Monday, March 24, 2014

Easter Resurrection Idea


I was intrigued by this Easter activity when I read about it at The Exclamation Point, and decided to try it out with my children at the earliest possible convenience.  That day was today!


All you need for this Easter lesson is two white helium balloons, a plastic, disposable shopping bag, and a few cute kids!  

I started by having my two lovely assistants put together the resurrection puzzle that we have, and asked what they knew about the resurrection.


We talked about how when Jesus Christ died, his body was placed in a tomb, and three days later, he was resurrected and his body and spirit went to heaven.  He had risen.  

This was part of what we call His Atonement, which was the greatest event in all of the history of the world.  

Because Christ was resurrected, we will ALL rise again too.  When we die, our spirits and bodies will eventually be reunited again forever, just like Jesus Christ's was.


But one major difference between us and Christ is this: Christ was sinless, but we all have made mistakes and sinned against God.  

We placed a plastic shopping bag on our balloon to represent our sins.  Then we let our balloon go.


The girls noticed quickly that although our balloon did rise, it was not able to join Christ's balloon.  (For no unclean thing can dwell with God. 1 Ne. 10:21)

That made us sad.  I asked the girls what we could do about it?


They said that we needed to get rid of those sins, so that we can be with Christ again and stay in his presence forever...and that to do that, we need to repent.

  

Having recently reviewed the hope-filled path of Repentance, we talked briefly about what it takes to repent.  We need to ask in prayer for God to forgive us of our individual sins.


The girls were happy to see that after repenting (or removing the shopping bag) their balloon was able now to join Christ's balloon...and stay there.

And isn't that what we all desire...to feel light and happy, and free like that balloon??  And to be with those we love most forever???  That is the happy, wonderful message of Easter, and a promise that we can count on and apply in our lives each and every day!!


This was such a fun and simple activity.  The balloons cost me less than $2 each.  

And the girls had a fun time playing with the balloons.  I don't think they'll forget this lesson, and it'll be a fun memory between two friends.  I am planning on having Autumn teach this to her siblings later today.

Now, I sort of tailored this object lesson to what I wanted to teach my kids, so it's not exactly the same as the idea I read about.  You can read how she did her lesson here for more insights.  One small tip: Make sure the strings on your balloons are extra long so that you can do this object lesson over and over again and get the balloons down from the ceiling easily!



 We will be adding more ideas like this one this Easter season.


PS - Yesterday, at Primary, the girls were able to learn from actual witnesses of Christ's resurrection...role-played by various adults in our ward.  It was such a cool experience, and you can read about the idea on Sugardoodle.   Since the children had recently reviewed what happened after Christ was resurrected, we didn't need to go into much detail on that during today's lesson.  OH, here's the link for the RESURRECTION SHARING TIME.

PPS - {For more posts on Easter and Family History
check out the #MyForeverFamily challenge page.}

16 comments:

  1. Wow, I loved this one and will be sharing it.
    Blessings for some great Easter Ideas~

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  2. great object lesson, I just got called in RS as 1st counselor, would like to adapt some of your ideas for adults to make learning more fun....

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  3. neat! great object lesson that younger children can totally get!! Thanks for sharing!!!

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  4. oh look...i see the bunny topped candy dish on your piano..such great memories. thanks

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  5. What an amazing idea! You always inspire me. Thanks so much for your example as a wonderful Mom and teacher!

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  6. LOVE it! Thanks for sharing.

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  7. This is fabulous and I think we'll do it for a preparing for baptism activity! (P.S. Am I understanding correctly that you guys take your kids to the RS and Priesthood meetings with you already?)

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    1. Um yes you are understanding me correctly. Actually Steve started taking Guy like when me was like 5 or 6...but I took the girls for the first time this time because they were invited...well.they are still under age but...hey why don't we become FB so we can stalk each other properlu?

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    2. Let's! :) It looks like we've got one mutual friend already. It's a cousin of mine.

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    3. Oh really? Who? I'm at Jocelyn hatch Christensen

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  8. HI I really enjoyed this blog and the balloon object lesson. I am going to use it this week. I am not really good with computer stuff but if there is a way to put me on your list or something so I can see your new blogs when they come out I would really like that. My email is donnynum1fan@gmailcom Thank so much

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  9. Hah so funny I was looking for a good object lesson for primary tomorrow and came across your blog having no idea you were participating in the #myforeverfamily campaign as well. Fun to run across you organically fellow blogger :) And if I can make it to the store to get the helium balloons i'll be doing this object lesson tomorrow! Thanks!

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