Welcome to the BUMPER Easter crafts & activities for kids EGGstravanganza bundle! In this bundle is a whole load of fun, exciting Easter-themed crafts and activities for children and we have also created a two-week Easter timetable packed with all those activities plus more fun, for those parents who like to work to a routine- you can download this for FREE at the bottom of this post!
The highlight of our Easter activities is our online Easter Bonnet Parade- because children will be missing the bonnet activities they might otherwise have done at school or Easter clubs, we are hosting our own! Your child can create an Easter bonnet (or other wearable Easter creation) and upload their photo to the special thread that will open on Easter Sunday on the Homeschooling During Coronavirus Facebook support group. On the day you can download our lovely personalised certificate from the group for taking part!
This has been created by Laura McCartney (qualified teacher and homeschooling Mum of 4 and founder of Curious Little Monkeys learning group) and Hannah Canavan, founder and editor of this website and UK homeschooling blogger (more homeschooling blog posts here).
Some posts that you may find useful:
- How to Home Educate Multiple Children of Different Ages
- Homeschooling during the Pandemic: How to make the most of it
- 15 Ways To Get Kids Physically Active During Lockdown
Read a funny story (3 literacy tasks)
We guarantee your children (of all ages) will love the book we have chosen this week. How do we know? Because it’s about poo! Yes, poo. We are yet to meet a child that doesn’t find poo completely hilarious.
Task 1: Before you read the story remind your child what an adjective is (a describing word). Tell them they are going to be going on an adjective hunt through the story. It’s probably a good idea to read the story at a good pace and then go through hunting on a second read.
More able children can read the book to you and can make a list of adjectives from the story independently after. If your child is not yet writing, have them listen/look for the describing words and scribe a list for them.
If you are working with multiple children, divide the jobs up, you’ll need an official reader, page turner and idea recorder! If you have a magnifying glass handy that will add to the experience too. The book is available as a kindle edition here.
Task 2: Try a word search. It’s an absolutely brilliant way to encourage reading and build vocabulary. It feels more like a game than work, which is always a winner with us. We love these spring themed word searches and there are three different levels to cater for different abilities.
To extend this activity, see if your child can add an adjective to each of the words they found. One of the words is daffodil, so this might become ‘cheerful daffodil’ or ‘vibrant daffodil’. Make sure they write their adjectives on to the sheet as they will need them for the next task.
Task 3: Using the word search and adjective list as prompts ask children to write a few sentences about the things they see at springtime. Encourage them to use an adjective to describe each thing they want to write about. The amount of writing will depend on ability, but even one brilliant sentence would be a real achievement for some.
Go for quality over quantity. Reminders about capital letters and full stops are always useful. This is an easy spring writing frame template with a space for a picture too.
Have fun with secret codes! (3 numeracy tasks)
Task 1: First have a go at this simple Easter code which uses numbers. Can your child work out the message?
Task 2: Now they have the idea let them run wild with an awesome code of their own! This is a great way to get children communicating with siblings, family or friends! Get them to set out the alphabet (a big piece of paper or back of an old poster/reverse of spare wallpaper would be ideal).
Have them come up with a symbol to represent each of the letters. Encourage them to think of spring or Easter inspired things (this could be particular flowers, eggs with various patterns, baby animals, frogspawn and anything else bright and cheerful they can think of).
Task 3: Once the code is complete, children can write a short message for someone special. Why not take pictures of the code and the message and send them to someone your child is missing? They can decode the message and send one back!
Easter bonnet parade (Art/DT)
Make your own Easter bonnet and join us for our Easter Bonnet Parade on Easter Sunday! A chance for your child to share their creations as they would have done at school. We are very happy to see your children’s beautiful faces but equally happy for you to cover them up with a sticker or just take a picture of the bonnet.
We’re using the term ‘bonnet’ very loosely. It can be absolutely anything your child wants to make to wear in the parade. We encourage bright and cheerful and of course Easter themed. There is no such thing as too much here so let them indulge their creative sides!
We’ve produced a lovely certificate for you to print off at home (this will be available on our Facebook group on Easter Sunday) which you can add your child’s name to as a memento for them for taking part.
Watch the wonder of new life! (Science)
It’s the perfect time of year to watch nature at its finest. Set up a scientific observation with either beans or peas (you’ll need to soak them overnight beforehand).
