School Time: Our "Holy Week" Lessons Leading Up to Resurrection Sunday

This past week we were focused on Palm Sunday and talking about the reason we celebrate Resurrection Sunday.  As we have done in the past, we colored and cut out palm fronds to wave during Bible Time.

Tabitha opted for just cutting.

I then wanted to have the girls make Resurrection Books. My idea was to have them make a page to correspond to each  item in our Resurrection Eggs.

So, they colored and cut out a donkey. 

Then they glued it inside our egg shaped page (the eggs will be cut out and attached together to form a book).

Tabitha drew the crowd of people welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem.

Our second egg represents the 30 pieces of silver given to Judas to betray Jesus. We used silver glitter glue.

Then the girls cut out a cup to represent the cup shared by Jesus and His disciples at the last supper. 

Then I traced the girls hands and they traced my tracing in marker to represent praying hands. I just didn't get any pictures of those yet.

I decided to combine the next two eggs representing the beating and mocking of Jesus.

Thanks to the baby we haven't finished the rest of the pages. We will complete them this week. Um...sometime.

We also decided to make a Resurrection Garden. I had seen the idea over at Jolanthe's blog, Homeschool Creations. We started out by heading outside for some rocks.

Fortunately I have a friend who grinds her own wheat for bread, so I was able to ask her for some. Jolanthe had recommended wheat grass because of the speed of growth.

We added some potting soil to a pie plate, because it was all I had.

Then we placed a clay pot on it's side for the tomb. The girls placed stones leading up to the pot for a path.

Oh, and they insisted on adding some plants.

We then placed the wheat berries on top of the soil.

I didn't have a spray bottle at first so I tried sprinkling water. The first day didn't go so well, but daddy found  a spray bottle at Tops and saved the day.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

I actually forgot to add 3 crosses to the hill like I saw suggested. And we forgot to add the rock in front of the tomb until Saturday. Oops. 

Day 4-Resurrection Sunday

Definitely going to do this again next year. What a great object lesson.

I will be sharing the rest of our Resurrection Sunday as my Wordless Wednesday post, so don't forget to stop by and check it out. Linky will go live Tuesday evening around 5. Can't wait to see everyone's photos this week.

Linking up to:

Easter Bible Time

In our house we call our family devotional time "Bible Time." I have called it that since the older children were little. Usually we read a story out of our little Bible Story Book or pick a board book we have (usually Jonah or David and Goliath). However, this past week and a half we have pulled out the Resurrection Eggs (as I have seen on multiple blogs) and let them guide our Bible Time.

As I have no idea where the booklet is that came with the eggs when I bought it many years ago I have been choosing to read the corresponding Bible story from which ever of the Gospels seems to tell the story most clearly for each night.

First we open the previous nights' eggs one at a time and Tabitha will answer my questions about each one if she can. For example, we go through a series of questions for the first egg. "Who rode the donkey?" "Where did Jesus ride the donkey to?" "What did the people shout?" "What did the people wave?" (By the way, the answer to that question tonight was "pompoms.") She is definitely starting to remember more and what she doesn't remember we discuss. Not sure how much Amelia is picking up, but she loves getting her turn to hold all the objects.

When we get to the egg from the very last night we also attach a picture representation to our cross.

Then we read the verses for that night's egg or eggs (2 at the most), and introduce that night's object/egg.

On Palm Sunday we made very simple palm branches.

I printed them off the internet and cut them out. Tabitha snipped the fringes and Amelia glued on the word "Hosanna" to the back. She refused to let me help her cut , and seeing as she was trying to hold the scissors by the blade I decided she wasn't quite ready. We use these to wave as we sing the song "Hosanna, Loud Hosanna."

If I had a decent amount of ink I would have printed out the Resurrection Eggs Printables that Carissa has available on her site. Here is a link to them.

If I am not in the hospital this weekend with a newborn we will be making Resurrection Cookies. I did this years ago with the older children (though none of them remember). I found the recipe again here, though she is unsure of the original source. This website has loads of information and ideas for focusing on "Resurrection Sunday" as opposed to "Easter." Especially here.

I also hope to make Resurrection Rolls for the first time.

To see what others are doing to raise their little ones for the Lord check out Raising Rock Stars at Carissa's blog.