Easter for toddlers Archives - Let their light shine!

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!

God Knows When I Feel Sad and When I Feel Happy

God knows when I feel sad and when I feel happy is a toddler friendly version of the Easter Story. We focus on how Jesus’ friends felt and how they were sad because he had died and then happy at the conclusion of the story. This is a suitable way to tell the Easter story to young children. There is no need to dwell on the physical suffering of the Lord Jesus but it is OK to use the word ‘died’ rather than euphemistically refer to Jesus ‘going away’. Adults go away all the time – we don’t want children to confuse these two separate experiences.

The Easter Story – from John 19:28-30; 20:1,11-18

To tell the story it is helpful to have a model of the tomb. We used a cardboard box.

God knows when I feel sad story idea

Mary was very sad (can you look sad?). Her friend Jesus had died. He hadn’t ever done anything wrong but some people were jealous and had wanted to get rid of Jesus. They had made sure that he died. It was an awful thing to have done.

Jesus’ body had been put in a tomb and a big stone had been put infront. But now the stone had been moved and the body was gone! Mary was so sad that she began to cry. She looked inside the tomb – the body of Jesus was gone but there were two angels sitting down. ‘Why are you crying?’ they asked. ‘The body of Jesus has gone,’ she replied.

Mary heard footsteps. She saw a man who she thought was the gardener. ‘Have you taken the body of Jesus? Can you tell me where it is?’ she asked.

He looked at Mary and he said one word – he said her name, ‘Mary’. And then she suddenly knew – it wasn’t the gardener, it was Jesus! He was standing right infront of her. ‘Go and tell the others’, Jesus said. And off she she went to find Jesus’ friends to tell them that Jesus was alive! Mary wasn’t sad anymore – she was happy! Jesus knows when I am happy too. He knows when you feel happy!

Easter craft Idea

What you need to make the stained glass effect paper plate Easter scene

Square paper plates – cut out the centre
Sticky back plastic to fill the centre – sticky side the same as black rim of plate
Tissue paper – torn into squares – to cover the sticky back plastic
A tomb and stone to glue on last

Black Square Paper Plates click the link to buy the paper plates used in this craft (affiliate link)

Here’s a link to a paper craft Easter garden to make

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

Easter Story Video

The first Easter!

We’ve arrived at Easter!

We’ve arrived at Easter! We have traveled along the road to Jerusalem to reach the first Easter. Each week we’ve met different people that Jesus met on his journey and now we are at the end of our journey.

This weeks story is the Easter Story .. to tell it you need puppets or dolls to represent Peter, John and Mary and the paper plate visual (or something similar.) If you have been making the paper plates display all of them together and then add the one from this final story.

The Story from Luke 23 and 24

Bible truth for toddlers – Jesus died and came alive again

‘Our story has a sad beginning – can you look sad? Jesus died on the cross on the Friday. He was put in a tomb (cave) and a big stone was put over the entrance.

His friends were very sad and frightened. A whole day went by – that was Saturday.

The next day was Sunday. A woman called Mary went to the tomb very early in the morning. When she got there something had happened. The big stone had been moved. What could she do? Who would help her?

Mary knew someone who could help her – Peter! She went to find Peter and John and told them what had happened.

They listened. Then they started to run. They were running as fast as they could to the tomb. John got there first and looked inside. It was empty.

Then Peter got there. He didn’t just look inside. He walked right in to the tomb. It was empty!

Jesus wasn’t there anymore. The Bible tells us that that he had died and then come alive again. This is happy news for you and for me.’

Paper plates decorated to tell the story of Jesus' journey to Jerusalem at Easter — **The paper plates that have been used to show Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem can be displayed altogether!**

Here’s the link to the introductory post for this story series with links to the blog posts

Easter Craft Idea

Easter shapes craft using crepe paper printing. This is really fun! Have a look at this post for how to use crepe paper to print pictures.

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. Next half term at Thursday toddler group we will be travelling along the road to Easter. In the Gospels Jesus meets several people when he is on this last journey to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover for the final time. So four of our stories will be about these people that met Jesus as he was going to Jerusalem. Then we will have the story of the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem and in the final week the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.

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..

