Easter 2018

We have undertaken a variety of activities surrounding the celebration of Easter in order to cover all areas of learning at a level appropriate to the developmental stage of each child. 

We joined a fellow childminder for some fun Easter themed sensory play. Available play resources included rice, egg shaped cups, chicks and some spoons.. The children played with their peers creating role play with the chicks, using the eggs for counting and discussing colours and the scoops and rice for enhancing their use of tools. 

An important part of early years care is to promote healthy eating. Rather than eat chocolate eggs we decided to make our own These comprised frozen yogurt and some fresh fruit. The children tested their fine motor skills moving the yoghurt and fruit into the bowls and enjoyed sampling the fruit. 

Finally as all of the children love creativity we used some Easter egg templates to decorate our own eggs with a variety of painting, colouring, sticking and peeling. In addition the residents in the residential home that we visit on a weekly basis worked with the children to create some Easter chick pictures. 

Easter Nests 2016

We have done several Easter crafts over the last couple of weeks but the children particularly enjoyed making some Easter nests to take home to their families. 

We made a list of the ingredients that we needed from the shop and went out together to buy these. The children looked for the letter sounds that they recognised on both the shopping list and on the boxes within the shops. 

The children used the scales and pointed out the numbers that they could see as we weighed out the objects, telling me whether we needed to add more or less to get the required amount. While our older ones measured out the ingredients our youngest member of the setting enjoyed putting the cake cases within the tins. The children then took it in turns to crush, mix and scoop the mixture. 

The older children counted out the correct number of eggs for the top of each cake while our youngest had a great time exploring with a saucepan and wooden spoon. Our school children were particularly pleased when they arrived home to homemade cakes!

Easter Craft Session 2015

Today we met up with some other childminder in a fun play and craft session. The children chose when they wanted to come and make a variety of Easter items involving lots of cutting, sticking, colouring and glitter shaking!

It is also nice for the children to participate in these big group activities in order to communicate, share and generally socialise with their peers as well as encouraging the older ones to help the younger ones when needed. 

We ended up with a variety of cards and paintings with an underlying Easter theme but still items where the children had been able to lead the designs ensuring that a unique collection of work was produced ready to take home.

Easter 2014

We have been doing several Easter crafts and activities over the last few weeks so I thought I should share some of the fun we have had! The children really enjoyed making our tin foil covered Easter ornaments. These always looks pretty and let the children practice a number of skills from wrapping through to discussing colours and improving fine motor skills through painting on glue. 

Baking is also an activity that always goes down well with children of all ages so we decided to make some Easter nests. We lined up all the ingredients and the children took turns in measuring counting, pouring and mixing. 

 The end result was some pretty colourful Easter baskets that the children all took great pride in sharing with their parents when it was time to go home.

Easter Play Dough

For our Easter theme I made some pastel coloured dough using our Wilton icing gels that produce lovely vibrant colours. This activity also involved experimenting with a new type of dough made from combining just two ingredients - cornflour and hair conditioner. This resulted in a lovely soft and smooth dough. 

 We then set about finding some items for our Easter theme and with the Easter bunny in mind the children combined the dough with feathers, goggly eyes, flowers and buttons as well as the usual play dough tools of scissors and rolling pins enabling a demonstration of some true creativity!

The end result was a variety of Easter bunnies, imprints in the rolled dough of flowers and some small dough eggs.