Free printable spring coloring pages, Easter and life science lesson plans

 March 20-22 marks the vernal equinox, the first day of spring in many countries. For those of locked in ice and snow and cold, this date can't come too early. Many have had a long winter and are pretty happy to hear those cheery little birds singing and see tiny crocuses bravely trying to poke their lavender heads up through the snow. How about some free spring coloring pages, Easter holiday activities and spring crafts to occupy those children who are sick of winter and school? 

Coloring Book Fun free printable spring coloring pages are simple enough for the not yet seasoned colorers, and yet offer more challenging pictures for veteran colorers. This site has a huge stock of free printable spring coloring pages and spring crafts based on seasons, weather, Easter holiday activities, topics, Bible based pictures, multi-cultural and animals. You can find just about any cartoon character from G.I.Joe to Barbie to Pokemon to Rug-rats to Rainbow Brite to Dragon Ball Z to Dora, plus all your Disney favorites.

DL-TK provides all sorts of free printable spring coloring pages, seasonal spring crafts, lesson plans, puzzles, crafts, projects, scissor practice, sequencing practice, music, song sheets, stories, spring crafts and Easter holiday activities. DLTK has all kinds of preschool activities that will reinforce prereading, letter and number recognition, fine motor practice, telling time, tying shoes, counting, tracing and other skill builders based around a theme. You will find printables for baby animals, new life, butterflies and other insects, plants, flowers, rain, and more. 

Check out these really cute Easter holiday coloring pages from Print Activities. This site
has a really large data bank of banner and ad-free printables with educational themes, There's no sign up or registration, very few if any pop-ups and easy one click printing. I found many styles of cross-word puzzles, calendars, tracing, mazes, word scrambles, word sorts, connect the dots, connect the dot using math problems, Sudoku, fill in the blanks, color by numbers, color by math (students complete math problems and complete a code to color pictures. All these spring crafts and puzzles are themed on seasons, but you can find other topics with themed puzzles: Easter holiday activities, seasons, animals, It may take a moment to load, but it is worth it

Easter Egg Crafts and Bible Object Lesson Plans

For Catholic Christians, the Lenten season, which begins after Ash Wednesday is a journey with Jesus. The Catholic Church prays the Stations of the Cross, tries to imitate Christ in humility, prayer and sacrifice or fasting. Lent culminates at Palm Sunday and Holy Week which ends in the Passion, death and resurrection of Christ at Easter. Here are Lenten devotions and Bible object lesson plans using Easter eggs. Use these Easter egg crafts to teach science too. 

Holy Trinity Bible object lessons. Decorating Easter eggs is a great time to teach Bible object lessons. Use Easter egg crafts to teach children about the Holy Trinity. Show children that the eggshell is white, smooth and pure. It holds everything together and so represents God the Father. Hidden inside is the yolk, the source of life. The yolk represents God's most important gift, His son Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Paraclete, the intercessor, the go-between. So the egg white represents the Holy Spirit as it is in the middle.

New life Bible object lessons. Easter eggs symbolize fertility and rebirth. In Lenten devotions, teach children that Easter eggs represent eternal life. Just as birds care for their young in eggs and rejoice when newborns emerge, a Christian experiences new life or rebirth from old sins in Jesus. Hiding Easter eggs simulates how a Christian should seek God. Easter baskets simulate nests which shelter baby birds. God shelters his children in safety of his love. Children might decorate their Easter egg crafts with images of birds, nest, chicks, spring, the cross or Jesus.

Resurrection Eggs Lenten devotions: Catholic Holy Week countdown using Easter eggs. For these Easter egg crafts. you'll need 8 plastic eggs, a basket and Easter grass or green construction paper. For Bible object lessons, place one item in each egg that relates to the Easter story and a slip of paper with the Bible verse that mentions the item. You'll find the Easter story in the Gospel of Luke chapter 22, 23 and 24 (verse 1-12), or Mark chapter 11 (verse 1-11)chapter 14, 15 and 16 (verses 1-8). It's contained in the other two gospels as well, but Luke and Mark are the best retellings.

