Naylor Easter 2016
We are trying to recover from our Saint Patrick's Day activities last week! Easter in March threw me a curve ball this year. We spent most of our morning time on A Week of Easter this year, focusing on Jesus Christ and His resurrection. However, I just couldn't let Easter pass without doing a few bunny or egg activities, even if they were a week late. Here are some options below - one craft and one activity per day:
Option One:
1) Craft: Paper Bag Shape Bunny. This is a darling craft and also reviews a few shapes - ovals (ears), circles (eyes/ nose/paws), heart (nose/mouth area), rectangles (whiskers), and domes (feet). You'll need a paper bag and some time to cut out the shapes shown in picture one. Easton and I reviewed the shapes together before gluing them onto our paper bag.
2) Activity: Feed the Bunny. I love this activity for so many different reasons. First, because it includes the craft we made earlier in the day, but mostly because of the variety of learning options. You can print carrots (from Preschool mom) and draw shapes, letters or numbers as I did. I hid the carrots around the room. Easton found one, identified the number and "fed" it to our bunny - I cut out a small hole as a mouth for Easton to put the carrots in. You could make different colored carrots for color recognition or make your own shape carrots from little family fun (second picture below).
Option Two:
1) Craft: Bunny Hats. I found a picture of a similar bunny hat on Pinterest (no link). Ours looks similar, except we used Dot Markers instead of Pom Poms on the ears. For the rim, I cut a piece of white card stock in half (hot dog) and stapled the two pieces together to make one long piece. After gluing/stapling on our accessories (eyes, nose, teeth and ears), I measured Easton's head and stapled the rim closed accordingly. Easton loved wearing his hat around all morning!
2) Activity: Glowing Egg Hunt. All you need are some large plastic eggs and glow sticks - which can both be bought at the dollar store. The smaller the glow stick, the better. Mine were a little long and it was hard bending the glow stick enough to keep the egg closed. Easton LOVED this activity! We did our glowing egg hunt inside, but it would be fun to do outside if the weather is nice enough. Wear your bunny hat craft and pretend to be the Easter Bunny looking for glowing eggs.
Option Three:
1) Craft: Egg Chalk Coloring. Simple crafts are always a lot of fun. I found a set of Egg Chalk at the dollar store this year and had to buy it. Had the weather been warmer, we would have drawn outside on the driveway. We improvised inside, and drew on black construction paper. This activity is also used as a simple color review.
2) Activity: Easter Eggs & Water Play OR Tub. Again, warmer weather would have been so nice this week! I was planning on bringing a bin, water, strainers, measuring spoons and cups outside for a fun sensory activity (see second picture below from stimulated learning). However, the weather and my plans didn't align. So, we improvised and made this into an indoor activity in the tub. We brought everything we needed (including shaving cream) into the tub with us, and had a blast!
Option Four:
1) Craft: Sticky Easter Egg Art. We had our cousin over today, and both kids loved this activity! Click the link for a tutorial from Toddler Approved. I filled a muffin tin with items to stick to our eggs - different colors of tissue paper squares, foam circles, small jewels, feathers, buttons, and pipe cleaners. Everything stuck really well to the contact paper, except the pipe cleaners.
2) Activity: Egg Letter Hunt. I always enjoy finding exciting ways to review letters with Easton. This one was a winner. I wrote upper case letters on plastic Easter eggs and hid them all around the house. I gave Easton a basket and told him the Easter bunny hid letter eggs! Easton loved finding the eggs, especially the last egg (letter Z) filled with chocolate candies. I also like the idea of hatching letters from school time snippets.
Option Five:
1) Craft: Egg & Water Colors (Tape Resist Art). I drew an easter egg on white card stock and covered it with lines of blue tape - one that doesn't rip the paper when you remove it (painters tape works well). Then, I filled pipettes with a small amount of liquid watercolors. My two squeezed the liquid from the pipettes onto our paper egg (second picture). I gave my two a paint brush in hopes to cover all the remaining white on the egg. At first I thought we'd ruined our project, because the colors mixed together looking completely brown. However, after the colors dried, the finished product turned out pretty unique. I removed the tape, cut out the egg and glued it onto pink construction paper.
2) Activity: Dye Easter Eggs. As with most families, we have the tradition of dying easter eggs every Easter. We boil eggs and buy a cheap egg dying kit from the dollar store. This year, I came across a genius idea on Pinterest - use a whisk to help toddlers dye easter eggs. We hardly had anything to clean up! Next year, I'd like to try shaving cream dyed easter eggs from Crafty Morning (second picture below). They look amazing!
Option Six:
1) Craft: Marshmallow Bunny. Good thing we had friends over today, because Easton only ate the marshmallows! Not even one marshmallow made it onto his craft. It's a good reminder to let toddlers explore in their own way. Don't have high expectations and don't force them to craft. My main objective is always for Easton to have fun, and in a different way than I imagined, this goal was accomplished. Who doesn't have fun eating marshmallows? I drew a bunny outline on a piece of construction paper and went around the outline with glue. Our friends glued marshmallows onto the glue finished with goggly eyes and a pom pom nose. This idea is from A Jeweled Rose (see professional picture below).
2) Activity: Easter File Folders - I love file folders! They are fun, educational and reusable. This year, I made three Easter file folders. My laminator broke this week, so I wasn't able to laminate the last two. We did an egg matching file folder (similar idea here), Egg Counting File Folder from Itsy Bitsy Fun (Easton earned a chocolate chip for doing some of these) and I made "Pin the Tail on the Bunny" from ABC's to ACT's into a file folder.
