Note: this has been adapted from this webpage at Sweet T Makes Three
What you need:
- 1 large terracotta pot base (or large bowl),
- 1 small terracotta pot
- grass seeds
- potting soil
- craft moss (optional)
- pebbles
- small sticks in the shape of a cross (use string or hot glue gun)
Instructions:
- Lay the pot on its side toward the back of the large bowl as pictured
- Spray the top of the pot and the back half of the large bowl liberally with water
- Cover with potting soil as shown then spray soil with water. Pack the moist soil as tightly as you can adding more water if needed
- Sprinkle grass seeds over area then top with a little bit more soil to cover the seeds. Spray with more water
- (optional) Place moss in front of pot opening
- Add pebbles on top of moss (or soil)
- Place cross in the soil to the side of the pot
- Continue to spray the soil each day until grass sprouts
Optional extras:
- Make 'Jesus' out of pipe cleaners / Lego etc. and lay him in the tomb wrapped in tissue
- Use a roundish rock to cover the tomb
- On Easter Day, remove 'Jesus' from the tomb and roll back the stone
Before making this with your children, read the Easter story together:
As Julie Hintz says in this article, it's important for our children to not just skip from the cheering crowds on Palm Sunday to the joy of the resurrection on Easter Day, but to wrestle with the events of Holy Week in a way that is age appropriate.
Firstly, read the events of the Easter story from a Children's Bible (such as The Jesus Storybook Bible, available to borrow from the church library) and/or watch a video about Easter designed for children such as this one from Saddleback Kids or this reading of the book The Garden, the Curtain and the Cross. Ask your children if they have any questions about what they've read or watched.
For young kids, don't avoid talking about the fact that Jesus was killed, and acknowledge the sadness and confusion that his friends felt, however keep away from the horror of the crucifixion and remember to say that this wasn't the end - Jesus came back to life and his friends were happy again. Also remind them that Jesus is still alive today (kids sometimes think that Jesus died again later...)!
Conversation starters whilst you make the Easter Garden with your child:
- Ask what the small pot (tomb) is for, and why we need it
- Chat about how the grass seeds are buried in the soil and could be forgotten (but they aren't... they're actually full of life waiting to burst out)
- Ask what Jesus' followers (disciples) might have felt at different times in the story (eg. sad, angry, confused, happy)
- If asked, explain how the cross was a common form of killing people in Roman times
- If your kids are too young to understand the concept of death, phrases like 'Jesus' body stopped working' may be helpful
- You could place the pebbles in a path leading to the entrance to the tomb and chat about what the women might have felt when they found Jesus' body was gone
- Chat about how this was all God's and Jesus' plan all along, that when Jesus died he took away all the things that stopped us from being friends with God (the Bible calls this 'sin') and that when God made Jesus alive again there was now nothing in the way of us being with God forever (Jesus died for our sin instead of us)
- Use illustrations (eg. caterpillars / butterflies, Dumbledore's phoenix Fawkes etc.) to explain the concept of new life coming out of death
- As the grass seeds begin to sprout (remember to water them!), chat about new life and growth - link this with God making Jesus alive again, and that this new life is also for us - a new life of being friends with God and, through God's Holy Spirit, living life with Jesus right now and forever... how amazing is that?!