LENT & EASTER

• What does Ash Wednesday Mean? - handout for Ash Wednesday at Home
• Make a pre-Ash Wednesday Dust Cake
• Here's some ideas you could use at home to explore Ash Wednesday as a family
• Or another idea using marshmallows
• Or Purchase this Ash Wednesday Ritual Pack for household or small group use - instructions, ash & conversation heart lollies for the ritual (discounts for bulk purchases)

• Lent Family Creative Journal - Download journal pages for free - Creative ideas to explore the themes of Lent & Easter.
• Fasting & Feasting Ideas for Lent - Choose something to fast from or feast on during Lent
• Lent Giving Calendar - a fun and visual way to encourage generosity.  You may want to adjust the money as it is American and mentions quarters, nickels & dimes.
• Creating a Lenten Prayer Space at Home
• Lenten Ideas for families - printable booklet with ideas for each week of lent & for Easter Day
• Forgiven Game - Forgiven is a "Sorry" type game.  The object of the game is to get all 4 pawns from start, through the holy zone, and home. Somewhere along the way, a player might have to be forgiven!  Download game board and playing cards to make & use the game.  You may also like the Journey with Jesus Play Card Set which is in the Holy Week Resources.
• Use these Fasting, Prayer & Almsgiving Lent Cards to fast, pray & give during Lent
• Praying in Colour - Colour or doodle a section each day as you reflect - different options
• Purchase a Lent Journey Mat - Use this Lent Journey Mat as you countdown to Easter - includes laminated mat, 1 "Jesus" peg figure, a blessing sheet & ideas for using the journey mat.
• Make a Lent Adventure Pack - It might include a road map, road sign, light & a bag, along with Adventure Outings.  Could be used with the Lent Journey Mat (above)
• Make a Lenten Tree - Using 14 readings to hang on a tree
• Making Pretzels: A Traditonal Activity for Lent
• Quick & Easy Prayer Pretzels
• Lenten Playlist - A Spotify Playlist for Lent
• Guiding Teenagers in Lent:Give Up On Giving Up? - Supporting Teenagers in Lenten Disciplines
• Lenten Nail Cross String Art - a visual reminder for the home

• The Journeys of Easter - 4 stand alone stories featuring a journey that households of all makeups can explore. (Australian)
• Easter - Around a Table - 7 Easter activity conversation cards, designed for interaction between young & old around the meal table
• Lent at Home 2022 - Download this free guide & printable calendar with daily worship prompts, intended for all ages
• #PictureLent - subscribe to receive each day: images to view, scripture to read, wonder questions, pray & respond. How to #picture
• Lent at Church and Home Devotional - This devotional offers 3 sections "Dig In", "Question", & "And..", with topics each day specific to the day.
• Amon's Adventure - A family Story for Easter which can be read during Lent, leading up to Easter.  28 Chapters - Read a chapter every couple of days or start on Palm Sunday & read several chapters a day, finishing on Easter Sunday.
• Beneath the Cross Daily Readings - Prepare a cross & some ribbons and use them with these daily readings (the dates are incorrect but just start on Ash Wednesday)
• Easter Family Faith Trail - a series of stations with activities that families can use at home in a way that suits them.
• Purchase Easterific Faith Adventures - Families explore & experience the rich meaning of Easter by completing action challenges, discussion questions, and more.  All-inclusive kit designed to pay once & use forever.  Instant download & fully customizable.
• A Sent People - 6 family sessions about a challenge to join God in His transforming mission.  Each week has a starter question, a story to read or watch, discussion questions & a suggested family movie.
• Our Transforming God - 6 family sessions on the theme of transformation.  Each week has a starter question, a story to read, a suggested family movie, with discussion questions.
• A Pilgrimage of Grace - 6 family sessions to explore God's amazing and transforming grace.  Each week has a starter question, a story to read, discussion questions & a suggested family movie.
• Bless This Mess: DIY Lenten Calendar - Purchase this printable calendar to help your family "bless this mess", as we travel with Jesus through the valley of the shadow of death into newness of life. - Personal Use
• 40-Day "Love Builds Up" Lenten Family Challenge - a way for families of all shapes & sizes to strengthen spiritual muscles and emotional health during Lent.  Do the devotional together & decide on an action or practice for the week. Personal/Congrgational Use, choose the option that's right for you.
• Lent in a Bag - Devotions for each week with the theme 'Praying with Jesus'
• More Lent in a Bag ideas - Make up bags to give to households
• And even more Lent in a Bag ideas - See what some other churches have done
• Lent in a Box - Ash Wednesday plus 5 weekly prayer practices to share in one of 3 ways: Digital Format, Printed Format or Lent in a Box
• Psalm a Day Lenten Devotional - read a Psalm a day during Lent.  dated 2017 but could be used any year would just need to update the dates
• Lent at Home in Community: See, Taste, Hear, Smell, Touch, Give - Each weekly session includes a psalm reading, an activity & a prayer.

