Salome’s Story:

When Jesus left after the evening meal, we knew whatever was going to happen would be soon. When one of the disciples finally returned, he was alone. Jesus had been arrested. We stood in the streets and heard the whip hit his back, watched as he carried the wooden cross to Golgotha wearing that stupid crown of thorns. Would he save himself from the cross? Mary Magdalene, Jesus’s mother, and I edged closer and closer and saw him looking at us. Three hours we waited until he shouted the words, “it is finished.” Jesus was gone. It was over. They laid him in a tomb, and I went to collect spices to put on his body. But it was too late. The Sabbath was coming, and the spices would have to wait. That Sabbath was so quiet. We were so afraid. We were so lost. Our lives had become all about Jesus, and now he was gone.

The beloved disciples Story:

Jesus called me the one he loved, but I ran just as fast as the rest of the disciples. I ran when I saw Judas turn up with the crowd of men. I ran when I saw their swords. I was scared they would take me too. I didn’t stand up in court or plead with Herod or Pilate. For 3 years, he was my family, and I did nothing. The crowds in Jerusalem were thick with people. I followed at a distance, keeping my head down. I saw the men with gold coins for those who shouted “crucify,” and I did nothing. Why am I so afraid? I can see him looking from the cross for his friends. I got near enough to see his mother and the women. He wanted to say something to me. He told me that I am to take his mother as my own and that she is to take me as her son. Even as he left, he gave me a new family.

The Centurion’s Story:

We got handed this man straight from the steps of Pilate’s house. He’d been whipped already, but he was still standing. Pilate looked irritated. This was the crowd’s decision, not his. It was about half a mile to Golgotha, but we didn’t think he’d make it. The crowd was crazy. There were a few weeping, but most of them were shouting abuse and spitting in his face. He had this good robe on and a crown of thorns. We gambled for the robe and put up a sign saying “King of the Jews.” The Jews didn’t like that. He was nailed up to the cross as the sky went black. It was midday. He didn’t say much up there, and he didn’t last long. But he asked God to forgive us and said we didn’t know what we were doing. When he died, I realised this was no ordinary man: We’d killed the son of God.

Click this image to get the printable story page. Split into 3 cards once printed.

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I spinning crafts for both Nicodemus and the woman at the well are rather popular choices so with a little nudge from a friendly comment I made up a version for the witnesses to the Crucifixion story. It depicts the Easter scene. It’s three scenes have no words. It shows the city, Golgotha, and the garden. When it comes to characters I’ve included the three from the witnesses to the Crucifixion lesson as well as lots of extra’s. Where you place the characters and which you choose to use is totally dependant on how you are telling the story and which gospel is your base.

To make this craft you will need a pair of scissors, glue, a craft knife (can do this bit in advance) and the printout. Do not allow your printer to stretch the template. There are 3 pages to the PDF, this is because there are so many characters, if you use a photocopier I’d recommend snipping out the bits you need to see if you can reduce it to 2! For printing in Colour PDF – 3 pages For printing people and decor with No colour PDF – 1 page For printing structure with No colour PDF – 2 pages

Start by cutting out everything – you’ll notice I’ve added dotted lines to this one to make it less tricky. If you want to stage the cutting just do the background, cross and base.

Carefully place the characters to one side for now. Take the large cross piece and remove one of the white squares with a craft knife, cut three sides of the remaining square.

Separate the 4 white boxes at the base of the cross, this will be used to attach it to your base.

Now it’s time for construction. Score if you you wish and fold the two cross beams, remembering to fold the white flaps too. Add a little glue to the white flap in the middle of the beam and slide them together.

Don’t stick your cross in place! It will go in the middle after the backdrops.

Construct the backdrops. The flaps on the base fold in opposite directions so the coloured one will be seen and the white one hidden.

Either glue directly to the base or glue all backdrops together and then glue the base onto them.

Now stick your cross in.

Time to get the decorations. They need to be folded so the flaps can be glued onto the base. You may wish to use sticky tack so they can be re-positioned. Charcaters include : Nicodemus who helped put the body in the tomb, Simon Peter who looked into the empty tomb, 2 of Jesus (carrying the cross and resurrected with nail marks), Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Jesus as well as the centurion, Salome, and the ‘beloved’ disciple that accompany this lesson.

Note that the Jesus character with the cross has extra slits along the side of the cross so that it looks like it’s being dragged. This sadly makes it impossible to balance him so he must be stuck down.

Don’t forget to talk about all the characters, some characters fit on multiple scenes, discuss where you think it’s best to place them.

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Gifts= PREPARATION + RECOGNITION + BELONGING

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Here are the images you need for the hero’s attributes linked to witnesses to the crucifixion.

Each hero’s page set contains a high quality graphic of the character, a take home bible card and a colouring page.

The images are displayed small here, click on the image you wish to have, then save the image that loads.
(Please note : these images have no watermark but are not copyright free, they are only intended for classroom use.)

English

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Centurion, Beloved, Salome, Mother Mary, Mary

You need to create a dark background because the sky went dark, a space for the women to watch which isn’t too near,an earthy colour or green and a space for the soldiers, probably dry earth. You can use any medium you wish for this, eg: paper, sandpaper, fabric, grass, dirt, sand… etc.

Once you have placed the background and the characters you need to place the shadow of the cross. Ideally this would be a large grey transparent shape. Netting, sheer fabric or whatever transparent material you have on hand would work to stick on top. Alternatively paint a wash of colour or spray-paint a light layer onto the finished mural. Don’t worry about the colour that your shadow is, if the only transparent thing you can find is sweet wrappers make a stain glass window type of cross. The shadow and shape matter much more than the colour.
 

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Rather than 3 play posts for the Witnesses to the crucifixion lesson the games are listed here – if you want more games connected with Palm Sunday, Good Friday, and Easter then click here for the last Easter theme lesson. This lesson has 3 heroes, (the soldier, Salome, and the disciple Jesus loved) ideally you would choose one or split your group into 3 and each cover a different hero. I’ve tried to include games than link with all three
 

Obstacle race – It’s been a while since I fell back onto this traditional game, but the journey to the cross through the streets of Jerusalem, or getting through the crowds to see Jesus, can easily link in.
 

Shadow charades – set up a sheet or screen and a bright light to play charades. this version allows letters to be made to spell out words and ties into the idea of standing in the shadow of the cross.
 

Standing Dice – This is a really simple game that can be played with as many dice as you have. sit in a circle and take it in turns to throw a dice. If you roll a six you stand up, if you roll a one you are out, and other number you sit down. the winner is the last man standing. (link to soldier)
 

Smell bags – I love this game, it sounds like a lot of work but really it’s very simple. You need some kind of container, a cloth bag works the best but cardboard boxes with salt shaker holes are just as easy. You then need to find some familiar smells, shampoo’s, perfumes, soap, chopped vegetables, spices, cleaning products, candles, fruit, flavoured crisps, you’ll be amazed at home many you can find even in a sparsely equipped homestead. Either place ‘the smell’ inside the container or onto a tissue inside the container and get the kids to identify the it. (link to Salome)
 

Where’s he – you need a hidden object image like where’s wally (or waldo). a Google search will bring up many! Make the image as large as possible, a projector would work well (you can print on acetate and make a home-made projector from a box and a bright light). Split the children into teams and call out an item to be found. the first child to indicate they have found the item gets to point it out and if correct scores a point for their team. (link to Jesus looking for the beloved disciple in the crowd)
 

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