Easter Activities

Easter Activities

It might not feel like spring has sprung with the rotten weather we've been having lately, but now the children have broken up from school Easter is finally here. Here are a few ideas to keep the children amused over the holiday.

	Easter Egg Hunt Any game that involves chocolate is bound to go down well with the children. Easter baskets First of all you'll have to make some Easter baskets to put the eggs in. Margarine tubs are ideal for this. Just cut a strip of card for the handle and attach it to the tub with a stapler or butterfly clips. It might be an idea for the children to write their name on the handle to avoid any confusion. They can then decorate their baskets by using
paints, or sticking on different coloured tissue paper, or sticky back plastic or felt for example. If they want to really follow the Easter theme they could cut out rabbits or chicks to stick on the sides.
The eggs The best chocolate eggs to use are the little ones, either plain or candy coated or a mixture of the two. You'll need plenty so buy the biggest bags you can find! Each egg will need to be individually wrapped in silver foil. To save a little time get several sheets of silver foil and put them one on top of the other then cut into smaller squares for the wrappers. Roll the wrapped egg around between the palms of your hands to get a neat finish.
	Hide and seek If the weather permits, hide the eggs around the garden. If not you can hide them around the house (One word of warning - make a mental note of where you hide the eggs or that egg you hid behind the cushion could end up making a gooey mess that you'll find in a couple of weeks time.) The silver foil will make them quite conspicuous, but even so don't make the eggs too hard to find, particularly for younger children. Place them in clusters rather than individually, and leave them in trails.
Send the children out with their baskets and see who can find the most eggs. The winner could win a special prize, but at the end of the game make sure you share out the Easter eggs the children have found fairly. That way all the children will be happy. Easter card with a chick in an egg Things you'll need Card or stiff paper Butterfly clip Paints or coloured pencils, or yellow tissue paper Scissors Glue 1. Make the basis for the card by folding a rectangular piece of card or stiff paper in half. 2. From some more card cut an egg shape that will fit onto your base card comfortably. 3. Halfway across the egg shape draw a zig zag line and then cut through this with your scissors. 4. At one side of the egg, re- attach the two halves of the egg with a butterfly clip to form a sort of hinge. 5. Glue around the outer edge of the bottom half of the egg only and then stick this to the base card so that a "pocket" is formed that will hold the chick.


6. To make the chick, cut out two small circles, one slightly smaller than the other one. Stick the smaller one, the head, onto the larger one, the body. 7. Colour the chick yellow with your paints or crayons, or you could stick on scrunched up yellow tissue paper for a textured effect. 8. Draw in some eyes with a black pen or crayon. 9. Make a beak by cutting out a small triangle from card, colour it orange and then stick that on with some more glue. 10. Pop the chick into the pocket formed by the lower half of the egg, so that it is peeking up over the edge and have the top half of the egg hinged open.
	Easter Bunny Biscuits These biscuits are easy to make and children will enjoy decorating them once they've been baked. Ingredients 6ozs plain flour 4ozs butter 2ozs soft brown sugar 1-2 tsp. ground cinnamon Grated rind of a lemon 1 large egg yolk 2-3 tbs. Milk To decorate: Tube of ready-made icing Mini marshmallows Currants
Pre-heat oven to gas mark 4 or 180ºC Sieve the flour into a large bowl. Cut the butter into small pieces and then rub in to the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, cinnamon and grated lemon rind and mix thoroughly. Mix in the egg yolk and sufficient milk to make a stiff dough. Turn onto a floured surface and knead lightly. Roll out to a thickness of about 5mm. with a lightly floured rolling pin. Use a rabbit shaped cutter to make about 12-15 biscuits. Place on ungreased baking sheets and bake for about 10-15 minutes or until a light golden colour. Remove from the oven but leave on the baking trays for about 5 minutes and then lift off carefully with a palette knife onto a cooling tray. When cool the children can decorate their biscuits by using the icing to stick on the mini marshmallows for buttons and the currants for eyes.
Chocolate nests Even very young children can have a go at making these. They require no cooking and look really effective.

Ingredients 50g Coco pops 100g Chocolate or chocolate chips Little chocolate eggs - the coloured candy coated ones look best You'll also need some little paper cake cases
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Mix the coco pops and the melted chocolate together in a bowl. Use sufficient coco pops to make a nice firm mixture. Take a spoonful of the mixture and press it gently into one of the paper cake cases. Make a hollow in the centre so that it resembles a nest. Fill the hollow with two or three of the little chocolate eggs.

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