Easter Story Bracelet Craft for Kids!

Explaining Easter to very young children can be challenging.  The Easter Story Bracelet craft will help young children remember the “timeline” for events a little better.  We make the Story Bracelets on Ash Wednesday and have the children retell the story often.   When Easter finally arrives, they will KNOW the story and be able to share with others!

EASTER STORY BRACELETS

Materials needed:  Green, Purple, Gold, Red, Black, Grey, and White pony beads and pipe cleaners.

Have the children place the appropriate pony bead on the pipe cleaner as you discuss the Easter timeline below.  Help the children “fit” the pipe cleaner around their wrist and twist tie the ends.  **If doing the activity with children who still place small items in their mouths, supervise carefully.

Bead #1 – GREEN – When Jesus entered Jerusalem, people waved palm branches (as was customary to do for a King).

Bead #2 – PURPLE – Jesus had a very special dinner with his friends called the Last Supper.  It is called the Last Supper because soon Jesus would die.  At that supper, Jesus offered wine (kind of like grape juice) and bread to his friends as a way to remember him after he died.

Bead #3 – GOLD  – Jesus had a friend named Judas who wasn’t a good friend.  Judas took money to help others find and arrest Jesus.  

Bead #4 and #5 – RED AND BLACK -Some people were not nice to Jesus and wanted him to die.  Jesus was killed by mean people who pounded nails into His feet and hands on a wooden cross:(.  Jesus died and it was very sad.

Bead #6 – GREY – Jesus’ friends took His body and put it in a tomb (it is like a small stone house.)  People who died in Jesus’ time were not buried in graveyards, but in a tomb.  There was a big rock that covered the entrance to the tomb.

Bead #7 – WHITE – When Jesus’ friends later went back to the tomb, they found that Jesus’ body was GONE!  One of Jesus’ friends, named Mary, cried as she thought that someone had taken Jesus’ body away.   Jesus was taken, but not by MEN.  GOD had “resurrected” Jesus’ body (raised Him up from being dead)!  We celebrate Easter because, through Jesus, all who follow and trust in God’s words, will have eternal life (it goes on after we die).

Adapt the words for the Easter Story to be as age appropriate as possible.  While our children may not completely understand, it is never too early to begin introducing the story of Easter.  As the children grow, those little “seeds” of knowledge will blossom!  Older children can follow chapters in  the Bible (Mark and Luke) as you discuss the timeline of events. Very young children can retell the Easter story using props (branches, grape juice/crackers, money, a piece of wood to symbolize the cross, a sad face drawing to symbolize Jesus’ death, a rock for the tomb, and a happy face drawing to symbolize the resurrection).

Extension:  Have your children make bracelets to deliver to their friends as a non-candy Easter gift!  Include a simple tag explaining what the colored beads stand for.