The Boy Who Knew God's Word

 This Bible story page is free for teachers, ministers and parents to print and handout to children anywhere, in any quantity, for any purpose no matter where they live in the world.

      Timothy was taught to honor and understand God's word by the female members of his family. He was ready to serve God when he was called to do so. The story of Timothy is about understanding the importance of a reliable character. Timothy demonstrates to others that living for God, by His word, is even more important than whether or not people know you for some other impressive reputation. We don't really know what Timothy liked to do in his spare time, whether or not he was artistically talented or athletic or even if he was some official's son. But his character was such that God made sure he would be remembered by the church by including him in Paul's life and the life of the church.

       Much of our identity as Christians is hidden in Jesus. We pass through the world without much fanfare, attending to the daily necessities of those around us, wondering if any person ever even notices who we are or what we do. Timothy had a very similar life as far as we know; he did suffer persecution and he did persevere with Paul's ministry when so many turned on the apostle. Timothy's loyalty to the church was unbending.

Paul, The Great Teacher

       This age appropriate reading material was developed by teachers for the purpose of introducing the Bible to the very young. The stories under this category at Easter Egg Crafts have been simplified and a singular moral or ethic is introduced to children in the reading of the story aloud as was and still is an educational practice in most Christian congregations today. Certainly the stories are far more complicated in the scriptures than what you will read here. But you must remember that these were written for very young students ages five to eight. (age. 5-8) The materials are free for teachers, ministers and parents to print and handout to children anywhere, in any quantity, for any purpose no matter where they live in the world.

    Paul had a very interesting history with Jesus. Although he was very bright, he also, hated the very people that God had sent his own Son to rescue from eternal death. Before he met Jesus in a vision, Paul was called Saul. God changed his name from Saul that means "asked for, prayed for" in Hebrew to Paul that means "small" in Latin. Jesus turned Paul's belligerent, hate-filled personality into that of a humble, God fearing, loving personality. 
      In Bible times, many Jewish people were disappointed in the humility and sacrifice displayed in Jesus, in fact, so much so that they would not except him as The Messiah. They wanted to be powerful and rule over their enemies in a way that they had been treated in kind. This attitude burned inside of Paul, so much so that he had a great many Christians killed before changing into the kind of teacher that the church remembers him to have been. But Paul needed to learn to live and play by God's rules, not the rules of his temple or people. This was and still is a difficult lesson to teach and learn.

David and Jonathan

      This age appropriate reading material was developed by teachers for the purpose of introducing the Bible to the very young. The stories under this category at Easter Egg Crafts have been simplified and a singular moral or ethic is introduced to children in the reading of the story aloud as was and still is an educational practice in most Christian congregations today. Certainly the stories are far more complicated in the scriptures than what you will read here. But you must remember that these were written for very young students ages five to eight. (age. 5-8) The materials are free for teachers, ministers and parents to print and handout to children anywhere, in any quantity, for any purpose no matter where they live in the world. 

     The story of David and Jonathan is an example of extreme loyalty in the scriptures. Jonathan, a prince and the son of Saul, is not only loyal to his good friend David, the next chosen King of Israel but also demonstrates extreme devotion to God. He is willing to give up his own title in order to maintain the will of God through the appointment of someone who will eventually take his inheritance of a throne. Jonathan gives up his crown, his own father's approval and his life in order to live according to God's will. This story is from 1 Samuel, chapter 20.

Make A "Special Day for Mother"

Fold and Cut a Paper Basket:

1. Cut our a paper basket about twice as large as the one shown above, from construction paper.
2. Print, color and cut out the printable of rhymes and flowers for the basket.
3. Use the tips of your small scissors to cut slashes inside of the paper basket for the 'thought flowers.'
4. Slip the 'thought flowers' into the cut openings in order to fill your Mother's Day basket full of good thoughts!

These rhymes may be printed and cut out to weave inside of a paper basket for Mother's Day.

Fold and decorate a triangular gift box...

        The black silhouette designs below may be copied and cut by students and transferred to a triangular keepsake box. Although the design here suggests the use of traditional black papers, any color interpretation would be suitable as well... One box top design is of birds and lily-of-the-valley flower shapes the other of pine trees. The tinier design is of a Christmas tree. 

       Step-by-Step Instructions for the Templates:

1. Cut a triangle from folded paper. (see illustrations below in the printable)
2. Draw design on one side.
3. Cut out design with scissors.
4. Unfold and design is complete.
5. Use Mod Podge to decoupage the design to the top of the box.
   

