PLANTING PARTY
Serve raw vegetables with dip and peanut butter as refreshments,
and give each child a small flower to take home. Ask each child to
bring a parent to the party. This not only helps with the work, but
also encourages parents and children to work in ministry
together.
Activity ideas:
• Plant a tree for an older person or on the church lawn.
• Adopt a spot in the churchyard and plant flowers or shrubs.
Place a long, flat stick beside each plant. Paint your class' name
on the stick. Have each child add his or her name. Plan for
continued care of your class' plants.
• Plant flower boxes, large pots, or hanging baskets with flowers
to beautify the church or an older person's home.
• Select a plot of ground for a vegetable garden, such as at
the home of an older person or at a nursing home. Plant the garden
during your party and discuss how your class can tend or harvest
it. Decide who'll receive the produce.
PRAYER BASKETS
Have children bring their empty Easter baskets (have some on hand
for children who don't have one). Fill the baskets with potpourri.
Have children make construction paper flowers, leaving enough room
on each flower to write a person's name. Then have children think
of people or situations they'd like the class to pray about. Have
children write all the prayer needs on their flowers and place them
in their baskets. Encourage kids to keep their baskets beside their
beds, take a flower or two out every evening and morning, and say a
prayer for that person or situation.
NEW LIFE
Use waxed onions to symbolize new life from what appears to be
dead. If children are very young, do this as children watch.
Carefully supervise older children.
You'll need an electric fry pan, an empty tin can, paraffin or old
candles, crayons, and small to medium sprouted onions.
Directions:
• Fill the electric fry pan about half full of water and place the
tin can in the water.
• Place paraffin or old candles and crayons in the can.
• Bring the water to a boil and simmer until the crayons and wax
have melted. There should be enough melted wax in the can to cover
the bulb of an onion. Keep the water simmering, and add water
throughout the process to keep the pan half-full.
• Hold an onion by the sprout and dip it into the hot wax just
enough to cover the bulb. Lift it out and allow it to air dry for a
few seconds.
• Continue dipping the onion as many times as needed to achieve
the desired color. Dip the bulb quickly, being careful that the wax
accumulated on the onion doesn't melt.
• Place the colored onions on a bed of Easter grass in a basket.
These will keep up to six weeks if kept out of the sun and away
from direct heat. The tops of the onions will continue to grow,
symbolic of the Resurrection.
• When the tops are grown, cut them off and use them in salad.
Then break away the wax from the remainder of the bulbs and plant
them in the yard. They'll produce more bulbs.
