The Resurrection According to Matthew
Puppet/Drama Workshop
Summary of Lesson Activities:
Uses puppets to tell the story of the resurrection according to Matthew.
Scripture Reference:
Matthew 28
Memory Verse:
“Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world.” Matthew 28:19-20 (CEV)
Concepts:
- The risen Jesus rules over heaven and earth.
- Jesus tells us to teach others how to be his disciples.
Lesson Objectives:
- From the Bible story in this workshop, the children will hear the risen Jesus say that he has authority over heaven and earth, and the workshop leader will discuss what this means.
- Also from the Bible story (and specifically the memory verse) the children will hear Jesus’ commission to teach others to be his disciples.
- During the puppet skits, children will experience some different ways of teaching.
- Discussion will focus on how these can be used to teach others about Jesus and how to be disciples of Jesus.
Leader Preparation:
- Read the scripture passages and background materials.
- Make at least 7 copies of each script.
- Cut the scripts into pieces so that each player can have a copy. You can also post two copies of the script at each end of the stage so puppeteers can refer to it.
- Prepare a closing prayer.
- Check out the room before your first Sunday workshop so that you know where everything is located.
- If you choose to pre-record the scripts, family members and their friends can have a lot of fun playing the different parts.
Materials List:
- Copies of the script
- Any props you may want.
- Puppets
Lesson Plan
Opening:
Greet the children and introduce yourself. Wear your nametag.
Tell the children that today they will learn about Jesus, his power and how to teach others about Jesus.
Dig:
Bible Story:
- Read the scripture passages using the attached version. Please practice reading this aloud several times before you teach. Practice will help you decide where to put the emphasis. You might want to mark words to emphasize. It’s a great story—the children should be very attentive! Before reading it to the children, you can tell them that this passage is about Jesus’ Resurrection. Ask whether anyone knows what “Resurrection” means. The rising of Jesus Christ from the dead. Why did Jesus die? His human body was put to death as a sacrifice to cleanse our bad behavior, also known as sins.
- There are comments inserted in italics that you can use to explain some of the passage. It’s important to use these or a similar commentary as this is where the children learn about Jesus’ power and commission to teach what he has taught us.
- Try to keep the Bible Story to 10-12 minutes. The children will be eager to get to the puppets. You need to cover the story completely for the first two weeks of the lesson; after that, most children will be familiar with this passage.
- After going through the Bible story, introduce the skits by saying that the skits will help us understand some different ways of teaching, so that we can do what Jesus said—teach others how to be his disciples.
Application:
Note: There are 5 skits. Four have 4 characters; one has 2. You’ll have to use a combination of skits to give everyone a chance to perform, either by repeating or leaving out—you never know how many children will be there! Let each child have a chance to operate a puppet or they will be disappointed. Use may want to use an adult to fill in extra parts—it’s hard to give only one or two children two turns.
- Divide the class into groups of children needed to perform each skit.
- You have several options about who will read the parts. You may pre-record the entire skit on cassette tape before Sunday (this always worked well for me when I was a PP workshop leader). You may also allow each child to read and act out his/her own puppet part (this works well with 3rd grade and up).
- Give out scripts to each group and assign parts. Some scripts are written such that any gender can play the parts. Names are usually only used as prompts for the puppeteers. Let the children line up quietly to choose a puppet.
- Allow the groups 3-5 minutes to practice their script. Grades 1&2: The shepherd and workshop leader should help with the scripts, “speaking” the voices while the children act them out, or from a prepared an audio tape of the script. You may want to do this for the other grades as well to keep the pace moving and to allow the children to focus on what is being said and not the mechanics of reading.
- When performing the skits, you may use the pre-recorded version.
- If you have a large group of children, you may repeat skits so everyone has a turn.
- After each skit (or all versions of a skit), ask the performers to sit down and have a brief discussion with all children about what happened in the play.
After skit 1: What were two of the characters/puppets going to teach the other two? How to bake cookies. Have you ever made cookies? Would it be hard to make them if someone gave you the recipe and you had never seen cookies made before? Probably hard to do. How were the two children going to teach the others--give them a cookbook and let them read it? Any discussion permissible, but encourage the idea of “sharing or showing another what he/she had already learned.” What are some of the things we have learned about Jesus that we could share with someone who didn’t know anything? Encourage: Jesus was God come to earth as a human, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, died for our sins, rose again, if we accept Christ we can receive eternal life with God…
After skit 2: What did one character/puppet teach another? The right way to subtract large numbers How did they teach it? Encourage the idea of “correcting wrong thinking.” How do you think Monica got the wrong idea about math? Encourage the idea of either someone taught her the wrong thing or she guessed at it and got it wrong. Did she seem happy to know the right way to do the math? Yes Do you ever hear any wrong information about God or Jesus that you could correct? It will be interesting to hear what if anything the children say—if anyone suggests anything, make sure they understand the right answer. I wouldn’t introduce any wrong or discouraging ideas, such as that some people think God and Jesus don’t exist or that Jesus isn’t the only way to eternal life. I would just say that if they ever hear someone say something wrong about God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit, that they should nicely give them the truth.
