Easter is one of the big two Christian festivals in Ireland. Aside from the excitement of Easter Eggs and Bunnies, most children learn about the roots of the festival in school. In this article, I’m going to go through a few ways to integrate technology into learning about Easter.
Telling the Easter Story Interactively
While a teacher can simply read the story of Easter to children, the Internet is full of interactive versions of the story of Easter. Here are three examples:
- http://www.topmarks.co.uk/easter/ – this web site tells the story of Easter from a Christian perspective. Once the story has been read, there are a number of activities and fact files.
- http://www.ngfl-cymru.org.uk/vtc/ngfl/re/b-dag/ngfl-container/re-unit2-en.html – a complete lesson on the story of Easter. The story is told in a much simpler, child-friendly way than the one above. There are loads of activities to accompany the story. It was designed for use on an Interactive Whiteboard.
- http://www.squiglysplayhouse.com/WritingCorner/StoryBuilder/EasterMorning.html -A a personalised story with a Christian message about Easter. The story begins with an Easter Eggs hunt before the children’s mother or father comes back from church to explain the real meaning of Easter.
Easter Bunny Podcast
Why does a rabbit hide eggs around the garden or in the house? What has it got to do with the story of Easter at all? Get your (older) pupils to read http://www.topmarks.co.uk/easter/EasterBunny.aspx, about how the tradition of the Easter Bunny came along. It’s a simple and short explanation. Once they’ve read it, get them to create a short podcast or presentation about the tradition of the Easter Bunny from their perspective.
Easter Egg Gallery
Paint is one of my favourite tools that come free on a computer as it gives children all the basic tools to create digital art. Making an Easter Egg on Paint is beautifully easy. Children start with the ellipse tool to create the outline of their egg and in moments, they have created their own personalised Easter Egg. Upload the results to the National Children’s Gallery or your own school web site.
Play Educational Easter Games
Why not integrate some online Easter games into your maths or literacy classes? http://www.akidsheart.com/holidays/easter/egames.htm provides a number of Easter themed games to help you integrate different subjects into your Easter themed classroom.
Create Your Own Easter Rap
Get the children inspired by the Hip Hop Bunny at http://i.flowgo.com/greetings/rapeasterbunny/rapeasterbunny.swf and then ask children to create their own hip hop rap to tell the story of Easter. For even more learning experiences, the children can make a puppet show or a stop motion animation and upload it to YouTube or your school’s web site.
In the meantime, have a great Easter!
Last Update: August 17, 2017