Holy Week Activities for Preschoolers

As I prepared my plans for Holy Week Activities for my Preschoolers, I wanted to keep intention and focus on the events from scripture. But I know for him this is the first time he is really starting to hear these stories in a way that he can remember and understand them. So, I know it’s important to stay away from all the details and keep a high-level view as we talk about the lenten week and scriptural events that Jesus experienced during Holy Week.

I used the model from Advent and the Christmas Lessons for Preschoolers. I’m understanding more and more about his abilities to concentrate, complete multiple activities, and have a focused Bible study time together. I just use our morning “school time” to complete our activities and discussion together. Then, we will have a focused time together after dinner to share with Daddy what we learned and complete our Holy Week Countdown Devotional together. I did not develop this evening tool, but it’s so easy to consume and I’m very excited about the object lesson included. They were all things I already had at home.

Holy Week is a great time to talk about the Bible and Jesus with preschoolers and toddlers as you discuss the events from Palm Sunday to Easter. These activities are great for church, small groups, after school programs or home school lessons.

A few years ago, I developed an Easter lesson for Teens that I was using with an afterschool program and I found the same type of process for preschoolers was helpful. There are a lot of color pages on Google and Pinterest, but it was important for me to include letter learning, colors, counting, but to keep it very scriptural and not get lost in the weeds.

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Some other Easter resources and lessons you may enjoy include,

Holy Week Crafts and Activities for Preschoolers
Easter Cards and Crafts with Toddlers – another fun activity that is not necessarily Biblically based
Easter Basket ideas for kids and adults that include more than candy
Easter Basket Ideas for Preschoolers – work great for stocking stuffers, too!
Easter Resources – Lessons and Learning for the Lenten season
Candy Bar Cake would be a great treat for an Easter Menu, just use Peeps, creme eggs, or other seasonal candies and sprinkles to make it festive
What’s in my Basket: Easter Lesson for Teens – this lesson is great for Sunday School, small groups, classroom, or a gathering before a family meal.
DIY Tie-Dye Towels are a great Easter Basket filler and a fun activity when cousins are together.
Little Hammies – ham slider sandwiches that are great with leftover Easter Ham
Egg Beaters Breakfast Casserole – maybe Easter Brunch is more your thing – this casserole makes it so easy that you can use something else to take up all your time – like an egg hunt!
Pineapple Casserole – this is a great side dish for your Easter lunch or brunch spread.
Springtime Cold and Fruity Salads – my grandmother’s recipes that we love in spring and summer
Bunny Cake – an easy old family tradition that is fun year after
Activities to do while you are stuck at home

Holy Week Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers

I just focused on 5 days, thinking about this as a “school” type curriculum, for the weekdays while we are together at home. But, feel free to split these up or used the Holy Week Countdown Devotionals to extend them to 7 days. With any of my family or educational activities, lean in to the learning progress of your own child; push them if needed, or adjust as they continue to learn more. Cover the main point and answer any questions they have, but don’t stress if they aren’t getting all the little details.

Easter Eggs with Daily scripture

keep your order – label your days or set a “code” somewhere so you can remember what’s next
Teaches kids these stories are from the Bible
Read together daily as a family – set aside a consistent time each day to do this together.
Encourage your child to grab their Bible, even if its a storybook Bible, they will take pride in holding their own Bible and mimicking you as your family read together.
If a kid is learning to read, have them help you read through the story and stop and talk about any big words children may not understand.

Day 1: Entry and Palms

talk about riding a donkey into Jerusalem. Why did Jesus have to ride and donkey and why was he coming in to Jerusalem?
Cut palm branches from green construction paper. Cut out a big leaf shape. Draw lines and let kid practice with scissors. they can hold the bottom to wave the leaf or you can add a stick to the middle by using an actual stick, dowel rod, paper towel tube, or roll of another piece of construction paper.
Praise Walk – Go for a walk and wave palms and sing. If you are not able to make palms, you can usually purchase some at the dollar store in groupings of multiples
Do leaf rubbings – gather leaves from the trees and plants around your home. Place a piece of construction paper or printer paper on top and use crayons to color over the leaves and leave an impression on the page
Handprint palm branches – draw a green or brown line down the middle of a piece of construction paper. Dip child’s hand in green paint and place several prints on the page with the palms resting on the line and the fingers facing towards the edge of the paper.
P for Palm branches – practice writing the letter P and identifying it on a page
H for Hosanna – practice writing the letter H and identifying it on a page
Put on praise music and wave branches around your living room or along the street. Maybe invite your neighbors or meet a group of friends to do a walk together.

