Excellent Easter Activities for All Ages!

Easter is so much earlier than usual this year. It's certainly crept up on us and will be here before we know it! So it's time for me to start planning and thinking about the activities we are going to do in the classroom and at home.

Part of my role at school this year is preparing our morning "provocations" activities for all four Early Years classes. This means 5 activities per class, with enough materials in each activity for a small group of four children to use. So that's a total of 20 activities for more than 80 children! After a week, we rotate the set of activities around to another class to always keep them fresh and interesting.

I've decided to put together some Easter provocations for us all to use for the week leading up to Easter. There's going to be a mixture of fine motor, sensory, loose parts, alphabet and number. Plus there are so many more amazing ideas I've come across, although I might not be able to get all of them done! Still worth sharing though :)

So the first suggestion I have in the lead up to Easter this year is to keep your egg cartons! I've discovered so many cool ways to use them in your Easter activities. One of which is the pom pom colour sort using plastic eggs and these funky fine motor tools from The Creative Toy Shop.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Easter...

Since when did Easter become the new Christmas?

I started pondering this question when I saw Kmart selling "Easter twig trees" for $15 (yes I bought one!). My Instagram friends then filled me in on the symbolism of this German tradition in which the decorated twig or branch represents new life.

I guess what I mean is; it feels like the commercialisation of Easter is what's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Easter themed products, decorations, gifts, cutlery, treats and hot cross buns have been flooding the shops since January - and I wonder if the main message of Easter is being forgotten in all the hype and sugar? (Not to mention, the popular TV show & movie themed Easter gift packs which are catching the attention of little eyes every time they go through the check out - why oh why to they make life hard for parents by forcing you to walk past these products to leave the store?).

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Easter Art for Kids {Little Picassos Art Class}

Sponsored by Little Picassos, Adelaide. All opinions are my own.

There are so many activities on offer for kids these days - swimming, dancing, endless sports, kindergyms and playgroup. But are you aware of any art classes in your area?

Miss M and I recently attended a class especially for preschoolers at Little Picassos, Adelaide. I would love to take you through what we did step by step and share with you how brilliant it was. I was super impressed and Miss M (the keen artist that she is) absolutely loved it. She was so eager and just wanted to dive right in to every task, but when she paused for those instructional moments and I watched and observed her - she really listened and took in what the teacher was saying.

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Our Easter Weekend Art & Craft

Hi everyone! Just a quick one today - sharing some Easter art and craft activities we enjoyed doing over the long weekend.

The Easter cards we made for family were just basic. I love the "Some bunny loves you" line and Miss M had a go at colouring an Easter Bunny (tip - cutting out toddler scribble pictures make them look heaps better!). Inside the card was completed with a carrot footprint (sorry - not the best photo).

On Easter Sunday morning we had some free time so we painted some Easter eggs I got from Target. Was so simple just to paint one side, let it dry, turn them over in their neat little box and paint the other side (please excuse the iPhone pic).

I hung them up with some plastic eggs we used for our egg hunt.

I've made this cute little Easter basket with my students in previous years and had a spare copy in my Easter folder, so once again I let Miss M at it with the textas. Download this free printable here from Kizclub.

While you're there check out this Alphabet Egg Matching Game and Easter Egg Matching Game.

Our Easter weekend was spent with family time at our shack on the River Murray, a day just with the three of us at the Semaphore Kite Festival, and today was our nephew's first birthday party. So all in all just lovely! I hope you enjoyed your Easter :)

Lauren

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7 Easter Gifts that AREN'T Chocolate

Most parents these days are conscious of how much chocolate they give their little people - babies are advised to avoid it all together and toddlers may have the tiny piece now and then. Easter is a time of year when we all want to spoil our little ones, and these days there are some great alternatives to chocolate Easter eggs and bunnies as gifts.

Here are 7 ideas I've found - not sponsored.

1. Egg and Spoon Race Kit - from Woolies.

(I had the idea of hiding little things inside these eggs)

2. Plastic Eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt - from Woolies

(and a super cute basket to put them all in)

3. Mugs & Egg Cups

(or plates, bowels, cups, cutlery etc)

4. Easter themed play dough kit - from Woolies.

(I've mentioned before play dough is one of Miss M's favourite things at the moment)

5. Soft toys

(this is a collection of Miss M's Easter toys from previous years)

6. New (warm - if you live in my part of the world) PJs

(I've the idea of making this a tradition every year. Great gift idea for the grandparents to give)
There's are just a few from Target (shop here - not sponsored)

7. Books about Easter

Here's just a few...

And just because...

 I grew up with these old school Peter Rabbit books. My Nana used to give me one every birthday/Christmas until I had the whole collection. Anyone else remember these?

Happy Easter shopping! One week to go!

Lauren

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