Tuesday, March 30, 2010

What is Easter?


After breakfast today I got the kids started on an orange collage. I heard many things:
Is this a pumpkin?
Is today orange day?
You will see the end result tomorrow!




Easter bunny board game - I wish I knew why playing board games it my LEAST favorite thing to do during the day. I see all the benefits :
Learning to take turns.
Counting
Learning to be a gracious loser
Following 2 and 3 step directions


But .. it drives me CRAZY waiting. The kids on the other hand enjoyed this game.

I know it seems like we do a lot of sorting which is a great math activity ,but we are working fine motor skill in this activity to be better writers. See the strawberry huller they pinch to pick up the pom pom?




Today Randy made Carrot Salad with the kids. They love cooking . For lunch we had cooked carrots, carrot salad and crunchy ( fresh ) carrots as side dishes. After eating we graphed which was our favorite.


One of the groups planted seeds today. They are in the window and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of flowers !



It was a wonderful day. We couldn't ask for better weather.

If the kids tell you we had a visitor today, we did. A man from the state came by to check our water heater. Once a year he does this and sends us a bill for $25 . He was in the house about 3 minutes IF THAT. What a job....

In circle time I asked the kids " What is Easter?" I got LOTS of candy and eggs and easter bunny answers. And one - when Jesus died on the cross and came back to life for us. I am always leary with this age on what they can really REALLY understand. I think some can grasp the concept but others can't. My grand daughter who just went through losing her great grandfather ( my dad ) and has had many discussions with her parents about it said " but when you die you can't come back to normal." My reply was " Jesus did, isnt that amazing?" Christmas is so much easier to teach. I mean, we have a baby and angels and shepherds and camels.. not crosses and stones that rolled away. Don't get me wrong, I am thankful for Easter and what it means to me but just not sure how to approach it with the kids . But then, when I just accept the Easter Bunny answers without telling the " real reason" I feel like a fraud. Parents or teachers, what is your take on this? How do you approach it with your child or your class? I have 3 more days to get it right.

4 comments:

  1. I personally don't address it. Easter, for daycare purposes, is an adjective we put in front of eggs, bunny and candy. Now, as far as my family and sunday school class goes, it's a whole different story. I avoid the religious part of any holiday with the kids, as I don't know the religious beliefs of any of the families. As I don't advertise myself as being a Christian daycare, I don't feel comfortable bringing that in. However, I do know that they all celebrate the secular parts, so we just have fun with that.

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  2. I don't address it either. We do a strictly secular Easter. However, the one book that I could find that explained St. Patrick's Day in simple terms said that St. Patrick "told the Irish people about God." My kids didn't bat an eye.

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  3. Talking about Easter and beliefs... when a child asks a specific question about a Christian celebration I give a straight forward answer. I never avoid the topic because I wouldn't avoid answering any other question. I do the same thing whenever a group of children (at lunch for example) start talking about God and they share something with me, and it is usually simple but sound doctrine, I assure them that what they say is the truth. There is a meaning for Easter and even if not every person share the belief the meaning and relevance is still Christian. RM

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  4. We're always out of school for Easter and I've never had a kid talk about anything other than the secular celebration.

    You were in Greece a little after me. We were there in the early 70's.

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