With the snow disappearing and the warmer weather making an appearance it's made me eager to get started on Easter activities. Easter is by far my favourite holiday! I love spring, the beautiful colours, colouring Easter eggs, doing an egg hunt and so much more! It just makes me so happy. Usually we would wait a bit longer to start these activities but with me having surgery at the beginning of April I wanted to make sure that we got all our Easter fun done before then. Even though we had to do the activities early I have to say that it was great because it's helped us beat the winter blues. Lily was starting to say "no more snow! I don't like the cold" and momma was feeling the same way. However, doing these fun crafts really helped boost up our spirits.
Below I am going to share a few of my favourite Easter Themed Activities that we did. For each activity I have listed the supplies used, directions and a few tips and tricks for each. Most of the activities are for toddlers however there are 2 baby activities that you could do.
Pom Pom Painting
- clothes pins - pom poms - paint - paper (can use egg, bunny or flower cutout) I had Lily match the pom poms to the colours of paint that she chose. That way she was working on colour recognition and sorting. I also had Lily attach the clothes pins to the pom poms to work on fine motor skills. It was a bit challenging for her at first but she had fun trying to figure it out. Once your clothes pins are attached to the pom poms you are free to paint! Dabbing the pom pom works better than trying to use them like a paint brush but it was fun watching Lily try out different ways to use them. I googled an egg and bunny cutout and printed them off in a word document but you can chose to let your child just paint freely, use a cutout or paint another Easter Themed photo of your choosing.
Tissue Paper Eggs
- Modge Podge - Tissue Paper
- Bowl or plate to put the tissue paper in/on
- Scissors
- Paint brush - Paper Mache Eggs
I purchased the below package of paper eggs from Wal-Mart. They are very affordable and great for a variety of different craft activities. The tissue paper I purchased from the dollar store and let Lily pick out what colours she wanted. You could set up the activity prior to introducing it to your child or let them help. I chose to let Lily help this time around. I cut the tissue paper into smaller pieces so it was easier for Lily to manage and then let her cut them into smaller pieces to place on the eggs using her scissors. She had so much fun using her scissors and it allowed her to work on her fine motor skills. You could even have your child rip the pieces of paper instead of cut it if easier. Once we had the tissue paper all cut, the smaller the pieces of the better, we used a paint brush to brush the glue (Modge Podge) onto the egg. Then Lily stuck the tissue paper on top. You will have to put some glue over top of the tissue paper to help it stick. This activity will require more help from an adult than the other activities and it is quite messy. However, it is so fun and the final results look really great. Keep reading to see what we did with our tissue paper eggs afterwards!
Some Bunny Loves You Footprints
- Some Bunny Loves You Printout (click here to download) - Paper (you could also create your own page to put footprints on instead of using the printout)
- Paint or ink-less footprint kit - Paint brush - Wipes or Wash Cloth
I found with Mason that this activity was best done with 2 people. One person holding the baby and the other person focusing on getting the footprints done. I did two different sets of footprints and found Mason cooperated better when I was holding him facing outwards so he could see what I was doing. Since he is at the age where he is starting to push up on his feet/legs it also helped to do it in a standing position because he pushed his feet into the paper to get a better print. It might also be helpful to give your child a toy or something to distract them during the printing. If you are only able to get 1 good set of footprints you can photo copy them once they are fully dried if you are wanting to give this as a gift.
Carrot Footprints
- Paper - Paint or ink-less footprint kit - Paint brush - Wipes or Wash Cloth
I chose to do the footprints in orange paint. They didn't turn out the greatest because the paint doesn't stand out well so next time I would probably do the footprints in black on orange paper. I then cut out pieces of green paper and glued them to the top to make it look like the stem of the carrot. This activity is definitely easier to do with 2 people. If you don't have someone to help you with the footprints I recommend putting your child in a bumbo chair or highchair so they are confined and you can focus on getting their footprint. Give them a few toys to distract them and you should be able to do it on your own.
Salt Dough Ornaments
- rolling pin - egg shape cutter (or other Easter/Spring theme shape)
- spatula
- straw for making holes
- parchment-paper to cover baking sheets
- paint
- twin or ribbon
Recipe for Salt Dough - 1 Cup of Flour - 1/2 Cup of Salt - 1/2 Cup of Water (this makes approximately 12 ornaments depending on size of cookie cuter)
Stir together all 3 ingredients in a bowl until a dough forms. Kneading the dough a couple of times can help make it smoother. If you find the dough is not holding together just add a little bit of water and continue kneading.
