Easter Egg Punch Board Activity

In Primary I taught the hymn “He is Risen” during the month of August. I told the children that the song “He is Risen” celebrates Jesus’ resurrection, and we usually sing it in April. I asked what holiday we observe in April in celebration of Jesus’ resurrection. (Easter)

I asked the children if they knew why we use eggs in our Easter celebration of Jesus’ resurrection.  (For many people, the living bird coming out of the egg was a reminder of the living Christ coming out of the tomb on the third day.)

I told the children I was going to use Easter eggs to help them learn the song, and I showed them the Easter egg punch board. Inside the eggs were words to the song. I told them they were going to play a matching game. I had pictures to the song on the board, and the children matched the words that were in the eggs with the pictures on the board. Some of the eggs contained a foam hand, and the children who found those got to be my helping hand and fix any matches that were wrong at the end of the activity.

To break open an egg, a child had to peck at it with their finger, like a baby bird would peck to break the shell of an egg.

I had the children who found the foam hands sit in seats at the front. When all the words had been placed under pictures, I had the helping hand children take turns fixing the word strips. I held up numbers telling them how many were wrong before each of their turns. When they got all the words in the right place, we sang the song.  After that we talked about the words to the song.

I pointed out that the words “He is risen” is repeated two times with joyful emphasis. When we got to the part that says “He has burst his three day prison”, I asked what prison it was talking about? (Death)  On the part where it says “Let the whole wide world rejoice” I asked, “Why does the whole world rejoice about Jesus’ resurrection? (Because of Jesus’ resurrection we will also be resurrected and live again.)  Christ won the victory over death.  We honor Jesus, and show how grateful we are to him for what he has done for us, by singing this song with joy in our hearts.

The second week I hid Easter eggs around the room. In each Easter egg was a line from the song. I had a child look for an Easter egg while everyone sang the song. We took the words off the board that was in the Easter egg the child found. Then we sang the song again while another child looked for an egg.  This helped them memorize the song with fun repetition.

Punch board assembly instructions:

• Items needed: one foam board 20″x30.5″, a knife, white lunch bags, a multi-color pack of gift tissue paper, double -sided permanent tape, four objects such as stickers or cut outs, and the He is Risen word strips and pictures.

I cut out  twelve 3 3/4 inch round holes on the foam board with a knife. The holes were about 3 1/8 inches apart side to side, and 2 1/8 inches apart top to bottom.

I cut about 2 1/2 inches off the top of each lunch bag.  I cut a slit 1 1/2 inches deep on each of the top four corners of the bags. I folded back the four edges. I put an open bag over a hole on the foam board and taped the folded back edges to the foam board.  Note: I used lunch bags because they could be folded up for easy storage of the punch board.

I cut out and rolled up each of the word strips. I put a paper clip on each one to hold it in place. I put each word strip into one of the paper bag openings on the board. I put a foam hand (any kind of item could be used for this)  in the remaining four holes.

I cut out 12 egg shapes from the tissue paper. The eggs were each 4 1/2 inches wide and 5 3/4 inches tall. I placed pieces of double sided tape around the outsides edges of the holes and placed a tissue egg over each hole.

I cut out 12 more eggs shapes from the tissue to replace everything for Junior Primary. The best way to use this activity with Junior Primary is to only use half the eggs at a time. Put the first part of the song in half the eggs, and the second part of the song in the other half of the eggs. It is easier for Junior Primary to learn the song when they only have to focus on half of it at a time.