Easter time is nearly upon us again, which means lots of opportunities for Easter crafts and card making in the early years. Whether your setting celebrates the religious significance behind the holiday or recognises the occasion as the beginning of spring, there are endless Easter crafts and sensory play ideas you can try with your nursery children.
Why should we celebrate Easter in EYFS?
The religious significance of Easter is rooted in Christianity – the Christian element of the holiday covers the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. If your EYFS curriculum has a Christian underpinning, you’ll likely include a focus on the history of Good Friday (when Jesus was crucified) and the celebration of Easter Sunday (Jesus rose again).
If your nursery is multi-faith (or non-denominational), learning to celebrate and value cultural, religious and community events and experiences are key values of the 7 areas of learning. Studying the Easter story in nurseries helps to understand the world, including other cultures and traditions.
An alternative approach to celebrating Easter in EYFS can be to focus on the beginning of spring. The growth of new flowers and plants, and the change in seasons and of course not forgetting the Easter bunny!
Easter is another opportunity to demonstrate inclusive practice in your nursery, including all religions, economic backgrounds and disabilities in the celebrations.
How do EYFS Easter activities boost child development?
Easter activities in the early years are great for boosting development across lots of different areas. The social possibilities of planning Easter crafts for the children can help develop necessary friendship and turn-taking skills.
Easter activities in the early years are great for boosting development across lots of different areas. The social possibilities of planning Easter crafts for the children can help develop necessary friendship and turn-taking skills.
When preparing Easter card ideas in EYFS, there are endless sensory play and tactile exploration possibilities. Children can be encouraged to develop their confidence with different textures and materials whilst working on increasing independence levels.
Fun Easter activities can be tailored to develop fine and gross motor skills in preschool-aged children. Using fiddly materials like pipe cleaners, beads, and fingerpainting can help develop vital dexterity skills through art.
How to be inclusive this Easter in nurseries
Your nursery setting will have true inclusive practice as a top priority, underpinning all nursery activities, games, and interactions. Easter activities in EYFS are another opportunity to demonstrate your dedication to inclusion.
Inclusion is not always centred around Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).
Inclusive practice in the early years encompasses all steps taken to include all children in Easter celebrations regardless of additional need, economic background, religion, or language.
How to celebrate Easter in non-Christian nursery settings
Exploring the Easter story from the perspective of Christianity is possible for settings that don’t follow a set denomination. Learning and respecting the beliefs of other religions is an important lesson on the step towards understanding and celebrating diversity.
You may learn about the Easter story by watching EYFS suitable videos and sharing these with your parents via your nursery software to recognise different religious holidays throughout the year.
SEND inclusive EYFS Easter activities
Reflect on the types of additional needs your nursery children display; you may have a cohort of children with sensory needs or require additional communication and language activities. Tailor your SEND Easter activities to fit the needs of the children you are supporting.
Share any changes in routine, meals, or activities with parents in advance via your Blossom Parent App to minimise disruption, especially for any children on the Autism pathway. Think carefully about the levels of social demand your Easter crafts and activities place on your children.
Plan to include a mixture of social demand level activities throughout the day. For example, creating an Easter card can be completed independently and requires a low level of social demand from the children. Compared to undertaking an Easter egg hunt or puzzle in pairs or small groups, this activity requires a higher level of social demand.
How to be inclusive for low-income parents this Easter
Seasonal holidays and celebrations in the nursery setting can place an additional financial strain on parents. Expecting the children to attend nursery in fancy dress costumes or bring in printed pictures of family to create personalised cards can be a nice touch.
However, this requires an extra financial contribution from parents and may exclude low-income families from joining in with the celebrations. Consider using recycled materials for craft activities or source natural resources such as sticks and shells to create a budget-friendly masterpiece
8 Easter activities for preschoolers
Easter activity ideas for babies (up to 12 months)
Children develop at different rates; there are stages of play development you can use to plan nursery activities. To engage your babies (up to 12 months) with Easter crafts and activities, you can incorporate sensory tasks and personalised keepsakes for parents. Try some of these easy Easter activities for babies.
Personalised baby bunnies
Using a printed image, some cotton wool and a tiny pair of footprints you can create a personalised baby bunny keepsake for parents this Easter.
Cookie cutter Easter activity
Using cookie cutters, Easter-related if you like, give the children the template of an egg. Place the cutters onto paint and encourage the children to decorate their Easter egg how they see fit!
