Easter is one of the most important times in the Christian calendar, a key point in the children’s and youth-work teaching program. A time to remember, to be thankful, and to celebrate what Jesus has done for us all. But the big story of Easter can be difficult for some children and young people with special needs to understand. How do we help everyone to be able to engage with Jesus’ sacrificial death on Good Friday and his life-giving resurrection on Easter Sunday?
Children learn best when their senses are engaged, whether through things for them to touch and feel, look at, listen to, taste, or smell. Let’s look at some sensory ideas that we can use that will help us to tell the Easter story, but that will also give us ways to help them access other complex themes we might want to engage them with throughout the year.
Photo from Mark Arnold.
You could use some large nails, 6-inch or 9-inch ones if you can find them, as well as a piece of rough wood for the children or young people to touch and feel as you tell them the Good Friday story. If appropriate for your group, you could hammer the nails into the wood as you talk. The sound of the nails being struck provides another strong sensory input. Be aware that loud noise can be painful for some children, so ear defenders may be helpful. Obviously, depending on the age group of the children, make this activity age appropriate as you tell the story of what happened to Jesus on Good Friday.
Photo from Mark Arnold.
Have some essential oils or dried spices for the children to smell, to represent the spices that were used as Jesus’ body was wrapped in linen. Get some strips of white linen or cotton; the children can feel these and wrap them around their hands, arms or legs too.
Photo from Mark Arnold.
Get some large pebbles or cobble stones and put them in the freezer, so that they are very cold to touch. They can help represent how cold the tomb was where Jesus’ body was laid. Maybe the children could each have a cold cobble stone and then be helped to bring them together to build a tomb, with one of the stones closed over the doorway.
Photo from Mark Arnold.
It was dark when the women and then the disciples found the empty tomb, so dim the lights to represent this. If you built the tomb from the cobble stones earlier, remove the stone over the doorway and place a tea light inside to light it. Have a bright flashlight to represent the sunrise on Easter Sunday, and some scented flowers for the children to smell, to represent the garden where Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene.
Photo credit: Taisiia Shestopal on Unsplash.com.
Ask them what is the happiest news that they have ever heard and encourage them to tell these stories to each other, just as Mary Magdalene, Peter and John shared their exciting news with the other disciples and followers. You might let them have some chocolate to taste as they celebrate the good news together that Jesus is alive!
By telling the story in different sensory ways, it will help the story to become more accessible to the children and young people, building their understanding with each stage. If we plan our Easter teaching in ways that use as many of the senses of our children and young people as possible, it will help everyone to learn and bring them into the story. We can help every child, including children with special needs or disabilities, to understand and respond to this most wonderful and life-transforming message. And we can use these ideas to help us to do similar sensory teaching every other week of the year, too!
Mark Arnold is the Additional Needs Ministry Director for Urban Saints Church, Luton, Bedfordshire, UK. Follow his writing at https://theadditionalneedsblogfather.com.
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