I’ve been able to come up with a great Easter-themed singing time lesson plan utilizing resources from The Friend! The article I found is entitled Easter Footsteps that I adapted to incorporate primary songs!
I’ve been racking my brain (okay and scouring the Internet, flipping through a few books, and doing some serious praying) to come up with an Easter activity that isn’t focused on the secular holiday traditions (not that I don’t love them!).
I just feel like as the kids celebrate this sacred holiday, they will usually be focusing on the Easter Bunny, candy and egg hunts. The one place where it should be Christ-centered should be at church. I understand that most of the secular traditions relay back to Christ but I have just opted to not include them in this lesson plan. Anyway, just my two-cents.
This is what I’ve come up with…
This activity will work with one or multiple songs – near the bottom of this post I have an actual list of songs you can use that will work very well with this activity – kind of like an Easter Sing-A-Story. Our Primary will be putting the final touches on our musical numbers for Sacrament Meeting (we have Sacrament Meeting the last hour) so I wanted to keep the activity fairly low-key so we could really focus on reviewing the songs.
The songs I’ll be using are This is My Beloved Son (all 4 verses) and Hosanna (1 verse) that we’ve been learning all month.
For this activity, you’ll need to print my document, available to download using the access button at the bottom of this post.
I took this image from lds.org
HERE and “tiled” it so it could be printed on 6 sheets of card stock and hung on the chalkboard with tape or magnets. I essentially “blew up” the image and just printed it on multiple sheets of paper. After I printed it, I ran it through the laminator – so I can use it again and again and… ;). Trim off any excess paper. I’ve taped mine together so it will lay flat on the chalkboard and be easier to hang but that’s optional.
If you can get it to work out, having it printed as a 20 x 30 poster at Costco may be another option. Just download the above image from lds.org as a JPEG.
Then use a small picture of Christ (like a 2 x 3):
I just downloaded this from lds.org
HERE, and printed it at 20% scale on card stock. Laminate it.
Before Primary hang the assembled “poster” pieces on the chalkboard using magnets or tape.
To play, you will be moving Christ (tape Him on, use
plasti-tac or magnets) from events 1 – 6 that are listed on the poster. If you are using this to review, He will move as well as the children sing. Place Christ at Event #1 on the poster and discuss the event that happened there. To have him move to Event #2, the children will need to sing really well. If they sing and it’s only so-so, move him halfway or a quarter. Have them repeat until it’s well enough to move to the next event, and so on, ending with the tomb.
If you want to use this activity as a Sing-A Story, sing the following Primary songs that are related to the events. Here’s what I’d suggest:
- Event #1: I’m Trying to Be Like Jesus p. 79 (He taught how to be like Him)
- Event #2: Hosanna p. 66 (this is how the people praised Christ). Would be fun to do this with the handbells on the descant. Find my note chart HERE.
- Event #3: Jesus Said Love Everyone p. 61 (we should love others as Jesus did)
- Event #4: To Think About Jesus p. 71 (Jesus suffered for our sins in Gethsemane)
- Event #5: He Died That We Might Live Again p. 65 (just as the title says – He died that we might live again!)
- Event #6: Jesus Has Risen p. 70 (Christ was resurrected just like we will be one day). Would be fun to do this with the bells on the introduction if time permitted! I don’t have a chart for this however.
*Post the words to all of these and if you are really unfamiliar with the songs, use the CD’s. See how I post words
HERE. I’ll be posting words when we perform in Sacrament Meeting too (shhh…don’t tell the congregation as it’s my best kept little secret!)
It may be fun to intersperse each event with the actual scriptures where these events are found – at least with the Senior Primary. You can find some at lds.org
HERE.
Happy Easter and Happy General Conference! Hooray for a week off of lesson planning!!
If you use this as the sing-a-story, I’d love to hear how it goes!!
9 thoughts on “Easter Footsteps”
AWWW, Man! I will be archiving this for next year. I just don't think I have enough time to put this together for tomorrow. My son ADORES these pages from the friend. That issue found its way into his room and we read it EVERY night for weeks. These pages were his favorite. Thanks so much for "tiling" – still have no idea what that is, but thanks for doing it, because I can't wait to print up this large version.
This is great!!! Thanks so much! I am using it tomorrow in the Sing-a-story way! 🙂
Thanks a million! I'm using it too!
I have it all ready for Easter Sunday. Thank you so much. Switching one song to He Sent His Son to get it in context with Easter. Thank you so much.
Camile: How do you define a sing a story?
Here's what is described as a "Sing-A-Story" in the book, "A Children's Songbook Companion"…
"Songs can be arranged in an order to tell a story or develop a theme. The words of the songs tell most of the story, and the music director need add only a brief narrative for continuity."
I hope that helps answer your question a little bit. Let me know if you have more questions.
~Camille
Thank you! I will be using this for Easter Sunday, I appreciate your hard work on this. It will be a perfect way to celebrate Easter through song in Primary.
I'm super late to the party, but thank you so, SO much for creating this! I didn't feel quite comfortable with a lot of the Easter egg activities out there, and this will be so great for refocusing the kids' attention on the Savior.
thank you