Use an old glass jar and either cotton wool or kitchen roll to fill it. Place your beans or peas between the filling and the glass (so they are clearly visible from the outside). The brilliant thing about beans and peas is the speed at which they grow, so children don’t have to wait long to start seeing interesting things happen.
Depending on your child’s interest and ability you could explore germination, the parts of a plant and what plants need to grow. Your child may like to record their observations in a report or draw what they see each day. It’s great fun to measure the plant; if a friend is doing the activity too you can see who can grow the tallest beanstalk!
If you have a space in your garden, you could also put together a bee bomb. Gather together any packets of flower seeds you have in the shed (or order some bee friendly ones and make a mixture of them in a bowl, add a couple of handfuls of compost and give it a good stir. Children can sprinkle the mixture in the chosen outdoor area and give it a good water. Within a few weeks, you should have a rainbow of colours appearing.
Lego Challenge
Lego challenges can keep children occupied for hours. It adds a great element of fun to create personalities for the characters and introduce them to the children when you explain the challenge to them. If you have more than one child, you could either have them work together in a team or encourage independent attempts. We like to provide mini whiteboards and paper and pencils for design purposes, but we don’t make the children use them.
“There has been a disaster in Legoville! The mayor was preparing his speech for the annual Easter parade opening ceremony when a float went whizzing past him. It hurtled down the hill and collided with the truck carrying all the Easter decorations! The entire parade is in jeopardy because the Easter float is the main attraction every year. The mayor is beside himself with worry and doesn’t know how he can save the parade…
Calling all Lego Masters! We need your design and engineering skills to build a float which will lead the parade around Legoville. It needs to be as bright and colourful as possible with lots of wonderful Easter decorations. Can you save the Easter parade? Good luck Lego Masters!”
STEM Challenge
This is a brilliant Easter activity for kids, especially if it’s sunny and you can get outside! Challenge your child to build a raft that can hold the weight of an egg without sinking.
If you have a good stock of recycling, you could extend the challenge by saying they can only use what’s in there. Otherwise provide some craft materials.
You may want to give them a sink or tub full of water to test out their raft before they show you their finished masterpiece. If you have more than one child, you could test them out at bath time.
Ocean Study (Self-led project)
Continuing from week 1 of your homeschool timetable, watch another brilliant documentary. We love this one. Why not follow that with an in-depth study of an interesting sea creature? There’s some lovely ocean themed paper options for printing here.
Relax with some mindfulness colouring
Mindfulness colouring is a great way to create a sense of calm for children and adults. It’s a great activity to enjoy together. We love to put on some soothing music in the background.
It can also provide a great opportunity for children to discuss with you their thoughts and feelings without it feeling too intense (eyes are on the colouring, not on them). It’s a good chance for a ‘check in’ <3
There’s some lovely spring themed mindfulness colouring.
** Easter Extravaganza (week 2) **
Read the Easter story (literacy)
Task 1: Why do we celebrate Easter? Have a look at a child-friendly Easter story. We have chosen this version of the story as a good starting point for a discussion. If you aren’t religious, then you can say something like ‘some people believe that…’ as a way of opening up a dialogue with your child.
Speaking and listening is a very important part of literacy so ask your child some questions: Can they remember the main events from the book? What do they think about the ending? Can they think of ways they see people celebrating Easter? What do they do with their family do at Easter time? To extend this activity, more able children could re-tell the story in their own words.
Task 2: To continue the theme of new life, do some research into eggs. This could be using a book if you have one in your collection or online if you don’t. You could look into the different eggs that birds lay, as well as reptiles and amphibians.
More able children can do this independently. They might like to write a report about their findings, or perhaps focus on the biology of an egg.
Task 3: Children can expand on the egg theme by coming up with their own creature that hatches from an egg. It can be helpful to prompt their ideas with some questions. For example – what will their creature be called? What will it look like? What physical abilities will it possess? What size will the egg be?
More able children can complete this task independently and could add some information about their creature. They could imagine their creature was in an animal encyclopaedia, what would the page look like?
Eggcellent numbers (3 numeracy tasks)
Task 1: For some great addition practise, try this Easter Mosaic. Children use the key to colour the squares according to the answers. There are four different pictures to try (don’t tell children what the picture is!)
You’ll need a selection of coloured pencils and perhaps some support equipment like a number line, hundred square, counters or cubes. Older children could be challenged to complete the sheet in a certain time or to design their own version for a younger sibling.
