Easter Fun

I am writing this one in a rush. The hard part of blogging about seasonal activities is trying to post them quickly enough for my readers to try them. I didn’t want to set up our Easter activities weeks before the holiday! So here they are without further ado!

Supplies Needed

• Easter eggs (try to find the ones shaped like carrots, as mentioned below)
• 4 lb bag of black beans
• poms
• child-sized plastic tongs
• basket

Total Cost: $5.00

The Plan

Reading: My First Easter by Tomie dePaola

Nursery Rhyme: Humpty Dumpty

Words: Egg, Rabbit, Easter

Visual Aid: I found these darling Easter printables. While she ate breakfast, I would take them down and read each one aloud a few times. The rest of the day they were up on the door for her to look at.

Sensory Play: This was two sided. On one side of our Flisat table, I poured a 4 pound bag of black beans in. Then I used some carrot shaped Easter eggs from the dollar store. I showed her how to fill up the carrots with the beans and she spent the better part of an hour filling and pouring, pouring and filling.

Fine Motor: This was the second half of the Flisat table. Again, the dollar store saved the day. I bought several cartons of Easter eggs. I separated each half and then threw in my carton of my trusty Poms. Side note: You only need to buy one large Pom bag a year. These things have been through a solid year of activities and look no worse for wear. I just sort them by color or size, as needed. Anywho, I found child-sized plastic tongs at the same trusty Dollar Store. I gave her the tongs and showed her how to pick up a pom and put it in an egg. This had a fine-motor aspect, but what I didn’t expect was that my very particular baby would only make eggs with the same color halves. She didn’t mismatch the egg halves or the color of poms. Boom! Also a lesson about colors, without even trying!

Gross Motor: This was a bit lazy. The past few weeks have been fraught with sickness, travel, and unfortunately, a funeral. Despite my ardor and dedication to enriching activities every week, sometimes I draw a blank. However, my husband came through in a pinch. When I complained of not having an activity that involved gross motor movement, he suggested making a game out of throwing the eggs in a basket. Working on eye-hand coordination is especially important at this age. Plus, just like most of our gross motor activities, Daddy got in on the fun too!

So that’s it. Not as thorough or intense as most of our weeks are. See you next week for a week of music!