Hello lovelies and welcome back!
I am so excited to write this blog post! Why, you ask? … because Easter is one of my favorite holidays! Of course there’s Christmas and New Years eve is always fun, and Thanksgiving is known for all its amazing dishes and food comas. But my family really does Easter right. I mean like really really.
*My Easter Tradition
If you don’t know, I am Polish… well half Polish. So we actually celebrate Easter on the Saturday rather than the Sunday. We dye eggs, prep our Easter goodies, pack our baskets, and off to church we go for a quick blessing of the food before we dive into the goodies.
Now the reason that I enjoy Easter so much is because it tends to be one of the smaller or less intensive holidays with my family. It’s also a brunch themed holiday!! Yes, I know… truly mouth watering. Think about your favorite bagel brunch (except Polish style) with all the calmness and casualness of a Saturday brunch, oh and it just happens to be Easter. Truly one of my favorite holidays.
I can also remember back to when I was a child as well, it was still one of the most magical events of the year. We spent it with family friends and relatives, did Easter egg hunts, had some chocolate and other treats. Just a wonderful day overall.
And I want that joy and excitement to continue! I know I can’t wait for Easter and I hope we can make your little ones just as excited too. So here are some tried and true easter activities that I’ve enjoyed as a little girl and are definitely preschooler/kid approved.
Let’s get into it!
*The Easter Activities You Should Do This Year!
1. Definitely dye your eggs.
So obviously you knew I had to start with the most traditional of Easter activities, an oldie and a goodie. But stay tuned because I do have some helpful preschool hacks that will make this year even better.
I would recommend doing this activity a day or two before actual Easter so you can eat the delicious masterpieces on day of. Follow the regular directions; boil the eggs, let them cool, prep the tablets, vinegar, and water mixture.
Next, if you have older kids let them do their thing! Inspire some creativity and I would definitely recommend more of their original designs done with crayons laid under the dye.
But for younger kiddos you can do two things. Firstly, I would very strongly recommend pre-dying your eggs. Why you ask? Because a young child’s endurance and tolerance for any activity is quite minor. So if they want actual results from egg dying, or if you want some actual colored eggs, pre-dying them will give the eggs a base layer of color to work off of.
My next tip would be to get themed stickers for anything your little ones are into right now. This will help to keep their attention. Remember they’re too young to have the same fine motor skills or dexterity as older kids to do some egg coloring. But stickers also provide fantastic hands on fine motor practice with the constant pinching and peeling. And like I said, incorporating characters they are into such as Frozen, Paw Patrol, etc. will keep them crafting for a longer time next to their older siblings.
2. Easter basket decoration.
One of the easiest ways to incorporate some fun this Easter is by having your kids decorate their own easter baskets. Easter baskets are an integral part of every Easter celebration and getting crafty with their own basket designs adds another layer of excitement and enthusiasm.
So what you’ll need for this activity will depend on how intricate you want to get. You could start from the beginning and get a plain wooden basket from Michael’s or another craft store. I would recommend getting the baskets with the thicker flatter basket weave. This will allow for more surface area to decorate. First you’ll want your kiddos to get busy with some awesome pastel paint colors. Let them go to town. Then let the baskets dry :).
Once the drying process is done you can move onto step 2. Step 2 will be anything from adding stickers, clipart, or ribbons. One special item I really like is creating personalized name tags for easter baskets. Again you can visit any craft store or order basket name tags off of Amazon or Etsy. Have your kids decorate their own name tags and glue them on.
Finally, once all the glue is dry and all pieces have been thoroughly stuck on (I would use hot glue gun if possible), it’s time to pack the baskets full of all the Easter goodies.
3. Easter egg treasure hunt.
This is another traditional Easter activity that no holiday can go with out. But let’s jazz it up a bit!
The egg hunt is probably one of the kids favorite activities. It’s great for seeking, sorting, and motivates a little healthy competition. 🙂
What I like to do to spice things up a little, especially for the older kids, is to add 2 levels to the eggs being collected. Create two groups of eggs, one multicolored group and another group using a singular color. These can be all blue, all pink, all black, or all green, whatever color you like. But whatever color you choose, make sure to remove that color from the first group. Now add your last egg, the special prize winning egg, preferably the golden egg. Of course it doesn’t have to be, any single color egg that hasn’t already been used is perfect for this role.
Now, the first group of multicolored eggs will have the standard small candies or chocolate kisses within them. The second group of just one colored eggs will have clues. Each clue will help the kids find the golden egg. Now for this to work I would hide the golden egg when the kids are closer to finding the first round of eggs so they don’t stumble upon the golden one by mistake.
Once the little ones have collected a good amount, the older kids can get to opening the clue filled eggs. At this point you should hide the golden egg. Once the older kiddos have solved the clues they’ll be on their way to find the golden egg. Once finding it they can open it and get the grand prize!! The grand prize can be anything you think the whole group of kiddos would like. Maybe a special cake for dessert, or a pizza party for dinner after the Easter brunch, etc. You get the gist.
Overall it’s a wonderful twist on a classic fun activity the kids will love!
4. Easter cookie decorating.
This is an easy one to include for sure and is always a crowd pleaser. All kids love getting messy in the kitchen with their parents and with the result of a sweet treat at the end you know it will be a hit.
This is one you can do two ways; you can use a simple but delicious sugar cookie recipe, or you can use your family’s favorite cookie recipe. The only reason I would suggest the sugar cookie recipe is because it provides a solid flat and lighter surface to decorate.
Once the dough is done and chilled, and you’re ready to form the cookies, I would highly recommend using a cookie cutter to get the exact shape you want. To be fair though, I’m not skilled in the art of shaping cookies. If you think you can free hand it the more power to you! I would shape the cookies into bunnies, eggs, ducks, and baskets.
Once the baking and cooling is done, its time to prep the decorations! Get your icing (store bought or homemade are both fine) and add a little food dye to create the different pastel colors you want. I would also get small colorful confetti, frosting pearls, sugar flowers, and a very small piping bag for the more finite details you and your kids might want.
Then have at it! Let the kids pick how they want to ice their cookies and when frosted, they can add their personalized accents. Another great idea, if you’re feeling adventurous, is a little glitter sprinkles. But keep in mind, it is GLITTER. It’s beautiful but will get everywhere.
5. Easter sensory bin.
This is one of my favorite activities for really any event or holiday. Sensory bins are a huge hit with all youngsters and they’re so transitional and easy to make. So of course we had to include one for the Easter holiday.
First get a good size bin that your child can easy maneuver small items within. Of course if you’re not new to sensory bins then you might actually have a sensory table, which would have a large clear container in the center for easy access on their level. But you don’t need that. Any medium size to large container or bin will work. Yes, clear ones can be more aesthetically pleasing but they don’t have to be clear if you don’t have that.
First things first, we need to create the base of our sensory bin. You can use beans or rice for this bin. I would recommend going with a lighter color bean if you choose that route. The reason is that by using white rice or lighter colored beans, you can dye them different pastel colors. Yes, this actually works! You can dye rice baby pink, light blue, pale yellow, pastel green, etc. You’ll have to let it dry just for a bit but the dying definitely adds to the Easter theme.
So we have our pastel colored base. Another great part of a sensory bin is incorporating materials that would allow your kids to scoop, pour, sift, etc.
And do you know what is perfect for this? The plastic Easter eggs you’re using in the egg hunt! What is more Easter themed than Easter eggs? Definitely include those.
Let’s take it one step further. This not necessary but can be a little added learning if your kids are of age. If you want to add a little spark, you can label the eggs with letters and numbers for more identification practice. But what’s also really great about the eggs is you can easily pop them open and act as your child’s scooper, or pouring material.
The last thing I would add to the sensory bins would be some small rabbit and duck figurines for a little animal fun and just some more materials they can explore with within the sensory bin.
6. Easter bunny obstacle course/relay race.
This activity is also a really fun idea to get the kids up and moving, but will take a little more creativity and planning. This will really depend on how involved and messy you want your kids to get. I only say this because they may have a little tumble during some of the relays or get a little outside dirt on their Easter outfit.
But if you’re feeling adventurous then this will be a sure fire crowd pleaser. I’ve listed some awesome games you can include in your child’s Easter obstacle course/relay race. Of course do whatever fits your family best. If you want to get a little hands on or messy definitely use these. If you want to keep it a little more tamed then incorporate some calmer activities.
Relay Race Ideas:
-Balancing Easter egg lawn race
-Bunny hop sack race
-3x water balloon toss with partner
Finish with a foot race to the easter egg prize!
7. Easter crafts: stain glass ornaments!
This activity is really beautiful if executed right. But to be fair, it doesn’t really matter because its all fun none the less! So for this activity you’re going to need to head back to the craft store and grab some items to prep. We are going to need contact paper, black construction paper, multicolored tissue paper, and scissors.
The first thing you are going to need to do ahead of time is stenciling out the shapes of your kids favorite Easter clip art. This can be a bunny, a basket, a duck, an egg, etc.
Once stenciled you’ll need to cut it out, and also work to cut out the middle. Remember, we are making stained glass crafts so the sun has to be able to shine through. You need to make sure to cut most of the middle out to allow for that ultimate shine through space.
Now the kiddos can join the activity and work together to cut their favorite colored tissue paper into small squares. The little ones may need some help with this.
Once the tissue paper is cut, put it to the side. Have your kids choose one of the stencils you created and tape it yourself onto one layer of contact paper. Then have your kids begin filling in the inside with whatever color tissue paper they want!
When the inside is as full as they want it to be (at least 3/4), place the second layer of contact paper down and make sure it is sealed all the way around. Then simply cut off the excess hanging off the sides, punch a hole in the top, and add a string to hang it in a window.
Let the sun shine through and have them ready to go for the Easter holiday!
*Summary
Alright parents!! There you have it! A mix of traditional and hopefully new craft ideas to keep your kiddos having fun, enjoying the holiday, and spreading some family laughs and cheer. I’d love to know your family’s traditions and what you do every year with your kids. Definitely share them down below in the comments.
And if you like these craft and game ideas definitely check out my other holidays posts linked below to make all your holidays a blast!
And as always, definitely subscribe to the newsletter for updates and ongoing happenings at TylekTeaches.com. The subscription link is just at the bottom of this post.
Leave a Reply