       Above you can see the drafted version of a triangular box plus a diagram for the lid. 
       The template of the box may be used as printed or enlarged to the size you need. On the printable, the drafted version suggests sizing the box to measure 2 1/4" x 3 3/4" 
       For the lid, simply cut a slightly larger triangle from the one you cut for the lower half of the box and repeat the same steps. This larger version should then slip over the top of the former.

How to stuff an Easter egg for an egg hunt...

Here's a little egg for
your church webpage!
 Happy Easter!

How many ways are there to stuff an Easter egg for a successful hunt? I'll add more ideas as I think of them, folks.

1. Treat you 'egg hunt' like a potluck. Have every family hunting in attendance bring a certain number of eggs for hunting. Then the sponsor of that egg hunt hides the eggs secretly prior to the egg hunt. 
2. Stuff plastic eggs with printable scriptures. - especially if the hunt is at a church! include these along with treats.
3. For older kids and adults - among your eggs, stuff the green ones with cash money!
4. Dad creates beeping Easter egg for blind daughter here. and his website.
5. Have a 'rubber duck' hunt on a lawn instead of eggs. Number the ducks with a permanent ink marker on their bottoms. This prevents kids from collecting something off of a lawn or public park that may get dirty and you don't want them to handle it before eating candy. They can pick up rubber ducks and exchange these for gifts. Then wash the ducks or soak them in vinegar and water for the following years. Bulk rubber ducks here or here. (These are also useful in fair, floating in a kiddie pool.)
6. The original Jelly Bean Prayer to include inside of an egg including jelly beans
7. Organize hunts into color matching for specific visitors. Each person may only collect one egg color and in this way the gifts are made personal and every person hunting gets the same amount of eggs.
8. Stuff plastic eggs with scripture candy here!
9. Always have a 'golden egg' with the greatest prize and hide it seriously. Make this egg very difficult to find. When my dad was little, the town had egg hunts and the golden egg usually had a money gift for high school graduates. It was usually hidden in the wooded public park.
10. Have a scavenger egg hunt where each egg contains a clue that will lead them to a destination for another clue and so on until... a big prize is collected.
11. Peeps for stuffing eggs, very traditional. 
12. Egg hunts for children confined to wheel chairs may be done with colorful egg shaped balloons filled with helium and paper tickets. Tie a weight to the end of each balloon string so that these won't get caught by the wind and blown away. The child may then pop each balloon with a toothpick and turn in their tickets for prizes after the hunt.
13. How a church holds community Easter egg hunts for different age groups...
14. Include riddles for clues that leads to candy or more hidden eggs.
15. Number eggs so that if someone finds it they can retrieve candy or prizes from a cleaner location, with the same number.
16. Have an 'egg glow' egg hunt at night instead of having the hunt during the day! 
17. Print out fun facts about Easter and kids can use these tips to help them complete a crossword at a dinner party later.
18. Purchase sidewalk chalk shaped like eggs for little ones to draw and play with later.
19. Mumsnet hints for a successful hunt at home...
20. Dogs love egg hunts too; fill the plastic eggs with your pet's favorite treats! You can even hide a few hard boiled eggs with their shells peeled off of course.
21. Share the Good News and pretzel treats to your Easter eggs from rosaenid

How one church hosts egg hunts indoors when it rains...

The Big Egg Repaint

Sitting on top of my desk, is a faux sugar egg and other vintage looking Easter decorations.

This needs a few coats of paint; I think.

       I purchased this large Easter egg from a dollar store. But it was not particularly attractive at all. However, it was much improved with a new base coat of chalk paint. Then I painted the raised areas with brighter colors and coated the entire egg with Mod Podge and transparent glitter. I think it looks very much like a giant sugar egg now!

More About Real Sugar Eggs:

• Grace Stevens from Everyday Baking makes real sugar eggs for her kids
• Colorful brown sugar Easter eggs by Martha Stewart
• Discover a the lost art of panoramic sugar eggs by New Day Northwest
• Faux sugar eggs to decorate your home with by ThePinkTree
• Studio 5 interviews Michelle Crowley about her sparkly, molded eggs with peek-a-boo centers - irresistibly charming...
• How to mold sugar for all your sweet decorations by JuliaMUsher

Craft goldfish shaped eggs for Easter this year!

Goldfish swimming on air, 
hanging on the branches of
an egg tree.

       Use both traditional egg dyeing techniques combined with a cooking oil dyeing method to craft these unique gold fish for your Easter egg tree! I think these eggs will be some of the most stunning on our egg trees in the future!

       I also chose to use a color palette similar to the original in real living goldfish, however you may choose to use any color combinations you wish. These little marbled creations would look just as nice in blues, lavenders and pinks...

First Application: Dying the Easter Eggs Traditionally: you will need the following supplies: food dye, white vinegar, pot of boiling water, a variety of heavy mugs and paper towels.

