Easter Week

This is a wonderful activity to remember the true meaning of Easter. Last year, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints children’s magazine,

The Friend

printed a wonderful activity to do the week before Easter. Each day, starting 8 days before Easter, we looked at one of the New Testament pictures, read the scripture reference to go along with it and learned more about Jesus Christ the week leading up to His resurrection on Easter. My kids loved it and it is a new tradition at our house.

 

1. Download the Easter Week pages at www.lds.org. Scroll down to “Easter Week” and click on download to save the PDF file.

Max’s Chocolate Chicken

My kids have recently fallen in love with Max and Ruby. They will be thrilled to spend a day with this book!

• Read “Max’s Chocolate Chicken” by Rosemary Wells … Max needs to find more eggs than Ruby to win the chocolate chicken. She finds the most eggs, but Max and the chocolate chicken have disappeared!

• Easter Egg Memory Match … creating the game is just as much fun as playing it.
  1. Cut out several identical, blank egg shapes. Feel free to use the printable above (just click it to print!)
  2. Draw the same design on two eggs. Leave the back blank.
  3. Grab two more eggs and draw a different design.
  4. Continue until all your eggs have beautiful matching designs. You might even try drawing a chocolate chicken on one matching pair!
     • NOTE: I may draw a design and have my preschooler copy me. Then have him draw a design and I’ll copy him.
  5. Spread the eggs out upside-down.
  6. Take turns turning over two eggs at a time, trying to find all of the matches!

• Read “What's for Lunch? Chocolate” by Claire Llewellyn … this is a simple little book that explains how chocolate starts as a cocoa bean, how it is grown, harvested and made into the chocolate we love to eat. Perfect for a preschool level.
• Chocolate Tasting … after finding all of those eggs, we’ll do a little chocolate tasting
  1. Get several different kinds of chocolate … white, dark, milk chocolate, semi-sweet, etc.
  2. Taste each one and have the kids try to describe it.

• Finger Paint a Chocolate Chicken
• Print the page above on cardstock (just click on the image).
• Trace the “Chocolate Chicken” words and have the kids write their name in the space above.
• Use brown paint or chocolate pudding to fingerprint your chocolate chicken!

 

• Make Chocolate Chicks!
1. Oreo Chicks from Brown Paper Packages
• Dip Oreo cookies in yellow melted candy melts.
• Insert small pretzel sticks for legs.
• Add mini chocolate chips for eyes and an orange frosting beak.
2. Chick Cake Pops … Wow. Directions on Bakerilla here.

Easter Bunnies!

• Read “Home For a Bunny” by Margaret Wise Brown … this little bunny searches the springtime forest for a home of his very own.

• Sort the bunny tails … inspired by The Princess and the Tot!
  1. Paint half of an egg carton with rainbow colors. I love this idea for sorting! Or make it super simple and use a muffin tin like we did
  2. Place several colorful pom poms in a bowl. The Princess and the Tot used adorable bunny counters I searched and couldn’t find any. Pom-poms, like these will make great “bunny tails”!
  1. Use kid's chopsticks to sort the “bunny tails” into the correct “home” color!
• Bunny Fingerplay … hold up fingers as you say this poem!

  Five Little Bunnies One little bunny, Wondering what to do, another bunny came along, Then there were two. Two little bunnies, Hopping like me, Another bunny came along, Then there were three. Three little bunnies, Jumping by my door, Another bunny joined them, Then there were four. Four little bunnies, So fluffy and alive, Another bunny joined them, Then there were five. Five little bunnies, Ready for some fun, Hopped away in the Warm, spring sun.

• Read “Bunny's Noisy Book” by Margaret Wise Brown … a little bunny listens to noises all around him and makes some of his own!

• Match the Noisy Eggs … my kids loved this activity from The Princess and the Tot. We played it over and over.
• Cut an egg carton into sections of six.
• Gather 6 plastic eggs in a different color for each person. I made a set for me too. 
• Fill the eggs with different items that make a variety of noises. When I put a jingle bell in my egg, my kids put a jingle bell in one of their eggs. Use anything around the house:

  popcorn kernels rice dry pasta noodles paper clips

  a jingle bell nuts or bolts a dice jelly beans

• We had fun filling them and listening to the different sounds.
• When we finished, I chose an egg, shook it and then my kids each shook their own eggs to try to find the matching noise.
• It was a hit!

