Persona dolls are a great way to introduce young children to ideas like other religions. Elizabeth is a Christian persona doll. Downloadable here is a series of sessions designed for use with a persona doll to explore Christianity through special times (Baptism, Christmas, Easter, Harvest, prayer) special places (nature/creation, church), special books (the Bible) and special people (Jesus). Also available here is a PowerPoint presentation of Elizabeth's church.

The staff of Lydiard Millicent Primary School write:

We love our trips to All Saints Church, which is located almost at the end of our lane. Each Easter we celebrate with residents from the village and parents, with children in the church. However this year we arrived in style!

Each year group in school made either musical instruments, palm leaves or flags to wave and play as we walked to church.

We asked parents to line the lane and route to church and cheer and wave us on – just like Jesus all those years ago.

We were so surprised when parents tore leaves and branches down from the hedgerows, and waved and cheered us on. "It’s just like in the Bible story," one 5 year old exclaimed, obviously loving all the merriment!

An inclusive All-age Easter talk involving children and young people...

• Buy some plastic Easter Eggs - the kind that open so that you can put things inside. Easily available from PoundShops.
• Read the Holy Week/Easter story with the children/young people. Ask them what they want to say about it to the congregation.
• Then ask them what objects/symbols might help them say/show their ideas.
• Source or make these with the children and put one inside each egg. (Remember which is inside each colour and the order you want them to appear.) Decide together what needs to be said about the object/symbol.
• On Easter morning, have less confident children opening the eggs and showing the object/symbol and the more confident ones saying something about it. If the church is large, you might want to substitute boxes for the eggs so that the objects can be larger!
• Finish by having all the children saying, 'He is Risen' - and the congregation responding 'Alleluia'. (You could do this two or three times getting louder each time.)

Are you struggling to find a simple but effective retelling of the Easter story for your children’s group? Check this out by BBC’s CBeebies…

The latest Newslink for youth and children's workers in parishes is packed with ideas and resources for Easter, plus much more...

Our Resource Centre has lots of ideas for exploring and sharing what Easter is about. Why not come and see us to get some inspiration and practical things you can use?

What happens when Year 6 students feel that they have heard the same story, the same way, every year at Festival time? They can think they have learned nothing new since reception, and exciting festivals can become stale and offputting. So how can we keep the stories and celebrations fresh?