Easter Day

Easter Day (John 20:1-18)

The aim of today is to understand that Jesus rose from the dead and brings us hope of new life in him, and that something happy and wonderful can come out of something very sad.

Intergenerational Services

Intergenerational Services from Scripture Union

Printable Easter Holiday resources

The Children's Mission (children's ministry in the Salvation Army NZ) have some great printable resources, including an Easter booklet - perfect for printing out for visiting families, or including in Eater isolation packs.

Wrapping the Cross

Wrapping the Cross is a powerful visual way to tell the Easter story, as the cross is wrapped up in clothes on Good Friday, and revealed on Easter Sunday. You may need to adapt the story if greater sensitivity is needed (like young children).

Intergenerational Worship

Intergenerational worship ideas from Intergen Australia, written by Rev Sandy Brodine. THey have two offerings for telling the Easter story, from both Mark's Gospel (shorter!) and John's gospel (more detail!)

I wonder questions

"I wonder what Mary was thinking when she saw the empty tomb? Turn to the person next to you (if you have many kids) and tell them" or ( with a small group) "Would anyone like to share what they're thinking?"
"I wonder why Mary didn't recognise Jesus when she first saw him?"
"I wonder what you would have been thinking if you'd gone to Jesus' tomb and found it empty?"

Pebble Easter Eggs

A simple and beautiful craft, great for all ages make, and could be used in a treasure hunt activity too. Source: Sunhats and wellieboots

Rocky Road

An edible rocky road activity from for children to make - and enjoy! Source: Sunhats and wellieboots

Activities and crafts

Some more creative Easter activities from the sunhats and wellie boots website.
Weave an Easter cross
Easter small world play and in a sand tray
Life of Jesus board game

Seven minute sermon

Centuries of speculation have given Mary Magdalene a bad reputation. But her life actually provides a great example to follow. This 7 minute sermon podcast from Rev. George Penk is based on Luke 8.1-2 and John 20.14-17

Bead activity

Using different coloured beads to tell the story of holy week, which can be made into a bracelet, keychain, etc.

Green - Palm Sunday
Brown and red - Maundy Thursday, for the bread and wine.
Black - Good Friday sadness
White - resurrection

Gospel Conversations

Easter Day! If you're not preaching this week, perhaps hold off watching this until Sunday, because this is a real celebration of the resurrection, and over Holy Week we still have Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday to work through before we get there. But when we do, what an amazing, glorious story we are given! Grace, Peg and Anne have a thoroughly enjoyable time thinking about the women at the tomb and the mind-blowing Good News they are tasked with sharing. Christ is risen!

Gospel Conversation conversation from last year!
A huge thanks to the Diocese of Dunedin for this Gospel Conversation in 2023. In one of the most moving Conversations we have had, Lisa, Gary and Mannie join Michael to rejoice in the deep mystery, love and hope of Mary Magdalene's encounter with the risen Jesus in the garden. You won't want to miss this one!

Visio Lectio

A beautiful image from the Visio Lectio project, created by the Anglican Diocese of Auckland. © Sarah West. All Rights reserved, shared with permission.
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Hand printed cross

This activity could be done on a large sheet of newsprint paper, to include everyone's handprints on the one sheet, or each child could have their own smaller piece of paper to make a cross. It could be done as described, with the hands forming a cross, or in reverse, with the handprints providing the background to a white cross (as per the pictures below). Craft idea was taken from this website

"PAINTED HAND PRINTS: Spread some paint on each child's one hand and let them place their painted hand print on a poster board and all the hands need to be in a formation of a cross when the prints are completed. When I did this activity, I did these cross-formation-hand-prints on our class room wall for decoration. The kids loved it and enjoyed it for years!"

Transformation

There is a sermon from the Church of Scotland, which uses a simple upside down face as a visual aid, to describe the transformation between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This could be helpful for families with younger children.
Source: Rev Rosie Frew, Church of Scotland

Papier Mache Tombs

Note: These tombs take a long time to dry. If possible, children should take them home still wet on their paper plate. Those that are left will be dry by the following week.
What you need:

A partially blown up balloon for each child and a few extras
school glue watered down a little in shallow bowls
newspaper to spread on your work surface
scissors
lots of string and yarn cut into 10-15 cm pieces (older children will be able to handle slightly longer pieces)
paper plates or trays for drying the tombs
a bucket of warm water (or access to a sink) and paper towels for washing and drying hands
Felts for naming the plates

What you do:

Put the cut pieces of string and yarn and the bowls of glue on the newspaper on each table.
Give each child a balloon, explaining that everyone is going to make an empty tomb to help remind us of the empty tomb that Mary found. When we see what we make, we'll be able to remember that Jesus was dead, but then he was alive again.
To make the empty tomb, dip one piece of yarn in the glue and then wring it out gently by sliding your fingers down the length of the yarn.
Wrap the yarn around the balloon.
Repeat this process until the balloon is about 3/4 covered with yarn.
Leave to dry.
Once the yarn framework is completely dry, pop the balloon and pull it out through any of the openings to create the empty tomb.

Easter Egg Relay Race

This is a great game for people of all ages; children and adults can both be accommodated easily.

What you need:

1 teaspoon, tablespoon or soup ladle per 2-4 players
1 hard boiled egg or plastic egg that's weighted with lollies per 2-4 players
Tape, rope or chalk to mark the two starting points- point A and point B
If desired, kind of small prize for the winning team

What you do:

Divide the players into teams of 4. If you have a small group, you can have teams of 2.
Divide each team into two groups, 2 players at Point A, and 2 players at Point B.
The first player at point A is given an egg in a spoon to carry from Point A to Point B. At that point the egg and spoon are handed off to the next player in their team who carries it back to Point A to the third player and then to the fourth. If players are using different sized spoons, allow them to use their fingers to move the egg between the implements. A dropped egg means that the person carrying the egg must go back to where he or she started from. The first team to complete the relay wins.

Variations:

For younger children, allow them to carry the egg in a ladle.
Adults and old children can use a teaspoon or tablespoon.
If the teams are mixed age (which is fun) give each team one of each kind of spoon so that play is fair.
If you fill plastic eggs with lollies, allow each team to eat their lollies at the end.

Bead Necklaces

A bead crosses to take home and hang up somewhere, or wear to remind you that God loves you, even when you forget about him. God will never forget about you!

Easter Sunday