Label each egg as follows and place these items inside:

Palm Sunday--a piece of palm, dry grass or a plastic donkey (to remember Palm Sunday, when Jesus made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem)

Monday of Catholic Holy Week--a piece of cracker or crouton (to remember Christ's institution of Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper)

Tuesday of Catholic Holy Week--a dime (the 30 pieces of silver Judas was paid to betray his friend Jesus)

Wednesday of Holy Week--a tiny piece of branch with thorns (Crown of thorns)

Holy Thursday--a nail (to symbolize that His hands and feet were nailed to a cross)

Good Friday--a cocktail sword or toothpick (to remember that Jesus was pierced with a sword in his side, from which poured water and blood)

Holy Saturday--a stone (the stone that was placed in front of the tomb of Christ and later miraculously removed)

Easter Sunday--Nothing! This reminds us of the empty tomb on Easter morning.

Open one egg each day from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. Light a candle for this special time. Ask a young child to explain to the family or group what this item could mean. The family can share their ideas, experiences or scripture references to the item. You might all sing a hymn or chant to remember this part of the story. Sing Crown Him with Many Crowns, All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name or Te Deum. Extend Easter egg crafts, by having children to illustrate Bible object lessons they've learned. Combine illustrations in a family memory book and use for Lenten devotions in years to come.

Free Printable Holy Week Activities: Coloring, Puzzles, Crafts, Games

Holy Week, the week preceding Easter, begins on Palm Sunday of the liturgical church year. Holy Week is the culmination of the Lenten season. The Catholic Easter Triduum, consisting of Maundy or Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday bring Christians to the highest point in the church year, Easter. Holy Week is also referred to as the Passion or Paschal celebration. Here are free printable Holy Week activities and Catholic Easter printables. Free printables includes coloring pages, word searches, crossword puzzles, cryptograms, games, crafts, cut and paste activities and much more. There are liturgical resources: prayers, Bible mass readings, reflections, devotions, Lenten lessons on sacrifice, almsgiving, fasting, corporal and spiritual works mercy. There are so many activities in this resource guide, that you will probably not be able to finish these Holy Week activities during Lent or even Eastertide.

Catholic Mom has a free printable Lenten lessons and Holy Week activities in a resource guide. Bookmark Catholic Mom for loads of Catholic printables. Here's a free printable Journey to Pascha workbooks for kids covering the Passion, death, resurrection of Jesus at Easter. Childrens Ministry has free Holy Week activities, craft projects, games, Lenten lessons, family activities and Bible devotions. This link has nearly 100 free printable Bible word searches from Catholic mass reading in the lectionary. These word searches are challenging, interactive and fun! These free printables would make excellent follow up to the mass readings. Here is a very complicated and challenging printable Catholic Easter crossword puzzle. This link has free printable Catholic Easter games and puzzles.

Apples 4 the Teacher has three pages of free printable Catholic Easter coloring pages. Each link has ten free printables for a total of thirty Easter and Holy Week activities. Use these coloring pages for Lenten lessons. Color Jesus, the cross, the tomb, the Eucharist, palms, Bible story pictures and more. DL-TK has free printable Catholic Easter games, Lenten lessons, memory cards, craft projects, coloring pages and word games for Holy Week activities. And for the best online resource in free printable Catholic coloring pages, visit St. John the Baptist Religious Ed. You can print Catholic Easter coloring pages of Stations of the Cross (way of sorrows), Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Sorrowful mysteries of the rosary, Bible stories of Easter, Catholic saints and loads more printables. 

 

Free Printable Stations of the Cross Lesson Plans, Lent Activities

In the Catholic liturgical calendar, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday continues for 40 days up through Holy Week, the Easter Triduum and Easter. Catholic Christians try to imitate Jesus with prayer, fasting or sacrifice and almsgiving (charity). A Catholic prays the rosary and Stations of the Cross on Friday (and as often as possible).  Here are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages to guide Lenten devotions.

 Each year during the Lenten when our family was homeschooling, the children drew images, one for each of the Station of the Cross. We used these images to guide Lenten devotions and prayer. We created Stations of the Cross in our home and yard, placing the images in order along a path. One year we hung them in the hallway. This way we had our own Via Dolorosa (Way of the Cross, or Way of Sorrows). The children would begin each Friday in Lent praying the Stations of the Cross. Older children can draw Stations of the Cross coloring books for younger children to color. Or you can use free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages. A favorite source was the Fr. Lovasik coloring books series. Here are free printable Stations of the Cross coloring books. Print a booklet for CCD, VBS, religious education classes, Catholic school, homeschooling and family devotions.

