Resurrection Eggs

The story of Christ’s sacrifice is a story told all year long. At Easter time the story has an even more special meaning. At this time of year while we focus on friends, family, and festivities it’s important to take time to stop and remember what Christ went through for us. It’s time to solidify all the details of his journey for our children. To remind them that Jesus was sent to save them from their sins. To remind them how much he loved us and what he was willing to do to protect us.

At our house we read Benjamin’s Box and we use Resurrection Eggs to remind our children of the details of Christ’s sacrifice.  There are a dozen eggs and each has a token inside to remind us of a segment of Christ’s journey.  Inside the first egg is a miniature toy donkey to represent Christ’s arrival into Jerusalem, the donkey symbolized him coming in peace.  The second egg contains coins to represent the betrayal of the priests.  The third egg holds a cup that reminds us of the last supper and sacrament.  The fourth egg has praying hands to show the time Christ spent in the garden before he was taken by the Roman soldiers.  The fifth egg contains a leather strip in remembrance of how he was beaten.  The sixth egg holds a crown of thorns.  The seventh egg holds a cross of nails which if you push the tip into your palm will leave a red mark and helps child have a visual of the holes in Christ’s hands and feet.  The eighth egg holds a die to symbolize the Roman soldiers gambling for Christ’s clothing.  The ninth egg holds a spear as to the one that pierced Christ’s side.  The tenth egg holds a piece of white cloth like what Jesus was wrapped in in death.  The eleventh egg is a stone like the one that blocked Christ’s tomb.  The twelfth egg is empty just as the tomb was empty on the third day because Christ lives!

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Resurrection Eggs are a wonderful tangible way for children to understand the story of Christ’s sacrifice.  Our little Vaylee, who just turned three, was  able to comprehend parts of the story and sat and listen for the duration.  Tylea, who is almost five, loved to hold each item and open the eggs to discover each treasure.  The symbolism helped Jax, age seven, and Zavien, eight-and-a-half, remember the order of events and importance of each token.  It was a fun and meaningful way to talk about the true meaning of Easter.

Our Jesse Tree Ornaments

We had our swap on November 23rd, 2013 and it was a success!  The mom’s loved it and had an enjoyable evening out.  We all came home with 25 unique and beautiful handmade ornaments!  We even made 3 ornaments at the swap and that was perfect.  It gave our hands something to do while we talked.  I would definitely repeat that for a future small swap.  My children had a blast when they found the bag of Jesse Tree ornaments the next morning.  I’m very excited to share with them the Bible story with coordinating ornament each day in December.  Thank you crafty mamas for signing up and for a wonderful evening of chatting and friendship!

JesseTree1JesseTree JesseTree2 JesseTree3 JesseTree4 Baby Jesus Jesse Tree Ornament Joseph's Jesse Tree Ornament

Baby Jesus                                                     Joseph’s Coat of Many Colors

JesseTree8 JesseTree5 JesseTree11

Abraham’s camel and tent            Ruth’s wheat and heart            Jonah and the fish

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Samuel’s Oil Lamp                                              Jesse Tree

JesseTree12 JesseTree13

Jesse Stump and Elijah’s Altar                       Grapes of Canaan

JesseTree14 JesseTree15

First Sin Apples                                    Announcement of the Gentle Shepherd Sheep

JesseTree16 JesseTree17

Noah’s Ark Rainbow Cloud                                  Jacob’s Ladder

JesseTree20 JesseTree18 JesseTree22

Creation’s Globe              Bethlehem Silhouette               Josiah Finding the Law

JesseTree19 JesseTree21

Isaac’s Bundle of Sticks                                      Moses Burning Bush

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David’s Sling Shot                            Solomon’s Crown

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Habakkuk Watch Tower                          Isaiah’s Tongs with Hot Coal

JesseTree27 JesseTree28 JesseTree29 JesseTree30 JesseTree31

Noah’s Ark Art Project

We are using The Bible Story series for our religion lessons right now.  The readings are perfect for my kindergarten and second grader.  They are short enough to keep their attention, long enough to teach the lesson, and interesting enough to hold their attention.  We are all really learning our Bible stories and I’m loving it.  I wanted to share some of the things we did with our Noah’s ark readings.  I read the stories to the children at bedtime.  I have their attention then and they seem to retain things better.  Then the next day we got out watercolor pencils and paper and drew an ark.  I think they did amazing.  And I printed off pairs of animals that they colored with color pencils and cutout to add to their ark.  They loved it and we all had a lot of fun.  I wanted to share with you the animal images that I put together.  Enjoy!


Noah’sArk2 (Click link or image below to open full size pdf)  The pdf version has strong lines and doesn’t look as pixelated as the image below.  I printed two of these and cut them in half for my four children.