EASTER EGG LESSON

Title:	E.A.S.T.E.R. Eggs Lesson
Author/Source:	Karl Bastian
Topic:	Easter
Summary:	An Easter presentation that uses the letters of EASTER to tell the real meaning of the holiday.
E.A.S.T.E.R. Eggs An Interactive Pre-School Easter Lesson NEEDED: Six eggs, each labeled with the letters of the word EASTER. Each candy should be filled with candy except one of the E's. It is ideal if the eggs can be clear, although it is not necessary. This presentation is done with a puppet, although that too is an optional presentation method. SUMMARY: An overview of the meaning of Easter concluding with an explanation of the Gospel message and invitation. SET-UP: Hide all of the eggs that have candy in them around the room: E, A, S, T, and R. The 2nd empty E egg should be in the puppet's possession, or another leader who can say the same line as the puppet below. Write the word EASTER on the white board or have displayed somehow. LESSON INTRO: Begin by talking about Easter. "Guess what holiday is coming?" "What do you like about Easter?" "Have you ever been on an Easter egg hunt?" etc. Eventually say, "Today we are going to learn about the meaning of Easter, and to do so I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine." Get out puppet and introduce. Ask the puppet if he got the lesson ready for you? After he says, 'yes' have him tell the kids what he did. He will say he hid some eggs! But just a few - some eggs with letters on them that spell Easter. Explain that when you say 'go', they can look for them, and if they find one to come back to their seat the hold it above their head so you can see it. LESSON: After the kids hunt and find the eggs, have them all sit down. Ask them if they know how to spell the word EASTER. (Point to where you wrote it.) Say that you are going to use the letters of the word EASTER to explain what it means. Your puppet is going to help. Ask what each letter is and then talk about what that letter means. (See chart below) On the 2nd E notice it is missing. Before the kids start to look again (they may jump up to look) have the puppet admit that he has it. Ask why. Because he thought something was wrong with it. "What's wrong with it?", you ask. He replied, "It is empty." But you go on to explain that it is empty for a reason. Because the Tomb was empty too. E EVERYBODY - Easter is for Everybody because Everybody has sinned and Every body will someday die and Everybody will stand before God and have to be punished for the bad things they have done. A AGAPE - BUT A is for the word Agape - it is the word for LOVE - God loved us so much He sent Jesus to die for us so that we would not have to! S SINS - Jesus had to die because of our SINS. Sin is anything we do that God does not want us to do, and we all have sinned. T TOMB - After Jesus died he was buried in a tomb. That is where they would put dead people. Dead people don't come back, their life on earth is over. E EMPTY (see note above about the missing egg) The 2nd E egg is empty because three days later the Tomb was EMPTY because Jesus DID come back to life! He raised himself from the dead! R RESURRECTION - a big word that means to rise again from the dead. Since Jesus could raise Himself from the dead, we know that He can raise us up to. If He had stayed dead, we wouldn't be able to believe the things He said, but He proved that He was God because only God has power over death! The puppet can add commentary or ask questions or say silly things to keep the children engaged during the talk. At the end, review the meaning of each letter with the kids and then let the kids who found the eggs keep them as a reminder of what Jesus did for them. If you have a small group, you could have a candy-filled egg for each child to take home. End by reviewing the letters - and close with an invitation to ask Jesus to forgive them and be their Savior so that someday He will raise them up from the dead too!