Jesus enters Jerusalem

Bible Verse: Your king is coming to you... He is on the colt of a donkey. Zechariah 9:9

Message: Jesus offers a different kingdom, He rode a donkey when other kings ride on horses and chariots. When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people welcomed Him and we can welcome Him too as our Lord.

Lesson Time:
I asked the kids what they know about parades:

1. What can you see on a parade?
2. Why people go have parades?
3. Do you need to be scared of parades?
4. What parades have they joined?

Then, I told them that a long time ago, a parade happened and that same parade is still done up to this day, once a year. They were interested to know what it was. Careful not to associate the Palm Sunday rituals, I focused more on the donkey, the coats being laid down, and the words the people exclaimed.

Separating the girls from the boys, I assigned line leaders from the two groups. I told them we will have a parade and we will shout Hosanna, which means 'welcome, Jesus!'

It was fortunate that we have a huge place to roam around. We went around the hall shouting hosanna. The kids were marching and shouting, the other older classes were looking at us perhaps figuring, why the noise? :)

Game: Charades
Afterwards, the kids went to their spots. I showed them a book of how to praise Jesus, explaining that when Jesus entered Jerusalem, all the people were praising Him as their king. The book showed a little girl listening to her Sunday school teacher, praying, singing, reading the Bible with her parents.

Then I asked for volunteers. The kids in front will act out the word I will whisper in her ear, no word should be used. Girls vs. boys have to guess the answer. The preschoolers acted out the following ways to praise Jesus:

• praying
• reading the Bible
• singing
• listening to teacher

The girls team won. I asked the boys to say congratulations to them, while the girls had to say thank you.

Crafts time: Maracas

Now I told the class that we will make another parade, but this time we will be prepared. We will welcome Jesus using maracas which we will make ourselves.

I have prepared before hand cylinders from used cardboards. Then I gave them square pieces of paper to be the topper and the bottom part. They are to put grains of rice or mongo inside.

Voila, we have our very own maracas.

I even asked them to write the word Hosanna Jesus in their maracas.

Our sample maracas - made by a 3-year old boy

Extra time: Palm Leaf samples
Since we still had time, I was able to use what Teacher Tez, the other preschool teacher gave me. However, the materials were not enough for every one so I only got to ask the girls and allowed the boys to play. They were eager to run around.

The craft was palm leaf with the sticker of the memory verse. An ice cream stick served as the branch.