Color Hunt

Here is a simple, fun activity to do with your kids: go on a color hunt! Take a camera and find things of each color. Take pictures, and put the pictures in a collage when you're done. To make it easier to keep track of what you've found, take a simple checklist like THIS ONE along with you. You'll find colors where you least expect them...

Yummy Easter Object Lesson

Thanks to Michelle for this wonderful idea!

Resurrection Rolls: Great Object Lesson for Easter
Ingredients:
1 (10 oz.) can refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
8 large marshmallows
1/8-1/4 cup melted butter
1-2 TBLSP cinnamon
1-2 TBLSP white sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a baking sheet. Separate crescent rolls into 8 individual triangles.
In a small bowl, mix together cinnamon & sugar.
Dip a marshmallow into melted butter, then roll in sugar/cinnamon mixture. Place marshmallow in the center of a dough triangle.
***Be sure to pinch all seams together tightly to seal in marshmallow as it melts.
Place on baking sheet. Bake until golden brown - about 15 min.

Share how the marshmallow represents His body.
The butter/sugar/cinnamon represents the oil & spices used to prepare His body, which was laid to rest in the tomb (dough).
The tomb, like the roll, was found empty, for He had risen!

Number Of Servings:8 * Preparation Time:20 min.

Fun Easter Lesson

Here is a lesson (great for Family Home Evening) about the last events in the Savior's life, leading up to the Resurrection. Label twelve plastic eggs with #1-12 (mine are labeled with masking tape--you could use small labels, or just write on the eggs themselves...whatever!). Each egg contains a scripture and an object. We look up the scripture, read it, and discuss what the object has to do with the scripture. The kids really like finding out what is in each egg, and it is a fun, interactive way to review what happened in the life of our Savior before He died and was resurrected. The last egg, of course, is empty like the tomb (except for the scripture), and I use a bigger egg just to make it a little extra special.

If you use all small eggs, these can be stored nicely in an egg carton. Mine just stay in a plastic bag all year! :)

Below is the info on the scriptures and the objects you'd need to make your own set. For a .pdf file of this info, click HERE; for a Word file, click HERE.

"Teach the Children" - Symbols of Christmas

Another Christmas project...

Many of you have heard the story where Santa comes to visit shortly before Christmas and admonishes the storyteller to "teach the children" the true meaning of Christmas. He explains the symbols of the season and whence they come. So a year ago, Christmastime, we made these little bags to go along with the story. We sewed simple drawstring bags and filled them with items that illustrate the story.

For your own kit, you would need the following:
-a bag for everything
-a star
-a red ornament
-a mini tree
-a bell
-a candle (bday cake candles work well)
-small gift with a bow
-candy cane
-wreath
-the story! You can download the text HERE.

I loved having a kit like this when I was a kid. There's wonderment in pulling all of the miniature ornaments from Santa's little bag, and learning about what each one means! It's a fun thing to share with family during the Christmas season.

Gracious George, the Gingerbread Man

In December this past year, we made a cute little family service helper named Gracious George the Gingerbread Man. He's made from felt, stuffed with split peas, and decorated with dimensional fabric paint (puff paint). His story follows the traditional "gingerbread man" story, but before he runs away from people, he helps them with something first. (He might wash the old man and woman's dishes, weed a farmer's garden, help a boy tie his shoelace, etc.) In the end, he arrives at...your house! Here he stays, to help your family serve one another. One person begins by doing a service for someone else and leaving Gracious George "at the scene" of the service. When the service recipient finds Gracious George, he then does something for someone else, leaving Gracious George for the next recipient to find. And the good deeds continue on!

On George's back is a little pocket, with the following poem tucked inside:

I'm Gracious George, the Gingerbread Man! You and I should make a plan. We'll do something kind, so no one will see, and then see just how happy they will be!

You can include a space to mark Xs each time someone does a service, or you can leave it plain. You can have a separate chart to keep track, or you can just let Gracious George secretly travel from person to person. The details are up to you!