Easter is just around the corner. Yikes! Wasn’t it just Christmas?! At Christmas time two years ago I made a felt nativity that hung on the wall in lieu of all the felt trees I saw on Pinterest. This past year the boys really got into it and it served as a great way for me to talk with them about the Christmas story. Practically every day there were opportunities as they walked by, looked at it, or played with it, I would jump in and start to talk about different aspects of it or story telling. If they were interested I continued, if not I just went on with my business. They learned SO much more last year than ever before and really retained it, talked about it with everyone, and enjoyed it.
So Easter is now upon us. I started searching for ideas to
help do the same for Easter as the felt nativity had Christmas. Resurrection
Eggs are the easiest, most obvious answer but there were two problems for me:
1. Choking hazard and 2. Not readily available and obvious for play. We will be
using them to story tell at bed time but not for leave out and play use. It
simply wouldn’t work in our house yet. In my search I stumbled upon several
really cute “Holy Week” banners where you have five or so symbols and put them
on a ribbon each day on the week leading up to Easter as you tell the parts of
the story. I liked it. Searching through my supplies to make one I came across
a long piece of felt and had this idea instead. I am so excited!
How to make an Easter Resurrection felt play set.
You will need:
- Felt.
Large piece for back ground, regular size for everything else.
- Scissors
(Fabric scissors are best at cutting felt).
- Hot
glue gun
- Fabric
puff paint or paint pen
- Designs,
if needed
- Sticky
back Velcro
1. The designs were chosen to correspond with the book I
will initially use to tell them the story. For the question mark, sword,
chalice and bread, donkey, leaf, and cross I simply googled the items to get a
basic design ie: “donkey clipart.” Then
click “images” to see all the image result. I copied and pasted the one I
wanted into publisher. When I had them all and sized them down I printed them off,
cut them out and traced them with a sharpie onto felt, cut out the felt. I used
a sharpie and/or fabric puff paint for words, designs and the blood spots.
2. For the tree, tomb, sun, and scroll I just started
cutting and let it be what it was J
3. The tomb and scroll are glued onto the felt with the glue
gun. CAUTION! Sometimes the glue goes straight through the felt! Be very
cautious and use a popsicle stick or wooden spoon to pat down the felt while
the glue is hot. I also used the hot glue to piece together the sun, tree,
cross and hill, and question mark.
4. I decided to simply print Jesus on card stock and
laminate him. Nice and easy!!!
5. For the heavier pieces and Jesus I placed a sticky back
Velcro dot on the back to make them stay better but felt generally sticks to
itself pretty well. Use them as you wish.
6. You can find pretty much everything at WalMart or a hobby
store with fabric. You can get large pieces of felt cut off a bolt for pretty
cheap. Most stores will allow as little as 6 inches cut off. An easier way to
do it all is simply make the back ground and print off everything else,
laminate and play! I’ve done this with Wreck it Ralph characters and a plain
brown background and they loved it. You can search etsy or just online for “resurrection
digital clipart” and find full sets for cheap, ready to print in minutes!
Laminating tips if you don’t have a machine.
You can use contact paper with the cardstock piece
sandwiched between for a light laminate.
You can actually use the laminating pouches made for the
machines and use an iron to seal them. It is a better, firmer seal than contact
paper. You can find instructions online. I used this tutorial http://crafts.creativebug.com/laminate-iron-1849.html
to laminate Jesus
All in all it took me somewhere between 2 and 3 hours and
cost me nothing due to my overgrown craft supply ;) I’m excited to start this tomorrow morning
and have ample opportunity to teach them about Easter in a fun way that they
will enjoy and remember! Will you be making one or your own version? Please
share with me if you do!
Here is a list of each piece and corresponding Scripture in
Luke (for most) but they are also found elsewhere as well.
Donkey = Luke
19:28-35
Palm Leaf = Luke
19:36-38
Cup & Bread =
Luke 22:18
Tree = Luke 22:39-46
Sword = Luke 22:45-51
Question Mark = Luke
22:52 – 23:25
Cross = Matthew 27:
27-40
Tomb = Luke 23:50-56
Sun = Matthew
28:1-10, Luke 24:9-12
