Easter Week

This story is part of the Beyond the Story: Life Application Series for kids. These are perfect to be used in your jr church/jr high classes or to be used as part of your homeschool discipleship program. You can download all of the additional resources for this lesson here, or you can grab the entire pack of 52 lessons and resource packs here. This series is ideal for kids who know the Bible stories already and are ready to hear them with a deeper understanding of how they relate to their every day lives.

As a kid I was always taught that Jesus died on Friday and rose on Sunday. That was about it when it came to Easter. The rest was all about dying eggs and Easter bunnies. 

If you’re new here, I’m Tonya Johnson, founder of Helping Hearts Ministries where I specialize in working with parents and ministry leaders who are focused on building a solid foundation for the next generation. I believe that it’s important to stay ahead of the crowd when it comes to keeping the attention of our children. As homeschoolers, we have the unique advantage of being able to tailor our child's education in a way that fosters that child/parent relationship and ignites their love for both learning and Jesus. The world is fighting for their hearts; we need to fight 10x harder. 

Now, I’m not against all the fun things we do to celebrate Easter. We dye eggs and go on egg hunts. We do all the crafts and fill the baskets, but I also want my daughter to know what the true meaning of Easter is. In this lesson, we’re simply going to go through the timeline of Jesus from Palm Sunday through the Resurrection.

The jelly bean salvation template, sequencing review, verse cards, song sheets, lesson (printable form with review questions highlighted) and craft are all part of the Download Pack. 

Unlike many egg hunts done on Easter, this one actually revolves around easter. Cut out the pictures representing each day of Easter and put them each into a different colored egg. You can do this one of two ways depending on how big your class is. Either hide one of each color egg and have the kids find them; one per child, first come, first serve. Or, you can print out more than one page of pictures and hide multiple of each color, so everyone finds an egg. Instruct the kids to keep the eggs readily available because you'll be using them during the lesson.  Before you go through each day of the Easter Week, have the kids open the egg that matches that day and hold up the picture inside.

This one I couldn't find recorded anywhere; it's old. So I just recorded it myself  real quick. Nothing fancy. When you get to the SHOUTING part, the kids yell that word then go back to singing normally but loudly.  

You'll need jelly beans for the salvation portion of this lesson anyway, so that could easily be your snack. If you're doing this in a smaller setting, you can easily add resurrection rolls to your snack list. 

For this lesson, I would read directly from scripture. You can grab free bible story images here for every Bible story. The life application here is to understand not only the true meaning of Easter, but the timeline of Easter week. 

Jesus had been teaching for about 3 years at this point as the Jewish Messiah. What we call Palm Sunday is the day that he came to Jerusalem, Israels capital, to make that claim publicly. When he arrived, there were thousands of Jews who greeted him with a palm branch… an ancient symbol of victory.

Jesus didn’t like that people were taking away from worshipping God. This wasn’t just simply selling things, it was deceiving people by taking advantage of foreigners who didn’t know currency exchange rates and selling animals at an extremely high price so the people could sacrifice them. This is when he also healed a blind man and a lame man.

When the religious leaders overhear Jesus teaching the disciples through parables, they question his authority to teach such things.

Judas was one of Jesus 12 disciples. He sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. There are several sources on this that state varying amounts, but 30 pieces of silver would equal anywhere from $100-$500 in today’s money. Back then, it was 1-3 month’s wages depending on your occupation, so it was considered a decent amount of money.

Jesus and his disciples are having the Last Supper when Jesus says that someone at that table is going to betray him. Of course, all of his disciples said it wasn’t them. Judas slips out toward the end of supper. After eating, Jesus and three of his disciples went to the garden of gethsemane. Three times Jesus left them to go pray. The third time he came back to them and told them that it was time for them to rest and that the one that was going to betray him was already at work. That’s when the group of people and the guards came with Judas to arrest him. The word "Maundy" comes from the latin word mandatum meaning mandate or command. During the last supper, Jesus left His disciples with the mandate to "love one another", so this day is commonly known as Maundy Thursday. 

They nailed Jesus to a cross, put a sign above him that said king of kings, and they crucified him. It was custom with crucifixions that the body be taken down before the sabbath which starts friday at sundown, so they would go break the legs of the criminals that were being crucified so they couldn’t hold themselves up anymore causing them to suffocate. When they went to break Jesus legs they saw that he was already dead. A man names Joseph of Arimathaea, one of Jesus’ disciples along with Nicodemus wrapped Jesus body in linen and spices and put him in the tomb. the Bible says Jesus rose "three days later". This doesn't mean three 24 hours periods, but three separate days of the week. Friday being day one, Saturday day two, and then Sunday day three.

We know that the disciples likely remained in hiding this day. They had just lost a dear friend, and were likely too grief stricken to go about their daily business. It was also the Sabbath, so most of the community would've been somewhat quiet. 

Saturday is also known as Easter Vigil for many. Some churches hold prayer vigils and light candles. This day also marks the end of lent, so others ring bells and hold more of a celebration on this day. 

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary (not Jesus’ mom) came to the tomb early Sunday morning and there was a great earthquake. The stone was rolled away from the tomb and an angel came out to let Mary know that Jesus was not in the tomb anymore but he had risen. The angel told Mary to go tell everyone, and as they went, Jesus showed up to talk to them. He told them to get the disciples and tell them to go to Galilee so they could see Him too. Jesus showed himself to them, told them to go and tell the world about salvation

An alternative craft would be these sticker scenes from Oriental Trading. 

Geared toward children ages 7+, this series is designed for kids who know the basics of each Bible story already. Maybe they've been in church since birth, or maybe they're just a bright child who memorizes facts easily. Either way, they're ready to look beyond the story. 

They're ready for a more in depth look at each major story in the Bible with an emphasis on how they can apply the biblical principles in their every day life, real world style.

If this sounds like something that could benefit your homeschool or your church, click the button below.

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