Passion Beads & Egging Friends

I got this great idea from a friend of mine to make story beads that help my kids to tell the story of Easter. I have looked and looked for wooden beads. They were either too much for me to pay or I couldn't tell the size of the lacing hole or they were a size variety pack. So, I decided that I was going to make my own beads out of baker's clay. I think next time I will paint the beads once they are done so that they look a little better.
The kids and I spent an evening rolling snakes and cutting pieces to make these beads. Brantley had the best time squishing the dough. Chuck just loved cutting and counting the pieces. I used a toothpick to hollow out the center. The pencil did not work for me. We baked the first batch of 150 beads only to find out that I did not make the "hole" big enough. I got upset and started to throw them all away only to have my husband get major husband points and offer to drill each bead. Yes, you heard right. Out of the 600 beads that we made he drilled around 250 of them. What a great man! Once the beads were cooled I used a package of sharpie markers to draw the pictures on the beads. The story begins with Jesus coming into Jersulem riding on a donkey. The people waved palm leaves. (palm leaf) Jesus has the Last supper with his disciples. (Bread and wine) Jesus goes to the garden to pray. (praying hand) He is captured by soldiers. (chain) He is nailed to the cross. (nail) He dies on the cross (cross). He is in the tomb for 3 days. (123) On the 3rd day he rises again. This reminds us that we have a new life in him (butterfly). He died because he loves us. His love saves us (heart)
I made them for my class and the 4th grade class to work on during our Friday Friend Session. My kids loved them. 4th grade not so much. We had beads left over so I decided to see if Charlie wanted to give them to some of her friends. We made a kind of "treasure" hunt by placing a bead in a plastic egg and hiding them around the friend's yard. Charlie then rang the doorbell and ran to the car. The first one we tried we were not so "successful" with getting away. We had the best time.
I hope that our friends enjoyed their egging as much as we did. I think that I just might have to do this activity again.