Hosanna! It’s a Free Palm Sunday Lesson Plan

Palm Sunday is a great Sunday School lesson to teach each year because it’s all about celebrating! It’s a lesson that has so many fun ideas to help kids learn about worshiping Jesus, just as the people did on his entrance into Jerusalem centuries ago.

We’ve put together a Free Palm Sunday lesson plan for your Sunday School and children's ministry class. Make this special Sunday a little easier for you! The plan includes a main point, games, snacks, dress-up, a memory verse and motions to help with memorizing, a take-home activity, and object lessons. 

If you’d like more ideas, check out this Sunday School Lesson for Palm Sunday.

• Matthew 21:1-11
• Mark 11:1-11
• Luke 19:28-44
• John 12:12-19

The people in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, who were so excited for Jesus’ arrival, were praising Him! Do you know what praise means? It means to treat someone very special! Jesus was very special, and we can praise Him too, just as the people did on Palm Sunday in our story!

We can praise Him by praying every day, singing praise songs, drawing special pictures or writing special things about Him, and being nice and showing love to others, which is praising Jesus, too! 

Supplies Needed: 

• Large donkey photo or poster (donkey standing sideways)
• Blindfold
• Enough Jesus cutouts for the number of kids you have

Just like pin the tail on the donkey, but instead it’s pin Jesus on the donkey’s back! Have a large picture of a donkey standing sideways so that you can see its back. Then, blindfold the child whose turn it is and give them a cutout of a Jesus-looking character with a piece of tape on the back, and give them a spin with a blindfold and have them walk to try to put Jesus on the donkey’s back. 

Supplies Needed: 

• A horse on a stick (used for a kid playing Jesus to hold while they walk)
• A coat/cloak 
• 4 green papers or palm branches for each team 

If you want to make this a timed challenge, have enough sets of these supplies for multiple teams, plus a stopwatch.

Split the kids up into multiple groups, with one person as Jesus holding the “donkey” or horse, two or more others to put down palm trees, and one to put down a coat. Jesus cannot move unless he has something to step on, so once he has stepped on their piece, they need to quickly grab it from behind him and put it back in front of him. The team that makes it to the other end of the room in the quickest time wins!

Do all of you know what this is? It’s a rock, right? Now I have another question for you: Do you think my rock would cry? Have you ever seen a rock cry? No, no one has the right. Because in our world, today, rocks don’t do anything.

I have something really cool to tell you! There was a time when Jesus said in the Bible, “The stones will cry out…” Can you imagine this rock crying? I sure can’t! If you were to listen to a rock crying, what do you think it would sound like? 

The stones will cry out?! Can you imagine?! The Pharisees didn’t like Jesus and what He was doing. So they wanted everyone to stop praising Jesus! Jesus was just telling them, "Look, guys, if you are quiet, then the Earth is going to start shouting instead!" Jesus was exceptional, and the disciples knew that, and so do we, boys and girls! So that is why we praise Him today, just like the people in Jerusalem did, because of what He did for us on the cross. We also praise Him because He takes care of us and is with us even today!

Let’s look at what Jesus said in Luke 19:40. Now, I want to tell you what was going on. Jesus had arrived on the donkey in Jerusalem. Everyone was shouting with excitement, and some of the Pharisees in the crowd told Jesus to make everyone quiet. This is what Jesus said, Luke 19:40: “I tell you.” He replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” 

Do you know what a legend is? Well, if you don’t know, a legend is a story that sounds so amazing that it must be accurate, but no one knows it’s just a legend! I have an incredible legend for you today! So, in our Bible story today, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey! Well, I have for you a picture of a real-life donkey. Now….what is on the donkey’s back? A cross! Right! 

Now, after Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the donkey’s back, he died on a cross! That’s right! Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Was that cross there before or after Jesus died? We don’t know because the Bible doesn’t tell us, and ever since we’ve known about donkeys, they have had a cross on their backs! 

Now the legend says - not the Bible but the legend - that the cross on the donkey’s back is a gift that the Lord gave to the humble donkey that carried Jesus into Jerusalem. According to the legend, the donkey so loved his Master, Jesus, that he followed him all the way to the cross, and the donkey was so sad to see Jesus dying on the cross that he turned away and couldn’t look at Jesus on the cross, but stayed close. The legend says that he stayed there so long that the cross was permanently placed on the donkey's back!

Now that legend is pretty special, but it is just a legend. The Bible only tells us that the donkey brought Jesus into Jerusalem; it doesn’t say that the donkey followed him to the cross. It is pretty amazing though to look at this awesome animal of God’s creation today and to see of all things A CROSS on its back where Jesus would have ridden. I like to think that because God knows all things past, present, and future, He created the donkey with a cross on its back from the very beginning because God knew that one day a donkey would carry Jesus into Jerusalem. 

If you are up for going big and celebrating Palm Sunday with a bang! You could do Palm Sundaes! Serve different flavors of ice cream and have all the fun toppings: chocolate syrup, caramel, bananas, cherries, strawberries, chocolate chips, whipped cream, etc. 

Make Rice Krispies Treats but in the shape of a cross. It might not be “Easter” yet, but Palm Sunday is the Sunday leading up to Easter, so having a cross snack and possibly discussing what happened to Jesus on Easter is a great preview of what you will be celebrating next week.

The Bible says that the disciples placed their cloaks on the colt for Jesus to sit on. Cloaks during this time were basically square pieces of material without armholes. So, take a square piece of fabric and drape it over your shoulders, and you are wearing a cloak. You could even have a “cloak” for each of the kids. 

Palm branch props in this story are just as crucial as the dress-up! Palm branches are ideal, being that it is Palm Sunday, but, to kids who have a great imagination, any tree branches or pieces of green construction paper cut in the shape of a palm branch will do! 

Send kids home with a sheet titled “Words of Praise." At the top of the sheet, point out that Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus as King, which is what kids learned in the Bible story today. Let parents know that today the kids learned about what it means to praise Jesus!

Include a list of words of praise. Ask parents to review these words with their kids. Parents should circle the words that their kids know, and discuss the words they don’t know and what they mean. 

Suggested Words of Praise: blessed, praised, honored, glorified, adored, mighty, awesome, powerful, loving, loved, amazing, hallelujah, wonderful, etc.