Lent activity: Life of Jesus Timeline

I'm quite excited about a new project that will start this week. When we did the Jesse Tree for advent, I was really encouraged at how the boys embraced the concept and looked forward to the Bible story every morning. It was their idea to also make a large timeline showing all the events that foretold the birth of Christ. We still have the timeline on the wall, but after a week or two, they pointed out that it stopped with the birth of Christ. They wanted to do a 'life of Jesus' timeline, and I was looking for some way to lead up to Easter, and so for 40 days from Wednesday, we will do our new series.

This is how it will work:

• As with the Jesse Tree, I have made coloured envelopes with the Bible references written on them to hang along a string, and inside each they have a small symbol or emblem to colour. These will be glued onto the timeline.
• This time I have focussed on events in the life of Jesus. As I went through, I could also imagine a parallel activity on 'teachings of Jesus' - I decided that this might work better when the boys are a bit older, whereas the physical events that took place are easier to conceptualise
• I've got bigger colouring sheets for each day if they wish to use them, and will try and find appropriate songs that tie in with the Bible passage. 
• I've got a final column on the schema for additional activities - most likely I will fill this in retrospectively since often it is during the course of a day that things lead on in a logical way, and it is now always easy to plan fully in advance. 
• I have scheduled readings on Monday - Saturday for a couple of reasons: Firstly, our days tend to be more structured with 'school' type activities which always start with Bible on these days; Sundays can be a bit more random and we try to focus on the Bible teaching from church. Secondly, it adds a sort of 'firebreak' because it can be discouraging to fall behind and then struggle to catch up. 
• There are two activities on Good Friday - this is because we will aim to spend more time reflecting on the events on Good Friday. It might be that we end up doing more or less on one particular day at Easter itself - and I hope the timetable allows a little flexibility.

Here is the outline - please feel free to try it too! (And if you can think of a better name for it, I am very open to suggestion). If you find particular activities that go best with a particular reading, I'd also like to hear!

Date	Story	Bible Passage	Timeline Picture	Other Activities (Plus songs, colouring sheets etc for most)
W 18th Feb	Birth of Jesus	Luke 2	Baby
T 19th Feb	Dedication of Jesus	Luke 2:21-38	2 pigeons
F 20th Feb	Flight to Egypt	Matt 2:13-23	Silhouttes on camels
S 21st Feb	Child Jesus in Temple	Luke 2:41-52	Studious boy
M 23rd Feb	Baptism	Matt 3:13-17, Mk 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-23	Jesus being baptised
T 24th Feb	Temptation	Matt 4:1-11, Mk 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13	Bread basket
W 25th Feb	Calling of first disciples	John 1:35-51	Jesus with disciples
T 26th Feb	Water into Wine	John 2:1-12	Wine jar
F 27th Feb	Jesus clears the temple	John 2:13-25	Table
S 28th Feb	Nicodemus by night	John 3:1-21	Moon and stars
M 2nd Mar	Woman at Well	John 4:4-42	Well
T 3rd Mar	Healing of Leper	Matt 8:2-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-16	Face with lesion
W 4th Mar	Paralytic on mat	Matt 9:2-8, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:17-26	Man on stretcher
T 5th Mar	Calling of Matthew	Matt 9:9, Mark 2:13-14, Luke 5:27-28	Tax collector
F 6th Mar	Beatitudes	Matt 5-7, Luke 6:20-49	Mountain
S 7th Mar	Healing of centurion’s servant	Matt 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10	Roman soldier
M 9th Mar	Widow of Nain’s son	Luke 7:11-17	Man leaping for joy
T 10th Mar	Woman with alabaster flask	Luke 7:36-50	Woman with jar
W 11th Mar	Jesus calms the storm	Matt 8:18-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25	Boat and storm
T 12th Mar	Demon possessed man (and herd of pigs)	Matt 8:28-33, Mark 5:1-21, Luke 8:26-40	Pigs
F 13th Mar	Jairus’ daughter and woman with issue of blood	Matt 9:18-26, Mark 5:22-43, Luke 8:41-56	Girl in bed
S 14th Mar	Feeding of 5000	Matt 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-14	Loaves and fish
M 16th Mar	Jesus walks on water	Matt 14:22-36, Mark 6:45-56, John 6:15-21	Jesus walking on water
T 17th Mar	Transfiguration	Matt 17:1-13, Mark 9:2-13, Luke 9:28-36	3 radiant figures
W 18th Mar	Coin in fish mouth	Matt 17:24-27	Roman coin
T 19th Mar	House of Martha and Mary	Luke 10:38-42	House
F 20th Mar	Raising of Lazarus	John 11:1-46	Man in grave clothes
S 21st Mar	Blind Bartimeus	Matt 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-50, Luke 18:35-43	Eye
M 23rd Mar	Zaccheus	Luke 19:1-10	Man up a tree
T 24th Mar	Mary anoints his feet	John 12:1-9	Woman anointing feet
W 25th Mar	Triumphal entry	Matt 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:29-44, John 12:12-19	Palm leaf
T 26th Mar	Drives out the vendors	Matt 21:12-13, Luke 19:45-46	Praying hands
F 27th Mar	Last supper	Matt 26:17-30, Mark 14:12-25, Luke 22:7-20	Last supper
S 28th Mar	Washing disciples feet	John 13:1-18	Jesus washing feet
M 30th Mar	Gethsemane	Matt 26:30-46, Mark 14:26-42, Luke 22:39-46, John 18:1	Man praying in garden
T 31st Mar	Betrayal and arrest	Matt 26:46-56, Mark 14:43-54, Luke 22:47-53, John 18:2-12	Man being kissed on cheek
W 1st Apr	Trial	Matt 26:57-75, Mark 14:43-72, Luke 22:47-53, John 18:13-27	‘Justice’
T 2nd Apr	Sent to Herod	Luke 23:6-12	King
F 3rd Apr	Tried by Pilate	Matt 27:15-26, Mark 15:6-15, Luke 23:13-25, John 19:1-16	Hands being washed
F 3rd Apr	Mocked by soldiers	Matt 27:27-31, Mark 15:16-20	Crown of thorns
S 4th Apr	Crucified	Matt 27:35-56, Mark 15:24-41, Luke 23:33-49, John 19:18-30	Jesus on cross
S 5th Apr	He is Risen	Matt 28:2-15, Mark 16:1-11, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-18	Empty tomb