1. Blow out your eggs by inserting a sterile tack or pin into both ends of the eggs. Use a small toothpick or skewer to slightly widen these holes and to also break-up the yolk sacks. 
2. Place your lips around one end of the egg, hold it over a bowl and blow through the hole until all of the contents come through the opposite end.
3. Boil these empty eggs in a pot of clean water over the stove to clean out the remaining contents of the eggs. 
4. Let the eggs dry and the water drain on to a paper towel before dying. I used three of brown eggs along with four white ones for my set of goldfish.
5. Make an ordinary dye bath using food color and a couple of tablespoons of white vinegar to set the dye. I started with orange and then let the eggs in that dye at varying degrees of time. 
6. I left two of the white eggs and one of the brown out of this first part of the process altogether, so that the modeling of white and brown might be more distinct in the second part of their dying.
   

These eggs have been dyed twice and have also had bits of black tissue paper glued to their
surfaces in places.

 

Second Application: Altering the egg dye further: you will need additional food dye, paper towels and some kind of cooking oil.

1. Pat dry all of the eggs before continuing with this second step.
2. Add two tablespoons of cooking oil to the surface of your egg dye, plus additional red color. 
3. Now roll all of the eggs across the surface of this dye. You may wish to limit how much contact the eggs have with the oil stained dye. I wanted my eggs to have a very distinct marbling as do many goldfish. 
4. I then added several drops of blue to the dye and rolled four of my eggs into this briefly. The effects were stunning but I still could not achieve a black spot where I wanted them. So I decided to add these to the egg surfaces using a black tissue paper at the end.
5. The white spotted surfaces on two of my eggs looked marvelous. These were the two that had not been dyed in the first bath at all, nor had I included them in the bath with blue dye in the end.

These goldfish are dyed, empty egg shells. Their tails are made using cupcake liners.

Third Application: Turning the eggs into goldfish or carp: you will need the following supplies: Styrofoam beads for barreleyes, tissue paper, black acrylic paint, white school glue and/or cupcake liners for the tails and fins (I chose to use cotton batting for the side fins. But it would be more consistent for young students to use cupcake liners for all of the fins and tails)

1. I ripped a small amount of black tissue and applied a few selected areas with a smear of white glue and tissue. 
2. I also did the same with a white tissue to a few of the brown eggs.
3. Then using an Exacto knife, I cut some large Styrofoam beads in half, and applied these on either side of each egg to mimic the barreleyes of goldfish. If you are working with a young child, the adult will need to cut the beads in half for the child because of the sharp blade. 
4. The white glue will hold the eye in place relatively well but the application must be aloud to dry in place until the adhesion is set. 
5. Next, glue on shredded tissues for fins on the sides and or bottoms of your goldfish. Some goldfish do not have fins on top or bottom, some of them do.
6. Applying the tail may prove to be a bit tricky. It is best to do so by gluing on an additional half bead at the place where the fish tail will be wrapped. Let the bead dry in place.
7. Then wrap the tail by removing the center of the cupcake liner and then twirling it about the side surface of the foam bead along with glue. 
8. An adult may choose to do the tail application for a child if this proves difficult. However, the end results are adorable!
9. I painted two of my goldfish tails; one black and the other copper.
10. Paint a black spot in the centers of each goldfish eyeball. 

I dyed a few of the goldfish black and copper.

Fish out of water belong on egg trees.

Goldfish have distinctive barreleyes made with Styrofoam beads and cotton batting.

How to make an egg-shaped pineapple...

Pineapple shaped from egg.

       To color this fruity, tropical egg, you can use a common spice found in many folks' cupboard. I dyed this fun pineapple egg using turmeric powder! If your turmeric is too old, this is an excellent way to use it up and replace it with newer versions, dried or fresh.

• Delish talks about the benefits of turmeric and how to cook with it - Turmeric tea recipe in this video is excellent for those who suffer from too much swelling around their joints; it is also just really scrumptious!

       As you can see from the photograph, I got a little carried away with the tissue paper texture on this egg and covered much of the dyed surface. This, of course, is not necessary for those of you who wish to show off more of the naturally died egg. Sometimes stuff just happens and I get a little 'carried away' with an egg, sorry.

       To make an egg like this one or a simpler pineapple variation with less sculpting and simpler lines you will need the following supplies: watercolors, ribbon or wire to hang the egg once it is fully dry, Mod Podge for the turmeric dyed surface (essential, folks.), one cotton ball per pineapple egg, white school glue, one large green pom pom, hot glue and hot glue gun, and yellow tissue paper. 

The eggs above are dyed using turmeric spice.

 Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Use a clean tack or needle to pierce the narrower end of a fresh, raw egg. For the pineapple design the egg will need to have a relatively large opening so, you don't need to be very concerned about making the hole tiny this time. Just tap this end firmly on a hard surface and pull out a 1/2 inch opening.
2. Empty the egg contents into a dish or skillet and eat it right away if you wish.
3. Submerge the egg shell in a small pot of hot water including a couple of tablespoons of both white vinegar and turmeric. Boil everything gently for no less than ten minutes. You may also let the egg(s) stand in the natural dye bath for much longer after boiling for even more intense color.
4. Let the egg shell dry completely prior to stuffing it with one cotton ball.
5. Hot glue on the green pom pom at the top to represent the palms.
6. Glue on crumpled yellow tissues to intensify texture on the egg.
7. Now paint the details of a pineapple using watercolors.
8. Attach a string for hanging by hot gluing it inside of the pom pom.

More Ways to Craft Pineapples:

•  Make pineapples using pinecones!

Wrap a hatching chic with chenille yarns...

Playful hatching chic among other vintage Easter toys.

 

        This chenille yarn wrapped chic is very easily made with only a few supplies: one large plastic egg, masking tape, ribbon for a hanger, both yellow and white chenille yarn, two black pom poms, Sculpey and white school glue.

       Open the plastic egg and insert a ribbon for the hanger; knot this on the inside of the egg. Shut the egg and cover the entire outside surface with masking tape. This will make it easier for the yarn to stick to the egg. Smear on glue and wrap the egg with yarns as you go. I wrapped the lower half first with white chenille yarn and then the upper with yellow chenille yarn. Paste on the black pom poms for eyes and then shape a little beak for the chic using Sculpey or any other oven-bake clay you have on hand. Glue this beak on and hand the big hatching chic from an egg tree branch or display it inside of a child's Easter basket.

• Make a paper hatching chic - use a free pattern here...
• More ways to wrap eggs with yarn here. and how to wrap eggs with embroidery floss here.

Left, the egg ready for yarn application. Right, the lower white yarn "shell" of our chic.

Easter egg shakers for kids!

Four different sides to my sample rattle or 'egg shaker.'

       Egg shaking toys are very old-fashioned. At one time crafters even filled real egg shells with their contents 'blown out' instead of the plastic egg type used here. 

       Very young children, four or five years old, love to play with egg shaped rattles and dance to music at the same time in the classroom. I have also linked to similar crafts to this one at our family Easter blog below. There are enough instruments to start your very own preschool band if you like...

More Musical Toys/ Noise Makers To Craft:

• How to craft your own jingle stick!
• Kids can make sand-block instruments 'easy peasy'

Supply List:

Left, plastic spoons, rice filled plastic
 egg and masking tape. 

• two identical plastic spoons, (I will need to cut the bottom off of mine.) 
• one plastic egg
• dried rice or beans
• masking tape
• Mod Podge and white school glue
• Decorative rice paper or wrapping paper
• newsprint

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. First assemble the basic shaker by filling a standard sized plastic egg with either uncooked rice or uncooked beans. Just fill the lower half of the egg only.
2. Shut the egg and tape it all around its perimeter.
3. Now nestle the egg between the plastic spoons with the narrow end pointed down. Mask the egg tightly between the two spoons. see photo below.
4. Even the ends of the spoons if one is slightly larger than the other. You won't need to do this if you are using two identical spoons.
5. Tape all surfaces firmly together using the masking tape.
6. Crush newsprint onto and into the crevices of the spoons in order to even-out the surfaces and make the rattle look smooth. 
7. Then cover the exposed newsprint with additional masking tape.
8. Brush on Mod Podge and smooth on decorative papers to finish the rattle. 
9. Add another layer of Mod Podge to seal the end product for durability.
10. Tuck the egg rattle inside of an Easter basket as a gift to a younger child.

Above photos in step-by-step process of wrapping an egg shaker.

Simple Washi tape eggs . . .

These handcrafted Washi tape eggs are excellent alternative egg crafts for a preschool or
kindergarten Sunday school classroom because they are both easy to make with little cleaning
up afterwards. Teachers may also choose to apply the background papers ahead of time
for the very young students.

       Washi tape comes in thousands of different patterns and colors. The Washi tapes I used for the above cardboard eggs have transparent backgrounds. I prefer these backgrounds because you can alter the background paper colors in combination with the dots and lines to make endless variations in egg designs. 

       The paper I used for these two examples were green and lavender. Print and cut out patterns for flat cardboard eggs here. Then cover these with white school glue and paper. And last, use the Washi tape to embellish your Easter egg craft without fuss or mess!

• How to make cascarones or confetti eggs for Easter
• Stencil Easter rabbits or hares eating in a field of clover...