Easter Fun 2019

I’ve done a rather quick blog post to show some activities we have set up ready for Easter (which as I write this, is tomorrow).Usually, I set up a few activities throigh the week and then on Easter Sunday we spend the morning at Church followed by going to a family fun day which is about an hour away. Quite often we end up stuck in traffic, struggling to park and then spending the day queuing. We always have a fun filled day but I thought it would be much more fun to spend the afternoon with plenty of activities, the paddling pool and spending quality time together.Here’s some ideas which we have planned for and set up. They’re not in any order and can be done at any point during the day.🌼 Easter bunny biscuit making. We have some ingredients for biscuits and some bunny rabbit cutters which we found in home bargains.🌼Cupcakes – we bought a cute cupcake and rabbit picker set from home bargains, along with some Easter sprinkles. I bought some other ingredients and decorations from sainsburys to go with them. All this can be kept and used again at any time.🌼Frozen yogurt – we are a big fan of frozen yogurt and love using the different shaped moulds. Blending fruit up into natural yogurt makes different colours and you’re able to create different colours and patterns in a super healthy way. We purchased an Easter egg mould and we already have a bunny shape. Both from Asda.🌼Pin the tail on the bunny – we have a pin the tail on the bunny set which we bought from home bargains. It’s so cute and comes with fluffy bunny tails and bunny shaped masks.🌼Tuff tray – we always do a tuff tray for everything and use this weekly. They can be purchased from DIY/building stores. I think this was around £20 from Wickes. We use it regularly and have had this for about 3 years. Before I had this I used to use the sand and water seashell trays from Argos. I usually have some sort of plan when I set up a tray but this time I just searched through our activity storage and pulled out anything which resembles Easter and Spring and winged it. I made some edible chocolate mud (chocolate powder, flour and oil mixed together and rubbed until crumbly) and adding in some craft carrots, I fetched leaves, grass and dandelions from the garden to bring some life into the tray the children can then use their imaginations to do as they like.🌼Playdough tray – every theme deserves a playdough tray and of course Easter was no objection. I have no idea where our playdough tray went in the house move so I’ve just been used the foil trays you can buy from supermarkets. Ive been reusing the same one since January and even though it’s a little crinkly, it’s still going strong. We used the original playdough, feathers, fabric flowers, pom poms chicks and some Easter sequins which I think I’ve had for a few years in the craft box. Most items can be reused and put back. We keep them in tubs and the packs you get travel bottles in. (These were reused from making sensory bottles when the children were babies.) sometimes we make our own playdough and sometimes we use the potted stuff, the children have fun whichever we use but I do find that the shop bought stuff is a lot brighter.Every activity for a child teaches them something, even if you dint realise so I often try to include lots of invitations to play and to use their imagination. Picking up different skills and learning new things is so important to help them progress. With a range of sensory, malleable, drawing and thinking activities they will be using the 5 areas of learning to help their development. Don’t worry, you will do a lot of this without even realising.🌼Here we have pattern eggs. I drew these and cut them out so thst the children can having fun exploring different shapes to make the patterns. We can talk about the different objects, shapes and patterns. How long or short, is it too thick or too wobbly? Luca’s is a little harder than Alia’s due to the age difference.🌼I printed this sheet on how to draw a chick as the children love the draw and colour. I think its good to learn different steps on how to create something. I created two age appropriate activity sheets for the children and have asked questions valid to the activity. I didn’t realise I had cropped some of the questions off. It says ‘can you colour me in?’ and ‘which colours do you need?’ I then made the colour splats different sizes to show the amount of colour needed and will explain the clue to Luca.🌼A lovely activity and keepsake. I think these are roughly around £2 from home bargains. You get four decorations including a paintbrush and paint. The children are able to get out more colours and different size brushes if they would like. They dry really quickly and the children love to get them out year after year.🌼Easter bonnet making. I’m going to try persuade the children to make this their first activity so that they dry in time. We have various crafts, old and new to stick onto the hats.🌼 It goes without question that we would have an egg hunt. Inside the large eggs we have a character Easter egg in each. Inside the smaller eggs there are mini chocolate eggs. We are going to play some different games to win the medals and I’ll be setting up the clues tomorrow. I’m so excited about the weather this year and csnt wait to enjoy the sunshine. I hope they are quick though so they don’t melt.I’ll be updating this blog with some photos of our fun day and the things we got up at the end of the easter day.