Easter Series: Jesus' Resurrection

As I mentioned in my previous post, I wasn't sure if Easter eggs would help or hinder our teaching about Jesus' resurrection. I decided that for Easter Sunday, we would focus on the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and that this was a reason for Jesus' followers back then to be happy. This fact is the reason why we go to church, why we share the Gospel with our friends and family, why we teach Sunday School, and, ultimately, why we worship God. We are also joyful like Jesus' followers because His resurrection confirms to all of us that Jesus was the Son of God and that Jesus is alive!  

God raised Jesus as He promised. God promises us that He will raise us to new life if we are united to Christ through our faith. God doesn't make promises that He's unable to keep. God had the power to raise Jesus to life and He definitely has the power to raise us to new life.  

For our Easter craft, we made an empty tomb with the angel's quote, "He has risen, as He said" (Matthew 28:6). The empty tomb shows that Jesus is not dead even though He did die. It helps the kids remember the story in which the Marys and disciples saw the tomb empty and believed what Jesus had told them before His death. When Jesus foretold His death and resurrection, His disciples had no idea what He was talking about and when He was crucified, they were utterly confused as to what was happening. When Jesus was resurrected, everyone finally began to understand the divine purpose behind Jesus' life and death.

Materials:

• Scissors
• Glue
• Black construction paper (about 3x5")
• Brown construction paper cut into circles (doesn't need to be perfectly round)
• Brown construction paper circle (4" diameter)
• Paper fastener
• "He has risen, as He said" quote printout

Instructions:

1. Glue the roughly cut circles onto the edge of the black construction paper.  Put some glue on the circles that overlap.

2. Glue the quote printout centered with the black paper.

3. Place the large circle over the black area.  You may have some black showing at the bottom of the tomb but that's okay!

4. Poke the fastener through the bottom corner of the tomb and the large circle.  Fold the loose ends of the fastener flat against the paper.

The amazing thing about the fastener is that you can actually have the stone "roll away" from the tomb. I remember back to my preschool teaching days and using these to make some "wheel" crafts with the kids but I forgot what these gold things were called. When I was trying to buy the fastener for this craft, I used every word possible to describe it on Amazon and Discount School Supplies. I tried, "gold circle", "paper poke", "hold paper", and "action paper". I finally Googled, "what is the name of the gold circle that holds papers together so they can move?". Luckily, someone had previously posted a similar question onto Yahoo answers and I found out these things are called paper fasteners...I thought those were paper clips.