getting crafty: resurrection eggs

At our March meeting, we made Resurrection Eggs... what a great teaching tool to help our children understand the real meaning of Easter!

Here's the tutorial if you weren't able to come to the meeting, or would like to make an additional set of eggs for your Easter weekend.

What you need:

• 12 plastic eggs (or 6 if you want to make a simpler preschool version)
• number stickers or a permanent marker to label your eggs
• symbolic items or pictures of the symbolic items, as described below
• egg carton (optional)

Instructions:

Label each of your eggs with numbers 1-12 (or 1-6 for the preschool version), then place the following symbolic item inside:

The 12-Egg Version

*Click here to get the printable instructions for Resurrection Eggs.

1. Small bread or cracker pieces. Jesus ate His last meal with his friends (Passover). Mark 14:22, Luke 22:14
2. Nickel. Judas betrays Jesus for 30 pieces of silver money. Luke 22:3-5, Luke 22:47-52
3. Feather. Jesus predicted that Peter would lie three different times and say he didn't know Jesus by the time the rooster crowed. Matthew 26:33
4. Thorns. People were mad that Jesus said He was the Son of God, so they made a crown of pointy thorns to put on His head. Matthew 27:29-31, Mark 15:17
5. The Cross (or a picture of a cross). Jesus had to carry his own cross. John 19:17
6. Nails. Jesus was nailed to a cross. They left Him hanging there until He died, even though He hadn't done anything wrong. Matthew 27:31, Luke 23:33, Luke 23:40-41
7. Dice. When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and played a game to decide who would get his clothes. John 19:23-24
8. Spear. To make sure Jesus was really dead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus' side with a spear. John 19:34
9. White cloth. After Jesus died, His friends wrapped Him up with cloth and lay Him in a special cave called a tomb. Luke 23:53, Matthew 27:57-60
10. A small stone or pebble. The people who had killed Jesus put a large rock over the opening of the tomb, to make sure that nobody could get Jesus out. Matthew 27:62-65, Matthew 28:66
11. EMPTY! Three days later, the huge rock was moved & Jesus was gone from the tomb. An angel said He was not there but had risen! This day is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday because Jesus was raised to life again! Luke 24:3, Matthew 28:2-6
12. Candy. Jesus is alive today! That's the sweet surprise of Easter!

The 6-Egg Preschool Version

*Click here to get the printable instructions for preschool Resurrection Eggs.

1. Small bread or cracker pieces. Jesus ate His last meal with his friends (Passover). Mark 14:22, Luke 22:14
2. The Cross (or a picture of a cross). Jesus had to carry his own cross. John 19:17
3. White cloth. After Jesus died, His friends wrapped Him up with cloth and lay Him in a special cave called a tomb. Luke 23:53, Matthew 27:57-60
4. A small stone or pebble. The people who had killed Jesus put a large rock over the opening of the tomb, to make sure that nobody could get Jesus out. Matthew 27:62-65, Matthew 28:66
5. EMPTY! Three days later, the huge rock was moved & Jesus was gone from the tomb. An angel said He was not there but had risen! This day is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday because Jesus was raised to life again! Luke 24:3, Matthew 28:2-6
6. Candy. Jesus is alive today! That's the sweet surprise of Easter!