Resurrection Rolls

I found a neat link on Pinterest for an activity called Resurrection Rolls. The idea is that you and your child put these rolls together and talk about Jesus' death and resurrection and the hands on activity helps to make a connection between what happened after Jesus died (he was anointed, clothed, and buried in a tomb) and then his resurrection (his body no longer in the tomb). I figured that, Abby being 3, we'd spend a fun hour together, she'd hear about Jesus and why we were celebrating Easter, and if she retained even an ounce I'd call it good.

Here Abby is helping separate the crescent rolls. I talked about how this activity was going to help us see what happened after Jesus died and why we celebrate Easter.

I talked about how the marshmallow was like Jesus and after he was buried he was anointed with oils (melted butter).

Then his body was covered in spices (cinnamon and sugar mixed together).

Afterwards his body was wrapped in cloth (the crescent roll dough).

As we kept repeating these steps I kept talking about what was happening to Jesus at each step. After a few balls I heard Abby say "cover him up, cover him up" as she was rolling the marshmallow in the cinnamon/sugar. If what she took out of this is that Jesus was covered up I figure it's a step in the right direction!

Abby noticed her hands were sticky and dirty so she wanted to wash them off. So while I put the rolls in the tomb (oven) so that we could wait three days (or 10 minutes) she ran to get a kitchen chair to wash up at the sink.

She'd been washing up for a while, while I was picking up around the house, when I noticed this sight. Apparently she'd gotten some "yuckies" in her hair as well and wanted to wash them out. :-) Well, in for a goose in for a gander so I laughed and told her to have fun.

When three days (10 minutes) had passed I pulled the rolls out of the oven and talked to Abby for a bit about how Jesus died but then after three days when people went to go see his body in the tomb they found his body gone! At this point the story was at its climax and the rolls were cool enough to eat. I opened one up and immediately Abby said "Where's the marshmallow?". Yes! The connection between the marshmallow and Jesus might not have been fully cemented but she definitely got that the marshmallow was gone. After that we snacked on our rolls (next time I would totally put down aluminum foil on my cookie sheet as the melted marshmallow was like dried cement when I went to clean the pan off just thirty minutes later) and had a great time watching Curious George.