Our Easter Lesson Plans

Each year, our family follows a simple plan to learn about and celebrate Easter throughout Holy Week. Our focus is on Jesus’s death and resurrection and the events surrounding those; however, we also enjoy some egg and bunny activities, as well.

These Easter lesson plans are something I put together three years ago when my oldest son was a year and a half old, and we’ve used them and changed them slightly each year since. Because of that, these should work for any family with young kids, whether those kids are toddlers or young elementary age.

Each day of the week, we focus on a different event in the Holy Week timeline; however, they don’t line up with the actual events of Holy Week. We skip some things, like Jesus visiting the temple, and we split up some days, like the Last Supper and Jesus praying in Gethsemane (which both happened on the same day). The days listed in parentheses below are just the days we plan to focus on each event during the week, but you can change that up in whatever way will work best for your family.

I also add in some fun egg and bunny-related activities and crafts, but instead of assigning them to a specific day of the week, I keep a list of possibilities and do them throughout the week as we have time.

One last note, then I’ll dive into the lesson plans: We use The Preschooler’s Bible for our Bible reading this week, but pretty much any children’s Bible will include these stories. And, of course, you could read from an actual Bible, if that’s your preference. Because I know many families who used My Father’s World for preschool and pre-k own The Preschooler’s Bible, I’ll note the corresponding story names in the lesson plans below.

Palm Sunday (Monday)

Read “Jesus Rides into Jerusalem” in The Preschooler’s Bible
Make palm branches: There are lots of ways to do this. For ideas, just type “palm branch craft” into Pinterest. Our favorite is to trace hands on green paper, cut them out, and glue them to a stick. Although, if you have lots of little kids, this involves a lot of cutting and may take more time than it’s worth, so pick a method that works for you and your kids’ ages.
Act out the story: Use the palm branches you made to act out Jesus’s ride into Jerusalem. Let the kids wave their branches and yell “Hosanna!”
Sing “Praise Him, Praise Him”: This song goes well with acting out the story, and you can let the kids continue to wave their branches as you sing together.

Last Supper (Tuesday)

Read “The Last Supper” in The Preschooler’s Bible
Last Supper coloring page: A quick Google search will give you lots of options for coloring pages. Here’s one that we’ll use this year: Last Supper coloring page.
Last Supper snack: Serve bread and grape juice for snack and talk about the Last Supper and the importance of communion. As a note – our children will not actually take communion until they are older and have made the decision to follow Jesus, so I don’t see this as being communion, just a lesson about communion.

Gethsemane (Wednesday)

Read “Jesus Prays in a Garden” in The Preschooler’s Bible
Garden of Gethsemane craft: Finding an activity for this day has definitely been the most difficult. I think this year, we’re going to use the coloring sheets in this pack from Etsy.

Death (Thursday)

Read “Jesus Dies on the Cross” in The Preschooler’s Bible
Tape resist cross: This is a simple cross craft that most toddlers can do and always turns out great.
Additional cross craft ideas: If you’re looking for other ideas, this blog post is a good roundup of several different ideas.

Resurrection (Friday)

Read “Jesus Has Risen!” in The Preschooler’s Bible
Make resurrection rolls: These rolls are a very hands-on and memorable way to talk about resurrection.
Watch “What’s in the Bible: The Meaning of Easter”: What’s in the Bible is a great show created by the original creator of VeggieTales. This episode explains what Easter is all about, and is good for preschool age and older.

Egg and Bunny Activities

Painting with peeps: Personally, I think peeps are gross and I don’t eat them, but they make great painting sponges. Simply put a few different paint colors on a plate and let the kids use the peeps as stamps.
Easter egg bath: Dump a bunch of plastic Easter eggs in the bath and let the kids enjoy!
Easter egg sensory bin: Depending on your kids’ ages, use oats, beans, or ground cereal, etc in a bin with several plastic Easter eggs.
Egg pre-writing: Use these free printables to practice drawing different types of lines.
Letter puzzle egg hunt: Hide the letters from an alphabet puzzle inside of eggs around the house. Then have the kids find the eggs and match the letters inside to the puzzle. We do this as part of our Easter morning celebration, instead of putting candy inside the eggs. The kids (surprisingly) love this tradition!
Taped-to-wall egg seek & rescue: Use painter’s tape to tape plastic eggs to the wall around the house. Then let your kids run and find them. This is great for toddlers! My son asked to do this over and over again when he was one. You can add to this activity by combining it with the letter puzzle egg hunt.
Plastic egg color sorting & matching: Let toddlers and preschoolers match the two halves of plastic eggs that have been detached from each other.
Baking soda dyed eggs: We haven’t done this yet, but we plan to this year. It looks like a fun way to dye eggs that’s maybe a little more hands-on than just dropping them in food coloring. You can find the instructions here.
Bunny butt pancakes: These are just adorable and a fun breakfast for Easter morning. Example bunny butt pancake (lol).

One Last Note

I’ve put together these Easter lesson plans for our own family as a simple way to teach our kids about Easter and to emphasize Christ’s sacrifice in our celebrations. I hope they’re helpful for you, as well, but, just like with any curriculum or lesson plans, don’t let them create stress for you in this season. A rested, loving mother is a far greater gift for your children than a week full of Easter crafts. Do what works for you and remember to just enjoy this week and the celebrations with your family!