Palm Sunday

Hosanna Banner

lectionary, sensory faith, worship resources

When Jesus Rode into Jerusalem on a Donkey, the crowds were so excited to see him. He was their long expected king. The one who would free them from oppression. If I was in my congregation this weekend we would be celebrating with palm leaves, songs and dancing. Let’s not let the physical distancing of CV-19 change that. Let’s still celebrate, and here’s how we can do this together in our homes.

What you will need:

A print out of this palm leaf template.
8 A4 sheets green or white paper
Pencils, textas, crayons and maybe green paint
scissors
PVA glue
String/Wool
optional: green glitter

How To Make
Print & Cut out one copy of palm leaf template.
If you have green paper, fantastic! Use your template to cut enough to spell “Hosanna” and whatever you want on either side of it.
If you don’t have any green paper, print out 8 of the templates, and colour with green crayon, texta, pencil or paint!
If you have glitter, run a line of glue around the edges of each letter and apply glitter (maybe ask a big person to assist with this)
Once your leaves are dry, string them up to make your banner! Don’t forget to make sure all of your letters are in the right order. H-O-S-A-N-N-A-!

That’s it everybody! Now find somewhere to hang it so you can look at it and remember the story of Jesus riding into Jerusalem and the crowds that cheered for him.

Palm Sundaes

sensory faith

In our current times of physical distancing due to CV-19 here’s a fun and easy way to really get into the celebratory mood of Palm Sunday. Let’s make Palm Sunday “Sundaes”. I’ll be ensuring all of the families in my community have the resources ready for making these together on Sunday.

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO GET STARTED:
Ice Cream
You can’t have a sundae without it! I opted for plain vanilla, but really, I think you could choose any flavour.

Crushed Cookies
The crushed cookies symbolize the rough and rocky road that Jesus travelled on when coming in to Jerusalem.

Green Mint Leaves
You’ll want to find a mint leaves for this one. Alternatively, you could use green sour straws, jelly beans, green sprinkles, fruit roll ups, gummy worms, green raisins, pistachios etc.  You’ll pour this on top of the crushed road to represent the palm branches that were waved and spread across the road during Jesus’ arrival.

Miniature Kit Kat
This represents the donkey that Jesus rode on.

Sour Patch Kids
This represents Jesus. You can use whatever candy you want for this, but I thought it would be perfect since it is sort-of-human shaped. Gummy bears might also work and jelly babies would also work.

Sprinkles
This represents the joy and celebration of the crowd as the Messiah entered into Jerusalem.

Cool Whip
This is solely just for aesthetics. You can’t have ice cream without a little extra cream! Plus, it makes it so much easier to place Jesus, the donkey and the sprinkles.

All of these ingredients together don’t make the typical sundae, but children love to pile on the sweets when it comes to their ice cream, so I don’t think the fact that there are contrasting flavours going on will be a problem. I don’t particularly love sour gummies in my ice cream, but it makes for such a fun treat with a great message.

I am looking forward to sharing this treat with the family this year. I know they are going to get excited once they see me bring in the ice cream! While we’re creating our sundae, I’ll be sharing the story and symbolisms of this special day in a way they won’t soon forget.