Jesus is Alive!!!

E is for Easter

Today as I wrote my objectives on the board, I realized how blessed I am to use the word Jesus in my objectives. It has been an amazing week teaching the kiddos about the true meaning of Easter. We have had MANY discussions about Jesus. They ask SO many great questions.

Why did Jesus die?

How did He come back to life?

Where is Heaven?

How do you get to Heaven?

How did Jesus get to Heaven?

Along with these great questions we have also had some amazing quotes:

Me: Is Jesus still dead?

Kiddo #1: NO!!! After 3 days He came back to life!!!! (Very enthusiastic)

Me: Where did Jesus go after He died?

Kiddo #2: He went to Heaven. And now He is really old. 

I love their curiosity, questions, comments and thoughts! Oh to be 3 and 4 years old. 

Here is a peek into our classroom this week!

Activity 1: Sensory Bin

- Easter Grass

- Easter Eggs

They love this sensory tub. They enjoy digging through the grass looking for the Easter Eggs. Opening and putting the Easter eggs back together is a great fine motor activity too!

Activity 2: Easter Egg Hunt & Story
Last year I made a modified, preschool appropriate resurrection egg story. I used only 6 eggs and it started from Jesus' birth to resurrection! It is a great hands on way for the kiddos to remember the story of Easter and to follow God's commandment of sharing the good news with everyone.

This year I thought it would be fun to go on an Easter egg hunt in our classroom. After hiding all the eggs (6 for each kiddo), I gave each kiddo a bag with his/her name on it. I told them they needed to find one of each color. Once they found all 6 they sat on their rug spot. Together we opened the eggs and told the Easter story. They were SO excited to bring home their own eggs so they could share the story with their friends and family.

I found all my Easter eggs at the Dollar Tree. I was able to enough eggs for 3 kiddos in a package. I made sure they were all the same color tone so there would be no fighting. :)

1. Jesus is born!
I found an image of baby Jesus. We cut and laminated them.

2. Jesus loves everyone!
I found these adorable heart stickers at the dollar tree.

3. Palm Sunday.
I dug through my box of foam shapes and letters and found little green pieces of foam to represent palm branches.

4. Jesus died for us!
I hot glued 4 toothpicks together and trimmed the edges.

5. They laid Jesus in a tomb.
I bought a container of rocks to represent the rock in front of the tomb.

6. Jesus is alive!!!
This one is empty because Jesus is no longer in a tomb, He is alive and in Heaven! Amen!!
The kiddos were SO excited to see the empty egg.

Activity 3: Palm Sunday

We thought about getting palm branches to late, BUT next year we will!! Instead we made our own palm branches out of construction paper. Then we pretended that Jesus was coming and we all shouted: "Hosanna!" 

Quote:  

Kiddo #3:"How about we pretend I am Jesus."

Activity 4: Water Color Tomb

They are VERY interested in the tomb this year, so I decided to make a last minute addition to our already busy, short week. They loved creating their own empty tomb and they can't wait to take them home. They cut out the tomb on white construction paper. Then they water colored it with brown and black. 

Once they were done, we hung them on our bulletin board.

Activity 5: Water Color Cross 
This was also a last minute addition this year. The kiddos were really into water coloring so I thought I would let them cut out a cross and water color it however they wanted to. We hung them from our ceiling which makes our room very festive. 

Activity 6: Tie-Dye Coffee Filter Cross
We have done many coffee filter projects this year. The kiddos love them because they are an independent project and they LOVE seeing how the colors mix together. This is our Preschool wall. Each month we put a new display up that uses each child in our Preschool program. 

Activity 7: Easter Story Egg

I have seen many different symbols where colors can tell the Easter story. I decided to turn this into an egg shape and have the kiddos water color stripes with the corresponding color. As they painted each color we talked about what part of the story it told.

Activity 8: Chalk Easter Eggs

They LOVED decorating their own Easter eggs. 

1. Have them place 3-5 pieces of painters tape on an Easter egg made out of white cardstock. 

2. Teach them how to dip chalk into water.

3. Have them use the wet paint to color over all the white. 

4. When they are done coloring, remove the painters tape to see a cool design. 

Kiddo #4: "I made this for God."

(So we hung it from the ceiling on one of our clips)

Bonus Activity: Easter Egg Sorting

I shopped the Easter sales last year and got a variety of Easter eggs. The kiddos sort by color, made patterns, mix and match them all while strengthening their pincher fingers (which helps with writing).

I found this container at the Dollar Tree (can you tell I like to shop there? The problem is it is next door to Target!). I have 3 of these containers and have used them many times!

Jesus is Alive!!!