After skit 3: What does one character/puppet want to be when he grows up and why? media specialist (librarian) because of the one at his school. What did all the characters/puppets like about Mrs. Thomas? She seemed to like her job, she is nice, nice voice, everyone likes her, knows about books, has read a lot. Does anyone know what a person is called when they set an example like Mrs. Thomas did? role model. Have you ever thought that someone could be a role model for being a disciple of Jesus? What would that mean? Any discussion permissible, but encourage ideas of showing love for God, for Jesus, for the Bible, for each other, following 10 commandments. Do you think that someone could think that you seemed so happy and so nice that they wanted to be like you—be a Christian or a disciple of Christ—just because you had been a role model? Get them to agree—question is really rhetorical.
After skit 4: This skit talked about the fable of the boy who cried wolf. Has everyone heard that story before? What do you learn from this fable? If you don’t tell the truth a few times then people may not believe you when you do—especially in the area of needing help. Do you think a fable or story is a good way to learn a lesson? Does anyone know about the stories that Jesus used to teach his disciples about God? What are they called? parables What are some of the parables you have learned? The ones they are probably going to know are the Good Samaritan, the Prodigal Son and maybe the Buried Talents and the Sower and The Seeds. So stories are a good way to teach about Jesus.
After skit 5: What were the characters/puppets going to teach? They were going to make a presentation on simple machines to their whole class. Since none of them knew what a simple machine was, how could they teach about it? They were going to read books and know more about simple machines before the presentation. Do you have to be an “expert” to teach? No, you don’t have to know everything—you can share whatever you do know. What can we learn from this skit to help us teach others how to become Jesus’ disciples? Encourage discussion about ways to learn and study so that you can teach What are ways to learn more about becoming Jesus’ disciples? attending FaithQuest, listening in Church, going to PCPW and reading the Bible are some examples.
Wrap-up:
Review the two concepts covered and give a chance for additional questions. Have the children put their puppets back neatly.
Reflection:
Distribute the journal sheets and pencils/markers. Tell the younger children to draw a picture of their favorite part of the Resurrection story. You can prompt them by talking about the major parts: the women at the empty tomb with the angel, the women holding on to Jesus’ feet and listening to him, the guards and bad leaders making a plan to give wrong information about the Resurrection, Jesus meeting with his disciples.
If shepherds have time, go around to each child (you may have to ask the child about this) and write a short caption on the picture so parents will understand the picture (parents really appreciate this). Tell the older children to think about their favorite part and write a few words about it. If they are struggling, also give them the prompts and suggest they start writing with: “My favorite part of the Resurrection story was…” If they have time, they can illustrate.
Closing:
Prayer: Close with a simple prayer acknowledging that the risen Jesus now rules over heaven and earth and asking God to help us teach others how to be Jesus’ disciples. Ask all of this in Jesus’ name.
Tidy and Dismissal: Ask children to help clean up as they wait for their parents to arrive. Put pillows behind stage area. Put away boom box, workshop bin, etc
References:
Notes supplied by Lori Houck for curriculum writers' Bible study in February 2003.
SKIT 1 (4 characters)
Conrad: “Anybody want a cookie?”
Everyone else: “Sure!”
Trudy: “These are really good.”
Eva: “They taste homemade.”
Alex: “Homemade cookies? How do you do that?”
Conrad: “It’s easy. You just get a recipe and do what it says.”
Trudy: “Well, it might be a little hard if you’ve never done it before.”
Eva: “I’ve never made cookies before.”
Alex: “I’d like to make cookies for my family.”
Trudy: “Let’s go to my house. My mom always lets me bake, and Conrad can help me show you two how to make them. It’s really easy if you’re watching someone who has done it before.”
Everyone else: “Let’s go.”
SKIT 2 (2 characters)
Monica: “I’m glad you could come and go over yesterday’s homework with me. I missed all the math problems on subtraction.”
