Make the Easter story come alive using easy-to-make puppets!

Updated February 2022

I first did these activities when my children were toddlers. At that time, I used The Easter Story book from The Book People, which is sadly no longer available.  I loved this activity so much I created my own set of GodVenture Easter puppets.

These wonderful puppets are available in my shop! You can either download and print the puppets today or invest in the book which is printed on quality card and will last for many Easters.

How to use the puppets

This set has 16 pictures which give you so many replay options, or you can pick your favourites and just use those.

All you need to do is cut out the pictures and glue them onto a piece of card stock included in the book. Then attach a lolly stick or (my favourite) paper straw.

Read aloud the 3-minute simplified version of the Easter story. It includes Jesus arriving in Jerusalem on a donkey and the last supper.

Use the puppets to ‘act’ the story as the story is read, or read the story first, then use the puppets to re-tell the story.

What age are the puppets appropriate for?

This activity can be adapted to use with all ages!

• Younger children might need help with the cutting, or you could have them preassembled before you invite them to play.
• My children are now in the 8-11 bracket, they easily cut and create the puppets themselves.
• A group setting with a variety of ages would also benefit from the fun of these story-telling tools. They could be used online or face to face. All the participants could hold and use their own puppet as part of the telling. 

Learning Opportunity

As with all my tools, these puppets bring about so many learning opportunities.  Hearing the Easter story told is only one way, letting it sink in with hands-on play is a step beyond.

• Younger children will learn to follow the steps in creating the puppets, as well as finger and hand strength using scissors. Don’t forget to leave the puppets out for further playful exploration. Children often explore their ideas about Bible stories and how they relate to them in their play, inventing their own words for characters and sometimes introducing other characters, or taking the Bible characters to other ‘worlds’. This is fascinating to watch, and even better to join in.
• Ages 7—11 enjoy being independent and creative, such as taking photographs and filming stories they ‘act out’. Open discussion by giving children a choice of which puppet they would like to hold then chat about who they are and what they do in the story.
• With an all-ages group, you can encourage people to participate by reading aloud parts of the story, acting the puppets and finishing with a chat about what each character did, how they might have felt and more.

More ideas to use your puppets

• create your own puppet theatre using blankets and a couple of chairs or a small table.
• take pictures of each scene so you can use them to re-tell the story or share it with others
• chat about the story using open-ended questions such as:
  • What is your favourite part of this story?
  • What is the most important part of the story?
  • I wonder where you might be in this story?
    (These questions can be answered by adults and children!)
• make a mini film of the story with someone being the narrator while others do the puppets
• leave the puppets out, perhaps with additional props for your children to play the story again in their own playtime
• offer extra card and sticks for anyone to add additional puppets to the story (my children added a rooster!)
• read the story from a children’s Bible story book or the Bible and ‘act’ it out using your puppets.
• cut up the storyboard and set a challenge to see if the children can put the pictures in the right order again.
• Retell the story using some toys. Which toys could you use? Who will be Jesus? Can you make a scene for them to tell the story in?
• Listen to an audio version of the story from the Bible at biblegateway.com (click here for links – the shortest gospel (Mark) is <30 mins!)
• You could even get up early to see the sunrise on Easter Sunday morning! Take some hot chocolate and hot cross buns for a picnic breakfast!

If you’re thinking of printing out several copies of the download, I encourage you to consider buying a pack of the books where the puppets come printed on quality card, and the cover can be used to store them after use. 

Get your set here