinned—not even once—he loved us so much
that he died in our place. He let himself be punished for us. The best part of all is that Jesus didn’t stay
dead. He came alive again!
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Preparation for Worship

Let the children work on the mural until around 8:45. Then start preparing them to go to the Worship
Assembly. Remind them that when we go into the Worship Center we need to participate in the singing and
pay attention when the leaders are talking.

Stop off at the restroom before going to the Worship Center, and try to have your class into the assembly
by 8:55 so that we can get started right at 9:00 am.

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ALL DAY, IF YOU HAVE EXTRA TIME:

Allow the children to color and complete parts of the “It’s All About Jesus” poster. Again, for the younger
classes, the teacher and helpers can go around to each child individually and help write down how they
would finish the sentence while the other children are coloring.

If children finish coloring on their posters, encourage them to color some more on the class mural or let
them work on Activity Sheets.

It’s All About Jesus Poster: Allow children to complete the

My favorite Easter memory portion of their poster.
***For the younger children, you could just ask them
to answer out loud as they color that portion of the poster.