I love finding games we can play over and over in Sunday School!  Because we only have a short 45 minutes together each week, it's nice to have the same game to play each week during a unit so we don't have to spend time learning a new game each week!

Cross bean bag toss was the perfect Easter story game!

Materials You Need

I love this game because it's so simple and easy to do with what you have on hand.  All you need is paper and a bean bag.

You can print out the cross pages from my Easter Bible story unit, or write your own "sins" on colored paper to make your own cross.  You just need 6 pages.

You'll also need a bean bag.  If you're like me and don't have a store bought bean bag, you can easily make one to use together to play.  Just simply put beans in a bag, but use packaging tape to tape over the opening to reinforce the bag closure! And just like that you have a "free" bean bag!

How To Play

Set up the 6 "sin" cards in a cross formation.  Tape a line about 4 feet behind the bottom of the cross.

First, kids name the sin they are going to try to hit.  Once they name the sin, say, "Did Jesus die for people who ____? YES!  While we were still sinners, Christ dies for us!"

Then, kids stand behind the taped line and toss the bean bag.  They toss the bag to try and hit the sin they called out.

You can keep score, or just play for fun!  Reinforce the idea that we all our sinners and God loved us so much that he gave Jesus to die for our sins--ALL of our sins!

You can find this game and much more in this kindergarten Easter Story Unit from my Sunday School curriculum.

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Whitney

Stained glass has always been a favorite of mine!  So this year, we made stained glass crosses for Easter to hang on our refrigerator at home.  This is a simple Easter craft that kids and adults can enjoy!

I printed out the stained glass cross from this Easter Bible story unit.  Then, I just colored in the pieces using lots of bright colors.

Side note...do you have a favorite "strategy" for coloring in stained glass?  Between this activity and the sidewalk chalk activity we did recently, I've learned that I like to color one color at a time.  I use a crayon to color in two pieces and then move on to the next color.

But my seven year old colors one piece at a time, switching as he goes!  It's fun to watch and see how each one of us color differently!

Okay... back on track!

After we color, we cut out the cross on the dotted lines to leave the Bible verse around the edge of the cross.

At this point, we backed ours on colored paper to hang on the fridge for lots of bright, Spring color!

But you can also back it on cardstock (or print the cross out on white cardstock) and punch a hole and tie a string through the top to make an ornament!

You can find this Easter Bible Story craft plus lots more in this "Jesus Died for Me" Easter Unit as part of my Sunday School curriculum.

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Whitney

I love finding time during the Easter season to do crafts with my preschool Sunday School kids!  This one is from our preschool Sunday School curriculum was new to us this year and we loved it!

We did not have Easter services at church this year because of CoVid-19, but my 7 year old and I did this craft at home anyway!

What You'll Need

The wonderful thing about this Easter Bible story craft is you can pretty much do it with things you have around the house.  You'll need...

• Lima beans
• Yellow craft paint
• Green and blue construction paper
• Bible verse and tomb printables

Make Your Own

Once you have your materials ready, it's time to get started!  Print out the bible verse and tomb printables from this Easter unit.  I printed the bible verse printable on blue paper and the tomb on white cardstock.

Use a half sheet of green paper to glue to the bottom as the "grass."

Then, paint your hand yellow and put the handprint just an inch or two above the green paper so that the handprint will fit in between the "grass" and the verse.  You may need to use a smaller amount of green paper and that's totally fine!

Next, glue the tomb on top of the grass and handprint sunrise.

Last, fill the stone tomb with lima bean stones.  Use liquid glue, not a glue stick for this! :)

When it's finished, it will look something like this...

I hope you enjoy making these as much as we did!  You can find this activity and many more in my Easter Bible Story Unit from my Year 3 preschool Sunday School curriculum.

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Whitney

Two years ago, I bought The Truth in The Tinsel to help teach Cooper about the real Christmas story (read that HERE).  After our first Christmas with it, we loved it so much I knew we needed something for Easter too.   Since I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, I made my own!

Here's a look at our 9 days of Easter advent countdown!

First, I filled 9 eggs with a clue for each of our Easter story devotions.  We opened our egg each morning and then did the story in the evening before bed.  Cooper loved opening his egg each morning!

My Easter Sunday packet includes a "cheat sheet" with all of the egg clues, scriptures and crafts altogether on one page!


Once I had that printed and the daily devotions, we were ready to go! :)

Day 1: The Lord's Supper

Cooper loved having his "snack" while we read our Bible Story!

Day 2: Praise the Lord!

"It's a yeaf, Mommy!" I think opening his "twues" (clues) was his favorite part!

Day 3: Judas Betrays Jesus

Day 4: Pilate

This one was so much fun when we opened the egg and water spilled everywhere!! :)

Day 5: Jesus is Mocked

As you can tell from this stinky face...we are *thrilled* with the smell of vinegar, "that stinky stuff" as Cooper called it!  This was a stinky, but memorable clue! :)

After our scripture, we went outside and cut thorn branches from the rose bushes to make our own crown of thorns.

