Guest Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Hi everyone, Any one got any EYFS friendly ways of teaching the Easter Story? Anyone do any circletimes around it? Thank you x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) In all my years I have never found a way I have genuinely liked to tell the Easter Story to young children, ours are 3 and 4 year olds. In these latter years I have concentrated more on the new life, egg decorating, spring growth areas rather than the religious story. I did see something on the internet - googled I suspect! where the story is told through a series of tiny artefacts which are kept inside plastic egg cases in an egg box, so each day or whatever you take out the next egg and open it and tell the "story" of the artefact inside that seemed quite appealing. Edited March 30, 2011 by Panders Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 There are several 'child-friendly' versions of the story. I always tell them the whole story and we have a good chat at circle time about it all. Each year we seem to get a different insight and I'm often surprised by children's level of depth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest tinkerbell Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 I have done role play in the past eg made large palms and waved them in two lines as 'Jesus' rode through.Also done the last supper with breaking the bread (long crust loaf) and sharing with 12 disciples and drinking wine (blackcurrant juice). Tinkerbell Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 i have to say i still find it difficult to explain one day that when something is dead it is dead and the next day try to convince them that a man can rise from the dead(and is not a goast!) ...oh and that a man who is truly good is killed for no reason...and that his friend dobbed him in etc etc etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquieL Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 There is an interesting discussion on this issue here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocisgood Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 (edited) I like using a hot cross bun to cover all the symbolism; breaking of bread, wine, cross spices, round rock rolled away etc. Well , works for me lol. I like to think they will remember some of the things next time they have one! Edited March 30, 2011 by chocisgood Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Plus you have to add in that it is all happening to little baby Jesus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Hi everyone, Any one got any EYFS friendly ways of teaching the Easter Story? Anyone do any circletimes around it? Thank you x Hi, We do it from the point of view of the Apostles as Jesus' friends (roman catholic school) We chat about our friends and link that in then tell the story in parts remembering to say that after the very sad bit comes an amazingly happy bit that makes it all better. We do talk about feelings and put ourselves in the position of the Apostles and try to imagine their feelings. It does work..........children can be deep too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Plus you have to add in that it is all happening to little baby Jesus. No, I don't do that. I talk about how he's all grown up now and about as old as their Mummies and Daddies and that's why he's able to go places without his Mummy and Daddy, with just his friends. We've generally covered quite a bit of his life with other stories, so they are well aware that he's no longer a baby. Why do you feel it's necessary to stress 'little baby Jesus'? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finleysmaid Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 cait im really interested in what other areas of his life you cover ...are you a religious based group? i think some of the ideas on this thread are interesting and was brought up in a cristian environment but i still have a problem with this story in relation to 3 year olds. It requires us to suggest that all the things we teach them about life and death can be suspended for one person....what happens if you have a child who has lost a parent? and if you cover the crusifiction how do you deal with this?...i have never been comfortable with this and so like others tend to do the cultural aspects rather than the religious even things like the usbourne books are too detailed for my liking...does anyone have a better text that is more child friendly? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquieL Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 The way I approach it is to talk about the fact that people die but we remember them and they live on in our hearts. Jesus lives on in the heart of Christians when we remember the things he taught us, and try to always do the loving and honest thing. I think the problem of Jesus the baby to an adult, with so much of the story not done beforehand, can make it a bit difficult for the children, but that is only the same as any other religion we celebrate, we take a snapshot of an important celebration without the full context. Children take things as they are though and it is just a story to them. Stories have Wolves eating grandmothers, gingerbread men coming alive, trolls living under bridges and they deal with those. I don't think that the Easter story is something that they can understand, but they can experience. Perhaps the way to begin is to have a session building up to it by telling them about Jesus growing up, making friends and teaching people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JacquieL Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 There is a lot of information about Easter and customs on the Woodlands School site here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 As an aestheist, I find it hard to stomach when my children come home from school talking about religious ideas they have been introduced to as 'fact'. They don't attend a church school but even so, the teachings are of course 'of a broadly Christian nature', in line with what is required by the national curriculum. I regularly have to explain to them that while 'some people believe that', it is up to them what they choose to believe. I've recently found out that they say grace at lunch times, which I find a bit worrying. I don't mind them saying thank you for their food, as long as they are not told definitively that they must thank some kind of God. It's not personal to Christianity - I would be just as worried if they were thanking Buddha or any other religious figure! When we introduce other festivals at preschool, we tend to focus on one aspect of it, for instance we just did Holi paintings, and previously have done hand art etc. for Diwali. Spring is a time of new birth, so it seems appropriate to me to focus on the aspects of this to do with our knowledge about our world - eggs, tadpoles, bulbs, etc. I'm not convinced that children of this age should be told anything about someone 'rising from the dead', particularly as the OP said, those children who might have lost a member of their family. I'm not sure what the statutory requirements for this age group are - does anyone know? I don't think there is any requirement to teach them Christian stories as anything beyond introducing these ideas as one kind of religious belief. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 No, I don't do that. I talk about how he's all grown up now and about as old as their Mummies and Daddies and that's why he's able to go places without his Mummy and Daddy, with just his friends. We've generally covered quite a bit of his life with other stories, so they are well aware that he's no longer a baby. Why do you feel it's necessary to stress 'little baby Jesus'? Sorry, I didn't mean we should stress it, just that children get confused that a few months agao they learnt about little baby Jesus, now they are learnign about grown up Jesus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynned55 Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Sorry, I didn't mean we should stress it, just that children get confused that a few months agao they learnt about little baby Jesus, now they are learnign about grown up Jesus. Sorry have to disagree, ours have never got confused. They know we are talking about a baby being born at Christmas and then it's a long time after we are talking about a grown up person. We are an RC group and most of our children know the story from home anyway. At this age we tend not to dwell on any of it too much anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cait Posted April 3, 2011 Share Posted April 3, 2011 Mine have never been confused either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Hi everyone You all seem to have presented it in a lovely way. I would just like to tell you how my daughter has been introduced to the Easter story and I am not sure if I am happy about it or not. She is in reception, was 5 in December and has today watched a video about how Jesus was put on a cross, in her words had nails put in his hands - which left holes, and then he dies, but Mummy he came back to life!!! She does go to a C of E village primary school, so of course I do expect and understand that she will learn about the life of Jesus. I just think that maybe a storybook would have been better, rather than watching a video! Not sure whether to express my concern at school tomorrow or not. My daughter also talks about all her family and friends dieing, so this is something that prays on her mind, and although it is life - it concerns me that she gets so worried Any thoughts would be appreciated. x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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