Easter Archives - Let their light shine!

Easter egg with cross symbol craft

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas for children of all ages! The basic printout of the symbol of the cross hidden in an egg shape can be used in several different ways. Very young children can decorate the egg with crayons and tissue paper. Older children (10 plus) can trace the picture onto tracing paper and use felt tips to create a beautiful stained glass effect. Just be careful of smudging. Tracing paper is a little more tricky to use. Important Note – you do need to be careful with Sharpies and other Permanent Markers because of the smell they give off – they aren’t suitable for young children. Check if there are rules about their use in your country before using with anyone under 18.

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas

Print out the egg and heart shapes (PDF below) Cut out the hearts and if you want to cut out the egg shape. (You can do this before or after decorating). Then use tissue paper strips, crayons, felt tips to decorate and add the red heart. We did this at Toddler Group and they had a lovely time (make extra hearts as toddlers like to add several!). We also made this at a Children’s after school club and they enjoyed it too.

Older children can colour the cross first and then layer strips of tissue paper across the egg shape. Then trim the tissue paper to fit and add the red heart

Egg with cross on tracing paper

This version of the Easter egg with cross symbol craft takes a while to complete – older children can add extra lines and shapes and then carefully colour the egg – bright colours are best! I made the outline of the cross and heart thicker so they would stand out. Once completed place in a window. I think this would be a great craft to try at home.

Easter-Egg-Pattern-with-Cross-A4-1 Download

Heart-shape-3×4-1 Download

If you can print the hearts on coloured paper.

Good Friday crafts to make

Good Friday crafts for children to make that use paper plates! One craft uses round paper plates (use cheap plates that can be folded easily) and the other crafts use black and green square plates. (These are available online – take a look here)

Good Friday crafts – round paper plate

Good Friday craft made with a paper plate

The above craft was made with a cheap paper plate folded a third of the way down. The sky is a mixture of blues and blacks (I used wax crayons as they blend well). The hill is some green and yellow crayon. Fold then colour the plate. Cut out the three crosses and then glue them on the blue, fold over the green and glue in place. I used pritt stick. PVA would work fine too.

An alternative to crayons is to use torn up sugar paper and tissue paper.

I really like the added texture of the torn paper plus if you have a large group this works well – it’s likely that you won’t have enough blue and green wax crayons for a large group to share!

Good Friday crafts – square paper plates

Good Friday stained glass window paper plate craft — Cut out centre of plate

To make

Cut out centre of plate. Use this to make the cross shape.
Use tacky back to cover the centre (sticky side needs to be same side as black rim)
Cover tacky back with brightly coloured tissue paper (try to stay within the square of tacky back)
Glue on the black paper cross

Good Friday craft – Easter Garden

I love Easter Gardens. There are several versions of this paper plate Easter Garden on the blog. No soil is needed (although I love Easter Gardens made with soil, moss, twigs and flowers too!)

All you need…

Square paper plate (green)
Flower stickers
Cup cake cases various sizes (trim to look like petals)
Brown paper path
Cross and stone for the tomb cut from card (give both shapes a flap to use to stick to plate)
A small pot for the tomb (Make sure it will stick)
A strip of brown paper to cover the tomb and help glue it to the plate
Green tissue paper to make a hill around the cross

Take a look here for some additional ideas for making an Easter Garden with a paper plate. There is a simplified version of an Easter Garden here.

On the way to Easter…paper plate pictures

On the way to Easter paper plate pictures that help to tell the story of the first Easter. In the Gospels Jesus meets several people when he is on his last journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the final time. So four of our stories are about the people that met Jesus as he was going to Jerusalem. Then we have the story of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and in the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

I’ll be using different props for each story but as we go there will be a paper plate picture for each week that will build a bigger picture.. (If you don’t want to use all the stories just pick and choose)

Our stories will be… (Click on the links to go to the stories and crafts)

The Rich Young Ruler (Luke 18:18-23 and Mark 10:17-22)
Bartimaeus (Luke 18:35-43 and Mark 10:32,33,46-52)
Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10)
Mary anoints Jesus (John 12:1-8)
The Triumphal Entry (Luke 19:28-40)
Death and Resurrection of Jesus (Luke 23:44-24:12)

This is how our big picture will look when we have told all the stories..

Pictures on paper plates showing the people Jesus met in the run up to the first Easter

These are paper plates covered in tissue paper with people and buildings and trees etc added.

The people are available to download – if you would like to make a contribution to the blog you are very welcome to do so but of course you don’t have to!

woman-smile-x4 Download

man-smile-x4 Download

man-small-smile-x4 Download

man-sad-x4 Download

children-x21 Download

The pictures of trees and buildings are available in this post https://lettheirlightshine.com/2015/03/20/jesus-enters-jerusalem-palm-sunday/

On the way to Easter – some thoughts about telling the story

Easter can be a difficult story to tell to young children. It isn’t necessary to go into detail about how Jesus died. It’s always good to include the positive for example you can say – that although Jesus died and his friends were sad he came back to life again and his friends were happy! Be factual with sensitivity. Easter is a good news event!

