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Easter, or Resurrection Sunday, is among the top two holiest days in the Christian calendar. It commemorates the resurrection of Jesus on the third day of burial, following his crucifixion, and the Christian belief that in doing so, he saved people from their sins. In widespread culture, Easter is also a secular holiday commemorating spring with Easter bunnies, baskets, and eggs.
To help your students learn more about this holiday's religious and secular origins, you can add an Easter activity to your ELA, social studies, or science class!
Then, have them read “The Basket of Eggs,” a Canadian Christian folktale that explains the religious origins of giving an Easter basket and eggs to celebrate the holiday.
Finally, have students compare and contrast the two texts using the guiding focus question, “How are the ideas from the articles similar or different?”
[Discover the history and traditions of Easter in social studies](id-ss)
Help students learn more about the history and traditions of Easter and start discussions about diverse perspectives with these social studies resources:
First, have students watch an interactive video about Easter celebrations.
Next, explore moveable feasts like Easter, which change dates and aren’t celebrated on the same day yearly.
Finally, discover when the White House started holding an Easter egg roll for a religious holiday (instead of separating church and state!)—and some reasons political leaders have canceled the annual event in the past.
What other religious holidays happen in the spring?
Give your students an overview of the histories and traditions of various religious celebrations that happen during the spring:
Discover the similarities and differences among Christian, Jewish, and Muslim holidays like Passover, Easter, Ramadan, and Eid al-Fitr.
Break students into jigsaw groups and assign each group a holiday to study and create a presentation for the class.
Have students share their presentations with the class using the information they learned. Encourage the listeners to ask questions and take notes about information they find interesting.
Want to add more writing to your Easter lessons? Turn this activity into an opportunity for informative or informational writing practice with Newsela Writing!
[Do Easter egg experiments in science](id-sci)
Turn a traditional Easter symbol into a science experiment with an egg drop activity:
First, teach students about the different types of animals and insects that lay eggs.
Then, discover whyegg hunts are such a popular Easter activity and how they can be adapted for people with differing abilities.
Finally, find out how sturdy (or fragile!) an egg can be by using engineering skills and building a contraption that protects a raw egg from cracking when dropped from different heights.
Cover all the major spring holidays in your classroom
Easter is one of many religious and cultural holidays celebrated during the spring. With Newsela’s suite of subject products, you can access various content and resources—like news articles, primary sources, literature selections, and interactive videos—to help you teach about all of them!
Not a Newsela customer yet? Sign up for Newsela Lite for free and start your 45-day trial. You’ll get access to our premium content and activities for everything you need to teach about every holiday this spring.
Everything you need to accelerate learning across ELA, social studies, and science
Try These Eid al-Fitr Activities in Your Classroom
Explore diverse perspectives by looking at the history and traditions of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr with ELA and social studies classroom activities.
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