Six Creative Ways to Teach the Resurrection to Children
How can you teach the resurrection to kids this Easter season? After all, the meaning of Easter is an important part of passing along the Christian faith.
Kids often learn best with engaging activities. Use these six ideas as a starting point to explain Jesus’ resurrection to children. The following suggestions incorporate reading and hands-on activities to help children understand the foundation of the Christian faith.
1. Sharing the Easter Story
Explaining the Easter story to children in terms they understand requires clarifying the terms specific to the main points. The definitions should be short and easy to remember. Before explaining Jesus’ death and resurrection, make sure the kids understand these basic words:
· Angel: God sends Angels to deliver messages to His people.
· Cross: Two pieces of wood made into a “T” that Jesus was hung on to die.
· Disciple: Jesus’ students who learned from him and shared the good news of Easter.
· Savior: A person who protects and save people from danger — Jesus is our Savior.
· Tomb: Where dead people are buried.
The focus with preschoolers and young children should be on love and hope. Jesus loves us so much that he died on the cross for us. By dying and rising again, He saved us from our sins. Emphasize the fact that Jesus’ death and resurrection is not the end, but rather, it’s a new beginning for everybody who believes in God and Jesus Christ.
2. Attend a Service During the Easter Season
Attending a Good Friday service or Easter service is a perfect conversation starter to explain the true significance of the Easter events and what they mean to Christians. Asking some open-ended questions will reveal any lack of understanding. Here are some examples:
- Why did Jesus die for our sins?
- What did Jesus tell the disciples at the last supper?
- What happened on Palm Sunday?
- What happened in the garden when Jesus went to pray?
- How long was Jesus in the tomb before he rose?
- What does Jesus’ death mean for us?
3. Wash Each Other’s Feet
Read the story of John 13:1-17 when Jesus washes the disciples’ feet. Wash each other’s feet and discuss the following points:
- Jesus was teaching the disciples how to serve one another when he washed their feet. How do you think they felt as Jesus washed their feet since they knew He was their Savior?
- The disciples’ job was to spread the gospel to the rest of the world after the resurrection. How do you think they used the lesson of serving to do this?
- How can you be a servant in your everyday life like the disciples were?
- Are there more things you can do in the future to help others?
4. Baking Ideas to Symbolize the Resurrection
These two recipes are good hands-on activities to represent the importance of Easter. Making these treats, while having specific conversations at each step of the recipe, can create a visual of the entire Easter story. These visuals help children grasp the concept of Jesus’ resurrection:
Resurrection Cookies
These cookies use ingredients to explain specific parts of the Easter story and site the coordinating chapter and verse from the Bible.
An example is the vinegar. Let your kids pour the vinegar in the mixing bowl and smell it. Explain that Jesus was given vinegar to drink when He was thirsty on the cross. Then, read Bible verses John 19:28-30.
Empty Tomb Resurrection Rolls
The rolls in this recipe explain that Jesus was sent to earth to pay the price for our sin and that He never sinned. The story continues explaining how Jesus’ body was placed in a tomb, but three days later, his friends were told by angels that Jesus had risen — and the tomb was empty. The rolls are sweet like the love God has for us.
5. Have a Resurrection Egg Hunt
Instead of plastic eggs filled with candy, fill the eggs with something that represents part of the Easter story. You can make your own eggs or buy them. When all the eggs have been found, open them. Discuss what’s inside and how that object is part of the Easter story.
Here are the objects you will need if you make your own eggs:
· 12 plastic eggs
· A small stone to represent the tomb cover
· A palm branch to represent Palm Sunday
· A piece of a cracker to represent the last supper
· A flower as a reminder of the garden Jesus prayed in
· Silver coins to represent Judas’ betrayal of Jesus
· Ropes to signify Jesus’ arrest
· A “crown of thorns” to represent the one placed on Jesus’ head before the crucifixion
· Nails to symbolize the used for the crucifixion
· A small piece of sponge to represent the vinegar offered to Jesus on the cross
· Spices and fabric to represent the burial of Christ
6. Share the Easter Story in an Activity
Chrono Bible cards can help children remember major Bible events by walking them through in a fun and easy way. Good Soil has the new testament set, which includes the elements of the Easter story. These cards include the last supper, betrayal, appearance before the judges, crucifixion and death and resurrection.
