Easter Activity Kit for Your Family
Easter is a joyous reminder of Christ’s triump over death. What a joy to celebrate and affirm that goodness is stronger than evil, that love triumphs over fear, and that life, not death, is the final word.
If you’re like us, you’re always looking for additional resources for Easter and Holy week to send to your church family or to do with your family at home to help teach children about the importance of Easter.
That’s why we’ve provided this activity packet so that parents and children can do this together at home, together with other families or in the church building to reinforce biblical truths of the holiest of times in the Christian calendar.
In this blog post, we’ve put together an Easter Kit of printable sheets that parents can do especially WITH their children.
In this kit, you’ll find:
- A special Object Lesson as an introduction for parents with questions to get the conversation going.
- A special craft that you can do with your kids.
- A reading of the Easter story.
- Activity sheets for ages 3-6 and 7+ to help reinforce the Story.
- Plus memory verses to share and grow your child’s love and knowledge of the Scriptures.
Together, families can create a special time of learning and reflection based on the story of Easter. To download the full kit, scroll to the bottom of this page.
Preparing for the Lesson
To introduce the significance of the Easter story with their children, Rev. Darin Armstrong has provided an object lesson and opening prayer for parents, teachers, or your pastor to use.
Easter Object Lesson and Opening Prayer
During this time together, you are going to ask the children a lot of questions. Begin by asking them if they saw the sunrise this morning. No? How do they know the sun is up? It’s light outside; the sun is coming through the windows; you can SEE your shadow on the ground; it’s warm outside. Do you think the ocean is still out there? Can you hear it? Have you ever seen the ocean? How do you know it’s there? Someone told you about it? (Or, substitute a famous landmark near you or a mountain –– whatever works for your area.) Do you think your parents love you? How do you know that your parents love you? They tell you, they take care of you and you can feel their love. Even when they are not playing with you or reading you a story or even when you are not with them, you know they love you. What about God? How do we know God loves us? Because other people have told us, because of this beautiful world God created and because God’s Son, Jesus, came to live among us. Perhaps we know God loves us because Jesus died for us and rose again on Easter. Even though we cannot see the ocean, we know it’s there. So, too, we know God loves us.
Then close with a prayer: “Thank you, God, for giving us Jesus and the joy of new life because of Easter. Amen.”
—Thanks to the Rev. Darin Arnston for this idea.
Click to download the Easter Object Lesson
We think it will help set the right tone as you work through the story, activities, crafts, and memory verses we’ve compiled here.
Easter Story Guide
Next, instruct adults to read to the children the story guide about the Empty Tomb from the kit. This story outline can be read as-is, or adapted, depending on the parent or teacher’s comfort level.
Bible Story Guide of the Empty Tomb
Click the link to download the PDF from Matthew 28:1-15 that tells the story of the Empty Tomb when Mary and Mary Magdalene came to the tomb but did not find Jesus there.
Click to download the Empty Tomb Story
For tips on engaging children during this story of Easter, check out our article: Engage children in Bible Stories with 4 simple steps.
Easter Craft for Families
After reading the Bible story together, families can create this fun craft depicting the cross or the celebration of the empty tomb to reinforce the message.
Watercolor Resist Easter Craft
This craft is one of our favorite crafts. It’s simple to do, but has a great “wow” effect with kids of all ages, even adults!
Using a white crayon, color a cross onto a piece of generic copy paper. Then, use watercolors to paint over the “hidden” cross to make it appear!
Tip #1: Press FIRMLY with the crayon.
Be sure that kids press very firmly with the crayon to be sure that the wax transfers over to the paper.
Broken crayons are made for this craft!
Tip #2: Use paper towel to wipe away paint.
If a kid gets overzealous with the watercolor and you find it’s creating water droplets, simply use a paper towel to wipe away the remaining watercolor.
In fact, we love the wood cross look it gave when we did so!
Tip #3: Any crayon brand will work!
Below is an example of Crayola Crayons vs generic brand crayons.
As you can see, both crayons transfer the wax from the crayon and create great resist affect from the watercolor! So if you church is providing the craft supplies in kits, don’t worry about purchasing off-brand crayons.
Click the link to download a PDF with photos and instructions on creating a watercolor painting of the cross or the empty tomb using a fun technique called “color resist.”
Click to download the Easter Craft Instructions
Encourage parents or teachers to not only help with the craft but engage with children by asking questions about the lesson.
Easter Activity Sheets
Working through the activity sheets with your kids will again illustrate the Bible story and strengthen your child’s understanding of the Scriptures. Click the link to download a PDF that contains fun games that reinforce the story of The Empty Tomb.
The activity sheets are in black and white and in color. You’ll find a word search and a tracing activity. The PDF also includes the answer keys for all the activities.
Click to download the Easter Activity Sheets
These activity sheets can be done after a craft or while another child is finishing up a craft, later on in the week, or in place of a craft.
- To print just the black and white versions + Answer Key, select Pages 1-5 before printing.
- To print just the color versions + Answer Key, select Pages 5-7 before printing.
When working on the activity sheet with your child, be sure to ask questions or point to elements of the activity to talk about them and how they relate to Easter.
Easter Memory Verses
Continue the celebration of Easter as a family by learning one or two memory verses together!
Below are some examples and partial verses that we think fit well with the Easter activities.
Memory Verse Option 1:
Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.
Luke 24: 5-6
Memory Verse Option 2:
Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here.
Mark 16:6
Be sure to select a memory verse that is age-appropriate for your children. You can even add hand signs to help kids memorize the verses, especially those children who are non-verbal.
Example Memory Verse with Hand Gestures:
Why do you seek [place your hand up to your eyes like your searching]
the living [mimic something growing from your palm]
from the dead? [mimic something dying or dead]
He is not here, [shake your head no]
but is risen [move hands up as if rising].
To help engage with the memory verse, we’ve created coloring pages for children to color and then post in a visible place at home or in the classroom.
Click to download the Easter Memory Verse Coloring Pages
Keep in mind, memory verses when recited do not have to be perfect! Be sure to allow for prompting or help if needed, especially for little children. Memorizing the Bible should be fun, not stressful for both parents and children!
Download the Free Easter Activity Printables!
Click on the link below to download the enter kit of worksheets to email, print or distribute to your families or Children’s Church leaders!
This download includes the Easter Object Lesson Printable, The Empty Tomb Story Guide, 2 Activity Sheets, Easter Watercolor Resist Craft Instructions, and the Memory Verse Coloring Sheets!
Click to download the full Easter Printables Kit
May you be strengthened as you serve in Christ’s name.
He has Risen, Hallelujah!
For additional Easter-related activity sheets, story guides, and more, give Children’s Worship Bulletins a try.
Author Bio:
Children's Bulletins Team
Over the years of publication Children’s Worship Bulletins has had many contributing authors and editors. This team has worked diligently to thoughtfully craft material to assist in creating meaningful children’s worship materials.