Day 6: Jesus is Crucified
This one took forever to convince Cooper that the clue was a nail and not a needle! LOL!

Day 7: Jesus Dies

This was our last day of Spring Break. After Cooper declared this a stay-in-your-pajamas day (what a nice way to spend the last day of break!), we spent the day digging with Easter eggs, building egg towers, and eating lunch out of Easter eggs. But most importantly, we ended the day remembering the Cross. Because, at the end of the day, nothing else really matters. Because, even in His darkest hour, He was fighting for me. And because, even in MY darkest hour, He is still fighting for me. Dying for me. Conquering death for me. All because of the cross.

That's one of the reasons I loved doing this advent so much.  There's no reason not to have fun with Easter eggs, but I sure did love the balance of both this year!

Day 8: Jesus Is Buried

Cooper loved this one!  He kept saying, "I am going to yock dis door weally tight so Jesus cannot get out!"  Oh, but wait, son....Sunday's coming! :)

Day 9: Jesus Is Risen

And here is the video of the entire story as told by my very sick, very hyped up from little sleep 3 year old! LOL!  My favorite quotes.... "THE Pilate," "Thorns made of crowns," and "The sun came up.  Yay!"

Easter Sunday School

Here's an oldie but goodie that we just didn't have time for in Sunday School this morning...but I haven't blogged about it before and it's just too fun not to share!  It's a great "substitute" sequencing activity if you don't have time to do the 9 day advent in Sunday School (or with your family!)

Instead, we went with a Pinterest inspired activity and added our unit Bible verse.  My kiddos had fun finding the words to our verse on their own.  I had precut the words and said each word and they went on a "hunt" for the words!

I think they turned out adorable and Cooper can even point and "read" his Bible verse to us now!

You can find detailed plans for all of these activities in my Easter Sunday Banner Packet!

Or get a full 5 week unit here!

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Whitney

We are well into our unit on Fables now!  The week before Easter we read The Ugly Duckling and did some super fun activities {which you can read about HERE}.  We also started The Tortoise and The Hare that week with all of the best intentions to finish, but....alas, ITBS came and we didn't finish until early this week.

One thing I love about our fables unit is that it is super fun and relaxing this time of year and it's super easy to teach.  It is the same routine song and dance week after week, but with a new fable!  And, no, the kids do not get bored.  They just love it.  In fact, today I had a kid in each of my reading groups as with excitement, "Is this book going to be another fable??" as they got their new guided reader!

So, again with The Tortoise and the Hare, we read and discussed the fable elements and the life lesson.  Here's the life lesson chart that I forgot to take a pic of for my last post...Obviously, it's a work in progress and I'll update the finished chart at the end of the unit.

The next day, we reread and sequenced the plot in productive groups...

Then, wrote about the elements of the fable...

Then, we made our craft!  This was a fun one and a great way to relax after our first day of jail time ITBS testing...:)

 We wrote letters to Hare to give him advice on how to be a better friend.  Man, these kiddos loved telling him what to do!  {Now....to get a few of them to listen to their own advice! *wink*}

And I just love how creative they got with these Hare crafts.  These are muddy brown spots from running too fast in the mud... #lovemyfirsties

 ...and the folded ears!  My example did not have those, but I just loved that so many of them did their ears that way!

I let them choose their favorite craft to hang in the hallway for a festive Spring display!

Check out all of these materials in my Duckling and Tortoise/Hare Mini Unit!

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Whitney

It's been a while since I've updated this little blog. We've been a busy family the past two weeks or so. In the last week, we moved out of our apartment... **EDIT: I even started this blog a week ago and am just now having a chance to finish it...**

...and then moved in with my in-laws! We knew our new house most likely wouldn't be finished by the time our lease was up, but since it would just be a week or so, we decided not to add an extra month to our apartment lease. 

Thankfully, with just a few minor hiccups here and there, we were able to move into our new house this past Thursday! I am so thankful for such kind in-laws who let us "live" with them for a few nights while we waited on our house!

Apartment. In-laws. New house. All in 5 days. And I even finally opened an Instagram account! {Follow me HERE...I've definitely been updating more school pics there since I haven't had time for a full blog in a while!} Phew! I'm worn out! 

Needless to say, we haven't had a chance to celebrate Easter at home much yet.  But we did make time for a Good Friday Easter Egg lunch!

I "hid" lunch food inside each egg.  Eggs are the perfect serving size for toddlers, aren't they?  (EDIT: I've used these for 3 years now and they are perfect for preschoolers too, just add more eggs!)

Cooper had a BLAST trying to guess what was inside each egg!

My favorite things to pack Easter Eggs with...
*turkey or ham
*petite baby carrots
*grape tomatoes
*cucumbers
*celery sticks
*other cold veggies: my kiddo loves cold squash/zucchini, broccoli, snap peas, etc...
*cheese cubes
*bananas
*strawberries
*any other fruit is perfect!
*goldfish
*almonds or other nuts

How fun is this??  This lunch idea is definitely a keeper for the next few years!

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Whitney