Passport Adventures: Holy Week and Beyond

For as long as I've been teaching, I would dutifully teach my students the Holy Week stories every time Lent rolled around. But these stories were about places with which they had no real connection...they were just places they'd heard of but couldn't really picture in their minds.

Passport Adventures: Holy Week and Beyond changes that. This free lesson helps students make connections to places in and around modern day Jerusalem. It is designed to make kids feel as if they are actually traveling there. My kindergarteners now bring up places such as the Garden of Gethsemane in their everyday conversations. It's because they now know what the Garden looks like.

This lesson contains 22 slides of information and 13 videos to guide your students through Holy Week. It starts with Palm Sunday and the gates Jesus would have ridden through. The week continues as your students pretend to visit the Garden of Gethsemane, the High Priest Caiaphas's House (where Jesus was questioned), and the courtyard where Peter denied Jesus. Your students will see the possible places for the crucifixion and resurrection by visiting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Garden Tomb. The lesson continues after Easter with visiting the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus visited the disciples after His resurrection, told them to cast their nets on the other side of their boat, and reinstated Peter. It concludes at Mt. Arbel, where Jesus gave the Great Commission, and ascended into heaven.

All of the pictures/videos are from my trip to the Holy Land in June 2023. A drawing activity gives your students time to draw their favorite place from the lesson.

It was written for kindergarten-third grades but can be used by all ages so students can see the sites. Use it in the classroom, during Sunday School, or at home. Below is a peek at some of the slides: