Lent + Easter

The Easter Story is central to the Christian faith, and one that we may find difficult to navigate with children.  Lent is the season of preparation for Easter and lasts for 40 days, beginning with Ash Wednesday and ending on Holy Saturday - the day before Easter Sunday. 
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Here are some ideas to help you journey through lent, reflect on the events of the crucifixion, while celebrating the joy and wonder of the resurrection.

Ash Wednesday

• Shrove Tuesday: A pancake recipe, a poem and a reflection. Something for everyone in the family. (SUNZ)
• ​Ash Wednesday Liturgy (Flame Creative Ministry)
• Ash Wednesday (SUNZ)

Lent

• Intergenerational Worship Services (SUNZ)
• What is Lent about? (Restart)
• Sharing Lent in a bag (Build Faith)
• Messy Church in Lent (Barnabas Churches)
• Do Lent Generously (40 Acts)
• Lent booklet for families (Flame Creative)
• Burying the Alleluia and a Lenten pathway (All Saints Howick)
• Going4Growth website (Anglican children's ministry UK)
• Diocese of Winchester Lent Course (videos below)
• Lent Calendar (Auckland Diocese)​

Strandz Intergenerational Lenten Studies

 A Sent People

Our Transforming God

A Pilgrimage ​of Grace

Celebrating Easter simply

This set of simple family devotions were developed for home, as part of our Covid-19 response. They would be great for small groups and house church formats
No crazy props, 1 million pipe cleaners or 5 litres of glitter required.

Find out more!

Holy Week

Families and Home

• Journey though Easter (Strandz)
• Easter Bubbles (Strandz)

• Holy Week at Home (Church Juice)
• Easter - a journey (mainlyministries)

• Bringing home the mess - (Messy Church USA)
• God's Big Easter Story: A Holy Week Journey for Families​ (CRNA)
• Holy Week Family Resource - includes daily stations/symbols, questions (Faithful Families)
• Bringing Home the Mess of Holy Week (Messy Church USA)

Intergenerational Ideas

• Easter Trail with QR codes (Together at Home)
• Journey to Easter (SUNZ)
• An Easter Trail (Bible Society UK) using resources from 'The Super Cool Story of Jesus' 
• Palms for Holy Week (BRF)

Easter Week Journey

• 'What's in the Bible' summarises what Holy week is all about, with explanations for each day. Includes colouring in sheets and info
• Holy Week Visual Aid (BRF)
• A Lego journey through Holy Week (Build Faith)
• Our Strandz article in the Anglican Taonga magazine on Easter. (pages 28-29)
• The Sounds of Holy Week (BRF)
• Holy Ground (Diocese of Gloucester)
• Easter through Punctuation Marks (BRF)

Stations of the Cross

• ​Stations of the Cross: Sensory Journey (St Michael's Kelburn)

Easter Sunday

• Emmaus Road Service ideas for Easter Sunday (Barnabas in Churches)
• Punctuation Marks Presentation (Barnabas in Churches)

Crafts and Activities

• Create an Easter Wordle (SUNZ)
• Holy Week Boxes (GodVenture)
• Mosaic Resource - A great preschool activity. Print and cut out shapes to tell the Easter story (Indrea Alexandra/Strandz)
• Holy Week in a Box (Building Faith)

Preschool Activities
mainly music online sessions - Easter, All about direction

Maundy Thursday

Story: Jesus shares some kai with friends, Mark 14:12-26
​You can also read today’s story  Jesus Storybook Bible, The Servant King and A dark night in the garden, p.286 - 301

More ideas

• Colouring sheet (Bible Society)

• The footwashing story ​​(BRF)

Good Friday

• ​Stations of the cross painting here (Jenny Hawke)
• Wrapping the Cross - a Good Friday Service (Marciglass)
• A Good Friday Service for all (BRF)
• Good Friday Presentation (BRF)
• Easter Good Friday (BRF) - reinacting four scenes of Good Friday in a family service
• Easter Good Friday Presentation (BRF) - A short talk using 3 props: a wash bowl, sponge and dice
• Easter Friday (Grace Vineyard) - an illustrated retelling the story of Good Friday, told by children in Christchurch. 

Stations of the Cross

• Stations of the cross ideas (Family Feast and Feria) 
• Create an Easter Wordle (SUNZ)
• Stations of the Cross chaplaincy resource (​Samuel Marsden School)
  ​Readings (docx file) and images (ppt file) 
• Stations of the cross - colouring posters and devotional (Illustrated Ministry) 
• Stations of the Cross video (Episcopal Diocese of Texas.)
• ​Stations of the Cross Worksheets and Coloring Pages (Drawn2be creative)

"This is a very sad story. It is about the one day in Jesus' life, so it's not the whole story about Jesus. Even though the story has a happy ending, it is important to remember what happened on that day"
​Stations of the Cross, Episcopal Church of Texas

​Make

Craft and Activities

• Printable Figures and scenes (My Little House) - a very popular resource for Christmas! (we had over 33k views of our link to their nativity on Facebook)
  
• Easter Crafts and more ideas here

Resurrection Eggs

• Using symbols to unpack the Easter story - a creative way to engage children of all ages. Symbols could include a leaf, donkey, small cup, coins, thorn, fabric, nail, dice, cross, stone, and the last one is empty.
• ​Other symbols and instructions can be found here
• You can simplify the eggs for preschoolers, like this one here

Easter Gardens

• ​Make an Easter Garden (pdf)
• Mini Resurrection Garden (Kirsten Welsh)

Other ideas

• ​Resurrection Cinnamon Roles (Passion for Saving)
• Cross Easter decoration
• Resurrection Rolls (Eat at Allies)

Media

We have moved our Lent and Easter Media section to another page, as there were so many videos!
We also have a selection of videos and resources on our YouTube Channel​

Lent & Easter Media