Roll out the dough approximately 1/4in thickness. Use cookie cutters to cut out the shape. Place the ornaments on parchment-covered baking sheets. Make a hole in the top of each ornament with a straw so you can hang the ornaments afterwards.
Bake at 250F for 2 hours.
This activity was probably my favourite one! We had so much fun making the ornaments as it is quick and easy. I found because there was not a lot of steps Lily stayed easily engaged and wanted to help. She was able to help mix up the dough and knead it but I had to take over after she tried. You could choose to make the ornaments yourself the day before or in the morning as it does take 2 hours for them to bake as you have to bake them on low so they do not burn and for 2 hours so they fully cook. You also have to wait for them to fully cool before you can pain them so if you feel your child will not be able to wait, it might be best to make them when they aren't around and then just surprise them with decorating. The decorating was the best part we chose to make egg and butterfly shapes. It was so much fun decorating them and watching Lily's creativity come out. She even got her papa to paint one - that girl can convince anyone to do anything (SO CUTE!).
This activity can also be used for other holidays or art activities when you are looking for something to do with your child. All of the supplies are things typically kept in the kitchen and again it is easy to whip together. We will definitely be doing these again.
If you are looking for a great set of cookie cutters Michaels had a box set of 101 cookie cutters for $20.00. Then use a 40% off coupon it is a great deal! I also found Easter Themed Cookie cutters at the dollar store.
Plastic Easter Egg Stamping
- Plastic Eggs - Paint - Paper
This activity was quick and easy. It is great for colour recognition so I had Lily match up the colour egg she chose to the paint colour. Stamping the egg worked really well and it was limited amount of mess & clean up. An alternative but similar project would be to use a potato and you could carve a design into the potato and use it as a stamp.
Egg Carton Tulips
- Egg Carton
- Scissors
- Paint
- Paint brushes
- Pipe Cleaners
The hardest part about this activity is remembering to save your egg cartons when they are empty! All you have to do for this activity is cut each egg cup out of the carton. You will have to trim the edges a bit to make them look more like a flower shape on a few sides of them. Then give the cups to your child to paint. Wait until they are fully dry and then use a pipe cleaner to make the stem of the flower. All you have to do is poke a hole in the bottom of the egg cup, stick the pipe cleaner inside and make a loop at the top of the pipe cleaner to prevent it from falling through. Then you can display them. We chose to put ours inside our Easter Egg tree.
Some other easy and mess free activities for Easter are:
1. Easter Window Stickers - the dollar store has a great selection of Easter window stickers. They are a quick and easy activity that you can do with your child. They also look so pretty on the windows!
2. Easter Egg Hunt - we decided to do a mini Easter Egg hunt for Lily. We used plastic eggs and inside put clues so she had to look around the house for another egg. For example "look for an egg where your toothbrush sleeps" or "look for an egg where your horses sleep". You can choose to make it easier or harder based on your child's age. We had Lily look for 6 eggs in total and she was able to engage in the activity till the end. I filled a large egg with a few small treats for her all from the dollar store. We put a dinosaur, a sucker and a few chocolates inside. You can choose to make the treat as big or small as you wish. Or you can have the prize at the end be an activity for example your child gets to choose a movie for everyone to watch or pick a board game to play.
3. Easter Bunny Ring Toss - I found this activity at Walmart. It cost under $5.00 and Lily loves it! It is just challenging enough to keep her occupied for awhile.
4. Play-dough Cookie Cutters - Lily is obsessed with play-dough right now so I gave her the Easter cookie cutters and let her go crazy with her play-dough.
5. Free play with plastic Easter Eggs - Lily really enjoys just playing with the plastic eggs. She likes to fill up her basket and then dump them out. She also tries fitting them one inside of the other. Last year I even let her have an Easter Egg bath after her egg hunt was finished. We emptied all of her eggs and then dumped them into the bathtub she LOVED it!
6. Easter Egg tree - this has always be n one of my favourite Easter activities. All you need is a container, some eggs (plastic, decorative or salt dough ornaments) and some branches.
I would love if you shared your favourite Easter or spring related crafts and activities! We are always looking for something fun and new to try.
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