If your child is ready to go further into their biblical knowledge Chrono Bible cards of the old testament are also available from Good Soil Resources.
It is never too early to begin biblical instruction, and explaining Jesus’ death and resurrection with activities for kids is a great place to start. When parents explain the truths of the faith at home and reinforce it frequently, a child is prepared to build their faith at Sunday school. This support system is the best foundation for conversion and spiritual transformation. Good Soil has all the resources needed, regardless of where your child is in their faith journey.
The Story of Hope - Kids
The Story of Hope Kids: Discovering the Provision in God's Plan, with new plastic coil binding, is a full color adaptation of the adult-level book. It is visually designed and language level adapted for kids, ages 8-12. The Story of Hope Kids contains the same core content as the adult-level version: 40 key event-lessons for teaching and learning the Bible's big redemptive story and the Chronological Bridge to Life (ChronoBridge). A full page is dedicated to each of the 40 Bible event-lessons, allowing space for kids to write down the answers to the questions. This 64 page workbook also includes fun Bible map learning activities.
The Story of Hope Kids is designed for kids to read and work through by themselves. But this is also a Bible teaching resource that parents and ministry workers may want to use to lead children through (especially with younger children or children with lower-level reading skills). The study of God's redemptive plan and the ChronoBridge are designed to teach/clarify the gospel of Jesus Christ to children and lead them to a personal faith response or to clarify a faith response they may have made previously.
64 Full Color Pages; Coil Bound
The Way to Joy - Kids
The Way to Joy Kids: Pursuing Basic Steps to Discipleship is a study in basic discipleship for kids, ages 8-12. It's a visual-design and language-level adapted version of The Way to Joy for adults. Most of the content is essentially the same as in adult version of The Way to Joy, but some content has been adapted (and added) for the needs of kids.
The Joy of Hope: Knowing God's Eternal Plan Gives Us HopeThe Joy of Eternal Life: SalvationThe Joy of Confidence: Assurance of SalvationThe Joy of Guidance: God's WordThe Joy of Prayer: Talking with GodThe Joy of God's Power: The Holy SpiritThe Joy of Purity: Obeying God's WordThe Joy of Sharing: Telling Others about JesusThe Joy of Fellowship: A Bible-Believing ChurchThe Joy of Service: Understanding God's Plan for You
Also included is a 10-week Bible reading plan & prayer journal.
64 Full Color Pages; Coil Bound
The Bible's BIG Story Teaching Visuals - Set of 105
Set of 100 (plus 5) laminated teaching visuals (double-sided 13.5" x 10.75") for presenting the Bible's redemptive story with visual impact! Used for teaching The Story of Hope or The Roots of Faith Bible studies and several other Good Soil E & D resources.
- 50 Old Testament event visuals
- 50 New Testament event visuals
- 5 Muslim-ministry specific visuals
- Bible event images on front
- Key teaching content on back
- Teaching content can be internationalized
Translation teams can request a translation-base document for translating the teaching content (on the back of the visuals) in order to tape it over the existing English content. Contact Info@GoodSoil.com to request that document.
The Bible's Big Story PowerPoint CD
The Bible's Big Story PowerPoint CD (Formerly The Story of Hope PowerPoint CD) has been upgraded to include color-coded borders and numbering that coincide with the event images in each respective booklet or workbook.
The CD includes the following three PowerPoint versions used in teaching the Bible's redemptive story:
1. The Story of Hope - Condensed (20 event images and ChronoBridge)
2. The Story of Hope (40 event images, maps and ChronoBridge),
3. The Roots of Faith (100 event images, maps and ChronoBridge).
The Bible contains more than 550 stories involving nearly 3,000 characters. But interwoven through all of those stories is one BIG STORY. It's a story that has an attention grabbing opening, clear and intriguing plot, a strong and interesting central character, many diverse and colorful supporting characters, numerous mysteries that are unveiled along the way, and a dramatically climactic ending.
It's a story that begins wonderfully, then goes terribly wrong, and ultimately ends better than most people could have imagined. And on top of all that, it's a TRUE story.
Text in all three presentations can be translated and changed in PowerPoint.
Please Note: The use of these images is limited to the PowerPoint presentation in which they are found. The purchase of this presentation does not include a license for the images to be used for other purposes.