A few years ago we did an Easter Egg hunt as part of our
Sunday School Easter Breakfast. We have at least 1,000 plastic eggs, so in
order to make it fair, I arranged it so each child would get 14 eggs. To do
this, I made up a color coded card for each child. I did the colors much like
the cards you pick up when you play Candy Land. So each child would pick up 14 eggs
according to the colors on
their cards. 2 red ones, 1 pink, 1 hot pink, 2 yellow, 2 purple, 1 orange, and so on.
their cards. 2 red ones, 1 pink, 1 hot pink, 2 yellow, 2 purple, 1 orange, and so on.
Since we did not know exactly how many kids we were going to
have, I made extras of each color egg and kept the colors separated in bags until
the hunt. For simplicity's sake, lets say I had 14 bags, one for each square. Put the maximum number of eggs in each bag that you think you will need. Let's say you make 40 of each egg color. If you have 32 kids show up, then you hide 32 eggs from each bag. Give the extras out afterwards.
We did a reverse egg hunt which was really fun. The kids
came into the children’s area to find the eggs. They looked for two or three
minutes and were becoming frustrated
because no one could find any. Finally I told them, the eggs were not there, just like Jesus’ body was not there when the disciples went back for it on Easter morning. We then went upstairs to hear the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
because no one could find any. Finally I told them, the eggs were not there, just like Jesus’ body was not there when the disciples went back for it on Easter morning. We then went upstairs to hear the story of Jesus’ resurrection.
MEANWHILE – we asked for volunteers from the adults who were
at the breakfast to hide the eggs. By then we knew how many kids we had, so
they each knew how many of their eggs needed to be hidden (remember, I kept all
the colors separate; each adult was given a bag of one color to hide).
After the kids discovered that Jesus was actually alive, we
went back downstairs to see if our eggs had been resurrected too. They insisted
to me that there were no eggs downstairs, but sure enough, they began to find
eggs right away.
This was a great activity. It involved a lot of adults to
help hide the eggs, and they enjoyed being a part of the ruse. It was also a
vivid demonstration of the disciples’ astonishment when Jesus was not in the tomb
and their further amazement when they discovered that he was actually alive.
The color coded cards enabled all the children to
participate with minimal help. Even the non-readers could do it. If you do this with preschoolers, I recommend using only primary and secondary colors. Eliminate the pinks and the shades such as light blue and light green.
My thanks to Kidology for
the idea of a reverse egg hunt. It came from the Easter Zone on their
website. There is a fee to access most
of their website, but there are also some good freebies on it. Here is the actual post for the "Easter Egg Hunt with a Twist" that you can
access if you join Kidology.
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