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. Read the story of the Ascension in the Beginner’s Bible, pages 466-472, the Children’s Bible Reader, page 267, or the Read with Me Bible, pages 402-403. Supplement with the Golden Children’s Bible, page 361, if desired.  Use the icon as a visual aid and identify the people as you tell the story.  There is Jesus, Mary, angels, and disciples.  Can the children name the disciples? Which disciple is missing and why? (Judas Iscariot: The icon has St. Paul, but we haven’t studied him yet) Can all the students identify the people and tell the story?

 

  1. Feed the Elephant True/False Questions:

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.

4. Pascha Story Bag is almost full now: Add a tiny globe (like a keychain globe, or use a light green tiny ball and color in the oceans with a blue Sharpie ahead of time) for the “Great Commission” and a cotton ball for the clouds into which Jesus ascended. Include a pair of dice for the choosing of Matthias discussed at Opening Exercises.

5. 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)

6. 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.

7. Make rising Jesus: Take a light blue paper cup and have children glue cotton balls to the outside like clouds. Then have them color the picture of Jesus, printed on heavy paper right from the icon, sized appropriately for your printer. Have hole punched in center top of cup and a string for each child about 18 inches long inserted thru the hole. Tie Jesus to the bottom of the string, hold at the top, and watch him rise into the clouds of the sky!

 

  1. Close with prayer.