Not Just Easter Eggs and Bunnies: Explaining the Easter Story to Children

I know what youre thinking. Christmas is only just over; Easter is a million miles away; gimme a break! However, when youre constantly busy preparing, teaching and marking the weeks can pass you by remarkably quickly and its easy for things to creep up on you. Plus, teaching children about Easter can be difficult, especially if you want to show them that its not just about bunnies and chocolate eggs.

If you truly want to make the most out of Easter-themed lessons, you should start planning them and collecting resources well in advance. Explaining the Easter story to children will be much easier if you approach it armed with plenty of fresh ideas and activities, so here is some fresh inspiration to get you get started off.

Best Resources for Teaching Children About Easter

Songs are possibly the best resources for explaining the Easter story to children. Young children tend to find songs more engaging than speech alone, and the associated repetition and rehearsal help reinforce any ideas expressed within their lyrics. Moreover, singing is much more enjoyable than being lectured, so Easter songs for kids are far more likely to capture and retain their attention than, say, a verbatim reading from the Bible.

Typical Easter songs for children range from those about chocolate, Easter bunnies and new life to more thought-provoking portrayals of the Easter story. For example, Three Days That Changed The World and Jesus Is Alive! are two great songs that explore the Easter story using child-friendly language. Both can be found in the Sing Easter! songbook, which is available to order online.

Arts and crafts are also great for teaching children about Easter. Rather than simply painting eggs you could try resurrection eggs, which make a fantastic resource for teaching the Easter story itself. You can find cheap plastic eggs on Amazon, or otherwise you could just collect the shells of Kinder Surprise and paint them in bright colours. Many other great Easter arts, crafts and activities can be found on Danielle's Place, from Easter egg-shaped story books to donkey hobby horses.

The most important thing to remember about explaining the Easter story to children is to make it interactive. If you get children involved in the telling of the story through songs and activities, the message is far more likely to sink in. All you need is plenty of creativity, imagination and enthusiasm and the rest will follow.