Easter Party Fun

by Theresa
(Oakdale, NY)

Every year I host an Easter Party for my preschooler that I teach and it is always a blast. We used a combination of fun activities and crafts to keep all the little busy bodies entertained.

We simply decorated using cardboard cutouts that we hung up around the room and put up craft stations for the children to work at. We have a few different adults to keep each craft station maned so the stations were always opened and this allowed for the kids to do a project when they felt like it for as long as they felt like doing it. One craft station was to decorate there own flower pot. We bought plastic flower pots that had coloring inserts in them, along with some potting soil and a flat of pansies. The adult staffing this station simply popped out the insert and the child colored the paper as he or she likes. Then when the child was done the adult put the insert back inside the flower pot and let the child pick what color daisy plant to go inside. We then put the child’s completed flower pot on a paper plate with his/her name on it for the child to take home after the party was over.

The second craft station was to decorate paper lambs and paper rabbits. I went on the internet and found a few free coloring pages of Easter rabbits and Easter lambs and photocopied a few of these off. At this craft station we had it stocked with the photocopies some glue dots and cotton balls. The child glued cotton balls onto a picture that they chose making the picture “fuzzy”. The adult then cut out the picture and helped the child glue it to a popsicle stick. The glue dots work much better than liquid glue or glue sticks with this project and are a lot less messy. I find that all you have to do is show a child once how to use a single glue dot, and they are set.

We then did a few musical games like the bunny hop that all the children (and some adults) joined in on. This was a great photo opportunity for the parents on the side lines not to mention the laughter. Then after the bunny hop we moved the children to a preschool friendly take on “musical chairs”. I always find that musical chairs leaves a whole bunch of unhappy children with the exception of one, and I have even seen children get hurt while the inevitable pushing and shoving for a chair starts so we stayed clear of this. However what we did do was tape together rolls of bubble wrap making a large bubble wrap mat. We put the bubble wrap mat on a hard floor surface and explained to the children that when the music was playing they had to jump up and down like a rabbit and pop as many bubbles as possible. When the music stopped they had to stop jumping. We continue like this for a few songs while the children have at it, hopping up and down on the bubble wrap. This is such an inexpensive game and the children enjoy it tremendously (and it tires them out)!

While the children are jumping up and down on the bubble wrap another adult scatters the Easter Eggs for the Easter Egg Hunt. When the children are good and tired I have the hunt. I find that this way the children take their time, there is no pushing etc. It is important to not let the adults participate! Believe it or not, the adults start getting “grabby”. Let the kids take their time and pick up the plastic eggs. You can purchase plastic eggs already filled with candy and toys, but I am always concerned about the age appropriateness of the stuff inside (choking hazards) so I prefer to do it myself. I put pieces of paper inside marked with prize names that the child claims at the end of the hunt. I always keep a few “extra” if a child should not get as many eggs as the others. If you have a variety of ages of children then brake it up by age category to avoid the bigger children from finding all the eggs. Also have some small garbage bags on hand for the children who forget to bring Easter baskets to use.