Put Christ Back Into Easter - Holy Week Advent Activities, Surprises, & Empty Tomb as Easter Basket
Download Coloring Sheets and Instructions
Parents start with a small cardboard box (kids can color like a mountain or rock or trees on sides and top) or Easter basket on it’s side or make a tomb as a craft (should be big enough to act as an Easter basket for all the candy and toys on Easter morning).
Each morning starting with Palm Sunday the children get a coloring page and a treat/toy in their box/tomb. The children color in the drawing as they are taught about the significance of each day (see rough draft chart below). The children then tape the top of the drawing to cover the front of the box until the next morning.
The next morning they find treat(s)/toy and the drawing sheet for the day in the box behind the sheet from the prior day that they colored and hung. This process repeats each day until on Easter morning, they see Jesus is not in the tomb and the empty tomb is overflowing with Easter candy/treats/toys…and Jesus is not in the tomb as He is Risen which is the greatest gift of all to all of us!!!
|
Day |
Topic |
Drawing Description |
Lesson |
|
Palm Sunday |
Jesus Enters Jerusalem |
Jesus riding on Donkey, People putting down palm leaves and their robes |
Jesus was the rightful heir as their worldly king but he was also the Heavenly King & Savior. The crowds shouted Hosanna which means both “praise God” and “Save us” - Fitting as He is God & would save us all! |
|
Monday |
CleansingTemple |
Jesus pushing table and pointing to robbers to get out? |
We need to push things out of our life that keep us from learning how to be like Jesus. We need to clean out the bad things so we can have room for Jesus to fill our lives with Good. |
|
Tuesday |
Jesus Teaches in the Temple |
Jesus standing or sitting on the steps of the Temple teaching a crowd of people |
After cleansing the Temple the day before, Jesus went to teach. We need to be humble and teachable and lead by example by doing what is right. We should not be like the wicked leaders who were being naughty in private but only pretending to be righteous in public. |
|
Wednesday |
Anointing of Jesus |
Mary anointing Jesus head |
Messiah means “Anointed One” or “Chosen One” in Hebrew as in anointed or chosen to be King and Savior of the world. The very next day after being anointed, Jesus would officially start his role as the Savior of the whole world. |
|
Thursday |
Gethsemanie |
Jesus struggling and praying |
After the Last Supper where Jesus started the ordinance of the Sacrament, Jesus went to Gethsemane which means oil press. There He was pressed as He bore the weight of the sins of all of the world. |
|
Friday |
Crucifixion |
Jesus carrying the cross or on the cross |
We all need to do things we don’t want to do so we need to be like Jesus who carried His cross even though it was hard. |
|
Saturday |
Tomb |
Tomb with stone rolled closed (separate Jesus cutout for inside tomb) |
On the Sabbath or day of rest Jesus’ body was resting in the tomb while Jesus spirit went to the Spirit World to send missionaries to teach people in Spirit Prison so they could become better and be freed. |
|
Easter Sunday |
He is Risen! |
N/A - no new drawing |
Jesus is not there (in the tomb) - He is risen! And His empty tomb is His greatest gift to us all (represented with candy, toys, treats…). Maybe the kids can do an Easter-Egg hunt with some symbolic items in some of the eggs (e.g. leaf for Palm Sunday, broom representing cleaning the temple, scriptures representing teaching in the Temple, image of oil vile representing anointing, olive representing Gethsemane, nail representing cross, rock representing tomb, empty egg representing the empty tomb). |
Please let me know if I may help anyone in any way. There are hundreds of inspired ideas and solutions to help the entire world so let me know how I can share and work with others to get these ideas out there.
Merrick Maxfield, MerrickMax@gmail.com, mobile 801-484-5300 (same as used for ProbioticMaker.com - why I was on Shark Tank)