Easter activities

[mumofone]

Last post today I promise!!! Is anyone doing anything nice for the easter hold with their mindees or planning any easter arts and crafts?

[kellib]

I'm not working in the holidays but we have a few things planned before school breaks up.

I've been to the £1 shop this week and picked up Easter chicks, bunnies, sheep etc to make pictures with. We've got Easter paper chains as the kids love paper chains.

On the last day before school breaks up we're going to decorate some hard boiled eggs and go egg rolling in the park

Finally the kids have asked if we can do an Easter egg hunt again this year.

[loocyloo]

As our school holidays are after Easter I won't be doing anything easter related - probably spring/planting etc ... setting mindees to work in the garden :-)

Easter wise for LOs before end of term I'll probably have a sensory tray with plastic eggs with chicks/rabbits etc for the LOs to hide in the eggs. Probably some easter craft and will definitely be sharing the easter story as it's not all about chocolate and eggs! We might make hot cross buns if we have time.

[FloraDora]

Like loocylo I will be continuing on from the nativity story with the Easter story - fast forward a few years, but I think Easter represents why Christians have faith in Jesus, not just because an Angel told Mary he would be special - it sort of continues on that story - and they get to see how the Christians saw him as a grown up.
Alongside the look at the religious Easter I am looking constantly at signs of Spring, one of which is chicks.
I sort of separate the two - Easter is finding out about a Christian story - Spring coming is chicks and eggs and bunnies in the next two weeks, it has been buds and Spring flowers and then after Easter it will be frogs, then as Summer is nearly here when the caterpillars are destroying my sprouting broccoli it will be butterflies, lots of science. The commercial world has sort of combined the two but slightly forgot, like at Christmas, the origins.

Dare I say Pinterest has wonderful great ideas and I will be using lots. The colour yellow is our predominant theme as I have a LO learning his colours. I made a dragon out of paper chains on St David's day and my LO's struggled with making them so that's a good finer motor skill activity Kellib which I will incorporate into something now I think.
We are visiting our local pets at home who have a lovely glass area with chicks and of course watching out for signs of our Waterbirds nesting at our lake.
I have a bird box with a camera ( had it for years, well before childminding but it comes in handy now) and a pair of blue tits are eyeing it up, we have spent many silent watching sessions this week to see what they are going to do - so I am starting the story of the blue tit family this week and hope in a few weeks we will be watching them build their nest and eggs hatching on our tv screen, like on Spring watch.
And of course I will be joining many other Early years settings and making chocolate nests with shredded wheat and counting cadburys unwrapped little eggs into them - I have been doing this activity for 40 years - the yellow packets are much smaller now and much less in them too! I always check the price of them in different places in my efforts to keep costs down - then just buy them from my usual supermarket the night before I need them! Yes I am contributing to the great horror of how much chocolate children eat - but it's in the cause of science - no other material is so good at showing little ones about changes when heated and cooled. They taste nice too. Eggs for breakfast is now on the weekly menu too, but I find it surprising how many children don't like eggs, 'in my young days' everybody lived on eggs! ( before Edwina said those fateful words I think)
Your own child will love putting little things in plastic eggs mumofone.

[mumofone]

I'm not working in the holidays but we have a few things planned before school breaks up. I've been to the £1 shop this week and picked up Easter chicks, bunnies, sheep etc to make pictures with. We've got Easter paper chains as the kids love paper chains. On the last day before school breaks up we're going to decorate some hard boiled eggs and go egg rolling in the park Finally the kids have asked if we can do an Easter egg hunt again this year.

Are easter paper chains any different to simply paper chains??! :-) x

[bunyip]

I'm considering leading the mindees in taking over the village Post Office (and flying the Plough & Stars flag) by way of marking the centenary and waiting for the imperialist running-dog British Army to turn up and shell us into oblivion.

Will this count as a celebration of culture and history or would I be in breach of my 'Prevent' duties? :huh:

[Dragonfly]

Wont be doing much then Bunyip? lol

[kellib]

Are easter paper chains any different to simply paper chains??! :-) x

Well these ones have Easter decorations on them so yeah I'd say so :)

[bunyip]

Wont be doing much then Bunyip? lol

...............oh, and did someone mention chocolate? :D

[alex__17]

We have done chick painting using a fork to make patterns in the paint (picture attached), easy activity and everyone enjoyed it, will be looking at the Easter story, decorating egg pictures and making little baskets to collect egg hunt eggs next week.

[Dragonfly]

Chocolate 😍 Now you're talking. Was going to say that's what Easter is about but may upset some people so I won't say it 😳 Whoops!

[Dragonfly]

Love the little chick picture Alex 17

[alex__17]

I know I was so impressed with how they turned out, older ones cut out their triangles for beaks etc too, it was so easy to set up and they got something they needed no help doing which actually looked like something at the end! I'm reluctant to help with crafts as I like it to be their work, so try and pick things they can do on their own :-)
Saw a post of painting egg shaped bits of bubble wrap and doing prints which I'm going to try next

[k1rstie]

We have done chick painting using a fork to make patterns in the paint (picture attached), easy activity and everyone enjoyed it, will be looking at the Easter story, decorating egg pictures and making little baskets to collect egg hunt eggs next week.

I love these. They look so like the small yellow plastic chicks you buy.

[miffy]

Love the chick paintings - will give that a try next week

Miffy xx

[mumofone]

We have done chick painting using a fork to make patterns in the paint (picture attached), easy activity and everyone enjoyed it, will be looking at the Easter story, decorating egg pictures and making little baskets to collect egg hunt eggs next week.

How did the children paint their bodies, did you just give them yellow paint and say draw yourselves? And then see what they looked like?

[alex__17]

I gave them yellow paint and a fork each! Let them work it out, I sat and did one myself too, one was making tiny dots with the fork and kept telling me it wasn't working, the messy boys realised they could scoop paint with their forks and spread it around with the back of the fork then use the prongs to make patterns

[mumofone]

I gave them yellow paint and a fork each! Let them work it out, I sat and did one myself too, one was making tiny dots with the fork and kept telling me it wasn't working, the messy boys realised they could scoop paint with their forks and spread it around with the back of the fork then use the prongs to make patterns

Love it, goodness knows what my lot would do with it!!! ;-)

[bunyip]

Chocolate 😍 Now you're talking. Was going to say that's what Easter is about but may upset some people so I won't say it 😳 Whoops!

I wouldn't worry about anybody "taking offence". I think the Easter Bunny makes far more sense than most deeply-held irrational beliefs. :thumbsup:

[hulahoops]

We will be doing easter crafts, chicks, rabbits and eggs.
We'll make chocolate easter eggs and birds nests cakes out of shredded wheat.
I do the same every year cos I love it.