Things You'll Need:
- wooden platform, approximately 18 by 24 inches
- marker
- tacks or brads
- hammer
- string or twine (or yarn)
- balloons (small to medium size)
- tape (such as masking tape)
- newspaper strips
- white flour (the cheapest kind)
- water
- large bowl
- sheet of heavy-duty cardboard, or 3/16 in. foam board
- poster paint, or tempera (brown and green)
- twigs and lichen (optional)
- glue (optional)
- various toy characters (e.g., Lego or Playmobil)
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Step 1
Set out the materials you’ll need (see complete list to the right). Blow up approximately three or four balloons, and tie them so that they stay inflated.
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Step 2
With the marker, mark on the wooden platform the perimeter of the future tomb. The “tomb” that we’re creating will resemble a small hill, which will be hollow. Then, using the hammer, pound brads into the platform along this line every four or five inches. Don’t pound the brad all the way down. Instead, leave the top part protruding about half an inch. Click on the photo to see enlargement.
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Step 3
Tie twine or yarn in a continuous string around each nail head along the entire perimeter. Click on photo to see enlargement. This will serve to secure the papier-mache to the wooden platform.
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Step 4
Attach balloons to the wooden platform inside this perimeter of twine using small loops of tape. If you want, attach another balloon on top of the bottom layer in order to increase the height of the tomb. Now tie a piece of twine that begins at the twine along the perimeter, goes up and over the balloons, and is tied again to the perimeter on the opposite side. Do this twice: once at the entrance to the tomb, and again toward the middle. Then tie one final piece of twine along the top and middle, from the entrance to the back. These will form a simple armature. Click on photo to see enlargement.
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Step 5
Tear or cut paper strips, from newspaper or brown paper bags. Tear a sizeable quantity of various lengths, all approximately two inches wide. Mix two cups flour and some water in a large bowl to make a paste that is medium consistency, like pancake batter – neither too runny nor too thick. Now coat one paper strip with this paste, and then place it over the balloons. Take another paper strip, and do it again. This is the papier-mache. Click on photo to see enlargement. Keep going until the paste is gone. Don’t worry if a few gaps still remain following this first coat. (Do not cover the front; this will be the tomb’s entrance.) Let dry.
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Step 6
Repeat this process two or three times until a hard shell completely covers the balloons (except the entrance) with no gaps showing. During the process, wrap a few of the paper strips and paste around the twine along the base so that the tomb will hold securely to the board. When finished, pop and remove the balloons.
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Step 7
Hold the piece of cardboard or foam board against the entrance to the tomb, and trace onto it the outline of the front of the tomb. Cut this out, because this will need to be painted, too. This piece will cover the entrance to the tomb from Good Friday until Easter morning, simulating the stone that was rolled in front of the doorway.
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Step 8
Paint the tomb. You can use a brown paint for the majority of the mountainside. Paint both the outside and inside. Also paint the wood platform, and the cardboard that will cover the entrance. After this coat is dry, use some green paint for highlights, simulating patches of grass.
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Step 9
If you want, add lichen and twigs with glue to model bushes and trees. For the “trees,” drill shallow holes in the platform to insert the twigs with glue, so that they stand erect.
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Step 10
How to use your resurrection scene: Assemble the toy characters. You will want them to represent Jesus, a couple disciples, a couple women, some guards, and an angel. On the evening of Good Friday, we read a scripture passage – chapter 15 from the gospel of Mark. As we read it, we act it out with the toy characters. For instance, as we read verse 46, we wrap Jesus’s body in a piece of tissue, place him in the tomb, and set the cover against the entrance. On Easter morning, before the children wake up, we remove the cover from the entrance and move Jesus to a different location. Then, with the children, we read Luke 24, verses 1 through 12, reenacting it with the toy characters.