• Make Bunny Buns … download the recipe from the Friend magazine here. And here is a recipe for a yummy orange roll glaze:

  1/2 C butter 3/4 C sugar 1/2 C sour cream 2 T orange rind Place all ingredients in a sauce pan. Boil over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Pour over rolls right after you take them out of the oven.

Grandpa Bunny Bunny

• Read “Grandpa Bunny” … this is one of my very favorites. My mom gave it to my kids a few years ago, because we had it when I was little. I love it. Grandpa Bunny Bunny teaches each new bunny crop how to paint Easter eggs, spring blossoms, autumn leaves and shadows on the snow. We read this all year round.

• Paint colorful crayon eggs … So colorful and cute from Chalk Talk
  1. Cut out a large egg shape from white cardstock.
  2. Let the kids use crayons to make designs on their Easter egg (the harder you push, the brighter the colors!) 
  3. Use a watered-down blue paint and brush over the entire egg.
  4. Let dry. The paint won’t stick where the crayons are and they end up looking beautiful!
• How to Dye an Easter Egg
  1. Have the kids tell you “How to Dye an Easter Egg”
  2. Write their instructions down word for word!
  3. We have done this for “How to Cook a Turkey” and it is hilarious

 

• ABC Egg Hunt … of course, we have to end an egg day with an Easter egg hunt. See the original post and printable here.
1. Print 2 copies of the ABC tiles and cut one page apart.
2. Hide each of the letters in plastic Easter eggs and hide around the room.
3. Let the kids find an egg, open it and match their letter to the letters on the ABC page.

Eggs & Bird Nests

I love Spring and Easter time.

My friend, Camie, hosted preschool at her house earlier this month and we spent a wonderful morning full of eggs and nests … perfect for Spring!

• Read “The Golden Egg Book” by Margaret Wise Brown … I had never seen this book, but I actually just ordered one for myself! I loved it. It has a vintage look, adorable illustrations and a cute story. 

  BOOK DESCRIPTION: One little bunny finds an egg and tries every which way to open it because he wants to find out what is inside (He jumps on it, rolls it down a hill, and even throws a rock at it … a very small rock, and not very hard, because he’s not a very big little bunny.) He can hear something peck, peck, pecking inside. Then he falls asleep and the something comes out! Very cute.

• Read “Chickens Aren't the Only Ones” by Ruth Heller.
  1. Before reading, ask the kids if they know any animals that come from eggs.
  2. My 4-year-old was excited to share that dinosaurs come from eggs. And I was impressed that even dinosaurs were included in this book.

 

• Egg Game … the kids loved choosing and opening Easter eggs to discover what animal was inside!
  1. Gather several empty plastic Easter eggs
  2. Print out a small picture of animals that lay eggs, about 1” square and put them in the eggs. Include enough copies for each of the kids. We used these for another activity later. Click the image below to print the pictures we used. All images are from Microsoft Clipart.
  3. Spread the eggs out on the floor and let the kids choose one egg.
  4. Open it and discover what animals come from an egg!

• Egg Wiggle Game … I thought this game was adorable. Kids are so funny. Some days they jump right up and wiggle along. And some days they look at you like you’re crazy for wiggling like an octopus
  1. Cut out several colorful egg shapes (or use a pack of foam egg shapes)
  2. On the back, attach a picture of an animal that comes from an egg. Click the picture below to print the animals we used:

     dinosaur octopus frog turkey spider snake fish

  3. Turn the egg shapes upside-down on the floor and have one of the kids choose one.
  4. Act like that animal … Wiggle like an octopus! Hop like a frog!

 

• Giant Egg & Poem
  1. Cut out a large egg shape.
  2. Print the following egg poem. Cut & paste it to the center of the egg.
  3. Use the small 1” animal pictures from the game above.
  4. Let the kids glue the pictures all over the egg! Gluesticks worked great!

