Ascension

ASCENSION

 

Objectives:

  1. Children should be able to say “Ascension” and define it.
  2. Children should identify the characters in the icon and tell the story.

 

Possible Lesson Plan:

  1. Open with prayer.  Remember especially Pascha and the Paschal hymns and greetings.

 

  1. Tell the story of Ascension.  It’s in the Beginners Bible, pages 466-472 , Children’s Bible Reader, page 267, and the Golden Children’s Bible.  Use the icon as a visual aid and identify the people as you tell the story.  There is Jesus, Mary, angels, and 12 disciples. Can all the students identify the people and tell the story?

 

  1. Feed the Elephant/True or False?

True                                         False

            Jesus rose into heaven on Ascension.             Jesus died on the cross on Ascension

            Mary and the disciples were there.                 Noah rode him to heaven on an ark.

            Jesus told the people that He would               Jesus told everyone He hated them.

                        always be with them.

            Jesus is still alive in heaven                             Jesus is dead and gone.

            Jesus told his disciples to wait in                    Jesus told his disciples to go home

                        Jerusalem.                                                        and go fishing.

 

  1. Was this a sad or a happy story?  What did Jesus promise? (That He would always be with us.) Why are Jesus’s hands spread? (He’s blessing us.) What did He tell His followers to do? (To go to Jerusalem and wait for a helper from God.) Where is Jesus now? (in heaven)

 

  1. Discuss the butterfly.  Use pictures from the library or the encyclopedia.  Show the caterpillar, the cocoon, and then the butterfly.  Let the children crawl on the floor for a few minutes like caterpillars, then curl up very tight and still like cocoons, then leap up and fly like butterflies.  Is this the same individual – the caterpillar, the cocoon, and the butterfly?  So Jesus was born as a man, died, and rose into heaven – each a different form but the same God.

 

  1. Make a  Butterfly: Take a wet wipe for each child and let them "tie dye" it with regular washable markers. Use a black pipe cleaner twisted around the center of the filter as a body, with the ends as antennae, or use a clothespin and wiggle eyes. Make a second to hang around the room as decorations.

OR a different butterfly: Take a piece of cardstock. Fold in half. Draw butterfly outline in paint for the children. Let them add blobs of paint. Fold the card and squish it down. Open and see the beautiful design. Now add with newsprint or construction paper body with antennae that you’ve cut out ahead of time.

7. Alternate craft idea. Print the icon and color it. Cut out the disciples at the bottom and glue to the bottom of a piece of light blue construction paper or cardstock. Cut out Jesus and glue Him in the center of a white cloud of construction paper or cardstock (index card?). Punch hole center top and center just above the disciples. Take string or yarn and run through the two holes and tie in the back. Staple Jesus to the string in the front. You can “ascend” Him by pulling on the string in the back. Glue on some cotton ball clouds.

8. Close with prayer.