Read through the Easter Story with this Simple Easter Tree Activity

Read through the life of Jesus after his birth in Bethlehem to his ministry, death, and resurrection in this Easter Story activity for kids!

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Teach the Easter Story to Your Kids

Traditionally, we spend a lot of time focusing on the birth of Jesus in December, but when Easter rolls around, simply jumping to Jesus’ resurrection leaves a lot overlooked.

While I hope I do a good job throughout the year, I think it would be helpful to my kids to teach the life of Jesus, not just his birth, death, and resurrection.

A few years ago I found out about Resurrection Eggs, which were a cute idea, in that you open one egg each night and take out some sort of token to represent what you’re reading. This cutesy little exercise soon backfired and I was dealing with topics I wasn’t ready to address to my toddler. The story only covered Jesus’ death and resurrection, so half of the eggs were filled with things like a nail, whip, crown of thorns…

There’s a time and place to have these discussions with your kids about the realities of what happened to Jesus, but I felt like the purpose of the eggs turned into a dark guilt trip for kids. So, not to skip over the importance of the crucifixion, but if you’re trying to teach littles about the Bible, we certainly don’t need to go into details like the brutal mistreatment of women in the Old Testament and the beheading of Goliath after David defeats him with a slingshot.

Plus I want to emphasize the importance of Jesus’ life, not just the beginning and “end” of his story. Learning how he lived day to day and how he treated people will help them understand the why of the cross. It brings even greater joy when they hear about his resurrection!

Countdown to Easter with this Simple Activity

As a more age-appropriate way to teach little children about the story of Easter, I’ve created an 18-day set of printable ornaments to hang each night on your very own Easter tree. You can read a story each night or do it on your schedule. After you read the story, hang up a matching ornament on an Easter story tree just like you would at Christmas. I found this cute one a few years ago, but here is one on Amazon I love as well.

Each of my printable ornaments has a picture that goes with the passage from the Bible. Here is an overview of the stories covered and their excerpts:

Jesus is Born (Luke 2:1-21)
In the Temple as a Boy (Luke 2:41-52)
Jesus Baptized (Matthew 3:13-17)
Jesus Tempted (Matthew 4:1-11)
The 12 Apostles (Luke 6:12-16)
Jesus’ Miracles (Luke 5:12-26)
Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:1-16)
Jesus’ Parables (Luke 8:4-15)
Jesus Walks on Water (Matthew 14:22-33)
Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11)
Jesus Anointed (Matthew 26:6-13)
The Last Supper (Luke 22:14-23)
Judas Betrays Jesus (Luke 22:47-53)
Jesus’ Trial (Luke 23:1-25)
Jesus Crucified (Luke 23:26-56)
The Resurrection (Luke 24:1-12)
Jesus Visits People (Luke 24:13-35)
Jesus’ Ascension (Luke 24:36-53)

Included in the set are 18 color ornaments and 18 black and white in case your kids want to color their own. You can also print it as many times as you want if each kid wants their own tree!

You can read the verses on the ornaments as you go, or for young kids, I also recommend using a children’s Bible and working your way through Jesus’ entire life. For example, I love the Beginner’s Bible for toddlers through elementary school kids.