Skip to main content

Reply to "OTHER and MISC Workshop Lessons and Ideas for Esther"

I have collected ideas for telling the story of Queen Esther and celebrating Purim on a budget - scenery, groggers, and all!

E4980A9A-33E6-48A8-8F9A-784D7BEACFBB

In Jewish tradition, children would go to the Synagogue twice in celebration of Purim, where the entire book of Esther would be read. (I trust my readers are familiar with this story, if not, read it in one sitting and get familiar with it.) It is one service where everyone is encouraged to be noisy. As the story is read, every time the name of Haman is mentioned, everyone from young to old, stamp their feet, shake their groggers and make noise to drown out the wicked man's name. I think it is a brilliant way of getting children to engage in the story and become curious to learn who this Haman is. I'm not sure that is why the tradition developed, but it's a great by product.

Groggers in worship

For starters, if you aren't Jewish, you could ask your pastor if you could do something similar in your church service the Sunday before Purim. It would be  a sort of children's sermon. Here's the plan:

  • Pick a section of Esther to read that has Haman's name in it a lot. Or put a few sections together with his name in it.
  • Have kids make groggers in your kid's program the week before.
  • Let the kids come to the front and sit on the floor around the leader. Briefly sum up the story in the church service. (Bad guy Haman doesn't like it that a Jew won't bow down to him. Bad guy devises plan to get all Jews killed. Good lady Queen Esther risks her life going to the king and begs for the life of her people.)
  • Instruct the adults that as you read, when they hear the name of Haman they can shake their keys if they have some, stomp their feet and shout boo along with the children. Children, of course, can shake their groggers.
  • Then do it. When you finish reading the portion, recap that Esther prayed and then went to the king and her people were saved.

Acting Out Esther and the King in Sunday school

Make a throne room, a throne, and a scepter. The videos below show you how.

Then, after sharing the story, have the kids take turns being Esther and the King. Esther has to walk in to the throne room. If the King extends his scepter, she is allowed to come before him. If he does not, the "guards" will take Esther away. Help children to understand that Esther was risking her life to do this.

Add a life application to this re-enactment game: have the "Esther" tell the king her (his) plan for helping others or of a prayer concern in the community.

How to make the throne room wall

How to make a throne

How to make a scepter

We also made scepters for the kids to take home from dowels and wooden dowel endcaps. I got the idea from Debbie Jackson's blog Bible Fun for Kids. Here is the post with her instructions for making the scepters. I left off the wood doll pin stand and used a standard end cap for the "ball" at the end of the scepter.

Telling the story with pictures

Free Bible Images has excellent pictures for telling the story of Esther. You can print them up or download them into a Power Point presentation. There are ten different sets of images to chose from.

scepter

Service projects and other traditions

There are several other traditions that have developed for the celebration of Purim which are beneficial for children to learn to do.

  • Giving to the needy (caring for the less fortunate): Special emphasis is placed on this the day of Purim. You can take a meal to someone in need, give to a local food bank, volunteer at a soup kitchen, or donate to a charity that helps others. Learning to give is a fundamental Christian principle, and this is a great time to teach it. Because the Jews were almost killed by Haman, they were all endangered together. From that, the teaching is to stand together, and that includes helping those among you to stand.
  • Send gifts of food to friends (people within your Christian circle of friends). This teaches caring within the body of Christ.

For other Jewish traditions, check out this link.



1-Kid Frugal Logo [800x318)

Moderator's note: This resource is from Rotation.org member Joan Eppehimer's KidFrugal blog, which she is sharing here at Rotation.org in order to preserve it for posterity and make it available more widely with our community.  It is part of a large group of lessons and resources that she developed to make "ministry happen when there are no resources to make it happen." Thank you, Joan, for sharing your creativity with our community!

You can read more about Joan and her ministry here.

Attachments

Images (3)
  • CelebratingPurim
  • 1-Kid Frugal Logo (800x318)
  • scepter
Last edited by Amy Crane
Rotation.org Inc. is a volunteer-run, 100% member supported, 501(c)3 non-profit Sunday School lesson ministry. You are welcome to borrow and adapt content for non-commercial teaching purposes --as long as both the site and author are referenced. Rotation.org Inc reserves the right to manage, move, condense, delete, and otherwise improve all content posted to the site. Read our Terms of Service. Get a free Registered Membership or become a Supporting Member for full access to all site resources.
Rotation.org is rated 5 stars on Google based on 51 reviews. Serving a global community including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, S. Africa, and more!
×
×
×
×
×