The whole story

A quick little post on one of our favorite projects from last year.  Resurrection Eggs are a fun slightly time consuming project that you can keep for years to come.
You need an empty egg carton, 12 plastic eggs, and a trinkets from around the house.  Each egg holds a trinket that represents a verse.  You simply read the verse that corresponds with the symbol of Holy Week.  

1.  Donkey  
"They brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them."  Matthew 21:7

If you have a small donkey to fit inside your egg great!  If not either print out this guy or if you have a little one that loves to create, you can do what we did and make one from polymer clay.

2. Silver coin

“Then one of the twelve disciples, named Judas Iscariot, went to
the chief priests and asked, “What will you give me if I betray
Jesus to you?” They counted out thirty silver coins and gave
them to him.” Matthew 26: 14-15

Go ahead and throw some silver pieces in.  We turned this into a math activity with how many ways can you turn the silver pieces into thirty cents.

3.   Bread

“While they were eating Jesus took a piece of bread,
gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples.
“Take and eat it,” He said, “This is My body.” Matthew 26:26

We used a saltine cracker last year, and it's still looks the same! Gross

4.  Praying Hands

"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done."  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly"  Luke 22:42-44

My little guy tried to make praying hands using polymer again, but we finally ended up using a clip art glued to foam.  Here you go:

5.   Sword

" Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest's servant, cutting off his right ear.  Jesus commanded Peter, "Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?" John 18:10-11

Yep, you guessed it, a Lego piece!

6.  Crown of Thorns

"The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head."  John 19:2

Here we clipped a piece off of a thorn bush.

7.    Cross (We made ours out of toothpicks, but you could also use a piece of jewelry)

“He went out, carrying His cross, and came to “The Place of the
Skull,” as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called “ Golgotha.”) There
they crucified Him.” John 19: 17-18

My oldest had this done before we even started the project.  Glue some toothpicks together.

8.  Nails 

“There they nailed Jesus to the cross."  John 19:18

Any simple nail will do.

9.  Sponge 

“One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap
wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make Him drink it.”Matthew 27:48

Just cut a small piece from any old sponge.  We tried giving each other a drink of water by soaking a sponge and putting it on a stick.  We did get some laughs as we tried to aim and get the sponge to land near our mouths, but then felt somber as we reflected on the fact that Jesus would not drink.  Again, hands on learning accentuates emotion.

10.  Linen

"He took down Jesus' body, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid."   Luke 23:53

A piece of a t-shirt will do.  If your more ambitious than I, have your children wrap each other in toilet paper to give a feel of being wrapped.

11.  Stone

"Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance."  John 20:1

Yep, you have the hang of this now; a small rock.

12.  He Has Risen!

"He is not here; he has risen!  Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee.  "The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again."  Luke 24:6-7

This egg is empty, He is not there!

My boys at times abhor writing.  So last year when we made these I did most of the writing and my oldest did all of the reading (wink-wink).  We enjoyed working on this project the Saturday before Palm Sunday, putting it all together in a day.  I would love to tell you that we read the verse day by day, but we didn't.  We read all of them everyday!  The boys wanted to compare the story from different Bibles and Bible books.  I would find them playing with a Lego figures riding on our donkey, or soldiers dressing Jesus in a purple robe (he colored the red one he had from little red riding hood).  Of course just then Peter would jump in, sword in hand, slashing the ear off of a soldier.  A bit out of order, but I loved watching their imaginations and hearts sore.  This activity, though a bit long, really instills the story to your children and really creates a wonderful visualization for them.

This video story of Easter done by The Beginners Bible series is slightly elementary but does a wonderful job.  It runs about 25 minutes, so take that time to snuggle with your babes in a cozy spot. 

Have a wonderful day friends!