The Easter Story for Preschoolers
The Gospel is Good News for everyone, including the smallest of us! If you are searching for ways to teach the Easter story to your preschoolers, we have three spectacular lessons to choose from. Let's get cracking on these ideas because Easter is just around the corner!
Good News! Preschool Easter Lesson
Since the Easter story is the Good News we've all been waiting for, our first lesson idea revolves around telling the news.
Good News Circle Time
Invite kids to circle time by dressing up as a newspaper delivery boy or girl with a sack of newspapers around your shoulder and a cap on your head. Call out, "Good news! Good news! Come and get your newspaper and read all about it! Jesus is alive! He rose from the dead! He defeated death on the cross for you and me! This is the best news we could ever receive!"
Then, take a seat in the circle and explain the gospel to the preschoolers: " OK, I'm not a newspaper deliverer. But I do have Good News, and the news is true. Jesus is alive!" Use this time to explain the basics of the Easter story to your preschoolers. Read the verse John 3:16 to the kids.
Good News Easter Preschool Craft
Show the kids an example of a newspaper and its words and illustrations. Hand each kid a piece of paper and markers to create an illustration for the newspaper. Ask them to draw a picture of something good and exciting that has happened to them.
Examples could be
- Getting a puppy
- Going on a family vacation
- Their most recent birthday party
- Etc.
Ask the kids to draw one exciting good thing that has happened to them as an illustration for their very own newspaper!
Spread the Good News! Game
Finally, let's play a game.
Have kids get into a large circle and pass a folded-up newspaper around the circle. Turn on some music and ask the kids to pass the news on a little faster. Warn them that when the music turns off, if the paper hasn't gotten the entire way around the circle, the last person to be holding the paper will have to stand up and yell, "Jesus is Alive," to spread the news to everyone who missed it.
Begin by allowing the newspaper to make it the entire way around. Play another round where the paper only makes it halfway. Then, make it even more complex and stop the music after it's only gotten partway around. Finally, challenge the kids to go even faster before the music stops to spread the gospel around the entire circle as fast as they can, and allow them to finish before the music stops.
At the end of the game, remind preschoolers that we can share the good news of Jesus with our friends and family.
Suggested Free Resources
Hop for Joy Preschool Easter Lesson
This Easter lesson is all about excitement! Tell your preschool students how today we are "hopping for joy" because it's Easter. This preschool lesson will encourage your students to celebrate Jesus.
Hop for Joy Game
- Have kids line up in a row, spread out, and hop across the room to the other side like a rabbit.
- Next, have them pair up and try taking turns leaping over one another in a game of leapfrog! Remind them to crouch down low when their friend is hopping over them, and then switch places and hop over their friend like a frog!
- Finally, ask kids to hop, skip, and jump all the way to circle time.
Hop for Joy Circle Time Lesson
Share a lesson at circle time about why we can hop for joy at Easter time. Read the verse John 15:13 and discuss how Jesus sacrificed himself for us, His friends. You can say something like,
"When we feel excited, it makes us want to hop and jump for joy. Today, we can have joy in our hearts because Jesus loves us. The reason we know that He loves us is because He cared so much about us that he laid his life down for us. Jesus knew that because of the yucky sin that we are stuck in, we need to be saved. He died on the cross to save us from our sins. Doesn't that make you want to hop for joy!?"
Ask the kids to stand up and show you just how joyful they are by jumping as high as they can.
Hop for Joy Craft
Invite the kids to make a craft that reminds them of their excitement about Jesus' love for them.
- Print out rabbit coloring pages and ask kids to color them.
- Next, instruct student to cut their rabbit out of the page with scissors.
- Then, give each kid a pop-up popper - Amazon sells some here - to place under their rabbit and watch it hop!
Allow time for kids to play with their joyfully hopping Easter rabbits!
Free Playtime
During free playtime, windup Easter chicks and rabbits are excellent toys to make available to the kids that tie into the lesson.
Another fun idea is to set up a station with small circle mats for kids to leap from one to the next. Be sure to have kids line up and take turns one at a time!
Suggested Free Resources
Solve the Mystery Preschool Easter Lesson
There is an Easter mystery to be solved: Jesus' tomb is empty!
Easter Egg Hunt Preschool Game
Invite your preschoolers to help you solve the mystery of Easter by playing an Easter egg hunt game. Hide one egg for each kid around the room, and tell the children that once they find an egg, they should sit down and wait for their friends to find their eggs, too, before opening them up.
Let the kids open their eggs and enjoy a piece of candy as you begin to share the Easter lesson. Say something like, "Great job solving the mystery of the missing eggs! You found them all. Just like you solved the mystery of the missing eggs, a lady named Mary Magdalene solved the mystery of the missing Jesus."
Tell them the story of Mary Magdalene's experience at the tomb (John 20:1-18). Ask the children to repeat after you, "Jesus is alive. We can be raised from the dead and live forever because of Jesus!"
Easter Flannelgraph Craft
Create an interactive craft for the kids to play with. Precut felt into various Easter story images:
- The stone and tomb
- Jesus, Angel, and Mary Magdalene figures
- Sun and clouds
- Flowers and trees
You can precut enough of these for each child or make just one set for the class to share. Assign each child a figure or object to glue together. For example,
- Add the stone to the outside of the tomb
- Add wings to the Angel
- Give Jesus a robe
- Make sure Mary Magdalene has a dress and hair
- Put together the flowers, trees, and son.
Once the kids have glued their felt pieces together, tell the story of Jesus' resurrection using your felt pieces. You can use a flannelgraph board if you have one or just a large sheet of felt. Have students interact with you during the story.
During free play, allow kids time to have a turn at the felt board to play and act out the story with a friend or two.
Mystery Easter Egg
Instead of a take-home craft, send kids home with a mystery plastic egg with a surprise toy inside.
