Making an Easter garden is a great way to share the Easter story together.
We made ours after my daughter decided to collect a selection of things from the garden when we were outside on a sunny Spring day. I added a biscuit tin lid, lemon and cumin glitter playdough, some play people and we were off. Together we created the garden, added a tomb, put Jesus (the racing driver!) in it, and made a big rock to go over the front. As we worked we chatted about the story, what happened next, who came to the tomb, and so on. My favourite part was adding pirate angels! My daughter loved taking over the story when the angels appeared, saying, “God is not dead! He is alive!”
I love this way of sharing stories, as it’s very open-ended, allowing children time and space to play with the story, to think about how the characters felt, to experiment with different ways of the story working out. For example, when I told about Mary crying in the garden, my daughter made her a little seat to sit on 🙂
This is an under 5s example of doing this, but it needn’t be! Make sophisticated playdough or use sand or soil. Encourage children to find and collect their own items and create their garden in the way they choose. What might they use?
If you do this in advance of the Easter weekend, you could grow some seeds in your garden. If you’re only doing it a week before, you’ll need something really fast like cress, but with a few extra weeks you could use beans or peas, or, as my children have chosen, edible flowers such as violets and blue borage (these may not be up until after ascension!).
Looking for a fun, easy Easter activity? These Easter puppets are simple to make and you'll have fun telling the story together using the storyboard. Available as a book or a download
