April 1, 2010

Empty Tomb Craft

Easter is just a few days away. During Bible time this week we have been reading about the last days of Jesus' life. The boys often surprise me with what they remember or want to discuss. One of my sons wondered aloud early this week why we call it "Good Friday" when it's the day something bad happened to Jesus. My eight year old answered him and said something along the lines of "Well, it was good for us!".

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:
While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Romans 5:8

For Christ died for sins once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.

1 Peter 3:18

While Good Friday is about Jesus' death, Easter is about His resurrection! He isn't dead anymore! This week we have been singing (off key, but heartily) Low in the Grave He Lay. Here's the chorus:

Up from the grave he arose;
with a mighty triumph o'er his foes;
he arose a victor from the dark domain,
and he lives forever, with his saints to reign.
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!


After our reading and singing today we made an Easter visual aid. We made one last year too, but I guess I never posted it to the blog. It's quite easy and if you have little kids they will enjoy it!

Mix up a batch of salt dough (2 cups flour, 1/2 cup salt, 3/4 cup warm water) until smooth. This year I added a few drops of black food coloring to the water to make the dough more rock colored. Last year I just left it.

Place a glass (oven proof) bowl upside down on a cookie sheet. Spray it with non-stick spray. Roll out the dough to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness or so then carefully place the rolled dough on to the bowl to make a tomb. Cut away a door. Reshape the door as more of a rock (or just lay it down on the cookie sheet as is).

Bake in a warm oven (the lowest mine goes is 170) for several hours. The original recipe I saw said two hours but it's never done after only two hours in our oven. When it's dry and cool, remove the tomb from the bowl.

Last year (see below) we made a little salt dough plaque to write a Bible verse on. This year I just wrote it on the piece of cardboard we are using to display the tomb.


He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.
Come and see the place where he lay.
Matthew 28:6


6 comments:

  1. Beautiful!! I just link to you in
    http://familiacatolica-org.blogspot.com/2011/04/ideas-para-hacer-tumbas-para-pascua.html

    God bless!!

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  2. Great idea! I just stumbled on this while looking for graphics about the resurrection. I'll have to try this with my grandkids.

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  3. Thank you, this is exactly what I needed for my kids!

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  4. Great Craft! Followed a number of links back to you from Pinterest

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  5. Thank you so much for sharing this! I'm thinking of having our kids make a tomb each, with a paper Jesus inside, and on the night before Easter, my husband and I will stand the paper Jesus outside the tomb and put the verse on the stone. I want to incorporate treats somehow, but they shouldn't be in the tomb... I'll have to figure something else out :)

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  6. This was a great idea and loved the lesson you made of this activity. I tried it and didn't have quite the success I hoped for (couldn't get the "tomb" off of the glass bowl... but it still made a great craft. I will try this again next year. Thank you for sharing!!!!

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Thank you for sharing your thoughts!