• Bird Nest Cookies … treats are always a treat at Camie’s house! She made these yummy bird nest treats for the kids. I had one too, of course! You can visit her blog, Pass the Peas, Please for the recipe!

• Deviled Green Eggs & Ham … and always a more grown-up treat for the moms These were so good, I had a couple. A perfect combination of egg, ham and green spinach! Get the recipe at Pass the Peas, Please.

Jelly Bean Day

 

• Read “The Jelly Bean Fun Book” by Karen Capucilli
• Read “The Giant Jellybean Jar” by Marcie Aboff
• Jelly Bean Jar
1. Wash hands!
2. Let the kids use a small scoop to fill a small jar with jelly beans.
3. Pour the jelly beans into a sorter (veggie platter from the dollar store)
4. Sort the jelly beans by color.

  

• Jelly Bean Flowers (& a game!) … these jelly bean flowers are cute enough by themselves. I also thought we could play a game with them!
  1. Print the flower template from Martha Stewart here onto springtime scrapbook paper.
  2. Cut out.
  3. Fill up a cupcake liner with jelly beans and place in the center.
  4. You can write your name on a petal and leave it at that for a cute place setting decoration or…
  5. TO PLAY:
     • Write 1-6 on each petal.
     • Count out 1-6 jelly beans for each petal (count out 1 jelly bean on the 1 petal … 5 jelly beans on the 5 petal …)
     • Roll a dice.
     • Whatever number you roll, remove those jelly beans from the matching petal and place back in the center cup.
     • Continue until all the petals are empty.
     • OPTIONAL: if you roll the same number again, fill the petal back up with the right number jelly beans
• Jelly Bean Relay
  1. Place a small bowl of jelly beans at one end of the room.
  2. Place an empty bowl at the other end of the room.
  3. Have the kids hold a spoon and place one jelly bean in the spoon.
  4. Carefully walk to the empty bowl and put the jelly bean in the bowl.

• Jelly Bean Bracelet … a great idea from My Kids Make.
  1. Thread a needle with elastic string (I found it at Joann) or regular thread.
  2. Pick out the jelly bean colors you want to use.
  3. Sew your jelly beans onto your thread and tie!
  4. Cute, colorful and tasty!

• Jelly Bean Carrots
  1. Fill a clear bag with orange jelly beans
  2. Add a small bit of green tissue and tie at the top with a green pipe cleaner!

Colorful Sunny Eggs

Well, I apologize for the picture Actually I think my 2-year-old took it and I’m glad he did because I forgot to. These pretty, colorful eggs are easy to make and are really amazing.

1. Give the kids a sheet of wax paper.
2. Pick out 3 or 4 light-colored crayons and peel the paper off. They seemed to work better and were prettier with the sunlight coming through.
3. Use a pencil sharpener to to make lots of crayon shavings. Just let them drop right onto the wax paper.
4. Carefully move the wax paper (with the crayon shavings) to your ironing board.
5. Cover with another sheet of wax paper, then with a large piece of paper. Make sure it’s totally covered because you don’t want wax paper or crayon shavings on your iron!
6. Turn the steam OFF and lightly move the iron around to melt the crayon shavings. It doesn’t take very long. The longer you melt them, the more they run together.
7. Let the colors cool off, then draw an egg shape with a sharpie.
8. Cut out the egg and hang it in a sunny spot. They really are beautiful.

Alphabet Letter Egg Hunt

We actually didn’t do this during E week or Easter. We did it during Y week, just because it sounded like fun

 

1. Make a page with all of the letters of the alphabet.
2. Print a second page and cut out each of the letters. I have mine laminated. I made my page years ago, but I’ll try to get it scanned in so you can just print it.
3. Have the kids help you put one letter inside each plastic Easter egg and close them.
4. I had them run into the other room while I hid them.
5. When they found an egg, they opened it up, took out their letter and told me what it was, then matched it to the same letter on the page.
6. Then they could run and find another one.
7. (Here’s a different sheet of letter tiles you can print out! Just click on the picture, then right click to print or save.)