Fun Middle School Easter Lessons

Looking for middle school Easter lessons? It can be a challenge to find engaging and middle school-appropriate ways to celebrate Easter in your classroom.

As much as I would love to hand out an Easter-themed colouring sheet and call it a day – I don’t think my students would be excited about that. Even if my students were excited to colour for an entire period – my principal would have a lot of questions for me.

If you are new to teaching Easter in the middle school classroom, or if your students have questions about the holiday, here is some background information.

What is Easter, and why is it celebrated?

Easter began as a religious holiday – one of the most important holidays in Christianity. The holiday goes back to the 2nd century and was a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

However, while many still observe the holiday as a religious one, it is still one that can be celebrated if you are not religious. Easter is typically linked with spring and the renewal of life and birth.

Easter is an interesting holiday because it is what is known as a “movable feast,” which means it does not fall on a set date every year. Typically, Easter occurs somewhere between March and April and is always on a Sunday. The day is always after the first full moon that occurs after the spring equinox, also known as the first day of spring.

Easter is a celebration where families can get together. Typically, there is a meal, and eggs are hidden for children to find. People can make their own eggs or they have the option of using foil-wrapped eggs or plastic eggs with treats inside.

Middle School Easter Lessons

This blog post will explain a few different ideas for creating middle school Easter lessons that will meet both your students’ and principal’s expectations.

Incorporate Creative Writing

Students love creative writing, but we often don’t give them enough opportunities to participate in it. In our rush to cover all of the curriculum standards, we forget that many can be covered using creative writing.

I offer my students two choices for creative writing during this point in the school year – an Easter-themed or Spring-themed creative writing assignment. I double-side photocopy the assignments together to provide students with 10 different creative writing prompts. Students can select a seasonal or holiday-themed prompt.

Easter Creative Writing Assignment

For the Easter-themed assignment, students select one of the provided character roles: Easter Bunny, Easter Egg Basket, Zookeeper, Candy Store Owner or Chocolate Inventor, and create a written piece based on the character’s specific writing prompt. Find this resource on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.

Spring Creative Writing Assignment

For the Spring-themed assignment, students select one of the provided character roles: bear, grass, snow shovel, bird, or professional gardener, and create a written piece based on the character’s specific writing prompt. Find this resource on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.

Students love having 10 different choices on what to write about. They also enjoy that these are not your traditional writing prompts – these are formatted as RAFT prompts.

RAFT stands for Role, Audience, Format, Topic. It is one writing assignment with several writing choices on the same theme. Students have a choice of lines 1 – 4. You read a RAFT by choosing a role and then following the audience, format and topic of that role. The assignments are tiered by difficulty to ensure that all students can be successful.

Check out this full-year creative writing bundle that includes both seasonal and holiday-themed writing prompts. Find this resource on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.

Try Digital Escape Rooms

Digital escape rooms are a fantastic way to get students working together, whether in-person or online. Students are encouraged to share their ideas with one another to solve each challenge. Just like my creative writing assignments, I like to offer my students choice.

Easter Digital Escape Room

In this Easter-themed digital escape room, students work independently or with their peers to solve 11 Easter-themed challenges. This escape room is non-religious and focuses on chocolate, candy and animals. Students must solve the required challenges to “escape” the classroom they accidentally got locked in. Participants will use their previous knowledge, as well as learn new things about this season while reinforcing their literacy skills. Find this resource on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.

Spring Digital Escape Room

In this Spring-themed digital escape room, students work independently or with their peers to solve 10 spring-themed challenges. Students must solve the required challenges to “escape” the school garden shed they accidentally got locked in. Participants will use their previous spring knowledge, as well as learn new things about this season while reinforcing their literacy skills.

Digital escape rooms are perfect activities to help build community and engage students in social-emotional learning for 6th, 7th or 8th grade. These digital escape rooms should take your students about 30-60 minutes to complete from start to finish. Times will vary depending on students. Find this resource on Shopify CAD or Teachers Pay Teachers USD.

Hopefully, these four ideas can help you plan your middle school Easter lessons for your students that are meaningful and engaging.

Learning Extension Activities

During a holiday in school, it can be fun to look at items that might relate to that holiday. I have some sub plans or independent work and a podcast lesson that would be perfect to use during your middle school Easter lessons:

Sub Plans

Since chocolate eggs can be a big component of Easter celebrations, dive into this Effects of Sugar lesson with your students to gauge their understanding of the sweet treats.
Having family and friends over is also something people enjoy during Easter. You can look into the topic of Party Planning with your students to see how different waste is accumulated during these celebrations.

Podcast Listening Comprehension Lessons

Egg prices are a big concern around the world, especially in North America. Have your own discussion on the topic while using this podcast lesson on Egg Prices.

Easter Picture Books

Sharing fun stories about Easter can be perfect for the middle school classroom. They help add variety to your middle school Easter lessons. Here are some books about the holiday they might enjoy:

Here Comes The Easter Cat By Deborah Underwood

You’ve heard of the Easter Bunny but what about the Easter Cat? When Cat decides he’d like to replace the Easter Bunny, he realizes that it’s so much more work than he originally thought.

How To Track An Easter Bunny By Sue Fliess

Can you catch an Easter Bunny? The bunny moves fast as it delivers eggs, and maybe with specific supplies, you might be able to catch her.

The Good Egg By Jory John

While not exactly an Easter-themed read, this fun book is all about eggs – one of the main components of Easter! We follow “the good egg” as he tries not to crack under the pressure of being so good.

There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick! By Lucille Colandro

This hilarious Easter-themed “Old Lady” book is both classic and hilarious as the main character starts swallowing various Easter goodies. But what happens when she encounters the Easter Bunny?

How to Catch The Easter Bunny By Adam Wallace and Andy Elkerton

If you had to catch the Easter Bunny, what kind of trap could you make? This book chronicles the Easter Bunny’s journey as he delivers eggs while having to avoid various traps! It might just encourage your students to build a trap of their own.