Catholic Kid offers free printable Stations of the Cross coloring books and prayer devotional guide. This is a fifteen page booklet covering each of the 14 Stations of the Cross. The liturgical prayer used at station is printed on the front cover and is repeated at each station. Children may color all the pages in their coloring books at once, or you may use Stations of the Cross coloring books as daily Lenten calendar countdown to Easter activities. Children might color one page each day for Lenten devotions. Here are other free printable Stations of the Cross activities from Catholic Playground. 

Web Archive has free printable Stations of the Cross coloring pages drawn like Victorian church stained glass.  These images are quite small, but could be printed for a flip book or enlarged and printed as quarter or half page coloring pages. Traditionalists will love the neo-classical black and white artwork. St. John the Baptist Religious Ed has loads more free printable Catholic coloring pages for the mysteries of the rosary (Joyful, Sorrowful, Glorious and Luminous Mysteries), Easter, Lenten, Bible and other Catholic themed coloring pages). 

Extend Stations of the Cross Lenten devotions and activities by assigning children to compose a prayer or response for each station. Preschool through first grade children might write one word or phrase to represent each station. Grades 1-2 might compose a one sentence prayer. For grades 3-5 assign one or two paragraph Lenten devotions and prayers. This makes good type 1 writing activities. Adjust the length of the prayer to suit the needs and abilities of the child. Some may wish to write their prayer as a poem, song or haiku. Don't make prayer or writing seem like chores or children will dread doing them. 

Special needs children might draw or act out each of the stations of the cross. Children could compose sign language or dance in response to the each Station of the Cross. The objective of this activity is to encourage children to respond to Our Lord's passion, death and resurrection. Encourage children to respond in whatever form they feel most comfortable with. 

Resurrection Eggs: Lenten Devotional Easter Egg Activity

You've seen those plastic refillable Easter eggs? Well, how about reusing them for a green devotional craft for lent? Using Bible verses and items to represent the gospel story of the stations of the cross, you can help your family or classroom prepare for Easter. Holy Week is the high point of the Catholic and Orthodox liturgical calendar. Make Holy Week come alive for children with this educational and spiritual family craft. Easy, DIY, recyclable, inexpensive and lent/ Easter activity.

Lenten devotions: Catholic Holy Week countdown using Easter eggs. For these Easter egg crafts. you'll need 8 plastic eggs, a basket and Easter grass or green construction paper. For Bible object lessons, place one item in each egg that relates to the Easter story and a slip of paper with the Bible verse that mentions the item. You'll find the Easter story in the Gospel of Luke chapter 22, 23 and 24 (verse 1-12), or Mark chapter 11 (verse 1-11)chapter 14, 15 and 16 (verses 1-8). It's contained in the other two gospels as well, but Luke and Mark are the best retellings.

Label each egg as follows and place these items inside:

Palm Sunday--a piece of palm, dry grass or a plastic donkey (to remember Palm Sunday, when Jesus made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem)

Monday of Catholic Holy Week--a piece of cracker or crouton (to remember Christ's institution of Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper)

Tuesday of Catholic Holy Week--a dime (the 30 pieces of silver Judas was paid to betray his friend Jesus)

Wednesday of Holy Week--a tiny piece of branch with thorns (Crown of thorns)

Holy Thursday--a nail (to symbolize that His hands and feet were nailed to a cross)

Good Friday--a cocktail sword or toothpick (to remember that Jesus was pierced with a sword in his side, from which poured water and blood)

Holy Saturday--a stone (the stone that was placed in front of the tomb of Christ and later miraculously removed)

Easter Sunday--Nothing! This reminds us of the empty tomb on Easter morning.

Open one egg each day from Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday. Light a candle for this special time. Ask a young child to explain to the family or group what this item could mean. The family can share their ideas, experiences or scripture references to the item. You might all sing a hymn or chant to remember this part of the story. Sing Crown Him with Many Crowns, All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name or Te Deum. Extend Easter egg crafts, by having children to illustrate Bible object lessons they've learned. Combine illustrations in a family memory book and use for Lenten devotions in years to come.