After Jesus died on the cross His friends were very sad. They took Jesus' body and lovingly placed it in a tomb. A big rock was rolled in front of the door to the tomb. Guards were placed outside the tomb to make sure no one would steal the body. Listen carefully as I read the rest of the story from God's Word, the Bible:
Read Matthew 28:1-10
Print the Jesus Has Risen color sheet HERE.
As the kids color their paper, tell them about the real reason for Easter. Explain to them that it may be fun to get candy and dye colorful eggs, but in reality, Easter reminds us that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. Three days after He died and was laid to rest, He miraculously rose from the dead. After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared and spoke to His followers. Jesus spent forty days with His followers, and before He went back to Heaven, He told them that He would return. One day, Jesus will come back!
LETTER: E e for Easter and Egg
Print the worksheet. Trace the letter with fingers, then with a crayon. Talk about the sound the letter E makes. It is one of the letters that has 2 sounds. Ee and Eh. Easter has the ee sound and Egg has the eh sound.
SITE WORDS - NAMES
To continue with the Name Recognition lesson, this week we will do a really fun activity.
Use 1 index card per child. Print their name on their card, using small print and spread it across the card. Take some of those round, multi colored stickers that they sell for adding prices to yard sale items and print the alphabet, one letter per sticker. There should be 1-2 sheets of these stickers per child. If the child's name has multiple of the same letter, make sure they have all the letters they will need to make their name. You don't have to inlcude ALL the letters of the alphabet, just make sure there are several that they won't need. The idea is to get them to recognize the letters in their name.
Ask them to find the letters written on the card on the stickers and place the correct sticker on top of the corresponding letter on the card. When done, talk with each child about the sounds the letters in their names make and how they work together to make their name. Each morning, place their name card on the floor in the circle time spot where you want them to sit. Have them find their name and sit by it each day.
SCIENCE
Make A Naked Egg!
This is a crazy experiment and they won't really understand what is happening, but it is super cool and its an egg so what the heck?
Materials Needed:
Clear Jar
White Vinegar
Egg
Show the egg to the kids. See? It is just a regular old egg. Tell them you are going to "dissolve" the shell away. Carefully place the egg in the jar. Add vinegar to the jar so that the egg is completely covered. You should immediately see bubbles form on the surface of the egg. The chemical process has begun! Each day a layer of foam will collect at the top of the jar. Once per day, drain the vinegar out of the jar and replace, always making sure to cover the egg with the vinegar. During this process, allow the kids to observe the changes that are happening to the egg. Generally within about 2-3 days the shell will have completely dissolved and you will be able to see the yolk through the rubbery layer left behind. You can allow the kids to check it out, but be carefull because the only thing left holding the egg together is the very thin membrane.
MATH
Easter Egg Addition!
Purchase a set of those plastic Easter Eggs. Pull them apart. On the bigger side, print simple addition problems such as 1+1= and 1+2=. I like to use shapes instead of numbers at this stage. For this, draw 1 dot, a plus sign, 1 dot and and equal sign. On the smaller side print the answer. For the answers, always use the number itself. Make a bunch of these with several different simple problems on them. Place all the problems in one bowl and the answers in another bowl. Go through the problems discussing what the answer should be. Ask the kids to search through the answer bowl to place the correct answers with their corresponding problems.
For a more advanced version, give each child 4 or 5 problem sides and 4 or 5 answer sides and have them put them together themselves. Check their work when they are done and reward them for the correct answers and talk about the wrong answers. Allow them to make corrections as needed.
Easter Memory Game
I found this very cool FREE printable at Modern Parents Messy Kids! Print out 2 pages of the template and cut out the pictures. The kids will be matching different colored bunnies. Use just like any memory game!
http://s1133.photobucket.com/user/modernparentsmessykids/media/MPMKHalloween/Eastermemorygame_edited-11.jpg.html
ART/CRAFT
Tissue Paper Eggs
http://www.artistshelpingchildren.org/kidscraftsactivitiesblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/easter-egg-card-template.png
Print out the above Easter Egg template. Provide pretty colored squares of tissue paper and glue sticks. Allow the kids to glue the colored paper to their eggs to make beautiful works of Easter art!
Bunny Ears & Tails
There is a very cute template and instructions on DLTK's site HERE. That is how to make the ears.
To make the tail, draw a tail shape (basically a fluffy cloud) on a piece of white construction paper. Give the kids some glue and cotton balls and have them cover their tail in the cotton. When dry, you can tape them to their pants or tie a loose ribbon around their waist to hold them on.
MUSIC
Peter Cottontail (when they are wearing their bunny ears and tails, sing this cute song and hop around the room!)
Hoppin' down the bunny trail,
Hippity hoppity, Easter's on its way
Bringin' ev'ry girl and boy
A basketful of Easter joy
Things to make your Easter Bright and gay
Oh! Here' comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppity Happy Easter Day
Look at him hop and listen to him say,
"Try to do the things you should"
Maybe if you're extra good
He'll roll lots of Easter eggs your way
You'll wake up on Easter morning
And you'll know that he was there
When you find those choc'late bunnies
That he's hiding ev´rywhere,
Oh! Here' comes Peter Cottontail
Hoppin' down the bunny trail
Hippity hoppity Happy Easter Day.
5 Lil Easter Bunnies
5 little Easter bunnies
standing at the door
One boils the eggs and then there were 4
(keep counting down with the same lyrics)
1 little Easter bunny,
what can you say?
He hides the eggs for a happy Easter day!
MOTOR SKILLS
Paper Cutting
For this activity, be sure to provide some toddler safety scissors for the kids.
Print out the scissor skills template HERE. Allow the kids to practice cutting the straight lines.
BOOKS
Bunny Poem
This is not a book, but it is a fun little poem to read this week!
http://www.classroomfreebies.com/2012/04/bunny-poem.html
On Amazon -
A great book about the true meaning of Easter!
COOKING
Egg Salad on Crackers
Boil a few eggs ahead of time. Put them in a bog bowl and allow the kiddos to mash them with forks. Add some mayonnaise and pickle relish (or how ever you wish to make it) and let them mix it all up.
Give them some crackers and spoons and show them how to top their crackers with their mixture. Yum!
This seems cool way of celebrating Easter. We usually do have some easter games and egg hunt. We also color our eggs and do some yard games. Looking forward for this coming Easter.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Prasad