Print out these playdough mats from Flame Creative Children's Ministry to help children explore the Easter Story:

• Palm Sunday
• Last Supper
• Gethsemame
• Good Friday
• In the Tomb & He is Risen

• What does Palm Sunday Mean? _ Handout for Palm Sunday at Home
• Make a peg leg donkey
• Easy to make Hosanna Branch Wavers

• How to Help Families Celebrate Holy Week at Home -
• Holy Ground - resources for a household to prepare and enjoy Easter together with activity ideas from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday - print or email the resource to share or add the need materials to make up packs for households.
• Holy Week in a Box - Each day of Holy Week add a different object with the Jesus peg doll and read a Bible story.  (Make these boxes up to give to families or households to use)
• Purchase Easter Story Brick Challenge & Learning Pack - Starting on Palm Sunday with 8 Build It Task Challenges and extra challenges for after Resurrection Sunday, digital download.
• 7 different activity ideas for Holy Week - including a Palm Sunday Craft & finding ways to serve
• Celebrating Jesus Week - Ideas for Celebrating Holy Week from Worshiping with Children
• Celebrating Holy Week with Kids - updated for 2021
• A Do at Home Messy Church for Families
• Make a Resurrection Set - Links for the templates to make the set & ideas to use it with children
• Praying in Colour Holy Week Templates & Stations of the Cross
• Holy Week for Families - including ideas for a Holy Week Board, a Holy Week Banner & an Easter garden
• Holy Week Reading Bookmarks
• Holy Week Playing Cards - A Journey with Jesus Play Card Set.  You can play matching, Old Cross (Old Maid), or Go Fish! You could play Hedbanz to get creative with them, or use the cards to put the Holy Week story in order.  You may also like the Forgiven Game in the Lent section of the resources.
• God's Big Easter Story - A Holy Week journey for families
• Messy Church at Home - The Story of Easter
• Holy Week in the Home - Print of a series of cards & use one each day during Holy Week or insert one card a day into a newsletter or FB to share with households.
• Holy Week Devotions for Families & Singles - Each day has a reading with questions for younger children, older children, youth, families & singles

• What Does Maundy Thursday Mean? - Handout for Maundy Thursday at Home
• make these special Last Supper Cups 
• Easy to make unleavened bread
• Stripping the Table - this at home practice mirrors the church custom of stripping the alter
• Have a Family Passover Celebration
• A Messianic Passover Seder for Families with Children

• What Does Good Friday Mean?  - Handout for Good Friday at home
• Make this flip cross/resurrection craft - the story of Easter doesn't finish with the cross
• Talking about the Cross with Young Children
• Make 'Crown of Thorn' Bread

• What Does The Great Vigil of Easter Mean? - Handout for The Great Vigil of Easter at Home
• Make these Resurrection Cookies - As you add ingredients you read parts of the Easter story from the Bible.  Put them in the oven, seal it and leave until morning - then you'll have a delicious Easter surprise.
• Or make some Resurrection Rolls
• Make an Easter Garden - many different ways to make these this is just one idea.