Option One:
1) Craft: Paper Bag Shape Bunny. This is a darling craft and also reviews a few shapes - ovals (ears), circles (eyes/ nose/paws), heart (nose/mouth area), rectangles (whiskers), and domes (feet). You'll need a paper bag and some time to cut out the shapes shown in picture one. Easton and I reviewed the shapes together before gluing them onto our paper bag.
2) Activity: Feed the Bunny. I love this activity for so many different reasons. First, because it includes the craft we made earlier in the day, but mostly because of the variety of learning options. You can print carrots (from Preschool mom) and draw shapes, letters or numbers as I did. I hid the carrots around the room. Easton found one, identified the number and "fed" it to our bunny - I cut out a small hole as a mouth for Easton to put the carrots in. You could make different colored carrots for color recognition or make your own shape carrots from little family fun (second picture below).
Option Two:
1) Craft: Bunny Hats. I found a picture of a similar bunny hat on Pinterest (no link). Ours looks similar, except we used Dot Markers instead of Pom Poms on the ears. For the rim, I cut a piece of white card stock in half (hot dog) and stapled the two pieces together to make one long piece. After gluing/stapling on our accessories (eyes, nose, teeth and ears), I measured Easton's head and stapled the rim closed accordingly. Easton loved wearing his hat around all morning!
2) Activity: Glowing Egg Hunt. All you need are some large plastic eggs and glow sticks - which can both be bought at the dollar store. The smaller the glow stick, the better. Mine were a little long and it was hard bending the glow stick enough to keep the egg closed. Easton LOVED this activity! We did our glowing egg hunt inside, but it would be fun to do outside if the weather is nice enough. Wear your bunny hat craft and pretend to be the Easter Bunny looking for glowing eggs.
Option Three:
1) Craft: Egg Chalk Coloring. Simple crafts are always a lot of fun. I found a set of Egg Chalk at the dollar store this year and had to buy it. Had the weather been warmer, we would have drawn outside on the driveway. We improvised inside, and drew on black construction paper. This activity is also used as a simple color review.
2) Activity: Easter Eggs & Water Play OR Tub. Again, warmer weather would have been so nice this week! I was planning on bringing a bin, water, strainers, measuring spoons and cups outside for a fun sensory activity (see second picture below from stimulated learning). However, the weather and my plans didn't align. So, we improvised and made this into an indoor activity in the tub. We brought everything we needed (including shaving cream) into the tub with us, and had a blast!
Option Four:
1) Craft: Sticky Easter Egg Art. We had our cousin over today, and both kids loved this activity! Click the link for a tutorial from Toddler Approved. I filled a muffin tin with items to stick to our eggs - different colors of tissue paper squares, foam circles, small jewels, feathers, buttons, and pipe cleaners. Everything stuck really well to the contact paper, except the pipe cleaners.
2) Activity: Egg Letter Hunt. I always enjoy finding exciting ways to review letters with Easton. This one was a winner. I wrote upper case letters on plastic Easter eggs and hid them all around the house. I gave Easton a basket and told him the Easter bunny hid letter eggs! Easton loved finding the eggs, especially the last egg (letter Z) filled with chocolate candies. I also like the idea of hatching letters from school time snippets.
Option Five:
1) Craft: Egg & Water Colors (Tape Resist Art). I drew an easter egg on white card stock and covered it with lines of blue tape - one that doesn't rip the paper when you remove it (painters tape works well). Then, I filled pipettes with a small amount of liquid watercolors. My two squeezed the liquid from the pipettes onto our paper egg (second picture). I gave my two a paint brush in hopes to cover all the remaining white on the egg. At first I thought we'd ruined our project, because the colors mixed together looking completely brown. However, after the colors dried, the finished product turned out pretty unique. I removed the tape, cut out the egg and glued it onto pink construction paper.
2) Activity: Dye Easter Eggs. As with most families, we have the tradition of dying easter eggs every Easter. We boil eggs and buy a cheap egg dying kit from the dollar store. This year, I came across a genius idea on Pinterest - use a whisk to help toddlers dye easter eggs. We hardly had anything to clean up! Next year, I'd like to try shaving cream dyed easter eggs from Crafty Morning (second picture below). They look amazing!
Option Six:
1) Craft: Marshmallow Bunny. Good thing we had friends over today, because Easton only ate the marshmallows! Not even one marshmallow made it onto his craft. It's a good reminder to let toddlers explore in their own way. Don't have high expectations and don't force them to craft. My main objective is always for Easton to have fun, and in a different way than I imagined, this goal was accomplished. Who doesn't have fun eating marshmallows? I drew a bunny outline on a piece of construction paper and went around the outline with glue. Our friends glued marshmallows onto the glue finished with goggly eyes and a pom pom nose. This idea is from A Jeweled Rose (see professional picture below).
2) Activity: Easter File Folders - I love file folders! They are fun, educational and reusable. This year, I made three Easter file folders. My laminator broke this week, so I wasn't able to laminate the last two. We did an egg matching file folder (similar idea here), Egg Counting File Folder from Itsy Bitsy Fun (Easton earned a chocolate chip for doing some of these) and I made "Pin the Tail on the Bunny" from ABC's to ACT's into a file folder.