Matthew: “Let me see your homework. (looking over the paper) You only missed the subtraction problems with large numbers. Can you show me how you figured out problem number 5? It has large numbers. Maybe you’re doing something wrong only when you use large numbers.”
Monica: “OK, see first I do this and get that number and then this and get that number—I’m regrouping it.”
Matthew: “That’s what you’re doing wrong. You don’t have to do it that way. Let me show you how. First, do this, then subtract. See--that’s all you have to do.”
Monica: “That’s really all? Let me try these others that way. OK, is that one right now?”
Matthew: “Yes—you’ve got it.”
Monica: “Wow, subtraction of large numbers is so much easier this way.”
Matthew: “And best of all, you’re getting the right answers!”
SKIT 3 (4 characters)
George: “When I grow up, I’m going to be a media specialist.”
Frank: “Do you mean like Mrs. Thomas, the media specialist at our school?”
Gwen: “She is really nice. She always helps me find a book just for me, and I always really like the ones she suggests.”
Hillary: “I really like her because she has such a soft, nice voice.”
George: “I think all those things are why I want to be a media specialist—because everyone likes Mrs. Thomas, and she seems to like her job. I’m going to try to be just like her.”
Gwen: “You’ll have to read a lot of books so you’ll know what to suggest.”
George: “That’s OK because I love to read.”
Hillary: “And you can’t yell in the media center.”
Frank: “That will be easy, just do your yelling outside.”
SKIT 4
(4 characters)
LeAnn: “Have you ever heard about crying wolf?”
Robert: “Isn’t that the story about the shepherd boy who was bored and cried out that there was a wolf when there wasn’t?”
Martha: “And the whole town came running to help him save the sheep, and he just laughed because there wasn’t a wolf.”
Stephen: “He kept faking and crying wolf until no one believed him anymore. Then when a real wolf came, and he cried wolf, the town didn’t come, and the wolf killed all the sheep.”
LeAnn: “Now I get it. I was pretending to be hurt so my mom would come and pay attention to me. And she told me to stop crying wolf.”
Robert: “It is pretty scary to think that if you faked being hurt, then your mom may not pay attention when you really are hurt.”
Martha: “I like stories like that.”
Stephen: “I think they’re called fables, and the lesson at the end is called the moral.”
SKIT 5 (4 characters)
Peter: “Our group is supposed to make a presentation to teach the class about simple machines.”
David: “What is a simple machine?”
Lacy: “I don’t know.”
Margo: “Me neither.”
Peter: “I don’t know either, but that’s what these books are about. We can’t teach the class about simple machines if we don’t know what they are.”
Lacy: “Let’s each take one and read it tonight. Then we can talk about it tomorrow.”
David: We can even trade books until each of us read all of them. I’d like to be an expert if I’m going to teach everyone else.”
Margo: “I agree. I wouldn’t want someone to teach me anything if they didn’t know a lot about it.”
Bible study notes for the teacher:
What does authority mean? (power). So “all authority” means that Jesus has power over heaven and earth. He rules heaven and earth. God has given the risen Jesus the same powers that God has.
And as the ruler of heaven and earth, Jesus has given us a job to do—what job did he give us? (Go to all the people of the nations and make them my disciples.) Do you have to go to other countries to do this? (No, you can also make disciples of people in this country—there are a lot of people in our community who do not accept Jesus as their savior. You can also go to other places to teach about Jesus. We call that being a missionary.)
What did Jesus teach us? Can you think of things you have learned from previous Faith Quest lessons? (Hopefully you’ll have lots of answers, more than I can think of, but here are some: God loves us, Love God, Love your neighbors which really includes all people, God wants to forgive us, God wants us to be in heaven with him, all we have to do to go to heaven is believe in Jesus and accept his power to cleanse away any bad things we do, obey God’s rules, trust God, forgive others, , God blesses a lot of people who are sad, and lastly what we have just learned, God wants us to be baptized, and Jesus has power over heaven and earth and wants everyone to be his disciple.)
*Note to workshop leader: many people, even non-Christians, believe that Jesus existed and that his body disappeared from the tomb that day. There is so much written about it in history that it would be hard to dispute. But some people believe the story that the soldiers and leaders invented, that Jesus’ disciples removed his dead body, instead of the truth that God raised Jesus’ dead body to eternal life. This scripture passage explains where this lie came from. This is probably too hard for the children to grasp at this point, but if someone asks a question about this, you’ll have some background to answer it.
A lesson written by Catherine from: Kirk of Kildaire Presbyterian Church
Cary, NC
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