Resurrection Gardens: A Hands-On Way to Teach Easter Truths.
Resurrection Garden Tutorial + Bible Memory Verse Ideas for Kids This Easter.
I’m not a mom who regularly breaks out the paint or Play-Doh—much to my children’s despair—but give me an organized craft day and I’m all in. Maybe it’s my inner elementary teacher peeking out? Around each holiday or new season, I love inviting a few friends or cousins over for a special activity that’s fun and meaningful.
This Easter, we had an outdoor picnic and created Resurrection Gardens. It was such a sweet, hands-on way to introduce why Easter is so special, and I totally recommend it if you’re looking for a creative way to connect with your kids and explain the Easter story.
I wanted to share a handful of the ways we helped our kids engage with the Easter story this year—simple strategies that brought Scripture to life and created some surprisingly meaningful moments. It was really special to watch it all play out, and I hope this gives you a few ideas to try with your own family.
Memorizing Matthew 28 With Young Kids
As we planned for Easter this year, we wanted to go deeper than the decorations—so we paired our craft with a Bible memory focus.
At the start of Lent, my husband and I decided that we wanted to spend some time working on Bible memorization with our girls during the Easter season. I told him that he was up for picking the passage so he settled in on Matthew 28. Now, while there are no wrong scriptures to memorize, I was definitely giving him the side eye when it started out with “Now, after the Sabbath, towards the dawn of the first day of the week….” Thankfully, he was undeterred, so we rolled up our sleeves and dove into discussions about the Sabbath and dawn with our three- and five-year-old.
By Easter, they had memorized verses 1–8, and we would find them quoting it in little sing-song voices throughout the day.
I am always amazed at how often I underestimate them. Kids are capable of so much more than we sometimes give them credit for. I’ve loved diving into longer chapters of Scripture with them and breaking things down verse by verse as we make hand motion creations together. Now, if you want Bible memorization to become a staple in your life, you are not too old for hand motions. Let me tell you—they are a game changer.
Pairing movement with repetition creates a beautiful recipe for memorization. Something you might hear on repeat in my home is my husband telling me, “You’re using the wrong tool for the job.” My paring knife is not going to work like a bread knife when I’m cutting the loaf in front of me. The same is true for memorization. If your expectation is that you can see it once, walk away, and know it, chances are you’ll find yourself frustrated. So try hand motions, feel a little ridiculous, and watch how the Word comes alive as you speak it over and over and over.
I started with this little snippet about memorizing Matthew 28 because we were able to say it throughout the Easter season as my kids were introduced to new things. We said it before the Resurrection Garden so they could really see what it might have looked like to have an empty tomb and a rolled-away stone, and we said it outside before sunrise on Easter to add a whole new meaning to “After the Sabbath, towards the dawn of the first day of the week.” Not to mention, my husband and I had the privilege of hiding God’s Word in our hearts right alongside our little people, which truly is a treasure.
Resurrection Gardens: A Gospel-Centered Easter Craft
I found the idea for these gardens on Pinterest, and they cost us $10 a child to make. My sis-in-law actually ended up creating hers nearly for free using materials she had around the house (and true to form—it was the most beautiful). All you need is a bowl or planter dish, a small pot for the tomb, a river rock for the tombstone, a few smaller rocks for the path, a few sticks and floral wire for the cross, planting soil, flowers of your choice, a squirt bottle, and moss (which was very unfortunately sold out, so you must imagine our creations as gorgeous as they could have been).
We actually took the kids on a little walk to collect rocks and sticks around our property, which made them a bit more invested in their material choices. The kids loved putting the pieces together and spending the day with friends doing something out of the ordinary. Also very true to form for special kid crafts—the moms are pictured finishing up while the kiddos play in the background. I believe this is just an inevitable fact.
We followed the craft with a picnic lunch on the lawn while the kids ran around and did as kids do.
Reinforcing the Story: Our Easter Minno Pick
After finishing the gardens and soaking up a morning full of hands-on learning, we headed inside to keep the conversation going. We turned on a short Easter clip from Minno: Laugh & Grow Bible that beautifully reinforced everything we’d been talking about—from the empty tomb to the risen King. It was such a meaningful way to help the kids connect the dots and truly see the resurrection story they’d just built and memorized.
They ended the experience with a worship dance song celebrating Jesus rising on the third day, which felt like the perfect capstone to everything they had learned and experienced that morning. If you’re looking for a streaming service you can trust without having to preview every episode, I highly recommend Minno.
Final Thoughts
These small moments—whether crafting a tomb out of rocks and dirt (because again, no moss)—or memorizing the Word one motion at a time, are how we teach the deep stuff of life.
The truths of God’s Word are the greatest gifts I can give my kids, and I love finding creative ways they’ll actually enjoy learning it. Even if our Resurrection Gardens looked a little more like desert scenes than lush greenery, the message still bloomed. And honestly, that’s what matters most.
If you're looking for more faith-filled fun to do with your kids, I’m always sharing ideas like this one. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss out on upcoming activities, devotionals, and free printables to help you teach your kids truth in creative ways.
💬 Got a favorite Easter tradition, craft, or kid-friendly way to share the Gospel? Drop it in the comments—I’d love some ideas to try next year!