Task 2: Easter Egg Hunt! We love using these reusable eggs, but you could easily cut some egg shapes out of card as an alternative.
Simply fill the eggs with numbers and hide around the garden (weather permitting) or around the house. Make sure you remember how many eggs there are to find! Encourage children to bring each egg back to ‘base’ and open it up.
Can they put the numbers in order of highest to lowest or vice versa? Choose numbers according to your child’s ability. A super fun, easy way to practise number recognition and number order.
Task 3: If you’ve invested in the fillable eggs, whip them out again! This time put addition sums in half of the eggs, and answers in the other half. Challenge children to find all the eggs, crack them open and match up the questions with the correct answers. Again, you can pitch the questions at the right level for your child’s ability and again this would also work equally well with eggs cut from card.
Create an Easter egg wreath (Art)
This is a wonderful Easter craft for kids to get stuck in to. It takes a while, so you’ll probably need to complete it over more than one session. To start with, take a look at some Faberge eggs online and notice how fabulous the designs are. Explain to your child they are going to come up with some egg designs of their own.
Make an egg template from card and provide various colours of card. Drawing around templates and cutting out shapes are great for fine motor skill development. You can also provide patterned egg printouts (print straight on to the card) if your child needs a little help with decoration. There are some on Twinkl here. A mixture of both might be best for some.
You will need about ten eggs to fill a wreath. We used a paper plate to make the ring, but any card will do. Once the eggs are beautifully adorned, they can be attached to the wreath and a ribbon added. We laid out a selection of tissue paper, gems, sequins, pens, pencils, chalks, paints and googly eyes.
The wreaths make a beautiful Easter decoration to hang somewhere in the house or perhaps in a window to spread cheer to passers-by.
STEM Challenge
Challenge your child to create a parachute device that can slow the rate at which an egg falls effectively enough to stop it breaking. It’s up to you what materials you give them to work with (and how much help!)
It might be a good idea to decide together where you will be dropping the egg from so they can do some test runs before the egg gets added to the device.
Lego Challenge
The ultimate Easter Lego challenge- this could keep children busy for hours!
“The Queen of Brickland looks forward to her royal Easter egg and egg cup being presented to her every year. The best designers and artists work for months on the special royal design. Unfortunately, this year the train carrying the royal delivery was derailed and slid down Mount Block! The Queen will be furious if her special egg and egg cup do not arrive on Easter Sunday.
We urgently need the help of the Lego Masters! You must design and build an awesome egg, the bigger the better for the Queen (she does like to show off!) and an egg cup which can hold the egg to display it in her palace. She’s a very difficult woman to please, so it needs to be spectacular! Good luck! ”
Ocean Study (self-led project)
Watch another brilliant documentary. We love this National Geographic one. You could then try our great marbling activity to create a piece of topic related art.
Marvellous Marbling
Children will love to experiment with marbling effects. You will need marbling ink which can be found here and a shallow tray of some kind.
We found thin white card worked well. Children should be reminded that they don’t need to use a lot of the inks, the colour dissipates on the surface of the water so it is not very visible, but it shows up beautifully when you place the card on top.
If you have a skewer or cocktail stick, children can experiment with feathering or swirling the inks on the water. A bullseye method of layering colours works well too. When they are ready, place the card gently onto the water’s surface ensuring full contact. Carefully peel it back up and you have a master piece! These look awesome with black silhouettes placed on top once they are dry.
If your child is confident drawing their creature themselves that’s great (a white pencil or chalk works well) but if they need a little more support there are some simple templates here. Remember to turn your silhouettes over so any while lines are hidden.
Relax with some mindfulness colouring
There are some lovely Easter themed mindfulness colouring pages here– a lovely relaxed way to finish your fortnight of Easter crafts and activities for kids!
Easter Fun Timetable (Week 1 & 2)
All of the above activities are included in these brilliant weekly timetables, along with even more ideas for keeping children engaged and happy over Easter! All of the guidance on how to use the timetable is in this parent guide to the fun homeschool timetable.
I hope you enjoyed our Bumper Eggstravaganza of Easter Crafts & Activities For Kids! Join our free support group Homeschooling During Coronavirus for more activities and support every day! For our previously released fun activities for kids see our Homeschool Activities posts here. and check out Laura’s homeschool learning group Curious Little Monkeys!
Lauren Hughes says
Wow thank you for all these super Ideas. It’s such a huge help x