Day 2: Last Supper

talk about dinner with friends. Who would you invite to a special dinner?
Magazine meal – cut out foods and glue on paper
Cut out faces and glue them around a rectangle. Glue the faces on circles. Talk about who Jesus’ friends were at his meal together.
Talk about communion. Even if it’s after dinner before bed with goldfish or hotdog buns and green juice. Start the concept. Read the verses from the Bible then talk about what they mean.
Some people also include Jesus washing feet in this day. Any footprint craft would be appropriate and you could take turns washing feet like Jesus did. Talk about how in Jesus day people walked everywhere and their feet were dirty so sometimes when you came to someone’s home they would have a person who washed your feet to bless you and take care of you. They were called a servant. And Jesus was showing his friends that sometimes to be a leader you have to care for others.

Day 3: Praying in the Garden

Topics: Praying, Garden, Arrest
Talk about prayer – that it is talking to God and we can do it any time anywhere. It’s easy to tell kids that they have to fold their hands and close their eyes when you are trying to get them to focus at a meal time. But, it’s important that they know that you can pray anytime, anywhere. Its also good for them to know the Jesus prayed – this was how He talked to God, His Father as well.
Get a planting kit. Read Matt 26:36-39. Talk about how Jesus went to the garden to pray and give his worries and fears to God. It’s similar to what we do in planting. We give our fears to God in prayer. Like when we push a seed into the ground. Then we cover it with dirt. And give it to God. He can make beautiful things from what we release to him.
Paint flowers – dip the bottom of water bottles in paint. Press on to card stock. The bottoms of the bottle will make a flower design. Leave as is or glue the round topper of an applesauce kids pouch in the middle as the center of the flower.
Any flower craft or craft kit would be great here too.
Make a garden stepping stone with a verse or “Jesus is Alive” to put in your flowerbed or give to a grandparent to have all year long and see as a reminder.
NOTE: this is great place to extend the lessons in to another day by added details of the story about Jesus being arrested.

Day 4: Crown & Cross

FATHER FORGIVE THEM
Remind kids this was part of Gods plan to save his people. That’s why Jesus is the Savior abs He Rescued us.
Talk about thorns and how they hurt
Talk about the cross
Cross painting- make a cross on card stock with masking or painters tape. Paint around the cross with cards or roller ball or just paint. Let the paint dry then pull off the tape. Write “o the blood” or “he is risen” around the cross.
Jesus died for us – make a cross out of ribbon or tape. Then white handprint on top and red dot in the middle – Jesus died for us.
Fingerprints on the cross – get a cross shape abs have kids fill it with their fingerprints and paint or a stamp pad. Talk through the verses in the Romans road while you paint. Our fingerprints were on Jesus on the cross. But he washed our sins away.

Day 5: He is Risen

Jesus is alive, he did not stay in the tomb
yellow handprints with a tomb drawn in front – very simple, “stick” style design
Stone story- get rocks and draw on them with a paint pen to tell the story. Keep the Risen one to remind yourself often that Jesus is alive!
He is Risen paper plate. Cut a paper plate in half. On one part, cut out a grave opening. Let the child color this plate to look like rocks and stones. Write “he is risen” on the plate around the opening hole. On the other plate, draw an Angel on the middle or glue one from clip art. Staple the rounded parts of the plate together so the Angel is seen through the opening.
Color a paper plate and put a yellow handprint in the middle, then paint or cut out a cross silhouette to put in the front of the yellow hand.

Additional Resources for Holy Week Activities for Preschoolers: