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Does anyone mark these with any activities or arts and crafts, has anyone done anything that worked well on other years? What about St Patricks Day.
I haven't decided what to do yet but i guess as occasions go they are fairly significant in kids worlds?
For mothers day I usually do a card with a green hand print with the LOs, and then we stick a flowerpot underneath and paper flowers at the end of the fingers. I used to make a gift of some sort, but tend not to now!
For Easter we do an assortment of egg of egg shaped craft! sticking on egg shapes, painting/sticking on paper or polystyrene eggs, maybe a rabbit of some sort! I usually look through the craft catalogues and Pinterest and get ideas from there.
my favourite Easter card is to stick a yellow circle on the front of card, and then the children stick googly eyes, a beak and feathers on. sometimes they draw legs, sometimes I do!
favourite Easter activities are having a tray full of coloured rice/Easter sequins/mini eggs etc and then using it to fill plastic eggs/egg cups. I also have a chick shaped 'egg holder' and a dozen plastic eggs - great for counting/placing/sorting activities. The older children decorate hard boiled eggs and we roll them down hills. We also go into church and look at the Easter garden, and depending upon when it is being put together, sometimes we help.
I don't really do anything for St Patricks day, as none of my children have any Irish connections. Today, as it is St David's day, we did look at daffodils and talk about the welsh dragon! ( I was born in Wales! ) We usually make flags for St Georges day and I don't usually do anything for St Andrews day, but if had child with Scottish connections I would! We do celebrate Burns night though. ( I used to always make a fuss of the Patron Saints but have got out of the habit. Really, I think I need to get back into it! )
I do Australia Day ( as lived there for a few years ), Pancake Day ( and actually had a brief discussion with the older children today about it being Ash Wednesday ) and any other occasion that my children may celebrate in their own families. We do look at other festivals such at Diwali, Chinese New Year etc, but they are not really celebrated where we live, and so isn't necessarily relevant to the children.
Because Mother's Day and Easter are so close I tend to make a card for Mother's Day and bake for Easter - bunny biscuits, nest cakes etc....
St Patrick's day is my birthday and my mothers family came from Ireland, I was given an Irish Christian and middle name so we don't celebrate as such but I usually acknowledge it by making shamrocks to decorate and I have my own, now ancient book about St Patrick that I share with the children. Inside the cover is a very old and delicate now , 4 leaf shamrock ( it's fake) and a B&W photo of me, dressed as a leprechaun, reading the book, I was about 4. So it's natural to talk about it. We listen to Irish music too. This year though I am having a day out as I am working with 2 LO's - we are going to the local zoo, so no shamrock's this year.
I don't do anything for Mother's Day with mindees.
I read the Easter story to the little ones and then sometimes leave it at that, but some years it leads on to all sorts of funny questions which I attempt to answer. Sometimes we look at the cross at the church as we pass it and link that to what we have read. Depends on the children really.
It links in nicely with new life and I try and get them to realise the link between eggs (Chocolate variety) and the symbolism of new life. We spot new life around us in the garden/woods etc and read various stories about Spring and bunnies/chicks etc. I love seasonal stories and have built up quite a collection. We always go to a local Easter egg hunt at a playgroup so I don't organise one myself as I like to do that just on Easter Sunday. I have always made chocolate nests with the little ones.
I was very lucky a few years ago when I popped into my local Oxfam - they had a load of ornamental eggs for sale. I bought loads and now put them in a treasure basket for babies - but all ages enjoy looking at them and handling them. Some are heavy, some light, plain, patterned, warm paper mache, cold marble, textured, smooth...just perfect. I have collected various little hanging ornaments (chicks/eggs etc) and the little ones enjoy decorating a little branch with them - good for fine motor skills. I've acquired load of those fluffy chicks that you can get everywhere and always put them out. It's so funny because you see them all crammed onto the Happyland bus. They are quite fragile and so it's a challenge for some of the children to handle them without breaking them!
In the £ shop I bought some foam Easter eggs (flat). They are great for pasting onto the windows with water. DD also decorates the bath or shower door with them too. It's fun in itself but for older ones you could challenge them to do a repeating colour pattern as they paste.
Check to see what's planned locally - libraries, sure start centres, National Trust places, book shops etc. We normally find something on offer which gives us a break from our usual routine.
I normally do something with mindees for Mothers Day, it can range from just a card to a huge number of things, like last year when I went a bit crazy on Crafty Crocodiles :blush: The kids ended up making magnets, keyrings, badges and a gift bag for their mums last year. Then of course I felt I had to do the same for Fathers Day!
I usually do a wee Easter Egg hunt for the kids before the end of term but I'll be on holiday this year. I might do it after I come back as the schools here go back the day after Easter Monday so they'll still be in the Easter mood. I did see some cheap Easter activities in Home Bargains that I might pick up as my after schoolies like doing arts and craft things.
That all sounds amazing loocyloo, theyre lucky to have you :-)Quote:
Originally Posted by loocyloo
Bakings a nice idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by FloraDora
Happy birthday for the 17th...always nice to have a birthday on a Friday!
Haha, i like the image of you dressed as a leprachaun! :)
Haha Kellib, i identify with going crazy in CC, i did for xmas my first year of minding! :blush:Quote:
Originally Posted by kellib
I mark my calendar for the year. I do Australia Day, pancake day, Mother's and Father's Day, Easter, Christmas, Diwali, Chinese New Year, St Patrick's Day, St David's Day, St George's Day - anything that's on the calendar! I Google everything and use Pinterest, Sparklebox and lots of other craft/education sites.
For Australia Day we colour in a flag and pictures of Australian animals and look at K for Koala eg for the little one's. For the older ones this year I printed off Australian animals with the names mixed up underneath. They had to match them. It was quite difficult - even for me and my husband!
St Patrick's Day we usually make a rainbow using either paints, materials or food. We made a shamrock hat last year.
Easter is normally a Easter hunt in the garden using their Easter baskets they made and decorated and then they collect eggs.
I always try and avoid too many handprints and try to use natural materials and leave the rest to their imagination. What sometimes looks like a pile of nonsense is 100% artwork by the child! I've done crafts in the past where I've helped the child and it looks totally adult led and not the true creation of the child.
All I say is thank goodness for Google! Google something then click to images and scroll through until you find something you like. Try to keep it simple.
Sorry repeating myself from another thread but does anyone have a really easy Easter Basket idea they would care to share?! Thank you x