A couple of Easter story videos – Palm Sunday and Easter!

Let’s Make a Paper Plate Basket!

Make a basket using a large paper plate! This is a great basket to make for an Easter Egg Hunt. See end of post for some other ideas too! Baskets are really useful!

All you need

Paper plate (9in/23cm diameter)
Scissors
Stapler
Hole Punch
Pipe cleaner (12in/30cm length)
Stickers to decorate
Tissue paper to put inside
Small Easter eggs/chocolates hidden – to find!

How to make the baskets

If making these with young children you may want to do several of the stages beforehand. Older children can cut the plate and use the stapler (with supervision – make sure they can use it safely). Punching the holes needs supervision just to make sure they aren’t punched too close to the edge of the plate. You want the pipe cleaner handle to hold!

Mark out where to cut the plate (picture 1)
Cut along the lines
Fold the small section inwards and bend round the two longer sides. Secure with a staple. Do this twice.
Punch holes
Add pipe cleaner handle (Twist around the punched hole to secure)
Decorate with stickers
Add tissue paper lining
Collect eggs!

The basic basket can be used as a craft for the story of Feeding the 5,000. Just add the five loaves and two fish. If you click on the link you’ll find a post with a Pdf with loaves and fish that you can print.

You could also make it to celebrate harvest. Add some pictures of fruit and veg to your basket.

If you leave out the pipe cleaner handle you could use the basket for a Baby Moses craft too! here’s another idea about Moses.

Once you have a basic craft idea it’s great to be able to adapt it for different age groups and Bible Stories and Seasonal crafts. I’m sure you can think of other ways to use a basic basket shape!

Easter Craft – a paper Easter Garden

Easter Craft – a paper Easter Garden that is easy to make. Easter Gardens are lovely but if you don’t have the time to make a garden with soil and real plants then this is a simple alternative. It is a great reminder of the Story of Easter.

To make the Easter Garden you need

picture of the empty tomb printed onto card (see file to download – there is a choice – one has the words ‘Jesus is alive!’)
pictures of flowers from garden catalogues or magazines
glue
pencils and crayons

Make the picture while the card is flat and then fold in half so the tomb and hills are vertical.

This craft is suitable for toddlers upwards. Older children can cut out the flower pictures and or draw their own. You can add stickers and tissue paper shapes too.

cross-empty-tomb-jesus-is-alive-2 Download

cross-empty-tomb-blank-3-1 Download

Here is another Easter Garden idea using a paper plate

My Easter Pinterest Board has lots of Easter themed craft ideas

God Knows when I feel….excited!

God knows when I feel excited is all about Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. Children are often excited so it’s great to tell a story they will relate to. This story from Matthew 21 is about the excited crowd who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. Traditionally this event is called Palm Sunday. It begins the week of Easter. We’ve told this story many times at Toddler Group. The following is an idea…

God knows when I feel excited story idea

In the storybag you might like to have a large leaf and a donkey..

‘I wonder if you have ever felt excited? In today’s story from the Bible there are lots of excited people. Let’s find out why they were excited.

Crowds and crowds of people were all along the road. There were mums and dads, grandmas and grandads and children just like you! ‘Can you see? Is he here?’ They looked along the road. And then they saw him! They called out, ‘Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!’ as Jesus passed by. They shouted, ‘hosanna!’ (which means ‘God saves’) They waved palm branches and threw their cloaks into the road. They were so excited to see King Jesus!

Jesus wasn’t riding a big, strong horse – he was on a donkey. He was the king but he was the good King who had come to save and rescue the people.

They people welcomed Jesus – the King sent from God.’

Craft Ideas

God knows when I am excited craft for Palm Sunday story

A palm leaf sun catcher made with a paper plate and sticky back plastic. Add green tissue paper and glitter!

God knows when I feel excited Palm Sunday craft — A palm leaf to wave – made using the shape cut from the paper plate suncatcher!

Another idea using large pictures to tell the Palm Sunday story This post includes printables to make your own street scene.

Category: Easter

Easter egg with cross symbol craft

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas

Egg with cross on tracing paper

Like this:

Good Friday crafts to make

Good Friday crafts – round paper plate

Good Friday crafts – square paper plates

Good Friday craft – Easter Garden

Like this:

On the way to Easter…paper plate pictures

On the way to Easter – some thoughts about telling the story

Like this:

Let’s Make a Paper Plate Basket!

All you need

How to make the baskets

Like this:

Easter Craft – a paper Easter Garden

To make the Easter Garden you need

Like this:

God Knows when I feel….excited!

God knows when I feel excited story idea

Craft Ideas

Like this:

Easter egg with cross symbol craft ideas

Egg with cross on tracing paper

Share this:

Like this:

Good Friday crafts – round paper plate

Good Friday crafts – square paper plates

Good Friday craft – Easter Garden

Share this:

Like this:

On the way to Easter – some thoughts about telling the story

Share this:

Like this:

All you need

How to make the baskets

Share this:

Like this:

To make the Easter Garden you need

Share this:

Like this:

God knows when I feel excited story idea

Craft Ideas

Share this:

Like this: