Pascha Celebration Resources for Sunday Church School Teachers

Pascha is the Feast of Feasts! It is a time of the year like no other. That is as it should be, for it is when we celebrate the most important thing that there is to be celebrated: the resurrection of our Lord, and His trampling down death itself by His own death! Let us celebrate accordingly, and find ways that help to communicate to our Sunday Church School students how important this festal celebration is!

We have gathered a few links in case you are looking for additional ways to set this feast apart with your students. We hope that these ideas enhance what you already have planned to do, and  to teach them about the celebration. May we all be granted to see His glorious Resurrection once again, and may we help our students to celebrate well alongside us. May the Light of Christ indeed illumine us all!

Blessed Pascha! Christ is Risen! Indeed, He is risen!

 

Here are some resources that may be helpful to you as you teach your Sunday Church School students about Pascha:

Prepare these for your Sunday Church School students, and give them as a gift that will help your students retell the Paschal story. Model it with them, and then give them each a set of their own. Or, if you’d rather, provide the supplies and help them assemble their own kit after exploring yours with you. http://www.annunciationakron.org/phyllisonest/pdf/%23%202007%20Pascha%20Eggs%20Booklet%202.pdf

Have an “egg hunt” with purpose: First, the children find all the plastic eggs you’ve hidden. Then, they open them to find pieces of the Paschal story inside each one. Finally, they work together to put the story in order. Find the printable story (written at a middle-elementary reading level) here: http://www.annunciationakron.org/phyllisonest/pdf/Pascha%20Egg%20Hunt%20w%20Message.pdf

Read the book “Catherine’s Pascha” together as a Sunday Church School class. Then create a related craft such as covers for the students’ Pascha baskets or Pysanky eggs. Find these and other ideas here: http://www.catherinespascha.com/book-activities/

If you have young students, consider printing these figures on cardstock, cutting them out, laminating them, and using clay or playdough to help them stand. You can use them to tell the story of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection. And then the children can use them for retelling play! You may want to make a set for each student to take home with them. Read more here: http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net/2015/04/easter-story-printables/

Help your students to practice answering the resurrection greeting in a variety of languages. Find a lot of them here: http://oca.org/orthodoxy/paschal-greetings. Together make a bookmark that can serve as a “cheat sheet” which the students can keep in their Holy Week book (if they have one). Include all the languages that your priest will use during the service, all the languages spoken in your parish, or all the languages spoken in your region. Have your students use different colors of ink to write “Christ is risen! Indeed He is risen!” in each language.

Find more ideas here: https://www.pinterest.com/aodce/pascha/