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

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

On the way to Easter with Peter – Peter denies Jesus

Sometimes I like to give the parents/carers and children some actions to do during the story. We practise the actions first and then the idea is that everyone joins in at the right moment in the story!

Actions – running (either on the spot or making sound of running with hands tapping knees, stars in the sky, pretending to shiver and rubbing hands to be warm.

There are also some words to join in with – a rooster crowing, saying ‘No’ and counting to 3.

The story

Some people didn’t like Jesus and they wanted to make trouble for him. He was taken away and asked lots of questions. His friends ran away! All except Peter who followed to where Jesus had been taken. He stayed outside. It was dark – there were stars in the sky. It was cold too and Peter shivered. He tried to stay warm.

‘You are a friend of Jesus’, a woman said.

‘No!’ said Peter. Then he heard the rooster crow

‘You are a friend of Jesus’ she said again

‘No!’ said Peter

Then other people joined in – ‘You are a friend of Jesus’

What would Peter say? He said ‘No!’

Then he heard the rooster crow. Peter remembered that Jesus had told him that before the rooster crowed twice he would say he wasn’t Jesus’ friend 1,2, 3 times. Peter was so sad that he cried.

But Jesus still loved Peter and Easter is all about how Jesus can forgive us when we do wrong things. Jesus was going to forgive Peter.

On the way to Easter with Peter – Jesus’ last meal

On the way to Easter with Peter – Jesus’ last meal Bible story. Bible references – Mark 14 and Luke 22 (see also the accounts in Matthew and John).

The following is a story idea for toddlers. Some of the details have been omitted as this age group would find all the details bewildering! As we are using Peter as our main character I have concentrated on two main parts that he played – getting the room ready and then his conversation with Jesus. His outburst about not letting Jesus wash his feet has been omitted. The concept of being clean as explained by Jesus is quite complicated for toddlers!

The story is quite sad – so don’t overdo the sadness. Just tell it like it happened. The aim is to tell about Peter’s failure in order that we can then tell about Jesus’ love and forgiveness.

Use some props for the story – puppets or knitted people, some pitta bread, a cushion and a picture of a rooster as children may not know what this is.

puppets, flat bread, picture of rooster for Last Supper Bible story

The story…

Do you remember that we are on our way to Easter with Peter? He is one of the friends of Jesus.

Jesus wanted to have a very special meal with his friends. He knew that this would be the last time that they would all be together before he died. But, some people wanted to hurt Jesus and so the meal had to be kept secret.

Jesus had an important job for two of his friends – John and Peter. ‘Go into the town and when you see a man carrying a water jar follow him into the house.Then ask if you can use the room upstairs.’ John and Peter did exactly what Jesus said and they got the room ready. There was a table for the food – some bread and wine to drink and some cushions to sit on.

Jesus and his friends sat down and had a meal together.

When they had finished they sang a song and then went outside for a walk. It was dark. The stars were twinkling in the sky.

Jesus wanted to talk to Peter. ‘You are going to let me down and say that you aren’t my friend’, he told him.

‘No!’ Peter said,’I will never do that!’

‘Peter, you will tell people you don’t even know me before the rooster crows to show it’s morning time’ Jesus said.

Would Peter do that just when Jesus needed his friends? We’ll have to wait and see!

Jesus’ last meal craft idea

lords-supper-cup-and-bread-1 Download

On the way to Easter – with Peter

The fish outline is a free download from :-

<a href=”https://clipartfest.com/”>clipartfest.com</a>

The colourful ‘scales’ are mini cup cake cases cut in half. I bought them from Amazon. The fins are the cases cut into quarters.

We were doing the story of Peter being called to follow Jesus from Mark 1:16. As Peter was a fisherman we made fish! For the next few weeks our stories will be about the things Peter saw and heard and did the first Easter. Here’s Peter..with his boat and fish.

Peter

the sea, boat and fish from Peter’s story

The next four weeks will be

The last Supper Mark 14
Peter denies Jesus Mark 14
Jesus death and resurrection Mark 15,16
BBQ breakfast on the beach John 21

Each time the focus will be on what Peter saw and heard and did. I am hoping that while each short story will be interesting for the children they will also give the adults an understanding of what happened and why.