3 Easter Sunday School Lesson Options

Easter Sunday school lessons are the most fun. Usually there is a larger group of children in class than on other Sundays so it is a nice time to teach more children about what Easter means and why it is important to the Christian church.

Option 1: We have LifeWay Kids books that give handout sheets with scriptures simplified to a pre-school aged level. I use these but often tell the story in my own words. Because Easter Sunday is especially busy and children are likely to not be as focused, it is more important than normal to tell the story in your own words.

My words may need to be simplified depending on the age of your class but I plan something to this effect.

Jesus was crucified on a cross. His friends had to bury his body fast due to the approaching Sabbath. Mary Magdalene, Jesus' friend was sad after he died as we would be sad if we lost a close friend. Mary arrived at the tomb where Jesus was buried to prepare his body after the Sabbath. When she arrived, she found a surprise!

Jesus wasn't in the tomb! Where do you think he was? Mary was very upset because she didn't know. She went in search of Jesus' disciples and they were surprised as well. Mary believed Jesus' body was taken by those who killed him. She was in for a big surprise!

Jesus' disciples went home but Mary stayed at the tomb. She was upset her friend's body was missing. Mary saw two angels standing near where Jesus' body had been and they asked why she was upset. She was then asked by who she thought was a gardener why she was crying. Mary didn't recognize who the gardener was. It was Jesus!

When Jesus spoke the name "Mary" she knew it was Jesus. Can you imagine seeing Jesus alive after having watched him be killed? Jesus was so close she could touch him. Jesus asked Mary to tell his disciples he was alive and she left to do that.

Mary visited Jesus on the first day of the week. What is the first day of the week? It is Sunday. Since Jesus' resurrection, church has been held on Sunday.

Activity: Who is happy Jesus is alive? The answer is Mary in the story but we are as well. My LifeWay book says to sing the lyrics "Jesus is alive! Jesus is alive! We are happy. We are happy. Jesus is alive" to the tune of Farmer in the Dell. My class typically avoids singing but it is Easter. The handouts have an activity on the back of them to match shadows to those who are happy Jesus is alive. The handout is always next on the agenda. We then go to the craft for the week. On Easter Sunday it is important to have a good craft ready because children will be hyped up on sugar from the Easter egg hunt before church and ready to expend energy.

Craft: We will paint sun catchers in the shape of flowers and I will speak about how people are like flowers. We die but are resurrected with the son/sun.

Sources: KJV, LifeWay for kids

Option 2: An outside service would be ideal for a Sunday school lesson about Easter. If it is a nice day with no rain or cold, I plan on taking my class outside. Flowers are in buds and some are blossoming where we live. Though I may not find any close to the church, across the street is some land my father-in-law owns where a lot of flowers are because previously the house of Methodist preacher was on the land.

Flowers are an apt metaphor for our lives. God will eventually pick us and we will die but we will come back as beautiful, if not more beautiful, than before just as the flowers do. Flowers have short lives and are guaranteed to come back each year (I know not all do but they don't have to know that). Christians do not know how long their lives will be or how long it will be before Christ comes back but we know it will happen. Because we know Christ will return, it is important to be prepared. I will then focus on salvation. The son/sun causes both flowers and people to rise again following death and because of salvation we have no fear. I have contemplated separating the class and taking the older kids on this trip because they will better understand the metaphor and not be as keen to make sure they didn't miss finding any Easter eggs while outside. I have this privilege since two people usually work with my class.

Because of the distance to the land and back, I am not focusing on a craft. While walking, I want to ask them questions about what they know about Easter. I am hoping for a sunny day similar to what we had yesterday so I can pick a flower, tell the story in my own words as I did above, allow each child to pick a flower (if they have blossomed and it is likely some of them have) and take them home. On the way back, I will ask them what they learned and what their Easter plans are.

Sources: KJV, my own ideas

Option 3: The third option will be to explain to the children what Easter means. I will separate the commercial meaning of Easter with the bunny rabbit and eggs from the Christian meaning of Easter with Christ's resurrection. To avoid confusing the younger children, I do not plan to mention anything more than that Easter was blended with a holiday already in existence which Anglo-Saxon pre-Christians enjoyed. I have mentioned quite a bit about Christ and the Easter bunny in a previous article and plan to draw on that. I will tell them of Christ being like a bunny because he took on our responsibility for sin and will compare the egg to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I will have a regular hard -boiled egg on hand for this comparison and a plastic egg as well. I will use the plastic egg to compare the shell-the actual plastic egg to our bodies and the candy/goodies inside as our spirit.

Rabbits lay a lot of eggs so I do not believe this to be something to avoid even if the origins are pagan. If Christ is compared to a bunny, then the eggs he leaves can be compared to missionaries-not just missionaries but us as human beings. We each become bunnies though not to the extent of Christ as we take the responsibility of leading the lost to Christ. We take responsibilities for our sins through the original bunny and lead others to realizing this fact and becoming bunnies themselves. The cycle is what our church teaches us to do-bring others to Christ so they can bring others and so forth.

I will then tell the children the story of Easter in my own words as in Option #1.

Craft: I love the idea of an Easter handprint wreath. For the craft, you will need pastel colored paper; 3 of each pastel color, scissors, and glue. First we will make 9 handprints for each child, 3 of 3 different colors. Cut out the prints and then glue them together to form a wreath. My children are 4 and 6 so I especially appreciate crafts with handprints. It is a lot of fun to watch the handprints become smaller as their hands grow. Decorate the handprints with either the Easter lilies provided on a template link to the above site (the phrase marked in purple) or allow children to draw whatever they want on the handprints. Also stickers with crosses and bibles are good to decorate the handprints. Be sure to place the year somewhere on each child's craft so their parents can remember what year it was made.