Easter sensory walk
Easter time is the beginning of the spring season; with birds tweeting and a gentle breeze, it is the ideal time for a sensory walk. Encouraging children to use their touch, sight, smell and sound senses, walk around your local area smelling the newly blossomed flowers.
Peter Rabbit at Easter time
Peter Rabbit is a favourite tale that spans several generations; the rabbit link can be introduced during Easter learning sessions. Try imitating different movements of rabbits or even take a trip to the local small-animal farm. Don’t forget to share these precious moments with your parents via their child’s digital Diary. Snap a picture or video to send to parents to make their day!
EYFS Easter activities for toddlers
Planning and preparing Easter activities for toddlers can be messy, noisy and fun. We share some easy Easter crafts and ideas to try with your toddlers (from 12 months to 5 years old).
Egg-sellent stencil art
Using potatoes or root vegetables, create stencils in the shape of eggs, bunny ears or grass. Using different coloured paint, allow the children creative direction to make their own Easter masterpiece. This can be perfect for Easter card ideas.
Pom-pom egg painting
Using a pom-pom attached to a peg, your children can decorate any Easter-related template you like. Save on mass-printing and free-hand draw an egg or bunny ears using a thick pen. The gross and fine motor skills needed to pinch the pom-poms and then press them into the paper will develop their dexterity, pincer grip and concentration.
Egg rescue mission
Using a container such as a water tray or storage box, place masking tape or ribbon across the box making a mixture of small and large holes for the ‘eggs’ to escape from. You can recycle the chocolate plastic egg containers, crunch up small balls of kitchen foil or use rolled up socks. A ladle will be the saving equipment in this activity, the children will avoid the masking tape lines to scoop the ‘eggs’ to safety.
Sensory Easter ideas
Building on the sensory and messy play activities you currently use in your nursery; you can tailor the sensory play to tie in with your Easter theme. You will need a zip lock bag, some PVA glue, a splash of water, some pom-poms, and a sharpie pen for this activity.
Draw an Easter basket on the outside of the zip lock bag, placing the pom-poms, PVA glue and water inside the bag. Seal the zip lock bag securely and encourage the children to move the pom-poms into the easter basket with their fingers (a mess-free sensory activity!)
How to get parents involved with nursery events
Engaging parents in nursery activities can help to build strong relationships between nursery and home. There are lots of ways you can involve your families in the fun Easter celebrations this spring.
Easter parent workshops for EYFS
Organising parent workshops can help build strong relationships with families, especially helping you to engage the hard-to-reach families. Consider tying in a parent workshop on how to develop their child’s fine and gross motor skills with Easter activities. Or boost their early mathematics skills through Easter-related counting and sorting activities.
Easter stay and play sessions
Stay and play sessions can be a great transitional activity for new starters. Combine the seasonal celebrations with short joint play sessions to help settle new starters into their new nursery routines.
Newsletters to engage nursery parents
Newsletters sent via your nursery software are an excellent way to engage and update parents on upcoming events or workshops whilst celebrating the exciting learning adventures their child has experienced in your care. Use your Blossom Parent App to help share your nursery news and upcoming Easter-related events (including any topical menu changes).
Celebrate golden milestones with nursery software
Golden development moments can happen at any time, including Easter-themed days! Keep your nursery parents updated with their child’s progress and enjoyment through the Blossom Parent App. Your families will be inspired by your fun Easter activities and may try them at home, sharing their own Easter-related activities through the home observation feature.
What to consider when planning EYFS easter crafts and activities
You will be excited to share the exciting Easter activities, card and craft ideas with your nursery children. When planning these fun activities, it is important to be mindful of some considerations.
Child allergies in nurseries
Some of your activities may include different food, including nuts, dairy and gluten. Keep up to date with allergies and intolerances when planning EYFS lessons by using Blossom’s child profile, highlighting all allergies and intolerances to be aware of in advance.
Keeping within ratio in the nursery
Having visibility of how many staff you need in each room throughout the day is a small yet important factor of running a profitable childcare business. Under or overstaffing your nursery can be one of the most common financial mistakes nursery owners make. By using Blossom’s occupancy planner you’re able to monitor the number of children you will have on the register at any time, making staffing planning easy to fit within the statutorily required ratio.
