Explore & respond for children

Do, Make, Pray and Sing activities based on Luke 19.1-10. Ideas to engage different ages, spiritual styles and learning preferences.

Spiritual styles abbreviations

W Word E Emotion S Symbol A Action
Further information on Spiritual Styles

Do

Points of view 10 mins E

Explore how different people feel about what happened to Zacchaeus

You will need: cards with names of characters in the story, e.g. Zacchaeus, Jesus, someone in the crowd, a disciple, Zacchaeus’ wife, a friend, a cheated woman, another tax collector.

Invite the children to pick a card at random.
Ask a volunteer to come and sit in the ‘hot seat’ and pretend to be that character.
Encourage the rest of the group to ask them questions about what happened and how they feel about Zacchaeus before he met Jesus and afterwards, including how his behaviour has changed.
Give everyone a chance to be in the ‘hot seat’.

Showing hospitality 15 mins E A

Serve savoury snacks to others at church

You will need: savoury biscuits, different toppings, e.g. soft cheese, påté, hummus, guacamole, olives, tomatoes, grapes, etc. Be aware of anyone with food allergies.

Talk together about why hospitality is important. What can it involve? How does it make people feel?
Suggest the group make some savouries to share with others at church. Help them add different toppings to savoury biscuits, and serve them to people after the service.

Make

Who’s knocking at the door? 15 min W E S

Think about Jesus coming to visit us

You will need: a copy of the painting ‘The Light of The World’ (1853) by William Holman Hunt, illustrating Revelation 3.20 , A4 card, pencils, scissors, crayons/felt tips, glue sticks.

Show the children the painting ‘The Light of The World’ and talk together about the image of Jesus knocking on the overgrown door. Hunt wanted it to represent a person’s mind being closed to Jesus.
Can they spot something strange about the door? There is no handle on the outside, so it can only be opened from the inside.
Beforehand, arrange for someone to knock on the door to your room at an appropriate moment, and ask who it might be. Could it be Jesus? Ask the children how they would feel if it was Jesus knocking on the door. What would they want to say to him or show him?
Give each child a piece of card. They should fold it in half, draw a door shape on the front and a handle. Help them to cut along three sides of the door and bend back the fourth side to open it.
Show them how to stick the border around the door onto the card underneath, leaving the door free to open. They can draw the figure of Jesus knocking at their door.

Dramatic transformation 10 mins S

A symbolic activity to show how Zacchaeus’ life changed from dark to light

You will need: Scratch Art doodle sheets or pieces of white card, felt tips, black wax crayons, round-ended scissors.

Talk together about how Zacchaeus’ life changed dramatically from dark to light after he met Jesus.
Demonstrate how to use the Scratch Art sheets, or show the children how to create their own, by drawing a pattern on a piece of card in felt tip, covering it with black wax crayon, then scratching a pattern with the end of a pair of closed scissors to reveal the colours below.
The children may like to do something to symbolise the story, or just create a pattern.

Pray

Visual reflection 5 mins E S

Think about the needs of others

You will need: newspapers, or for younger children, a collection of pictures of people in need of help or hospitality.

Encourage the children to look through the newspapers and tear out a picture of people in need of help or hospitality, or choose one of the pictures from the display.
Invite them to hold their picture and pray silently for the people concerned, that God will be close to them and help them.