Here is the full transcript of the video titled “Craft Ideas: Ascension of Jesus (Luke 24:44-53 and Acts 1:1-11)”:
“Hello there. Today we’re talking about the Ascension, this wonderful reminder of how Jesus went up into heaven and how he’ll come back again someday. But meanwhile, we have jobs to do. Anyways, we’re going to make two crafts today that celebrate the Ascension, that going up.
The first one is pretty simple. It’s kind of a fun recreation of the story and there are many ways that you can do this. There’s lots of fun up and up crafts, but the one we’re going to today is relatively simple. We’re going to use paper to help tell our story. So we’ll start out with a little Jesus picture. This one is kind of cartoonish, yes, but you know, feel free to use whatever works for you. And we’re going to color our Jesus. And of course, yours will be very, very nice because this is the fast version of the coloring job. And even though it’s fast, I still have to make him somewhat human-looking, although this is his resurrected body, so I mean, you know, it’s kind of human, kind of… you get the idea.
But we’ll cut it out. I’m going to attach him to another piece of paper. You can also use a popsicle stick or a straw or a pipe cleaner, but just paper works fine as well. So get him cut out here. And the paper that we attach him to is going to allow us to move him up and down. It’s going to be his secret method of sliding around and moving, if you will. So we’re simply going to fold it so we can attach it to him, like so. And you can use a piece of paper glue, whatever works. Then we’re going to set that aside for a moment and decorate my Ascension scene here.
So we’re going to put a caption, so we’ll say “up, up, and away”. Then down here we’ll say “Jesus ascended to heaven. He’ll be back again someday.” And you are welcome to add to this as well. You can make the whole scene if you want to. Kind of make the hill here, kind of like the mount. You can even add some little extra disciples on the sides there if you want to. Totally up to you. Then I’m going to add some clouds for an extra little something-something. So Jesus will be going up into the clouds. So I’m just going to sprinkle on some cotton balls here.
And then we will insert Jesus. Here’s how that will work. We’re going to cut a slit down the middle of my paper, carefully. Start out with a little, then we will just slip, snip, snip this up. And now, retell the story in a sense. Okay, Jesus back here. And here he is saying goodbye to his disciples. And then he goes up and he ascends into Heaven. Someday he’ll come back for us. Coming down from the clouds, just as you end up. So there you have your ascending Jesus scene. Very fun.
Craft number two is also kind of a fun one. This is sort of a craft and a game together. And we’re going to use a balloon. Balloons go up. And we’re going to make something else go up as well with this. And we’re also going to use, I’m going to use a small paper cup. You could also use a styrofoam cup. You could use a toilet paper roll. There’s a lot of ways that you could do
this. After field testing, I’ve decided the cup was probably my best bet, but multiple methods could work here.
So I’m going to make a little caption to go around my cup. And if you use like a tube or something, you could also decorate it. You could add in some stickers or whatever fun things you want to do. But I’m going to add that for a little flare. So I’m just going to mark on here, remember why I did this random craft. And I’ll just say something simple like “going up, Jesus ascended into heaven”. Very simple. And I can add on some stickers if you please, if I can find my sticker stash. Or I cannot, I cannot have stickers too, that works. And then we’re going to wrap that around.
Fun stars, it’s a good decoration. So once I’ve got my stickers on there, wrap it around my cup. And see, step by step. So I have my cup with its fun decoration. Now I’m going to turn this into a fun game. I’m going to cut the bottom off of the cup, just right at the bottom. Choke a little hole there, snip my way around.
Now I’m going to take my balloon and I’m going to first tie the end here. The end doesn’t have to absolutely have to be tied, but it makes it, it helps a little bit. So, tie my balloon. And now I’m going to snip the bottom off of that balloon. Now you kind of want to start with a smallish hole because you can always make the hole bigger if needed, but you cannot make it smaller. So going to get my better scissors, that’s what I’m going to do. And snip off that balloon. And then I will fit it onto the cup. You’ll see why in a moment.
There we go. Okay, now fit my balloon onto the bottom of that cup. You may need to add some tape here, secure it slightly, possibly, depending on the size of your balloon and how snug it is onto the cup. So now I have a cup, I have a balloon on the end of the cup. And now I’m going to, I am going to add a securing piece of tape, just in case. I don’t trust this.
And you will take a pom-pom, cotton ball, something that can fly in the air for fun and not hurt someone or do any damage. And what we’ll do is we’ll put the pom-pom in. Also, field testing, I recommend one at a time, not multiple pom-poms. And what you will do is you will launch the pom-pom by pulling on the end of that balloon. So, pull on the balloon. When you tap it, you might not have seen that, it flew right out. Let’s try it again just for the visual there. That’s a little better. That was a slow-motion version. So you can get a pretty good, there it goes, launch on these guys simply by popping them out of your thing.
And you can even turn this into a game. If you pop it and then try to catch it again, which is very challenging but doable if you’re determined enough. So fun little game that reminds us of how Jesus went to heaven. Now obviously, he was not launched. I mean, maybe he was, I wasn’t there. I did not see the Ascension. It could have been a rocket launch kind of thing. It probably wasn’t, but you never know.
But just a fun way of remembering that things go up just as Jesus went up. And we have a job to get ready for his return. We are to share his
love and good news with others and patiently wait for what comes next. So two fun crafts to remind us of the Ascension, our Rising Jesus pop-up and our pop-up shooter. Have fun, make them your own, adapt them, tweak them, change them, rearrange them, and come join us again because we have new crafts and children’s message ideas out as well as full lessons for you and your ministry, wherever and with whomever that might be. Go make some crafts, make some disciples, have a great week, and we’ll see you next time.”