Easter or Resurrection Gardens are a great way to celebrate Easter. They are a reminder of the Easter story and are fun to make. Traditionally they would be made using soil, moss, flowers etc but this version is made entirely from paper and card – if you haven’t got easy access to soil and plants this is for you!
I’ve used – paper plate (a piece of card would do too), cereal box to make the cross (make two cross shapes and glue together so it will stand up), paper ice cream tub for the tomb ( a roll of paper with card glued over an end would be fine), a paper circle for the stone, tissue paper for the path and grass and pictures of flowers from magazines/garden catalogues.
To attach the cross add a fold and glue the tabAdd the tomb – this might need to be glued and then held in place till it has stuck. Make a fold on the edge of the circle for the tomb then glue the tab that you have made and glue down. If you want to add the words do that first.
less playdough needed – the Weetabix is glued to the paper path
A simple Easter garden is a great way to introduce young children to Easter. You can use natural materials such as soil/compost and leaves or you can make a garden like the one here. The playdough will last a couple of weeks before it dries out – so this won’t keep for ever – but then next Easter the children can make another garden.
At the end of this post there is an idea for telling the Easter story using different faces – there is a PDF for you to use too.
more playdough needed – the Weetabix is pressed down into the dough.
To make an Easter Garden like this one each child needs
Sticker/label with the words ‘Jesus is alive!’ printed on to them -here’s PDF of a sheet to print onto labels Jesus is alive! (label)
Make a garden to give children and adults an idea of what they are aiming for.
If you click on the links above you will be taken to where I bught the plates, ice cream tubs and flowers. You could use different plates – just make sure they are the shiny coated type so the dough won’t soak through.
To prepare the craft cut a ‘stone’ out of ice cream tub and make the dough. You will need a lot of dough!
Playdough recipe
2 Cups plain flour (cheap flour is fine)
2 Cups water
Food colouring (add this to the water)
1 Tablespoon cooking oil
1 Teaspoon cream of tartar (don’t be tempted to leave this out)
1 Cup salt
Put everything in a large saucepan and mix over a medium heat till it comes together as a dough.
Take out of the pan and kneed on a lightly floured surface for a of minutes till smooth. It will be hot!
Store in an airtight container/bag in the fridge till you need it. Let it come to room temperature before the children use it.
This amount will make 5 square plate Easter Gardens if you cover the entire plate. You could cover less of the plate as in the picture above.
To give you an idea of how everything gets put together..
Enjoy making..
Have a look at an Easter garden I made to show the children at Toddler Group during story time.
Telling the Easter Story
This idea uses faces to explain the story – angry, sad, surprised and happy. As you tell how some people were angry with Jesus show the any face and ask everyone, ‘can you look angry?’. When Jesus died his friends were very sad – show the sad face and ask everyone, ‘can you look sad?’. Then something amazing happened; Jesus came alive again. His friends were surprised! Ask everyone, ‘can you look surprised?’
Jesus is still alive today! Show the happy face and ask, ‘can you look happy?’ We can be happy because Jesus is alive!
Paper plate faces to help tell the Easter Story
Here are the faces as printable PDF’s if you would like to use them
Here are some craft and baking ideas to help celebrate Easter with the links to the original posts! This week I will be getting some brand new ideas together too. I can’t believe that we are almost at Easter already when Christmas doesn’t seem all that long ago.
