Easter & Some Fun New Family Traditions

Last week when I told the kids that Easter is coming and asked if they remember what Easter is all about, Jorja answered, Eggs, candy, and Jesus! I was glad she at least remembered that Jesus fits in there somewhere but I was hoping that this year we could go deeper so they would come to understand that Jesus isn’t just a small piece of the Easter puzzle but that He is in fact the whole picture.

So I went digging for some ideas of games, activities and lessons that we could do to help the kids learn about Easter and the events of Holy Week. I ended up finding some great ideas that will become fun new family traditions.

The first thing I did was make these DIY Resurrection Eggs. Each day the kids open an egg and discover an item (leaf, coins, nails, cross, spices, etc.) with a verse – together the eggs tell the story of the events leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection. The last egg, to be opened on Easter, is empty to represent the empty tomb. The kids really look forward to opening a new egg each day! I think it’s a really great way to emphasize that Easter is about Jesus in a way that is both tangible and memorable for little ones.

Next, I found this Story of Easter File Folder Game. It’s very similar to the resurrection eggs, but you play it like a board game, collecting pieces of the story as you go along.

Easter Story File Folder Game

This game is a fun way to review the events of Holy Week. By the end of the week, Jorja could put all the pieces in the right order to tell the story.

Also, along these lines, is a great Christian Easter Scavenger Hunt from i have no greater joy. We’re planning to do this on Sunday.

For table time I pulled out some egg themed file folder games from E week. Joseph had a lot of fun with these while Jorja would work on reading, writing, spelling and math.

egg puzzles

Match the basket of eggs to the correct chick

put the chicks in order

And a place value game for Jorja . . .

chicks & eggs place value practice

I made up this math activity for Jorja . . . I knew that if I just gave her subtraction problems and asked her to write the answers she’d complain, so instead I told her to stamp the answer with the correct number of Easter eggs and guess what? Not one complaint! All smiles!!! 🙂

Easter egg math!

We also did a few crafts – all egg-themed (I sort of had a one-track mind this week, I guess). First up, the strip art Easter egg . . . First, glue strips of scrapbook paper . . .

(Jorja went on and on about how pretty all the paper was! She had so much fun with this.)

Then cut out egg shape or cover with an egg-shaped frame.

Shaving cream painted eggs were also a big hit (mostly because it’s fun to play with the shaving cream after!). I really like the way the eggs turned out.

shaving cream & paint

shaving cream painted egg

shaving cream fun!

This last egg craft we did was really very simple. We made bright colorful eggs to decorate the window.  I just printed out these Easter egg templates, had the kids color them with crayon (works best if you press firmly while coloring), then turn the page over and rub baby oil all over with a cotton ball. You’ll see the paper become translucent – looks so pretty when the sun shines through!

rubbing baby oil over the back of the page

Then I cut out the eggs and decorated our window with them!

And lastly, Easter cookies. Jorja and Joseph both love any chance to help out in the kitchen – especially where frosting and sprinkles are involved!

It might look like we had a lot of fun this week – and we did! But . . . well . . . Easter has it’s not so fun side too – I mean, we’re talking about Jesus’ death here. That’s some pretty serious (not to mention gory) stuff. I literally broke into tears explaining to the kids what a whip is and how it was used on Jesus (even though He had never done anything wrong!). Learning the facts/events of Easter is quite different from understanding the significance of it all and that’s the part that is especially difficult to teach little ones. I thought this would be a great time for our kids to memorize John 3:16. I was really impressed that even Joseph had learned it by the end of the week! May we all I come to the cross each day and die to ourselves myself and live instead for Him. Thank you for the cross, Jesus.

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