Keeping our students engaged and learning towards the end of a term can be a challenge  – especially in the lead-up to a holiday like Easter! 🐣 We all love to have fun and get into the holiday spirit, but we also know, especially after an interrupted term like we’ve had, that it’s important to keep whatever we are doing super engaging but also curriculum aligned.

We have put together this blog post to give you some ideas as we near the end of the term. These activities are designed to keep your students on task and learning whilst also getting into some Easter fun right up until the break! 💛

First things first: in our beautiful part of the world, we are so lucky to experience the most glorious weather as Easter nears! The days are cooler and autumn is certainly in the air. It is the PERFECT time to take your class outside for some fun Easter egg hunts!

Run down to Kmart or your local $2 shop and grab some of those bright and colourful plastic eggs… you know the ones! The ones that you can break apart. Then, depending on your lesson intent, add something inside for students to find and record. Some of our favourites:

💛 Add a magnetic letter in each egg and students need to draw something that starts with that letter.

💛 Write a sight word, sum, math problem on a small slip of paper and put it inside for students to find and copy or solve.

💛 Add a number of small erasers or beads inside the egg and students need to count them and write the number they counted.

💛 Have a sentence strip inside each egg featuring a sentence that needs punctuation/editing/identify the noun, verb etc and students find and record.

💛 Have a positional word in each egg and students have to act out that positional word with the egg they found (ie. behind – they put the egg behind them)

Don’t have time to source the plastic eggs? We have a range of resources on the webby designed to get students up, active and hunting! You can even edit many of these resources and add your own text to suit your current learning needs. Just look for resources marked EDITABLE.

I know what some people are saying; Easter crafts aren’t really curriculum aligned. But they can be! Any early years teacher will know how many skills our young learners use when creating crafty items (fine motor, organisation, following instructions, early reading, sequencing…just to name a few). If you are still not convinced, then add an extra curriculum-focused layer over the top. Maybe you’re using a particular art technique in your work? Maybe you’re using repeating patterns or symmetry in the way you ask students to decorate? Maybe the craft is a stepping stone for a writing piece? A narrative? Procedure? However you make it fit, getting crafty at Easter time is a must!

One of my favourite craftivities at Easter time is to set up a space with lots of different collage items and loose parts, sitting alongside images with an Easter theme. Finish the area off with a range of Easter picture books for inspiration. This invitation to create is a wonderful way for students to focus on the process rather than the finished product.

If you are looking for something a little more directed, check out these cute and crafty ideas from the webby!

There are so many wonderful picture books to enjoy with your class at Easter time 📚 In the lead up to the school holidays, grab a range of Easter picture books and read one a day to your class. After reading, have students discuss the story and complete a task based on the story such as:

💛 Write about a personal connection you have to this story.

💛 Draw your favourite part of the story.

💛 Which was your favourite character in the story and why?

💛 Retell the story.

💛 Can you think of a different way for the story to end?

We hope this blog has given you some ideas to get you through the last few weeks of this term.

What are your favourite Easter activities?