• Easter Grab It! - Explore the Easter Story as a family, using things you can grab from around the house.
• What Does Easter Morning Mean? - Handout for Easter Morning at Home
• Resurrection Eggs: Redeemed & Redone! - less focus on the violence and more emphasis on life & resurrection
• Resurrection Eggs for Toddlers - 6 eggs with a symbol in each and a simple story-telling sentence for each egg.
• Empty Tomb snack
• Easter ChatMat - colour & play the ChatMat Game on one side.  More activities & physical challenges on the other side
• Make Resurrection Butterflies
• An Easter Sunrise Breakfast at Home
• Build a "Biblical" Easter Basket
• Easter in the Household - Practical ideas for households with children, households with teenagers, households with adults, households with a single adult & for long distance relatives of children
• 8 Ideas for Living the 50 Days of Easter
• And More Ideas to Continue the Easter Celebration for 50 Days

• Clay Figure Activity for Ash Wednesday - Make clay figures as a community activity online or in person to invite people to explore what it means when we say "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
• Here's some Ash Wednesday Worship Ideas to help include children in this worship service.
• More Creative Ideas for Ash Wednesday
• Singing in the Dark:  Ash Wednesday with Children

• Year A- Observing Lent and Celebrating Easter - worship ideas from Worship with Children (Updated for 2023)
• 2 ideas for worship and different ways to use them - Burying the 'Alleluia' and A Lenten Pathway
• Illustrated Ministry Lenten Resources - A range of resources including videos, an Easter Pageant & colouring pages for church & home (updated)
• 3 images for Lent you can freely use and share

Bible Explore from NZ has ideas for each week to match the lectionary (updated for 2023)

• Ash Wednesday
• Jesus is Tested - 1st Sunday in Lent
• Nicodemus - 2nd Sunday in Lent
• The Woman at the Well - 3rd Sunday in Lent
• Healing the Blind - 4th Sunday in Lent
• Lazurus - 5th Sunday in Lent

• Lent Event - Uniting World - Take up the Global Neighbours Bible Study, Give up & Donate
• Easter Walk-Through - 16 stations with pictures, a simplified version & fuller version of the story, an action point & an activity.
• Bless this Mess: DIY Lenten Calendar - Purchase this printable calendar & distribute to households to help them "bless this mess", as we travel with Jesus through the valley of the shadow of death into newness of life. - Personal/Congregational Use - Choose which one is right for your situation.

• Messy Church At Home - Be Still (Lent)
• Messy Church in Lent - based on the story of the temptations of Jesus & explores the theme 'how to be truly strong'.
• Lent and Easter Messy Church Ideas
• Messy Easter Ideas from Flame Creative

• The Rocks Will Cry Out - all age Palm Sunday Service
• How to Fold a Palm Cross with Palm leaves
• Some ideas for Palm Sunday

• A Children's Service for Holy Week
• Jesus' Final Week Family Communion Service - All age worship service that walks through Jesus' final week as a man.
• Weekly@Easter - includes a kids event for Palm Sunday, a community event for Maundy Thursday, a family event for Good Friday and All Age Worship for Easter Sunday
• Holy Week with Youth - 7 suggestions for Holy Week with Youth
• Age appropriate Music for Holy Week & Easter
• Simplified Stations of the Cross

• The Mercy Tree - All age guided meditation service for Good Friday using coloured ribbons & brances to create 'Mercy Trees'.
• A Good Friday Service for All - for the whole church family
• Good Friday Service - led by young people
• Good Friday Presentation - 3 possible sections for an all-age presentation that could be interspersed in an a worship service.

• Ideas for Easter Worship from UCA SA Synod
• The Colours of Sunday - Intergenerational Service that uses colour to describe the events of Easter Sunday.
• Easter Service Ideas - 10 engaging and fun ways to involve everyone in the celebration of Easter.
• In Search of Easter - trail-based treasure hunt for children and families, using a series of videos and activities to encourage conversation and help crack a code.
• Easter Stations - 7 Easter activity 'stations' you could set up in your space or outside to help people experience the amazing story of Easter.
• Hosting an Easter Egg Hunt - an intergenerational event
• Easter Games and Activities
• Easter Games - smart phone friendly booklet which contains 14 experiental games for all ages to learn more about Easter
• Celebrating Easter at Church - Easter Hunt Tweaks & Flowering the Cross
• Making Easter Butterflies - an Easter Activity for All Ages