Easter Activities

Lots of fun things to keep us busy for the next couple of weeks... (as always, click on pictures for a close-up)

Practical Life:
Pouring egg shaped gems. Notice the cute little Peter Rabbit cups? They're so tiny! I bought one years ago (I love Peter Rabbit) and imagine my delight when I saw a second one - a perfect match - at the thrift store a few months ago!

Tonging puffs. Well, these aren't really puffs now that I think about it. They're like spiky little balls. Anyway, the goofy tongs are the kind you use while you're decorating eggs. James will get a kick out of them.

Spooning spring colored "pebbles". When living on an island with limited supplies, you must think outside the box. I'm always keeping my eyes open for possibilities in unlikely places. These pebbles are actually meant to be used for decorative purposes. For filling a vase or something like that. I found them in the home decor section of Brown & Co.

Open and close. These are a constant on our shelves. James' favorite for sure. I just make sure to switch up the items every couple of weeks. There's a small egg eraser inside each thing.

Sensorial:Sound eggs. I made these over a year ago and they are just now making an appearance! I'm not crazy about the visible tape (I don't do glue guns), but ah well. I'll be getting these in May when we visit the US.

Size discrimination with wooden eggs. I bought these wooden eggs from this Etsy store a while back. They were so pretty in their natural state, but I was tempted by this post on The Wonder Years, so I dyed them. I am SO happy with how they turned out! They came in 4 sizes - perfect for a sorting activity.

Click here to see our Easter sensory tub and playdough.

Math:Counting eggs. A little felt, a needle and thread and a bit of fabric paint and presto - you have counting eggs. James caught me making these yesterday and was SO excited about them! Wait 'til he sees the numbers on them - he'll love it.



Counting bunnies. I made something similar for St. Patrick's Day and James really enjoyed it, so here's an Easter variation. :)

Chick counting game. This is another brilliant idea from My Montessori Journey. I took an ordinary die and covered it with blank address labels, then I wrote a 1 or a 2 on each side. James will roll the die, and if it lands on, say, 2, then he'll put 2 chicks in the egg tray. He'll continue on this way until the tray is full. Fun!

Letters:Alphabet eggs. I love these! I got the idea from - where else - My Montessori Journey. I printed off the template from Kidsoup onto some of my scrapbooking paper, cut them out and laminated each egg. A bit tedious to make, but so worth it - they're so nice to look at! There's an egg for each letter and the idea is that James will put them in alphabetical order. And bonus - we can practice spelling his name, too!

B is for Bunny. I used this template and some flat marbles for this activity. Easy peasy.

Misc.:
Lock and key. This is a classic Montessori activity. I found the lock and key set at the dollar store, and the small chest at the thrift store (gotta love thrifty finds!). The set has a large, medium and small padlock with a key for each in the corresponding size. I color coded the keys with a piece of a pipe cleaner to make it a bit easier for James.

A couple of sorting activities...
Sorting egg shaped beads. These glass beads are so pretty, I think James will enjoy playing with them.

Sorting egg shapes. These were once a part of a garland that I found at the dollar store. It's hard to tell from the pic, but they're really sparkly. :D

I have lots of Easter art ideas, but I'm holding off on doing them until next week. Our 13 year old niece, Tia, arrives tomorrow and will be staying with us for a couple of weeks. We are all so excited for her visit. I think it'll be great for James to spend time with his cousin, particularly since we don't see family but once or twice a year. Anyway, I've learned she's really into crafts (yay!!), so I'm hoping she'll want to join us in some artsy activities.