Resurrection Eggs

I have not been doing any Easter crafts yet this year. Then today when I realized Spring Break is next week for C's preschool and Easter is in a little over a week, I decided I had to get the kids prepared for Easter. So, tonight when my meatloaf was in the oven, I had some time to kill. That's when I decided to make Resurrection Eggs with the kids.

This is C's cover to our eggs. He is learning to sound things out and writing his letters. The first letter is a backwards J. The top of the J is folder over so you can't see it.

Resurrection Eggs are basically plastic eggs filled with items to remind you of the story of Easter. You can open the eggs in order and tell the story of Jesus' death and resurrection. We had a list of items we needed to collect for our eggs so I sent the kids around the house and outside looking for those items.

Here is our list:

1. Bread (we used a real piece of bread) - Jesus had the passover meal with his disciples. He took a piece of bread, gave a prayer of thanks to God and shared the bread with his disciples saying, "This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of Me."

2. Coin - One of the disciples, Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus by telling the chief of priests where he was in exchange for 30 silver coins.

3. Purple Cloth (I cut a piece from my fabric stash) - Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified. They dressed him in purple.

4. Thorns (we broke a piece of the roses) - They made a crown of thorns and put it on his head mocking him.

5. Rope, leather strip or twine (all we had was pink rope) - Then they whipped him.

6. Cross (we got a little stick broke it and used thread to hold it together) - the soldiers gave him his cross to carry up the hill.

7. Nails: The soldiers nailed him to the cross to die. (C is looking for a nail in his work bench.)

8. Sign - (we wrote a little sign and put tape over it to kind-of laminate it): Then they mocked him by putting up a sign that said, "THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS"

9. Sponge - (I only have dobies, no sponge in the entire house. So, I sewed a square of white terry cloth): One of them soaked a sponge in vinegar and tried to make him drink it.

10. Spear - (C drew one, but I think I'm going to have to get Mr. C to carve one out of a stick with his knife): One of the soldiers stuck his spear into Jesus' side and just then blood and water poured out.

11. Rock: After Jesus died, Joseph took his body, wrapped it in new linen sheet and placed it in his own new tomb he dug out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.

12. Nothing: This is the best part! Jesus isn't there anymore. He is risen! Now we are saved, we are forgiven.

I have been wanting to make one of these each year and just never got to it. I am so glad we did it tonight. I hope it will hold up and last for years to come. 

My little tradition I do every Easter is buy the kids a new bible if they have outgrown the one they have if not, a book about God. We didn't buy a new bible last year, so I'm going to look for one with more detail then what we have this year. I do love the one we have though, it's, "The Lion Read & Know Bible." The stories have much more detail then the smaller ones like "The Beginners Bible." There are also more stories in it.

What are some of your traditions for Easter? How do you share the story with your children?

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