Playgroup: A Hippity Hoppity Easter Hunt

I realize that all of our holiday activities are posted a little too late to be incorporated into your celebrations this year, but it's still good to share our creative ideas, right?? And maybe we'll be able to inspire some belated parties. Just maybe.

We started our Easter-themed activity with the Little Critter's celebration of Easter, complete with egg hunt, and a Blue's Clues book about a game of Hide-and-Seek. As the playgroup leader, I have noticed that kids pay attention best during storytime when they are given something to do. Interactive stories will capture their interest! In this story, Blue hides in various places, and the kids help me find her by pointing to her on every page. This made it not only easier to tell the story with everyone sitting down and listening, but also make it more fun for them to be a part of the action!

I showed them the Easter baskets we would be making for our Easter egg hunt later, and we got to work!

Materials used:

• Brown paper sacks. We cut them at the bottom and folded them over for the base of the basket, and cut the left over part of the page vertically to make one long strip, folding it hamburger style to make a long basket handle.
• Crayons and markers to embellish our baskets, creating weave marks, eggs, bunnies, and designs.
• Yarn and stickers for decorations!
• Staples. We stapled the strips so they wouldn't separate at the top, and also stapled the handle to our baskets. We also had glue, but staplers seemed more sturdy!

The kids were so creative, and each basket was a little bit different!

Next we had the kids line up in the hallway while the Easter bunny's helper (aka my husband..everyone knows the Easter Bunny doesn't come early!) hid the eggs. I gave each of the kids a small handful of green paper shreds as "grass" for their baskets. This was easily done by putting green construction paper through a paper shredder machine!

They were so anxious!

And everyone was off!

 

 

 

The kids helped one another find one egg that was filled with a small handful of Skittles, some stickers, and an apple-shaped eraser. They put them in their bags, and I also gave them two chocolate-shaped candies to fill up their baskets a little more.

There was a lot of social interaction today, and the kids got some practice being patient, kind, and helpful to one another. I accidentally only brought one stapler today, and with so much need for it there was a lot of waiting and finding other things to do while it was being used, and the children were also very patient while the eggs were being hidden.

Find ways to let your kids practice being patient, even if it is not a strength for them quite yet! Parents can model patience by remaining calm and happy during waits, preoccupying themselves to help kids understand that waiting time can still be useful, asking kids riddles to keep them quiet and thinking, playing I-Spy with item in the room, chatting together about the day, drawing a picture for grandma, taking turns making up the next line of a story, or doing simple math problems. Options are endless! It can be hard for kids to learn this important lesson, but it is an essential life skill that will serve them well later in life. Kids aren't born with a large amount of patience, and your example means a lot to them!

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