Slightly out of season now but I wanted to share a few of the Easter activities we did, I actually had a load more Easter activities planned but was really ill over the period I had them planned for so many weren't executed, oh well, maybe next year.
As a Christian family Easter is a really important time of year for us. I love it, it is absolutely my favourite Christian festival. It has all the excitement and joy of Christmas without the stress of buying presents and touring the country to visit family.
Therefore it is essential to me that we get the children excited about it in as many ways as possibly to help them to understand the significance of the occasion.
We began with a sensory box of mixed bird seed with plastic eggs and fluffy yellow chicks. The seed, chicks and eggs all represent new life which is what we get in Christ and which is happening all around us at this time of year.
Boris enjoyed scooping the seeds, filling and emptying the eggs with the seeds, sweeping the seeds around the box and making shapes in it with his hand. Together we did some imaginative play with the chicks. Biscuit liked pouring the seeds and scooping them with the eggs.
The improved their fine motor skills, learned about volume and the qualities of materials, they also benefited from the therapeutic experience of feeling the seeds between their fingers.
We loved making this Easter garden. The boys raced around our garden pulling up patches of moss (of which we have plenty!) and flowers to decorate. Boris was really motivated to gather bits and pieces for the garden and understood that we were making a tomb which was where Jesus' body was laid and the cross where he died. The activity was a bit advanced for Biscuit who mostly enjoyed pulling up plants round the garden then destroying out Easter one every time our backs were turned! On Easter morning we rolled away to stone to show that the tomb was empty. Amazingly after a few days little seedlings began to grow all over the garden which must have come from seeds left in the compost we used (which was from out compost bin) they are tomato plants I think, they felt really significant and meaningful.
Another sensory play experience using one of our favourites - water beads. (HERE are some more water bead activities) I used the plastic eggs again which I bought off ebay I think (but found some cheaper in The Range) with the water beads and a bit of water at the bottom of the plastic box. The boys scooped and poured the water beads with the eggs, also filled the eggs with beads then emptied them. This activity was a bit too exciting for Boris who decided ultimately to pour all the water and beads that were in the tub over the carpet, then to stamp on the beads to make them break into a million pieces for me to tidy up.
And of course the all-important Easter egg hunt. I can't tell you how excited Boris was EVERY time he found an egg. He ran up to us showing us then egg with great enthusiasm shouting "I found an egg". Loved how he didn't realise I had hidden the eggs there just minuted before (tee hee).
Biscuit, bless him, found half the amount that Boris did.
Anyway, I hope you all had a wonderful Easter, I am sure you still have a stash of eggs at home that your children are slowly munching through (and maybe, like me, you are giving them a little help with that).
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